Psalm 131:6
leaving the wilderness
Behold we have heard of it in Ephrata: we have found it in the fields of the wood. (Psalm 131:6 DR)
If you as a modern think of something pristine and awe-inspiring, you will likely call to mind some majestic mountain vista with crystal clear lakes and untouched forests running before. What will often be absent from such an idyllic image will be anything reminiscent of civilization, save perhaps a hand-hewn log cabin in the foreground of this mental photograph.
We thus romanticize wilderness, and tend to see (and market to each other) it in terms of pristine, beautiful, desirable, natural. This is perhaps unsurprising, as most of our lives are surrounded by plastic and concrete and suffocated by walls and traffic.
But more exactly put, we romanticize the idea of wilderness, for we almost only ever experience not as it is but rather as tourists of wilderness. My wife and I used to stay in a cabin in the Pike Nation Forest in Colorado during a week in the summer, which was always an enjoyable experience. There is something refreshing about getting away from the city and “experiencing” the beauty of the natural world.
However, it strikes me that it is not a completely real experience. The cabin, after all, is very accessible by road. There is a hospital a few minutes away in emergencies. The cabin has a fridge and Wi-fi and even a hot tub. Sure, it’s quiet and secluded and surrounded by forest. And sure, there are the occasional black bears who poke around the garbage cans if you don’t secure them well. But in most real ways my experience of “nature” and “wilderness” is filtered through convenience and (mostly) a lack of risk that wilderness actually entails.
That is why for moderns our idea of wilderness as some sort of idyllic state is an aberration in human history, primarily because we do not have to deal with its realities to a day-to-day and hour-to-hour basis. The tourist-i-fication of nature draws in our mind a picture that probably doesn’t exist.
In the ancient world (and for most of history prior to the Industrial Revolution) wilderness was not an idyllic place but was where you got exiled, a practical death sentence. The wilderness is a harsh place and requires harsh living; it’s why humans build cities and developed agriculture. Being in the thick of it gave the ancients a healthy appreciation of nature and of the necessity of civilization.
As the Psalmist transitions from recalling David’s vow to find a place for the Lord, he places this vow in context. The ark of Lord had been without a permanent house from its original creation, always dwelling in the (intentionally) mobile Tabernacle. He poetically describes some of these places, the first being Ephrata in Ephraim for over three-hundred years, and then seventy years at Cariathiarim, a name which means City of Forests or City of Woods. It is the impermanence of the Ark’s resting place (or lack thereof) which impels David to bring the Ark into Jerusalem and then to vow to build a temple. For David had built himself a splendid palace in Jerusalem, and naturally felt a disjunction between himself residing in luxury in the city (hence within civilization) while the Ark was always impermanent (and thus not within civilization). That the Ark should abide in the wilderness and the woods while David within the city thus forms part of the juxtaposition within his mind.
The Psalmist draws out this train of thought as the Temple prepares to be dedicated, recalling that even though God certainly did not need a permanent abode, it was nevertheless part of his gracious blessing and promise to David that the Temple was able to be built and He would deign to dwell therein. Israel had itself dwelt in the wilderness after its redemption from Egypt, and although settled in the Promised Land for centuries, it is as if the dedication of the Temple is now when Israel itself finally comes out of the wilderness and into the city of the Lord, now that the Ark has its proper place.
However, as the Old Testament serves as a figure for the the New, so within this passage St. Augustine draws out the promise of the proclamation of the Gospels to the Gentiles. The Vulgate renders “Ephrata” without translation, but St. Augustine notes that his translation renders Ephrata as “Speculum” (perhaps as a gloss, as it is rendered Ephrata in the Vetus Latina), which means “mirror.” This “mirror” has reference thus to what was “heard,” which he sees as referring to prophecy:
If therefore Ephrata means a mirror, that house which was found in the woodland plains, was heard of in a mirror. A mirror has an image: all prophecy is an image of things future. The future house of God, therefore, was declared in the image of prophecy. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 131, 5.)
What is “found,” then, is in the fields of the woods. The Vulgate renders it as silvae (wood, forest), whereas St. Jerome’s Latin translation from the Hebrew has saltus, which—ironically, given St. Augustine’s general disapproval of not using the Septuagint as the basis—evidentially St. Augustine’s Old Latin also follows, referring to forests or mountain pastures. He notes that it properly means an untilled and woody area; thus the wilderness which has not yet been civilized. This is all brought full circle as the prophecy of the Gospel going out into the world is typified by the Ark begin heard of in the wilderness and finally brought into the holy temple:
What then were the woodland plains, save nations yet untilled? What were they, save regions yet covered with the thorns of idolatry? Thus, though there were thorns of idolatry there, still we find a place for the Lord there, a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. What was declared in the image to the Jews, was manifested in the faith of the Gentiles. (ibid.)
We thus perceive in a mirror or through a dark glass (cf. 1 Corinthians 13:12) what Christ brings to full light in the radiance of his Person (cf. Hebrews 1:3) as the Light of Light, the “light to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel” (Luke 2:32 DR).
In this animation I found a nice image of someone holding a mirror-ball, which is something fun to use for photography. I have one but haven’t really yet found the right time or place to use it, but I love seeing pictures utilizing them.
In After Effects I masked out the ball and part of the hand and then animated some radiating rings. I precomped all those rings and added Shadow Studio 3 to it but used the shadows more as a glow and set the rings to Exclude to bring out some fun colors from the background.
I added a Lens Flare to the side of the ball to give it a bit of shine and then added in some camera wiggle and color correction.
Enjoy.
Behold we have heard of it in Ephrata: we have found it in the fields of the wood.
(Psalm 131:6 DR)
View a higher quality version of this gif here: