Psalm 22:3

He hath converted my soul. He hath led me on the paths of justice, for his own name's sake. (Psalm 22:3 DR)

A common trope about sheep is that they are not the most intelligent of creatures. They are herd animals and will generally exhibit flocking behaviors, which for sheep are necessary for survival, but which for the modern mindset indicates a lack of independence that we mindlessly (and thus ironically) attribute to stupidity. Thus, when we perceive a flock of sheep going wherever the shepherd goes or all fleeing at a barking dog, we tend to imagine they are nearly brainless drones who are all reaction. However, this “herd mentality” of sheep is necessary for them, for a sheep on its own is liable to many dangers and has very few natural defenses aside from the protection of the herd. Thus sheep have an innate propensity to follow the sheep in front of them, which can be for good or for ill.

This leads to other trope of stupid sheep, in that even though it is dangerous to be apart from the herd, they still do wander off. Wandering occurs for many reasons such as curiosity, the “grass is greener” effect, following others who are wandering off, or a sense of danger. All of these are conditioned on an instinctual propensity to wander, which stems from their seeking after suitable grazing pasture. Shepherding sheep in one area (depending on the breed) is in some respect less natural to them, as they are more migratory and naturally inclined to move from place to place as a group. When this instinct goes awry and the sheep realizes it has been separated from the flock, it will often panic as it is now completely vulnerable.

Our Lord’s parable of the lost sheep draws on what would have been common knowledge to His hearers:

What man of you that hath an hundred sheep: and if he shall lose one of them, doth he not leave the ninety-nine in the desert, and go after that which was lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, lay it upon his shoulders, rejoicing: And coming home, call together his friends and neighbours, saying to them: Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep that was lost? I say to you, that even so there shall be joy in heaven upon one sinner that doth penance, more than upon ninety-nine just who need not penance. (Luke 15:4-7 DR)

And while the point of the parable is the love for the sinner rather than a robust description of sheep husbandry, the shepherd would leave the flock of sheep to search for the one lost sheep precisely because of the nature of sheep. The flock of 99 sheep is protected from danger within the flock and will not all wander off, while the lost sheep is likely either hurt or stuck and is in the greatest danger. However, when he does find the sheep he is carrying the sheep on his shoulders, both because the sheep was likely injured and because the separated sheep would—in its heightened state of anxiety—be less likely to follow the shepherd.

The Psalmist turns to speak of this aspect of the rule and shepherding of God, in that the Lord has “converted my soul.” The Hebrew renders this as “refecit,” meaning refreshes or restores, which connects it to the “refectionis” of the previous verse. The Vulgate employs “convertit”—following the Septuagint’s use of ἐπέστρεψεν—both which mean to turn around, turn back or return. The root word verto is “to turn,” and the prefix con- serves to intensify or bring to perfection the action.

Lucretius vividly illustrates the failure of such a “turning,” as he describes the development in human history of iron as a means of warfare, and how that escalated development of weapons and then of various beasts within war. He continues with how some nations used lions on chains with the hope that they would terrify the enemy, but once the battle was engaged the blood-lust of these beasts was evoked and they turned on foe and friend alike, such that the horsemen could not compel their mounts to face the enemy forces:

[N]ec poterant equites fremitu perterrita equorum
pectora mulcere et frenis convertere in hostis.

Nor could the horsemen calm
Their horses, panic-breasted at the roar,
And rein them round to front the foe. (Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, Book V)

Thus conversion of the soul is to completely turn it from one thing—sin and wickedness—to another, which is God. The grace of God takes the reins of the heart, as it were, and realigns the will towards truth and goodness. Without this grace our souls remain astray, and like Lucretius’ horsemen we cannot of our own effort turn them:

The third want of the sheep, the being brought back when they stray; for man, though he may by his own strength turn from God, cannot by his own strength return to him. He says then: The good shepherd sought me out when I strayed, brought me back, and, more than that, never allowed me to stray again—a peculiar privilege to the elect. (St. Robert Bellarmine, A Commentary on the Book of the Psalms, 22, 3.)

We can see in this Psalm a figure of progress in the spiritual life, which began with the gift of faith in the hearing of the Gospel, which corresponds to the being set in pastures. Baptism then brings this faith to fruition, being as it is the waters of refreshment. This translation from the kingdom of death to the kingdom of life is nothing less than conversion, for in Baptism the soul is cleansed of the stain of Original Sin and filled with the Holy Ghost. The complete turnaround is accomplished by the grace poured forth in Baptism as the charity of God is poured into the soul (cf. Romans 5:5), and then in Confirmation is strengthened to increase in virtue and to walk along the narrow path to salvation (cf. Matthew 7:13-14). This sacramental grace which is bestowed on those who receive it is thus figured and prophesied by the Psalmist in the sheep under the care of the Good Shepherd:

The fourth duty of the shepherd, made me walk in the narrow path of his commandments; and, thereby, lead the life of the just. That he effected by taking from the power and strength of the tempter, by an increase of charity, by additional sweetness, by illuminating with his justice, by enticements, by excitement, by endearment, by terror, and other innumerable ways, on which, if we would only reflect for a moment, we would never cease, during our whole lifetime, to return thanks to so sweet a Pastor; the more so, when all this has been done, not by reason of our previous merits, but “on account of his own name, that he may make known the riches of his mercy to the praise of the glory of his grace.” (St. Robert Bellarmine, A Commentary on the Book of the Psalms, 22, 3.)

This conversion of heart and increase in sanctification is wrought, as the Psalmist says, for the sake of the Lord’s own own Name, that praise and honor might be rendered to Him on account of the fathomless depth of His charity and mercy. Our Lor d Jesus Christ in His suffering and death gained for us salvation and thus is forever exalted:

He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross. For which cause God also hath exalted him, and hath given him a name which is above all names: That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth: And that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:8-11 DR)

This glory is not on the order of man in which we seek glory for self-aggrandizement or to increase our own standing or wealth. God as infinite and eternal and self-existent has no need of anything in creation and gains nothing in respect to His Being through anything rendered unto Him in praise or thanksgiving. All that God bestows upon creatures is out of the overflow (so to speak) of His charity.

The shepherd, after all, can more easily live without the sheep than the sheep without the shepherd. Yet here the analogy limps, for there is always a self-interested aspect to the natural relationship between shepherd and sheep which mutually benefits both. This is therefore the scandal and stumbling block (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:23) of our Lord’s giving of His life for the sheep as the Good Shepherd does, for the relationship is completely lopsided. Yet it is because of this charity that He willingly did so to redeem us from our sins, to rescue His creation which was falling into dissolution. And while there was strictly speaking no necessity for Him to redeem us, it is proper and fitting that the one who created all things would be the One to recreate them. This suffering in charity on His part turns the worldly paradigm of power and glory upside down, for it is on account of His weakness and humility and suffering that He is glorified, and those who are united to Him in that suffering are promised the same:

For the Spirit himself giveth testimony to our spirit, that we are the sons of God. And if sons, heirs also; heirs indeed of God, and joint heirs with Christ: yet so, if we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified with him. (Romans 8:16-17 DR)

The paths of justice will as a consequence be a hard and narrow road which require a shepherd to lead the sheep through. We must stick close to our shepherd, not veering off in curiosity or straying after seemingly greener pastures of this world, nor turning back in fear of persecution or trouble. This is the only safe road to heaven, in which we follow our Lord in His sufferings and contempt for the things of this world:

It is by the paths of justice that he has arranged for you to go; that is by mercy and truth. “For all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth.” [Ps 24:10] He wants you to ignore the wide and spacious road, and advance along narrow paths and short-cuts, that is by way of hunger and thirst, of nakedness and fasting, by way of obscurity, of poverty, of patience, of contempt for all things of the present, while clinging to the promised hope. (St. Augustine, Sermon 366.4, The Works of St. Augustine, Vol. 10.)

---

I wanted to do some text animation for this while also keeping it somewhat simple. I created a box for the word converted and precomped this, and then within that precomp made two copies of the word, each in different colors. In the main comp I animated the words “He hath” pushing down into the text box, and then animated the box spinning to come off the force of that movement. I then switched the color of the text in the precomp and then animated the “my soul” as coming out of the text box with motion carried over from the “He hath” text. I then reversed that animation and precomped all the elements together.

I duplicated this new precomp and applied Time Remapping and then offset the various copies in time and space. I finally added some Shadow Studio 3 to the text box for some visual interest and added in some overall color correction.

Enjoy.

View a higher quality version of this gif here: