To thee, O Lord, will I cry: and I will make supplication to my God. (Psalm 29:9 DR)
The Psalmist here remembers the time of his tribulation, but sets the past into the future, almost in a paradigmatic sense. The parallelism underscores the importance of this turning to God in the midst of tribulation. Earlier he had noted that God’s favor gave strength to him, but he was troubled when God turned away. One could understand this as him coming to the realization that God had not turned away, but rather that the Psalmist himself had. After all, he had also earlier said that in his abundance he would not be moved; this confidence in self turns out to misplaced, for one tribulation comes it feels like God has turned away.
Perhaps now the Psalmist comes to the truth, understanding that his abundance must be found in his Lord, not in his own abilities or wealth or whatever else. These passing things have no ultimate stability, and thus his prayer turns to God to deliver him from tribulation, confident that He will hear him.
Commenting on another Psalm, St. Augustine takes up a similar theme:
Perhaps thou art burning with the consciousness of a fault; blot out with tears the flame of thy sin: mourn before the Lord: fearlessly mourn before the Lord, who made thee; for He despiseth not the work of His own hands in thee. Think not thou canst be restored by thyself. By thyself thou mayest fall off, thou canst not restore thyself: He who made thee restoreth thee. (St. Augustine. Exposition son the Psalms, 94, 6.)
No matter how often we fall or fail, we must have recourse in prayer and supplication to the Lord, confidence that He will hear and show mercy. This confidence must not be in our own strength, which can be moved despite our hubris to the contrary. Instead we must place our confidence in the one who made and redeemed us:
[W]eep before Him, confess unto Him, prevent His face in confession. For who art thou who mournest before Him, and confessest unto Him, but one whom He created? The thing created hath no slight confidence in Him who created it, and that in no indifferent fashion, but according to His own image and likeness. (ibid.)
This animation was pretty simple and straightforward. I laid out the text in After Effects and then created a series of animated ripple shapes that function as mattes for the text, revealing the text as the ripple grows. I then just animated a water drop to hit and activate the rippling. Kind of on the nose but I still like it. Sometimes simple is what you do when you have little time and are lazy best.
Enjoy.
To thee, O Lord, will I cry: and I will make supplication to my God.
(Psalm 29:9 DR)
View a higher quality version of this gif here: