Of understanding for David. A prayer when he was in the cave (Psalm 141:1 DR)
We have perhaps all had the experience of knowing something that another person just cannot see or understand. It may be a lack of knowledge or an obstinance in refusing to understand, but the lack of understanding is metaphorically well-understood as a sort of darkness, for even when the truth is plainly evident, it can still be missed.
And until new vistas of understanding are opened to us, sometimes we are incapable of receiving the understanding of something. This has classically been likened to the figure of the cave, in which prisoners kept within know only darkness and the shadows cast by things they cannot see, mistaking the shadows for the reality. It is only upon emerging from the darkness of the cave and stepping into the light of the sun that the truth can be seen in its splendor and reality.
Of course, such experiences should fill us with humility, for if we can perceive this as it occurs to others, we cannot imagine we are immune to such self-imposed caves of thought and belief. In our pride we are all-too-willing to deceive ourselves and to be deceived, so long as that deception fits into the paradigm of what we wish reality to be, especially as it corresponds with the movements of our appetites. The lower movements of our nature can skew and distort and occlude what is good and true and beautiful, so that we mistake what feels good for what actually is good. And unless we are willing and able to rise above the passions and appetites which clamor for our attention, we may never leave the caves of our own making.
As the Psalmist begins this poignant Psalm near the end of the Psalter, he begins with the inscription which forms this verse: Of understanding for David. A prayer when he was in the cave. The Douay-Rheims inserts a parenthetical reference to 1 Kings 24, wherein David was fleeing from King Saul and hid in a cave. St. Gregory of Nyssa also explicitly links this inscription to that narrative.
In the historical sense David was fleeing for his life from King Saul, the latter of whom deemed David such a threat that he led an army of three thousand men in pursuit. David came to the desert of Engaddi, hoping that King Saul would be dissuaded from following into such rough terrain, but King Saul was so obsessed with David that he and his men scoured even the most inaccessible parts of the region in their search (cf. 1 Kings 24:3).
David is said to have come to some sheepcotes which were in his way, including a cave. Given that it would be advantageous to the owners of the sheep to have their sheepcotes in a secure place, the implication seems to be that David and his men had essentially come to a dead end and had nowhere else to flee. For this reason, presumably, he and his men went into a cave and hid; it says they lay hid in the inner part of the cave, which would presumably mean lying still in the dark without any light to help them. At this point they are helpless and trapped; their only hope is that the darkness would conceal them.
It is here that the prayer of the Psalmist is composed, when he is a man on the run, trapped and without escape, lying still in the dark in the cave, not knowing whether he will ever emerge again. In the darkness one could imagine the lack of understanding that David felt, not understanding why King Saul sought his life, nor why God had seemingly abandoned him into this place.
Yet it is here that we discover the quality of David’s soul, for rather than despairing of his situation, he cries out to the Lord from the midst of the darkness. He does not know what the future will bring, or if he will even live out the day, but his first and only thought is directed towards the Lord.
The Psalm is thus framed for understanding. It does not promise a particular resolution, nor does it whitewash the distress of the situation. As will be seen, the Psalmist pours out his soul before the Lord in his distress, for the cave is very real, both in the literal sense but even more so on the level of his soul. The distress of his physical danger corresponds to that within his heart, for the temptation to despair is ever present, especially in the darkness of the cave.
St. Augustine considers the cave of the Psalmist here to primarily refer to what he calls straitness; that is, the manner in which distress or trouble constricts or imprisons the soul. We sometimes speak of being in dire straits, by which we mean a situation that seems to close in upon us with no room for error and perhaps even less to escape, like walking on a narrow precipice or through a tight tunnel. But in the straitness of this cave there can be an expanse, which is where the Psalmist finds his hope:
For to one who rejoiceth, even a prison is wide; to one in sorrow, a field is strait. Therefore prayeth he to be brought out of straitness. For though in hope he have enlargement, yet in reality at present he is straitened. Listen to the straits of the Apostle: I had no rest in my spirit, saith he, because I found not Titus my brother. In another place: Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not? But he who was both weak and burning, was not he under punishment and in prison? But these punishments through love produce a crown. Wherefore he saith again, There remaineth for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall pay me at that day. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 141, 19.)
St. Paul wrote about his distress while in prison, his own cave as it were, yet even in the midst of those straits he was enlarged in his soul, because his hope was not founded on the physical situation of his body. Rather, the hope of reward that God would give him on the Last Day made his prison into a spacious expanse, such that his chains and the prison doors were as nothing in comparison to his expectation of God’s mercy and judgment.
The Psalmist likewise comes to this place, for in the depths of the cave when all natural light is gone and hope seems to have fled, he raises his cry to the Lord, seeking understanding in the darkness. The deprivation of sight and sound and the other senses stands in for the mortification of the passions and appetites, and as he let go of the things of this world he was then able to raise his thoughts and heart to the Lord. It was in that sense because of the darkness and desolation of the cave and the subsequent emptying out of his appetites and concupiscence that he was able to come to understanding, to find the light of the Lord in the depths of the cave, which then raised his mind and heart above the things of this world.
St. Gregory notes that in this story of the cave, King Saul eventually comes into the cave to—as the Douay-Rheims delicately puts it—ease nature, and in that moment David had the opportunity to strike King Saul down when he was most vulnerable. And in the darkness of the cave no one would have seen his deed, save for God alone.
But David—through the understanding granted to him in his prayer to the Lord—refuses to take vengeance upon King Saul or to harm him. David cut off a portion of King Saul’s robe, but even this struck his conscience, and after Saul left the cave David ran after him, begging him for forgiveness and to leave off his madness in seeking his life. St. Gregory describes how David’s passions were mortified so as to be so merciful to King Saul:
This action gave David faith to believe that his own salvation lie not in his enemy’s destruction but to leave unharmed those taking counsel against him. This historical incident teaches us that a person of outstanding virtue bears no hostility towards members of his own tribe; instead, he valiantly strikes the passions. Thus David’s valiant deed mortified his anger in two ways: by reason and the restraint of vengeful wrath. But despite the love shown to him, Saul still sought to destroy David. After Saul spoke to David the victor, he sank into shame at what David had undergone. Saul’s lament and tears showed a turning away from the evil within his heart, a lesson we can learn from this incident. (St. Gregory of Nyssa, On the Inscriptions of the Psalms, Chapter 14.)
The understanding that David receives in the cave thus has a two-fold aspect.
In the first place it enlarged his soul in the straitness of the cave, so that while he was the one who was hiding for his life in the darkness of the cave, it was in fact King Saul whose soul was in darkness, enslaved to his jealousy and paranoia and wrath. King Saul may have been free in the body, but his soul was the one in the cave.
In the second place this understanding emptied out his passions and lusts and appetites. King Saul sought David’s life because King Saul viewed power as a zero-sum game, to kill or be killed, and thus assumed of David those things which he harbored in his own soul. David would have—from a worldly perspective—be deemed foolish to not kill King Saul when he had the chance, but David’s understanding led him to a more expansive vision, as it were, in which he knew that he would offend God if he raised his hand against the Lord’s anointed. Instead he entrusted his soul and his life into God’s hands, and by doing so was able to rise above the passions and appetites that held men such as King Saul in their straits. In this manner he was vindicated in his innocence and was kept from committing great evil in the sight of the Lord. Moreover, King Saul at least had a momentary change in heart, in which the straits of his own cave were expanded, all because David acted uprightly.
Such understanding becomes the desire and possession of the soul which hopes in the Lord in the midst of the cave, trusting not in its own power or wisdom nor fixated on its distress or circumstances. Prayer becomes the means by which the soul ascends to the Lord and finds its help from Him, which is why prayer is not only when in the open air, but especially when one is in the cave.
I grabbed a nice image of this person holding a lantern and brought it into After Effects. I used Trapcode Particular to add in the sparkle bokeh effects, and also used Optical Flares for the flares on the lantern. I added in the text with various blending modes for some visual interest, and then used some glitch and camera effects to give the whole things some movement.
I finally added in some color correction and wrapped it up.
Enjoy.
*thanks to Richard McCambly, ocso, for the use of the PDF of St. Gregory’s Inscriptions on the Psalms.
Of understanding for David. A prayer when he was in the cave.
(Psalm 141:1 DR)
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