Psalm 11:8
a higher quality umbrella
Thou, O Lord, wilt preserve us: and keep us from this generation for ever. (Psalm 11:8 DR)
I often like to go for walks, and— the weather in my state being what it is—I have not infrequently been caught in a downpour that happened upon me suddenly. To be fair, however, it’s usually not altogether unforeseen. I will generally check the forecast before heading out, and if the percentage chance is under 60% I will usually chance it, which has often gone awry. Because when have weather forecast ever been wrong?
Granted, this would not pose as much of a difficulty if I actually had the prudence to bring an umbrella, which to date the aforementioned prudence I have not yet exhibited. It is thus the case that even though I do not necessarily choose to be rained upon, in those situations I either place myself in an occasion to be rained on or do not take steps to mitigate a foreseen potential consequence. Which is a long-winded manner of saying that in most cases I’m to blame for getting rained on.
In this penultimate verse the Psalmist concludes the couplet of his hope in God’s intervention against the tongues of the wicked. The Psalmist’s humility is the occasion of God’s arising to help him, and it is by holding to the pure words of God that he finds the antidote to the vain things that the wicked speak. Thus, God’s help is not simply some nebulous or abstract platitude, but is borne out in these very concrete things.
After all, even though the Psalmist is confident that God will preserve him from the wicked and perverse generation which speaks vain things and has no regard for the truth, this preservation does not necessarily entail that God will suddenly remove the danger or create some bubble in which the Psalmist can dwell. The notion that we can find in this world a refuge from the trials and temptations of this world in which we will never have trouble or be tempted or assaulted is fantasy.
In my younger days I was attracted to the idea of the monastic life, which in some respects was a wistful and unrealistic notion of what it was. I saw it in some respects as an escape, a manner of life in which one could be untroubled by the things of this world and separated from its temptations. But as I read more of the Desert Fathers who actually lived this life, a very different picture emerges. While some desired to “escape” the wealth and vanity of this world, that was coupled with a more militaristic mindset in that one was going off into the desert to do battle with the devil. In many respects the temptations they faced in the desert—while different— were worse and required more fortitude to resist, for these temptations largely came from within on the battlefield of the soul, from which there is no fleeing.
And little wonder this is the case, for our Lord also went off into the desert to do battle with the devil, and it was in the solitude away from the world that he underwent temptation.
Seen in this light we cannot expect that in this life we will ever be immune from the assaults of the world, the flesh and the devil. And while we certainly must flee from temptation as far as it is our power, ultimately we must all at some point stand and fight, for even if we might avoid temptation from without, we will never fully escape it from within.
Thus the Psalmist has confidence in the Lord’s preservation from the wicked generation—that is, from the temptations of the world—in that he seeks after virtue in humility and is mindful of God’s word and commandments. These are not something he generates out of himself but are the operation of God’s grace within him; again, humility allows God’s grace to flow into the soul and make it fertile soil in which virtue can grow.
In this world, our Lord says, we will always have trouble, but he has overcome the world. The Psalmist foresees these words of our Lord and thus has confidence that they are true. The torrents of temptation can fall at any time, but humility and hope in God’s words and promises become like an umbrella which can preserve us from being drowned in the showers of sin that constantly surround us. In prudence we must prepare ourselves against temptation, lest we be caught in the rain without an umbrella.
This animation was pretty straightforward, and similar in many respects to another I’ve already done. But I like the concept and thought it worth re-exploring.
I found a nice image of someone with an umbrella and cut out in Photoshop. I then brought that into After Effects and placed it in the main composition. Next I found a fun abstract texture for the background and placed it behind the umbrella image. I applied Stretch to it and modified the parameters to make it seem like falling pixelated rain. This is a great script because all it takes are two masks and the script does the rest.
Finally I created a simple matte for the background and inverted it to make it appear that the umbrella is stopping the rain from falling underneath.
Enjoy.
Thou, O Lord, wilt preserve us: and keep us from this generation for ever.
(Psalm 11:8 DR)
View a higher quality version of this gif here: