Psalm 18:9

let's shed some light on this

The justices of the Lord are right, rejoicing hearts: the commandment of the Lord is lightsome, enlightening the eyes.
(Psalm 18:9 DR)

It is obvious that light is somewhat important for sight, but it’s not just about light simpliciter, but the right kind of light. Specifically, the color temperature of the light. Daylight (6500 K) is more or less the color temperature of the sun and thus normal illumination, whereas something like fluorescent is 5000 K and incandescent around 2550 K.

These values, among other things, are important for how colors are perceived. If you’ve ever used a digital camera and switched between color temperature modes, you’ve noticed this in action.

And although we generally don’t give color a second thought unless we are getting ready to paint a room, it forms an integral part of our vision. It’s not a sine qua non for vision by any means, but for humans it forms an important part of how we see.

Color blindness in humans is not the norm, albeit also not incredibly rare, existing on a spectrum of latent capabilities, usually more on the side of the inability to distinguish colors rather than a total absence of color vision altogether.

The test used for color deficiency is called the Ishihara test, which is a series of differently sized dots in a range of contrasting colors that form a field and a number within that field. The goal is to determine the amount of contrast necessary for the individual to read the number, which determines the extent of the deficiency. There are 38 plates within the total test, although deficiencies are generally detected fairly early in the test.

And since the test consists of colors on a printed surface, the color temperature is very important for accuracy. Daylight ranges are generally the most accurate as they reflect more or less the normal colors, whereas incandescent light with its lower and more yellow temperature will skew the results, causing the colors to be viewed differently.

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In this verse the Psalmist continues his enconium of the Law of the Lord, comparing it to a light in which eyes have sight. Eyes are for seeing and require light to fulfill their teleology; without them they are useless. Here he speaks obviously not of physical sight, but the sight of the mind. Our intellect is darkened through sin, and while we can still on some level perceive some of the moral law and understand its precepts, we have a sort of color blindness to to the moral law which often makes distinguishing between the good and the evil difficult, and our natural tendency is to be blind to the contrast between them.

God’s law, on the other, shines light upon the good and the evil, pulling into full contrast their distinction. In the Old Testament God promised to make a new covenant in which he would write the law on man’s heart, in our analogy like shining the light of the sun on the moral life instead of a dim and dull incandescent bulb. The clarity of what is right is brought into its full splendor, as well as the hideous nature of sin. The light of God’s law—which, as the previous verse shows, is the promise of Christ himself—brings us into light, as our Lord said:

I am the light of the world: he that followeth me, walketh not in darkness, but shall have the light of life. (John 8:12 DR)

St. Robert Bellarmine fitting closes this reflection off, noting the effects of the light of the law of the Lord:

The law of the Lord, through the bright light of divine wisdom, illuminates our intellectual vision, because it makes us understand God’s will, and what is really good and really bad. God’s law illuminates also in a preparatory manner, for wisdom will not approach the malevolent soul; and nothing proves such an obstacle to our knowing God, which is the essence of wisdom, as impurity of heart. “Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.” (St. Robert Bellarmine, A Commentary on the Psalms, 18, 8)

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In this animation I definitely wanted to play off of the idea of illuminating something, and so I created a simple hanging lamp and drew a cones of light streaming forth from it. I animated the rotation of the lamp so it appeared to be swinging, and then placed the two blocks of text on either side.

I then track matted the text to the cone of light so that it would only be revealed within that light, which precludes having to do complicated masking or keyframed animation. I feathered out the Matte so that there’d be some falloff on the light to give it a more natural feel, and used a duplicate of the light for what can actually be seen.

Enjoy.

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View a higher quality version of this gif here: