Psalm 29:11
always on my mind
The Lord hath heard, and hath had mercy on me: the Lord became my helper. (Psalm 29:11 DR)
In some respects this verse is pretty straightforward— the Psalmist, after recounting the troubles he has experienced and the ways in which God has delivered him from them, reflects back and recognizes that God has been his helper. It’s not too difficult a concept to grasp, and it’s easy to pass over this verse as a sort of “filler” as the Psalm comes to a close.
Yet the question might well be asked: how mindful are we of God’s help and mercy? We can easily acknowledge it with our lips, and it makes a nice bumper sticker or song lyric, but do we truly let this truth seep down into our souls? How often do we actually forget this, and in moments of entitlement and self-pride either disregard God’s faithfulness or presume to claim that he ahs abandoned us because something doesn’t go our way?
There is a fascinating episode in the Gospel where ten lepers come to our Lord to be healed, and He in His mercy grants this to them. He is on his way through their town and sees them standing at a distance, at which point they specifically cray to him for mercy, invoking Him as master. They realize his authority over their disease and implore his help.
After granting it to them, he tells them to go and show themselves to the priests to be declared clean and be able to renter their community. All of them head off immediately without a word, until one has a change of heart:
And one of them, when he saw that he was made clean, went back, with a loud voice glorifying God. And he fell on his face before his feet, giving thanks: and this was a Samaritan. (Luke 17:15-16 DR)
The other nine have been overcome with joy and expectation and consider their healing of greater worth than the one who healed them, the one whom they only moments ago sought for help and mercy:
And Jesus answering, said, Were not ten made clean? and where are the nine? There is no one found to return and give glory to God, but this stranger. (Luke 17:17-18 DR)
This man who returned has been able to order his priorities properly, for while he is of course ecstatic about the healing that has been wrought in his body, he recognizes that he is in the presence of something even greater, and thus returns to render honor and reverence to that which is greater, namely, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Prosperity and good fortune can certainly be blessings, but they can also be a double-edged sword that lulls us into a false sense of security and can cause us to forget the source of the blessings themselves. In our pride we can even start to imagine we are owed these good things, rather than understanding they are all a gift from God who, as the scriptures say, causes the rain to fall on the righteous and unrighteous.
In the midst of blessing we must be careful not to stumble and fall, we must ensure that we constantly recognize God as our helper an the one who has mercy on us. Otherwise we may be the like the nine lepers who stood in the presence of God himself but we overwhelmed by the joy of the moment that they missed the greatest joy of all which was standing right in front of them. The Psalmist here urges us to not fall into the same trap, but to call to mind daily how God has been our helper and our strength, whose faithfulness is without end.
I didn’t have a solid concept for this animation, but for some reason I was in a retro synthwave sort of mood, so I decided to go with that aesthetic.
In After Effects I created a new Solid and applied Trapcode Mir to it and then adjusted the parameters to create this retro-futuristic infinite digital landscape. After tweaking it I then duplicated it and flipped it to create this never-ending tunnel of sorts and then added lots of color correction and VHS effects to finish off the look. I’m always a sucker for these sorts of things, so it was fun to create.
Enjoy.
The Lord hath heard, and hath had mercy on me: the Lord became my helper.
(Psalm 29:11 DR)
View a higher quality version of this gif here: