Psalm 34:2

Take hold of arms and shield: and rise up to help me. (Psalm 34:2 DR)

In almost all cultures throughout history soldiers have armed themselves both offensively with weapons and defensively with armor and shields. For as much prowess as one might have with the sword, repelling the swords and lances and darts of the enemy is equally important.

This passage serves as a corollary to the previous passage in which the Psalmist pleads with the Lord to overthrow his enemies; this passage then becomes the means by which the Lord does that, using martial imagery to describe how God fights against and overthrows his enemies.

The Vulgate and Old Latin have apprehende arma et scutum, with arma meaning arms in general and scutum meaning shield. Arma is generic and can refer to both offensive and defensive armaments:

Arma (armor) derives from arcere (to ward off), for by using armor we ward off the most violent enemies. So this statement is made in accord with the custom of men, which sets arms in the hand to lay low the enemy. (Cassiodorus, Explanation of the Psalms, 34, 2, Ancient Christian Writers)

St. Jerome’s Hebrew translation has hasta instead of arma, hasta referring to a spear or a pike. Other Hebrew versions render this as shield and buckler, which speaks to a primarily defensive posture in this passage, with the offensive weaponry spoken of in the next:

An explanation of the words, “Overthrow them that fight against me;” and as a warrior ought to be well armed with weapons defensive and offensive, he mentions the former in this verse, and the latter in the next; in the Hebrew the expression is, the shield and buckler; and to avoid a repetition of what appears to be much the same weapon, the Greeks and Latins translate it arms and the shield, that is, arms of protection and defense. (St. Robert Bellarmine, A Commentary on the Book of the Psalms, 34, 2.)

Thus equipped offensively and defensively, the combat is prepared against the Psalmist’s enemies. St. Augustine notes that the manner in which the Lord takes up these arms is to—as it were—take us up; that is, we are made into the weapons of His warfare against the spiritual forces of darkness:

And whereby doth God this for us? Take hold (says he) of arms and shield, and rise up to my help. A great spectacle is it, to see God armed for you. And what is His Shield, what are His Arms? Lord, in another place says the man who here also speaks, as with the shield of Your good-will have You compassed us. But His Arms, wherewith He may not only us defend, but also strike His enemies, if we have well profited, shall we ourselves be. For as we from Him have this, that we be armed, so is He armed from us. But He is armed from those whom He has made, we are armed with those things which we have received from Him who made us. (St. Augustine, Exposition on the Psalms, 34, 2.)

St. Augustine sees here that the very things with which the Lord gives us to fight against the wiles of the devil are the means by which He takes hold of arms and shield. St Augustine will speak elsewhere of how the God crowns His own gifts, such that the merits we receive are the result of grace operative in the soul:

It is then by His mercy that you are crowned; in nothing be proud; ever praise the Lord; forget not all His rewards. It is a reward when thou, a sinner and an ungodly man, hast been called, that you may be justified. It is a reward, when you are raised up and guided, that you may not fall. It is a reward, when strength is given you, that you may persevere unto the end. It is a reward, that even that flesh of yours by which you were oppressed rises again and that not even a hair of your head perishes. It is a reward, that after your resurrection you are crowned. It is a reward, that you may praise God Himself for evermore without ceasing. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 102, 7.)

In a similar manner the armaments that we take up in the spiritual battle are not such that we generate out of our own will or ability, but are wholly a gift from God which He bestows on us so that we may through His grace conquer temptation and the snares of the devil. By doing so we are armed with His gifts and thus the victory belongs to Him as He works through us. The very armaments that we possess demonstrate this, and St. Paul’s famous catalog of these armaments—as seen in Ephesians 6:10-17—are themselves arms provided by the Lord for this battle. In our taking up of these armaments we are thus taken up by God as His armaments, His chosen weapons against the world, the flesh and the devil:

These our arms the Apostle in a certain place calls, The shield of Faith, the helmet of Salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. He has armed us with such arms as you have heard, arms admirable, and unconquered, insuperable and shining; spiritual truly and invisible, because we have to fight also against invisible enemies. If you see your enemy, let your arms be seen. We are armed with faith in those things which we see not, and we overthrow enemies whom we see not. (St. Augustine, Exposition on the Psalms, 34, 2.)

St. Augustine also notes that the Scriptures in various places use different terminology of the same armaments. Thus in 1 Thessalonians 5:8 faith is likened to a breastplate rather than a shield, and in Psalm 22:20 the soul is likened to a sword. He sees in this transmutability a metaphor for God using these various arms as He will, for without His use of them they will be ineffective:

For Thou takest hold of my soul, and warrest upon my enemies. And what is our soul, however splendid, however far reaching, however sharpened, however anointed, however with the light and gleam of Wisdom glistening? What is our soul, or what can it do, unless God hold it and fight with it? For the best made weapon, unless it have a warrior, is useless… Therefore whatever He will, He maketh of our soul. Since it is in His hand, let Him use it as He will. (St. Augustine, Exposition on the Psalms, 34, 2.)

The battle, therefore, belongs to the Lord (cf. 1 Samuel 17:47) and He will use us as He will. The Psalmist pleads with the Lord to overthrow his enemies, to rise up and help him, and the Psalmist himself becomes the means by which God does that. There is an analogy here to justification, for in justifying the sinner the charity of God is poured forth into the soul (cf. Romans 5:5) such that the sinner is actually made righteous through that infusion of charity, and thus the declaration of righteousness is predicated on a real justice inherent within the one who is justified. In a similar manner, the help that God gives to the soul against the enemies of the Psalmist’s soul—that is, temptation and sin—is to take up the soul, as it were, by arming it with faith and righteousness and salvation and all the rest. These are all gifts from God by which the soul is renovated interiorly and made holy, not by its own efforts but by the operation of grace and cooperation with it, such that these gifts of God which are bestowed upon us are the means by which we are crowned, as St. Augustine earlier noted, so that our merits flow forth from that grace bestowed upon us.

Similarly, when we resist temptation and sin and cause the devil to flee, it is not of our own willpower but rather because we cooperate with God’s grace working within us. It the submission of our wills to His will that brings the victory, as St. James says:

But he giveth greater grace. Wherefore he saith: God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Be subject therefore to God, but resist the devil, and he will fly from you. (James 4:6-7 DR)

This submission of will to God is thus what makes our souls to become the sword which He takes up:

But armor and shield are nothing other than the Lord’s will, by which He protects one in danger and takes the enemy by storm. (Cassiodorus, Explanation of the Psalms, 34, 2, Ancient Christian Writers)

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I found a great image of a crusader and isolated in Photoshop and then brought it into After Effects. I then simply split it into three sections and positioned and scaled it differently, obviously modifying the final scene. I used Video CoPilot’s Optical Flares for the eye flares, which I thought was a nice touch.

Enjoy.

View a higher quality version of this gif here: