For David himself. Judge thou, O Lord, them that wrong me: overthrow them that fight against me. (Psalm 34:1 DR)
There is a fitting complementarity in the opening of this Psalm in the interplay between the superscription and the first verse proper. The inscription is For David himself, which in many other Psalms signals that this Psalm pertains to Christ as the end. St. Augustine in particular reads it in this manner:
The title of it causes us no delay, for it is both brief, and to be understood not difficult, especially to those nursed in the Church of God. For so it is, To David himself. The Psalm then is to David himself: now David is interpreted, Strong in hand, or Desirable. The Psalm then is to the Strong in hand, and Desirable, to Him who for us has overcome death, who unto us has promised life: for in this is He Strong in hand, that He has overcome death for us; in this is He Desirable, that He has promised unto us life eternal. For what stronger than that Hand which touched the bier, and he that was dead rose up? [Luke 7:14] What stronger than that Hand which overcame the world, not armed with steel, but pierced with wood? Or what more desirable than He, whom not having seen, the Martyrs wished even to die, that they might be worthy to come unto Him? (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 34, 1.)
It is an important principle for St. Augustine when interpreting the Psalms that what is said of Christ in the Psalms is often said of His Body, the Church. In this manner the various weaknesses and failings that the Psalmist often gives voice to are the voice of the Church to her Head. This Psalm is thus for Christ and about Him as seen in His mystical Body:
His Voice then let us hear: now of the Body, now of the Head. For this is a Psalm calling on God, against enemies, amid the tribulations of this world. And surely He is the same Christ, then the Head being in tribulation, now the Body being in tribulation; yet through tribulations to all His Members giving life eternal, which by promising became He desirable. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 34, 1.)
We can thus see this interpretive principle at work, for the tribulations of which the Psalmist complains are at the same time prefigurings of Christ’s sufferings and those of the Church throughout time. It is this deep union between Christ and His Church that allows the Psalms to often flow freely from Body to Head and back again. This is evident in the first passage proper as the Psalmist cries out to God to judge his enemies, for they fight against him. Without this mystical interpretation as seen in Christ and His Church it would be difficult to see our Lord in this Psalm, for if “David himself” truly is the Strong in Hand, would not his pleas for help from God invalidate his being strong in hand, and thus being our Lord at all?
Rather, it is because our Lord took upon Himself our humanity and dwells within His Church as His mystical Body that as man he pleads to the Father against His enemies in the Psalmist’s voice, and it is as His Body that the Church also takes this plea upon her lips. And as St. Augustine explained the latter part of this, so Cassiodorus explains the Incarnational aspect:
As we have said, David embraces two meanings, “strong in hand” and “desirable.” Both these senses are certainly appropriate to the Lord Savior. He is strong in hand because he laid low our captivity to death, together with the wicked who caused it. He is desirable because His coming promises us blessings beyond telling. So this Psalm is sung in the Person of our Lord Savior, who seeks to be freed from the persecution of enemies. When the word Himself is mentioned in the heading, it warns us that Christ is meant; He is aptly called David because the entire significance of the name is rightly applied to Him. (Cassiodorus, Explanation of the Psalms, 43, Introduction, Ancient Christian Writers.)
The Psalmist introduces a disparity in justice: He seeks for the Lord to judge them that have wronged him, which implies two things. First, his confidence in pleading with the Lord to judge his cause implies that he has assuredness in the innocence of his own heart; that is, the wrongs that have been done to him are unprovoked and the result of wicked machinations against him. Secondly, he has chosen to not take vengeance into his own hands (cf. Romans 12:19) but rather to entrust it to the Lord who judges justly:
The Lord trieth the just and the wicked: but he that loveth iniquity hateth his own soul. (Psalm 10:6 DR)
The passage then moves into the parallelism of the second half, as the Psalmist proceeds to narrate what this judgment should consist of—that is, that God would overthrow his enemies who fight against him. The Vulgate has expugna impugnantes me, and both words have the same root of pugno—to fight or battle or oppose. In this manner their judgment has a certain poetic justice to it, as it were, for their very assaults and opposition become the cause of their being overthrown, such as the weight and momentum of an attacker being used against him. Elsewhere the Psalmist echoes this sentiment:
Just is my help from the Lord: who saveth the upright of heart. God is a just judge, strong and patient: is he angry every day? Except you will be converted, he will brandish his sword: he hath bent his bow and made it ready. And in it he hath prepared the instruments of death, he hath made ready his arrows for them that burn. Behold he hath been in labour with injustice; he hath conceived sorrow, and brought forth iniquity. He hath opened a pit and dug it; and he is fallen into the hole he made. His sorrow shall be turned on his own head: and his iniquity shall come down upon his crown. (Psalm 7:11-17 DR)
This overthrowing of the enemies is an offensive action, but the Psalmist is not the one throwing the punches, as it were. Rather, he entrusts that to the Lord. His enemies, after all, are not really flesh and blood, but rather the spiritual enemies of darkness, the demons who seek to draw men into temptation and sin. The war against them is thus not accomplished with swords but rather with prayer and fasting:
Beware lest you think think bad things against those who oppose you, but, fixed in faith, pray for your enemies, and pray this prayer of the present Psalm, not against flesh and blood but against the spirits of the air who daily harm us, who daily commit wars. Put on sackcloth and humble your spirit through fasting, because they are not conquered unless through prayer and fasting. What do you pray, having put on sackcloth? That the Lord will war and fight those who are against you as you grasp the arms of his own help against the invisible enemies. (Arnobius the Younger, Commentary on the Psalms, 34, ACCS.)
This is further accentuated by our Lord’s command to love our enemies and pray for them, and thus this Psalm naturally points beyond a purely literal reading in which the Psalmist wishes to be freed from earthly enemies. Sin is what we are ultimately warring against, and those under the control and influence of the devil are ultimately not our enemies, but through God’s mercy may be converted by our prayers and penances. In this manner the Psalmist speaks in the voice of Christ Who from the cross forgave His enemies but Who will also in the Last Day triumph over the devil and his angels and cast them into everlasting fire:
So he begs that [the devil and his angels] be damned who by the power of His prescience He knows cannot attain the remedies of repentance; for in what follows when He turns to men, he begs that they be converted rather than perish. He further added: Overthrow them that fight against me. He who fights against you seeks to overcome you; he who is overthrown is fully conquered. So unclean spirits are rightly called aggressors, because though they cannot overcome holy men they do not cease to struggle with them in wicked sinfulness. The Lord overthrows, for He alone can achieve what He wishes; His struggle is a triumph, and every fight a victory. (Cassiodorus, Explanation of the Psalms, 43, 1, Ancient Christian Writers.)
In the warfare of this life we face constant temptations and trials which test our faith and resolve, but our Lord in the voice of the Psalmist gives voice to His Church, who in the face of temptation call out to the Lord to judge her cause and overthrow her enemies. Our enemy is ultimately sin, which our Lord came to defeat in us entirely. Cassiodorus mentions that to be overthrown is to be fully conquered—this is what our cooperation with God’s grace can effect in our souls, as our Lord came to destroy the works of the devil:
And you know that he appeared to take away our sins, and in him there is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him, sinneth not; and whosoever sinneth, hath not seen him, nor known him. Little children, let no man deceive you. He that doth justice is just, even as he is just. He that committeth sin is of the devil: for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose, the Son of God appeared, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God, committeth not sin: for his seed abideth in him, and he can not sin, because he is born of God. (1 John 3:5-9 DR)
For this animation I found an image of an arm holding a dumbbell and isolated it in Photoshop. In After Effects I aminated the arm with a lifting motion and made sure to seamlessly loop that.
I then brought in a background texture and applied Turbulent Displace to it with the complexity maxed out to create the texture-y feel and then animated the evolution. I applied some pixel sorting to the background and let the previous effect drive that animation.
I finally added in the text and applied Shadow Studio to the arm for some separation from the background.
Enjoy.
For David himself. Judge thou, O Lord, them that wrong me: overthrow them that fight against me.
(Psalm 34:1 DR)
View a higher quality version of this gif here:
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