Psalm 120:3
super sticky feet
May he not suffer thy foot to be moved: neither let him slumber that keepeth thee. (Psalm 120:3 DR)
Continuing with the metaphor of the pilgrim, the Psalmist shifts voices to directly address the pilgrim in the form of a blessing. The idea of the foot not being moved is obviously not intended literally, as to journey requires the feet to moved. It rather is an idiom for not falling into sin; that is, that the feet may be ordered rightly on their journey.
Temptation in this case is under the figure of stumbling while walking or turning aside from the correct path. When we first start off as infants learning to walk we stumble and fall often; it is this suffering and struggle which actually helps us to get the hang of walking. No parent desires that their child fall, but unless they allow them to face the challenges of walking and the potential of falling the child will never learn to walk.
In a similar vein temptation is allowed to befall us so that we can be proved in our righteousness and grow in virtue. As we resist temptation we not only avoid sin but choose virtue, and the more consistently we do this the more habitual it becomes, both in the colloquial and theological sense. There are times in life where we seem to get hammered by the same temptations, which is often a weak point in our spiritual life. Our enemy knows this and will try to exploit it, which is why temptations to some things seem more intense at certain times than others.
But God can turn the enemies snares against him, for as we cooperate with God’s grace to resist sin and grow in virtue those temptations and attacks can become a means of growth in those exact same areas, so that what the enemy intends for evil God transforms into good.
The Psalmist’s words here are thus a foreshadowing of Christ’s words in the Lord’s Prayer: “And lead us not into temptation. But deliver us from evil.” (Matthew 6:13 DR) The entirety of the Lord’s Prayer is framed in humility, as we come before our Lord as humble supplicants, entreating His mercy. The cause of all sin, and thus all stumbling, is our pride, to which this prayer is a powerful remedy if we will entrust our lives to the ordering of God’s will. As we walk along the road temptations will inevitably come our way, upon which we may stumble, but charity keeps our feet secure:
Whereby are feet moved; whereby was the foot of him who was in Paradise moved? But first consider whereby the feet of him who was among the Angels were moved: who when his feet were moved fell, and from an Angel became a devil: for when his feet were moved he fell. Seek whereby he fell: he fell through pride. Nothing then moves the feet, save pride: nothing moves the feet to a fall, save pride. Charity moves them to walk and to improve and to ascend; pride moves them to fall...Rightly therefore the Psalmist, hearing how he may ascend and may not fall, prays unto God that he may profit from the vale of misery, and may not fail in the swelling of pride, in these words, “Suffer not my feet to be moved!” (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 120, 2.)
As I was considering what to do for this animation I had the image of the foot stumbling in my mind and came acosss this fun foot image. I really liked the pattern and colors of the sock and so I brought it into Photoshop and cut it out.
In After Effects I precomped the foot image and then added a Hue/Saturation effect to it and animated the phase of the Hue, cycling it for the loop.
Back in the main composition I applied Time Remap to the precomp and then duplicated it several times and arranged them in a grid. I then offset the duplicates in time so the color shift would be offset and finally added some slight wiggle hold to the position. I added in some text in the spaces in between and the animation was complete.
Enjoy.
May he not suffer thy foot to be moved: neither let him slumber that keepeth thee.
(Psalm 120:3 DR)
View a higher quality version of this gif here: