Psalm 25:3

For thy mercy is before my eyes; and I am well pleased with thy truth. (Psalm 25:3 DR)

As the Psalmist has been boldly asking to be tried by the Lord and proved in his innocence, he now reveals the source of this confidence: “Thy mercy is before my eyes.” That is to say, the fires that will try his soul—as the refiner’s fire purifies gold—are not wrath but mercy; his hope is in this mercy of the Lord that has been shown to him:

For, that I be not consumed by that fire, not my merits, but Your mercy, whereby You have brought me on to such a life, is before my eyes. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 25, 3.)

The Vulgate has ante oculos meos est, and thus the term “before” can function in more than one sense here, as it can refer to both space and time. In terms of “space” the sense of “before” would be something like “in the presence of” or “in sight of” or “in front of,” which St. Jerome’s Hebrew translation brings out by using in conspectu for “before,” which has this spatial sense. In this sense, the mercy of God of which the Psalmist speaks goes in front of him, which is a nice counterpart to the same mercy which “follows” him in Psalm 22. This spatial sense will also be expanded upon in the parallelism of this passage in the second half.

In respect to time, “before” would of course mean that his actions are preceded in time by God’s mercy, that they are in fact the result of His mercy and enabled by them. In theological terms this would be the prevenient mercy which “prevents” him, which goes before him.

St. Augustine above merges both senses in that it was the mercy of God which brought the Psalmist to this life, but is also before his eyes. In the spatial sense it is always before him, figuratively speaking, in that it has lead his actions and is present in all circumstances. And in the temporal sense that same mercy precedes his merits and enables them.

On the level of his soul the Psalmist sees this mercy as the constitutive element of his life, the goal to which he sets his eyes and thus that towards which he orients his life. It is not something that is a nice addition to his life but rather is the overriding consideration:

For thy mercy is before my eyes: and I am approved in thy truth. This was the reason why he did not fear the hazards of temptations, because he could not forget His mercy; he continually regards this as an aid to him, because he always sets before his eyes the kindnesses which have been bestowed. (Cassiodorus, Explanation of the Psalms, 26.3., ACCS.)

In exile the Psalmist still has the mercy of the Lord before his eyes, which entails that he has been enabled by that same mercy to regard even his unjust circumstances with resignation to the will of God. Even further, this mercy which is before him also entails that in some respect the very trials and tribulations which accompany his exile—as well as his being forced to live among idolatrous and wicked men—is itself willed by the Lord according to His mercy, so that the Psalmist will be able to himself become pleasing in God’s sight:

We should recognize and adore the will of God in everything that happens to us. The malice of men, nay of the devil himself, can cause nothing to befall us except what is permitted by God. Our divine Lord has declared that not a hair of our heads can fall unless by the will of our Heavenly Father. Therefore in every condition painful to nature, whether you are afflicted by sickness, assailed by temptations, or tortured by the injustice of men, consider the divine will and say to God with a loving and submissive heart: Fiat voluntas tua—Thy will be done: O my Saviour, do with me what Thou willest, as Thou willest, and when Thou willest. (R. P. Quadupani, Light and Peace, Part II., Chapter VII., 1-2.)

The second half of this passage expands upon the first and can also have multiple senses. The Vulgate has complacui in veritate tua, which in the Douay-Rheims is translated as “I am well pleased with thy truth.” It can also be rendered as “I am well pleased in thy truth,” and while both can mean the same thing from different perspectives, the term “with” in present English tends to create a conceptual distance, as if the object in question is “alongside” the subject.

However, to be well pleased in Thy truth places the subject into a closer relationship to that truth, such as how St. John employs a similar expression:

But if we walk in the light, as he also is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7 DR)

The term complacui—well-pleased—comes from complacens, from which English derives the word “complacent.” Originally the English term had this sense of being well-pleased, although in modern English it tends to have a negative connotation, more akin to slothfully doing something that one is accustomed to doing, or being negligent towards something one has a duty to. As a noun “complacence” originally meant “to have delight in one’s condition,” which is more of the sense of complacui here in this passage. There is thus a “complacent love” in which the soul is at rest in the contemplation of God:

The love of complacence is of a different disposition. It is content with God. It not only wants nothing more, but it only wants Him as He is... Complacence fixes its eye upon what it knows of God with intense delight and with intense tranquility. It rejoices that He is what He is. It tells Him so. It tells it Him over and over again...

It rejoices that none else is like to God. It rejoices with Him in His unity, one of His own deepest and most secret joys. It exults that none can come near it...

It leans on God, and at last seems lost in Him, absorbed in quiet gladness and a rapture of holy thought. Thence once more it wakes, and seeing there is none like unto God, simply because He is God, and for no other cause, it bursts forth into passionate rejoicings, that He is not only what He is, but always has been, always will be what He is, that He is of a truth, and shall be, and must be, and alone can be, eternally and victoriously God. (Father Faber, The Creator and the Creature, or, The Wonders of Divine Love, Book II., Chapter III., pp. 209-210.)

St. Jerome’s Hebrew translation approaches this from a slightly different aspect, employing ambulabo for compalcui. Ambulabo means “I will walk,” and thus the truth is such that the Psalmist is characterized by his pursuit of it and within it. He does not see the truth of the Lord as something “out there” but rather woven into the deepest fiber of his being, such that his every action is within this truth.

This truth has itself a transformative effect, for whether one is walking in that truth or is well-pleased in that truth, the result is that the heart that is well-pleased on account of that truth is itself made pleasing to God. Both St. Augustine and Cassiodorus bring out this insight:

“And I have been pleasing in Your truth.” And since my own falsehood has been displeasing to me, but Your truth pleasing, I have myself been pleasing also with it and in it. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 25, 3.)

Because of this he also says that he has been approved in the Lord. To be approved means to deserve the Lord's eternal grace in company with the saints. In thy truth means “In thy Christ,” for He says: “I am the way, the truth, and the life” Otherwise he cannot be pleasing to the Lord unless he has been strengthened by such belief. (Cassiodorus, Explanation of the Psalms, 26.3., ACCS.)

This passage from the Psalmist is additionally prophetic, for our Lord fulfills the Psalmist’s words in His prayer for His Church:

Sanctify them in truth. Thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for them do I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. (John 17:17-19 DR)

Our Lord—Who is the Truth Himself—was “well-pleased” with and in that Truth, and walked in that truth by submission of His will to the Father in His Passion and suffering and death. The Psalmist in the midst of his own passion by means of his exile foreshadows this, and sets the mercy of God before his eyes and finds complacency in His truth as he walks through the tribulations of this life:

Would to God that we did not concern ourselves so much about the road whereon we journey, but rather would keep our eyes fixed on our Guide and upon that blessed country whither He is conducting us. What should it matter to us if it be through deserts or pleasant fields that we walk, provided God be with us and we be advancing towards heaven?... In short, for the honor of God, acquiesce perfectly in his divine will, and do not suppose that you can serve him better in any other way; for no one ever serves him well who does not serve him as he wishes. (R. P. Quadupani, Light and Peace, Part II., Chapter VII., 7.)

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This animation was accomplished by means of the Extrude plugin which creates, well, extrusions. The animation is basically the 2.5D text moving towards the camera the extrusion lessening as it gets closer to the camera, to provide the impression that the text is a solid 3D object, although it’s simply a text layer.

I added in some swirling background texture with turbulent displace on an abstract texture, and then added in some fractal noise texture and a bunch of glows. In fact, I think the glows crashed After Effects.

Well done robots.

Enjoy.

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