Psalm 128:8

when tipping gets out of control

And they that have passed by have not said: The blessing of the Lord be upon you: we have blessed you in the name of the Lord. (Psalm 128:8 DR)

On the human level it is customary to thank those who provide a service to us beyond the remuneration due to them. This happens in normal interactions when we leave a tip for a waitress who was especially kind and helpful, for although it is not required, it creates a human moment between two people who might not otherwise interact. This blessing—even though we generally do not call it that—might arise from social conventions, but that is not always a bad motivation, for ideally societal conventions should buttress and reinforce virtue, in this case the virtue of gratitude.

This outpouring of thanks is even more pronounced the greater the service or sacrifice is, and thus it is right and good to honor those who place themselves in harm’s way for the good of their families and that of society. Emergency workers, law enforcement, military—all of these receive the due recompence for their labors, yet there is justice in honoring them beyond their salaries.

This is what is perhaps so irksome about the recent trend in almost every store where the option to “tip” is included for almost every interaction or transaction. You might walk into a store and do practically everything for yourself, but then when paying for it the screen gets turned towards you and there is big button to “tip” for apparently the effort of turning the screen around to take your payment. It’s not a lack of generosity that leads to being annoyed by this, but rather the implicit entitlement, as if merely being in the same presence as the transaction—and sometimes only physically!— creates the conditions for the ought of the tip.

Those who serve in dangerous or sacrificial ways do so ideally out of a desire to serve their fellow man, and if not all motives are pure then at least they end up doing it, and even this willingness to do such tasks is worthy of honor, for the office itself is worthy of honor, even if every individual who holds it is not. This is what creates in a well-ordered society the blessings we give to those who serve and sacrifice, and why it rings hollow when expected for everything.

For if everything deserves a blessing, then nothing does.

The Psalmist concludes this Psalm with a circumlocution of sorts in describing the final judgment of the wicked. In the previous two passages he compared them to grass on the housetop that withers in the sun and is not worth the effort of harvesting. Now he describes a situation that has not happened, and the imprecation is precisely in that what should be is not. That is, a good does not exist where it should.

In this case he follows on the image of the reapers from the preceding passage who do not pluck up the withered grass from the housetops. For the ancients (and still in many places today) the reapers were crucial to the livelihood of the community, for they would collect the grain to be stored in the barns or the grass for the livestock, all of which was every year a matter of life and death. It is hard work and has to be done with some speed and skill so as to maximize the harvest and prepare for the months without anything growing. Thus it was customary to greet the reapers as one was passing by, blessing them for their work and service:

For you know, brethren, when men pass by others at work, it is customary to address them, The blessing of the Lord be upon you. And this was especially the custom in the Jewish nation. No one passed by and saw any one doing any work in the field, or in the vineyard, or in harvest, or anything of the sort; it was not lawful to pass by without a blessing. (St. Augustine, Exposition on the Psalms, 128:10)

Here the Psalmist introduces this circumlocution, for instead of saying that the wicked are cursed, he speaks of them as not being blessed. This on its own feels somewhat off-balance, but serves as a juxtaposition to the imprecations of the previous two passages. In fact, it is a sort of implied imprecation, for grass is meant to be harvested, but the wicked do not live up to this potential, and thus fall under the curse of not being blessed. This corresponds to and fills out the confounding of the wicked from earlier, as St. Bellarmine explains in vivid terms:

He, therefore, says, it never occurred, nor will it occur, that the passers by should salute or bless them that mow you, for you were never mowed, but when there was occasion to clean the roof you were pulled up and thrown into the fire or the sewer; and though the blessing of the passers by is given to the mowers, still it has its own effect on what is being mowed, for it includes the abundance and the ripeness of the crop and thus, the absence of any benediction on the wicked will have its effect on them too, because, in the last judgment, nobody will bless or salute them, nobody will have pity on them; they will be despised and condemned by all, which will tend very much to their further disgrace. (St. Robert Bellarmine, A Commentary on the Book of the Psalms, 128, 8.)

St. Augustine sees this as fulfilled in the Apostles who are the ones who have passed by, in that in their preaching they converted the humble of heart and thus blessed them, but those who were raised in pride did not receive it:

Who are the passers by? They who have already passed hence to their country through this road, that is, through this life: the Apostles were passers by in this life, the Prophets were passers by. Whom did the Prophets and Apostles bless? Those in whom they saw the root of charity? But those whom they found lifted on high on their house tops, and proud in the bosses of their bucklers, they declared against these what they were doomed to become, but they gave them no blessing. (St. Augustine, Exposition on the Psalms, 128:10)

He likely has in mind this admonition of our Lord to His apostles as he sent them out to preach:

And into whatsoever city or town you shall enter, inquire who in it is worthy, and there abide till you go thence. And when you come into the house, salute it, saying: Peace be to this house. And if that house be worthy, your peace shall come upon it; but if it be not worthy, your peace shall return to you. And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words: going forth out of that house or city shake off the dust from your feet. Amen I say to you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city. (Matthew 10:11-15 DR)

St. Bellarmine ties all these things together, for in the final judgment:

No one will say to them, “The blessing of the Lord be upon you,” nor “We have blessed you in the name of the Lord;” but, on the contrary, they will be told by Christ, the judge, and by all his saints, “Go, ye cursed, into everlasting fire.” (St. Robert Bellarmine, A Commentary on the Book of the Psalms, 128, 8.)

The Psalmist’s words can seem abstract in terms of the metaphors he has employed, but in fact the language is prophetic and is fulfilled precisely in the teaching of our Lord and His apostles, for the blessing that the Psalmist speaks of is what our Lord famously preaches on in the sermon on the mount, fleshing out this blessing in the Beatitudes:

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall possess the land.
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill.
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called children of God.
Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake: Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you.
(Matthew 5:3-12 DR)

These expressions of blessedness are made concrete in the life of virtue as one cooperates with God’s grace, and the opposites of them are what make one to not be blessed, as the Psalmist tries to make evident. There is thus not some abstract distinction between the righteous and the wicked but a tangible difference in kind. The proud, after all, cannot be poor in spirit; the haughty cannot be meek—and so on for all the other Beatitudes. As we conform our hearts and our lives to Christ we are renewed in heart and mind, so that we lay aside our pride and humbly submit to His reign and will in our lives. Through the sacraments divine grace enters into our souls and transforms us into His likeness, so that the characteristics of the blessed come to characterize us in thought and word and deed.

In this manner the final imprecation of the Psalmist can by implication be turned into a blessing, for if the wicked are not blessed at the harvest, then the righteous will be blessed, for they will bring forth a harvest a righteousness:

And God is able to make all grace abound in you; that ye always, having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work, as it is written: He hath dispersed abroad, he hath given to the poor: his justice remaineth for ever. And he that ministereth seed to the sower, will both give you bread to eat, and will multiply your seed, and increase the growth of the fruits of your justice: That being enriched in all things, you may abound unto all simplicity, which worketh through us thanksgiving to God. (2 Corinthians 9:8-11 DR)

---

I wanted to go with something somewhat simple for this animation, but also capture the linguistic juxtaposition of blessing and the implied imprecation that the psalmist employs here. I found this nice bubble-ish text that I thought would work nicely, and placed it in the composition with a bright pink color. I applied some Layer Styles to accentuate this—which I don’t normally do, as it’s easy to go overboard—but in this case I thought it worked. I liked how the text feels kind of bright and happy, but the text itself is negative in connotation.

I duplicated this and placed it lower in the layer stack and added Shadow Studio 3 to it to give a bit of depth, and then applied some wiggle hold motion to the position and rotation of each to give them a bit of offset animation.

I finally added in some larger versions of this text to fill out the composition and then some color correction and textures.

Enjoy.

View a higher quality version of this gif here: