Psalm 129:3

the end of the world

If thou, O Lord, wilt mark iniquities: Lord, who shall stand it. (Psalm 129:3 DR)

Pride and humility are often juxtaposed with each other in the Psalms, as the following examples illustrate:

• For the Lord is high, and looketh on the low: and the high he knoweth afar off. (Psalm 137:6 DR)

• O love the Lord, all ye his saints: for the Lord will require truth, and will repay them abundantly that act proudly. (Psalm 30:24 DR)

• For thou wilt save the humble people; but wilt bring down the eyes of the proud. (Psalm 17:28 DR)

There is a certain irony in this juxtaposition. In our pride we tend to think higher of ourselves than we ought, and this overwrought self-appreciation creates massive blind spots to the reality of ourselves. We think we know more in our puffed up pride, but the reality is that it occludes our understanding from truth commensurate with the level of pride.

Humility, on the other hand, is in part about having an accurate assessment of oneself and all our concomitant and associated weaknesses. It is not a gratuitous self-deprecation or virtue signaling by means of knee-jerk self-loathing but rather an honest evaluation and acceptance of reality. As pride deflates its occlusion of truth commensurately removes itself; humility helps us—as it were—get out of our own way to see the truth.

It is this truth which the Psalmist holds before his eyes. He looks at himself and his own weakness and failure and sin and recognizes his own helplessness and wretchedness before God. It is not that God made a mistake in creating him nor that his essence as a created being is the cause of this misery, some sort of sly backdoor scapegoating of God. Rather something has gone wrong inside of his own heart; his will has willingly turned aside from God and chosen iniquity. He thus stands before his Judge without excuse (cf. Romans 1:20) and awaiting only a fearful judgment (cf. Hebrews 10:27). Elsewhere the Psalmist describes the universality of this condition:

God looked down from heaven on the children of men: to see if there were any that did understand, or did seek God. All have gone aside, they are become unprofitable together, there is none that doth good, no not one. (Psalm 52:3-4 DR)

In this humility, however, there is a hope. For as he realizes the truth about himself and his own soul, he also sees that his hope cannot be in himself but in the One who judges justly. But if he were to only be judged on his own merits and demerits, he would be hopeless; thus: “Lord, who shall stand it?” Thus is embedded in this recognition of God’s justice the obverse, as it were, which is mercy.

However, it is only seemingly so because of the limitation of the human mind, for in God there is not X attribute of justice and Y attribute of mercy as if distinct or separate things that God has. God is simple in essence and doesn’t possess attributes as parts. In God justice and mercy just are what God is in His eternal being and there can be no contradiction or tension in them. But since this belongs to God (as it were) in the infinitude of His eternal Godhead, such a co-identification of justice and mercy cannot be grasped by finite intellects. Thus we separate justice from mercy (especially when convenient for us!) as distinct concepts in our mind and in our actions. For us they certainly are, but we must always guard against projecting our limitations upon the Divine Essence.

The purported tension between justice and mercy thus exists wholly on our end. However, the Psalmist in his prophetic utterance seems to momentarily transcend these self-imposed distinctions. For he recognizes the justice of God, but in that justice—not in spite of it—sees mercy and forgiveness. This is the fundamental essence of grace, that mercy—which we see as separate from justice—flows from the same fount.

This is also the promise of sanctification in that God has mercy on us by making us actually righteous and just through the outpouring of the Holy Ghost (cf. Romans 5:5). In justification we are declared righteous not because God is overlooking our sinful state but rather because He effects a transformation in our hearts (cf. Romans 12:2) wherein we are actually made righteous.

In the sacrament of Baptism all Original Sin is washed away and the Holy Ghost poured into the soul. We are made friends of God because His charity dwells within our hearts and enables us to love Him. St. John thus says:

But he that keepeth his word, in him in very deed the charity of God is perfected; and by this we know that we are in him. (1 John 2:5 DR)

If through mortal sin we fall out of friendship with God, we find ourselves in the place of the Psalmist, knowing that our offenses require a just judgment. However, the same Just Judge desires the salvation of all men (cf. 1 Timothy 2:4) and thus provides the means in the Sacrament of Penance to find forgiveness; to not have one’s sins marked but to come back into friendship and charity with God if in humility we repent and cooperate with His grace:

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity. (1 John 1:8-9 DR)

The humility in which we come face to face with our own iniquity and need for redemption is thus a tremendous grace by which we enabled to return to God:

Now, God knows exactly the number of our sins; and he has them all written in his book; for, as Job says, “Thou indeed hast numbered my steps.” He, too, knows, and is the only one that knows, the infinite enormity of mortal sin, and how, then, can weak, ignorant men render an account to so exact a calculator, and so powerful an exactor? Thus, like one who is able to throw himself into a well without being able to get out of it, is the sinner who can transgress, but cannot make satisfaction for the transgression, unless he be mercifully helped thereto. (St. Robert Bellarmine, A Commentary on the Book of the Psalms, 129, 3.)

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This animation was really fun to create. I started by finding this image which prompted the idea, but I needed more depth in the image (or height, I suppose). I used Generative Crop in Photoshop and it did a pretty remarkable job of extending the perspective.

Once that was complete I brought it into After Effects and created an instance of Trapcode Particular. I added a Light and animated it falling from the sky past the camera’s perspective. I then attached the emitter of Particular to this Light and modified the particle generation, coloring, etc., to look like a fireball. I duplicated this instance and retimed them with some other Lights.

I added in a bunch of glows and added in some lighting on the buildings timed to follow the passage of the fireball past them. I finally added some color correction and the text and as a final +1 added in the camera shake timed with the movement of the fireballs relative to the camera.

Enjoy.

View a higher quality version of this gif here: