Psalm 130:3
hope springs eternal, and then it's done
Let Israel hope in the Lord, from henceforth now and for ever. (Psalm 130:3 DR)
Hope can be a strange thing, as by its nature it longs for something that it does not have and ceases to exist upon the attainment of its object. We hope because we sense within us a lack or deficiency, and this hope functions as a sort of ersatz possession of its object until it is possessed. In this manner it is like the mirror image of memory, wherein the sweetness (or bitterness) of the past moment is experienced in lieu of the thing itself.
And like memory, hope can be disappointed. We have all experienced the sweetness of a memory of something in the past—perhaps a favorite meal—that when re-experienced is not as delightful. We might say: “It’s not as as good as I remembered.” Hope can similarly not live up to its expectations when the thing is finally attained and the result is not as desired; we might say: “It’s not as good as I hoped.”
Understood in this light both memory and hope are not goods in and of themselves but rather wholly dependent on the object. Hope is one of the three theological virtues, but it is not an abstract or generic hope but rather hope that has a particular object: namely, God Himself. St. Paul explains the precise nature of this hope:
Being justified therefore by faith, let us have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access through faith into this grace, wherein we stand, and glory in the hope of the glory of the sons of God. And not only so; but we glory also in tribulations, knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience trial; and trial hope; and hope confoundeth not: because the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost, who is given to us. (Romans 5:1-5 DR)
Hope springs eternal, the saying goes, but this is only true when its object is eternal. St. Paul makes a fascinating observation that tribulations and patience and trials work hope that doesn’t disappoint, which seems counter-intuitive. After all, should not those things drive hope away? But they do not because St. Paul links these things to the outpouring of the Holy Ghost into the soul, with the implication that without these trials and sufferings we cannot have this outpouring. These things produce hope not because of what they are but rather because God uses them as the means of production of hope. This accords with St. Paul’s words to the Hebrews:
For whom the Lord loveth, he chastiseth; and he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. Persevere under discipline. God dealeth with you as with his sons; for what son is there, whom the father doth not correct? But if you be without chastisement, whereof all are made partakers, then are you bastards, and not sons. Moreover we have had fathers of our flesh, for instructors, and we reverenced them: shall we not much more obey the Father of spirits, and live? And they indeed for a few days, according to their own pleasure, instructed us: but he, for our profit, that we might receive his sanctification. Now all chastisement for the present indeed seemeth not to bring with it joy, but sorrow: but afterwards it will yield, to them that are exercised by it, the most peaceable fruit of justice. (Hebrews 12:6-11 DR)
This hope does not disappoint because it is ineluctably tied to the adoption of sons which is evidenced by the Lord’s discipline. Trials and tribulations—while they shouldn’t be sought out in a mistaken attempt at vain-glory—are nevertheless God’s means of bringing us to sanctification. We must in humility accept from the Lord’s hand what he will bring us, trusting that He is using it to produce this hope within our hearts.
The Psalmist concludes this brief Psalm by focusing on this very hope, extolling the people of Israel to place their hope in God both now and forever. St. Augustine notes an oddity here; if hope eventually passes away, how can Israel be said to hope forever?
But the word seculum does not always mean this world, but sometimes eternity; since eternity is understood in two ways; until eternity, that is, either evermore without end, or until we arrive at eternity. How then is it to be understood here? Until we arrive at eternity, let us trust in the Lord God; because when we have reached eternity, there will be no longer hope, but the thing itself will be ours. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 130, 8.)
Ultimately hope is grounded in God and His promises, and gives us the strength to persevere in the midst of tribulations and suffering. It allows us to see God’s hand at work in our own sanctification not in spite of but through those things. And while hope and humility are certainly distinct virtues, they work hand in glove, as it were, for humility allows hope to blossom in the soul by being docile to God’s will and seeing beyond one’s own pride and myopia to God’s work and wisdom.
That is why the Psalmist ends with this admonition to hope; he provides the example of humility and exhorts his people to do the same:
If I, a king and a prophet, dare not take a shine out of myself by reason of my power and my wisdom, and, instead of relying on myself, cast all my hope on God, it certainly is only right that Israel, my people, and who are also God’s people, should not “imagine that they are something when they are nothing,” nor confide in their own strength, but hope in the Lord—they will hope in him, not only today and tomorrow, but forever and ever. (St. Robert Bellarmine, A Commentary on the Book of the Psalms, 130, 3.)
In this animation I utilized Extrude to create the, well, extruded text. I animated the gradient and extrusion depth of the extrusion and then precomped the extrusion and the original source text individually. I then duplicated both quite a few times and placed them in the layer stack so everything was at the correct depth. Once everything was set up I precomped all the original texts into one master precomp and then used it as a matte for an animated texture. I finally offset the various extrusions in time to get a nice oscillating pattern.
Enjoy.
Let Israel hope in the Lord, from henceforth now and for ever.
(Psalm 130:3 DR)
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