My foot hath stood in the direct way: in the churches I will bless thee, O Lord. (Psalm 25:12 DR)
As the Psalmist concludes this Psalm of confidence in God’s vindication of his innocence, he once more leans into that confidence, as it were. There is a fine parallelism here, for in the previous passage he “walked” in his innocence, whereas this is now expanded to speaking of his “standing” in the direct way. The term in the Vulgate is directo, which comes into the Douay-Rheims as “direct way.” Directo comes from directus, meaning “to set straight, in a straight line,” and this directus gives English the adjective “direct,” which as a word picture indicates basically a straight line between two points.
In other words, the Psalmist makes a somewhat bold statement here in that his innocence places him on this straight line to God. It will be remembered in a previous verse that he spoke of “washing his hands” among the innocent and “compassing the altar” of the Lord. These are essentially the fleshing out of what walking in innocence and having one’s feet in the direct way mean. The Old Latin brings this out by using the phrase pes enim meus stetit in via recta; that is, my foot hath stood in the right way. The direct way is certainly the right way, as the Psalmist speaks in the next Psalm:
Set me, O Lord, a law in thy way, and guide me in the right path, because of my enemies. (Psalm 26:11 DR)
For the Psalmist this is—at present—an unfulfilled desire, since he is in exile. Yet we can also see here that this desire is more or less faith made sight. For he speaks of how his foot has stood in the direct way, and then expands it in the next clause to speak of his proclaiming God’s goodness in the churches. On the natural level this is impossible for him, as he cannot return to the tabernacle of the Lord for which he longs. Yet in faith he perceives that his innocence is—in a sense—a tabernacle, as he speaks elsewhere:
In a desert land, and where there is no way, and no water: so in the sanctuary have I come before thee, to see thy power and thy glory. (Psalm 62:3 DR)
The reason for this is that his innocence is ultimately not his own but a gift from the Lord; it is the Lord crowning His own gifts, as St. Augustine explains, which is no less than the charity of God poured into our hearts through the Holy Ghost (cf. Romans 5:5). This indwelling of God in the soul is what makes the soul into a temple (cf. 1 Corinthians 6:19) and thus allows the Psalmist in faith to see beyond the trials and tribulations that he currently suffers:
For my foot has stood in the upright way: in the churches I will bless the Lord. Among the shattering heresies and oppressively fierce hardships of the world, the Catholic well proclaims that his foot has remained immovable, for though tossed in grievous tribulations it cannot be shifted by any compulsion from its commitment to the faith. This claim can be made by men such as this and those like them. The Lord himself testifies to them, as in the statement: “I have left me seven thousand men who have not bent their knees before Baal.” (Cassiodorus, Explanation of the Psalms, 25, 12, Ancient Christian Writers)
This direct way is also identical to the narrow road of which our Lord speaks:
Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it! (Matthew 7:13-14 DR)
To have one’s foot in the direct way is thus a deliberation of the will, a determination to set one’s foot, as it were, onto the straight road. That it is direct means that there is no deviation from the goal, and this is why our Lord describes it also as narrow, not because it is overly complex, but rather because it is exceedingly simple. The whole law and prophets are contained in the commandments to love the Lord and love our neighbors as we love ourselves, which is not a complicated command, but which is—because of concupiscence and natural human weakness—exceedingly difficult to accomplish, and impossible without cooperating with God’s grace.
This is precisely why St. Augustine describes the life of grace in terms of God crowning His own gifts, for God desires that we stand in this direct way and provides the grace for us to do so. That bestowal of grace within the soul straightens out the heart so that it can fit, as it were, within that direct way. As our hearts and souls become more conformed to Christ, we reorient all the things that we do into that direct way, so that even when we aren’t actively thinking of God, we have nevertheless ordered our minds and hearts to do His will:
Frequently the fear comes to you that you have failed to keep yourself in the presence of God, because you have not thought of Him. This is a mistaken idea. You can, without this definite thought, perform all your actions for love of God and in His presence, by virtue of the intention you had in beginning them. Now, to act is better than to think. Though the doctor may not have the invalid in mind while he is preparing the medicine that is to restore him to health, nevertheless it is for him he is working, and he is more useful to his patient in this way than if he contented himself with merely thinking of him. In like manner when you fulfil your domestic or social duties, when you eat or walk, devote yourself to study or to manual labor, though it be without definitely thinking of God, you are acting for Him, and this ought to suffice to set your mind at rest in regard to the merit of your actions. Saint Paul does not say that we must eat, drink and labor with an actual remembrance of God’s presence, but with the habitual intention of glorifying Him and doing His holy will. We fulfil this condition by making an offering each morning to God of all the actions of the day and renewing the act interiorly whenever we can remember to do so. (R. P. Quadrupani, Light and Peace, Second Part, Chapter X, 3.)
To stand in the direct way thus speaks to a “directness” of intention, a purity of heart that sets itself on a straight line to God, as it were. Just like when we affix our gaze to something we remove all obstacles from the direct line of sight, so in the soul we purify ourselves of all intentions that prevent this direct gaze of God’s holy will and our submission to it. Walking in a straight line is impossible unless you can see the line you are walking on; in a similar manner, our performance of righteous acts is impossible unless the gaze of our heart and will is completely on the Lord:
Most people when they wish to reform, pay much more attention to filling their life with certain difficult and extraordinary actions, than to purifying their intention and opposing their natural inclinations in the ordinary duties of their state. In this they often deceive themselves, for it would be much better to make less change in the actions and more in the dispositions of the soul which prompt them. When one is already leading a virtuous and well regulated life it is of far greater consequence, in order to become truly spiritual, to change the interior than the exterior. God is not satisfied with the motions of the lips, the posture of the body, nor with external ceremonies: What he demands is a will no longer divided between Him and any creature; a will perfectly docile ... that wishes unreservedly whatever He wishes and never under any pretext wishes aught that He does not wish. (R. P. Quadrupani, Light and Peace, Second Part, Chapter XVII, 3b.)
In this manner we can “bless the Lord” in the Churches, for our actions will align with our hearts and wills that have themselves been aligned to the direct way in Christ. This purity of heart is necessary so that our “blessing” of God is not mere empty words, masking a darkness within:
How then does he conclude? In the Churches I will bless Thee, O Lord. That is, in the Churches I will not bless myself, as if certain of men, but I will bless Thee in my works. For this it is to bless God in the Churches, Brethren, so to live that God may be blessed by each man's conversation. For he who blesseth the Lord with his tongue, and curseth Him in his deeds, doth not bless God in the Churches. Almost all bless with the tongue, but not all in deed…
For as it is no profit to open the eyes, if a man be in darkness; so is it no profit to be in the light, if the eyes are closed. And so the pagan indeed, (to speak of them the rather as though their lives were good,) is, with open eyes, in darkness; because he acknowledgeth not the Lord his Light: but the Christian, whose life is evil, is in none other light than God’s, but with closed eyes; for, by his evil life, he will not see Him, in Whose Name he is, as it were, blind, in the midst of light, quickened by no vision of the True Light. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 25, Second Exposition, 14.)
For this animation I basically found a pair of shoes standing facing forward and brought in a texture for the “ground” and adjusted it in 3D space to make it match the perspective of the feet. I then used a similar texture (or maybe the same one!) and applied Stretch to it and animated the movement to make it feel like an escalator or moving walkway. I added in some light flares that would hit as certain portions of the texture passed certain parts of the screen, which helps give it a bit more heft in terms of the perceived movement.
Enjoy.
My foot hath stood in the direct way: in the churches I will bless thee, O Lord.
(Psalm 25:12 DR)
View a higher quality version of this gif here:
