Psalm 34:19

Let not them that are my enemies wrongfully rejoice over me: who have hated me without cause, and wink with the eyes. (Psalm 34:19 DR)

When I was a teenager we used to play this group icebreaker game called Killer—which is also known as “Killer Wink” or “Winking Murder,” wherein the “killer” had to try and eliminate as many other people as possible by winking at them. If you saw the killer wink at you, you either had to sit on the floor or leave the area. The trick was to not get caught, since the killer was the only one winking. If you as the killer could get down to just one other player, then you “won.”

It was pretty challenging to be the killer, because even though winking can be a subtle thing, it gets more difficult when others are specifically looking for it. Although if you were sneaky enough you could take advantage of people not wanting to make eye contact for too long.

There’s probably something appropriate to winking being the mechanism for the game beyond the novelty of the mechanics, for winking with the eyes is a way we communicate deception or some form of guile. Often it is in a friendly way, to let someone else know that the two of you are in on the joke or something like that. Or in reverse it can signal that a similar message has been received. At any rate, we often wink to communicate something other than what is straightforwardly presented; as St. Augustine pithily states:

What is, winking with their eyes? Declaring by their looks, what they carry not in their heart. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 34, Sermon 2, 11.)

The Psalmist now moves into the third portion of the Psalm, wherein after expressing his intention to praise the Lord within the “great church,” he now again laments those who persecute and afflict him. For his enemies to wrongfully rejoice over him implies both that he has been conquered in some manner by their machinations, and that their rejoicing is because of evil actions. This is further explicated in the following passage, that they “hated me without cause.”

As in many Psalms, the Psalmist protests his innocence to the Lord against the enemies that afflict him, noting that their persecution of him is gratuitous and not in retribution for any wrong or slight he has committed against them. In other Psalms he doubles down on this, imprecating himself if he had done wrong:

O Lord my God, if I have done this thing, if there be iniquity in my hands: If I have rendered to them that repaid me evils, let me deservedly fall empty before my enemies. Let the enemy pursue my soul, and take it, and tread down my life on the earth, and bring down my glory to the dust. (Psalm 7:3-5 DR)

Seen in this light, the Psalmist would presumably not characterize their rejoicing over him as wrong if he had in fact done wrong to them. That is, while he might not like their affliction, he would see it as just and fitting recompense for his evil deeds, which is why here and in other place he asserts his innocence.

We can see the Psalmist’s approach here fleshed out in King David’s dealing with Semei as King David was fleeing Jerusalem during his son Absalom’s attempted coup. Semei was of King Saul’s family and blamed David for the ruin of Saul and his house. As David was riding by, Semei began throwing stones at him and cursing him. Some of David’s men wanted to go and shut him up permanently, but David refused:

Let him alone and let him curse: for the Lord hath bid him curse David: and who is he that shall dare say, why hath he done so? …Behold my son, who came forth from my bowels, seeketh my life: how much more now a son of Jemini? let him alone that he may curse as the Lord hath bidden him. Perhaps the Lord may look upon my affliction, and the Lord may render me good for the cursing of this day. (2 Samuel 16:10-12 DR)

In his wisdom King David understood that it was better to suffer the unjust curses hurled against him rather to pollute his hands with blood, and for this he hoped for vindication from God. For all David knew he was justly receiving the curses hurled against him, for he left it for God to judge him and his cause (cf. 1 Corinthians 4:3-4).

For the Psalmist there is a similar hope of vindication, but for the moment he must bear the curses. The nature of these evils is compounded as the parallelism leads into the final line of this passage: his enemies wink with the eyes. In other words, there is a hint of betrayal here, for winking conveys the sense of some sort of familiarity or trust. To wink at someone is to, in some respect, let them know there is a deception or guile at work, but you two are on the same page and aware of it. The implication—as St. Augustine said earlier—is that they are now using this against him; they communicate with their eyes something that is not in their hearts.

The Psalmist is not in on the joke, as it were—rather, it is marshalled against him, and they know that he knows that they know, which conveys the callous nature of their rejoicing over him. He trusted, and now that trust is used against him and they aren’t afraid that he knows it. The Psalmist elsewhere expresses similar thoughts:

For if my enemy had reviled me, I would verily have borne with it. And if he that hated me had spoken great things against me, I would perhaps have hidden myself from him. But thou a man of one mind, my guide, and my familiar, who didst take sweetmeats together with me: in the house of God we walked with consent. (Psalm 54:13-15 DR)

Cassiodorus says that winking is what we do when we want to warn someone without betraying that warning with words, but now his enemies use what should warn him against evil or deception as a means to communicate their malice towards him. It is because of this great betrayal and subjection to his enemies that causes the Psalmist to take recourse with the Lord, to plead for justice against them that afflict him.

We can find in this supplication a prescription for patience, for the reality is that the persecution at the hands of the wicked is happening now, and it is in hope of vindication that He asks the Lord to rectify their wrong. It is this confidence that enables him to not hate his enemies (as has been seen in earlier passages), but to wait for the Lord’s judgment. And while he waits, this patience can bring forth a harvest of virtue:

My brethren, count it all joy, when you shall fall into divers temptations; knowing that the trying of your faith worketh patience. And patience hath a perfect work; that you may be perfect and entire, failing in nothing. (James 1:2-4 DR)

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I found a couple different engravings from Gustave Dore from different works and isolated them in Photoshop. In After Effects I precomped both and added some slight wiggle hold animation and then used Shadow Studio 3 to add some shadows. I applied some Wave Warp to a background texture for moment there and then added in some glows and color correction.

Enjoy.

View a higher quality version of this gif here: