Psalm 34:24

Judge me, O Lord my God according to thy justice, and let them not rejoice over me. (Psalm 34:24 DR)

In verse 19 the Psalmist spoke of how his enemies were rejoicing over him wrongfully and hated him without cause. This lack of cause by which they persecute him is contrasted with God’s being attentive to the Psalmist’s cause; that is, his suffering for the sake of righteousness. It is the duality of their persecution against his righteousness that then naturally leads into his call for God to judge me, O Lord, according to Thy justice.

This further clarifies the cause of the Psalmist, for his cause is not per se his own, but rather his willingness to suffer for the sake of righteousness, which thus makes this cause into that of the Lord. Thus, he is not asking to be judged in some self-righteous aspect, but rather because in his innocence he has held fast to the righteousness of God, and thus God will judge favorably on his behalf in view of that justice. This again follows with St. Paul’s admonition to leave judgment to God, rather than seeking after revenge, for God is the One Who will—in justice—set all things right.

It is due to this full confidence in God’s justice—and thus in a favorable judgment towards him as he cleaves unto the Lord and His righteousness—that the Psalmist can describe the cessation of the rejoicing of the wicked over him, and thus the first parallelism is brought to completion. Their wrongful rejoicing over him as they hated him without cause is brought to nothing by the Lord’s taking up of his cause in the just judgment of justice. Their wrong against him is only temporary, but his cause in the sight of the Lord will endure forever, for once God has judged, there is no appeal or revocation of that judgment.

Cassiodorus continues to read this as preeminently relating to and being fulfilled in our Lord Jesus Christ, Who as One without sin can truly cry out to God to judge Him and be found upright:

Though He Who had committed no sins had an excellent cause, He nonetheless asks to be judged according to the Lord’s mercy, to show an example of prayer to us who could not undertake a like activity. (Cassiodorus, Explanation of the Psalms, 34, 23, Ancient Christian Writers)

This prayer of our Lord that concludes in confounding his enemies is also open-ended, for the cessation of his enemies in their rejoicing over Him is not limited to judgment, but potentially also to repentance; that is, if they turn from their evil ways and seek penance, they will cease to rejoice over Him through their hatred of Him without cause:

Next comes: And let not my enemies be abusive to me, that is, “Let them not say what the wickedness of abusive men can aver: we achieved it, we did it, we carried it through.” But He prays that they may sorrowfully and salutarily lament their evil deeds rather than rejoice that they have performed them to their own destruction. (Cassiodorus, Explanation of the Psalms, 34, 23, Ancient Christian Writers)

It thus is often that the frustration of the plans that we make or the desires that we have may be for the good of our souls; that is, it may be God granting us the mercy of failure in our acts so that we might turn to Him in repentance and away from our wicked ways. If we only ever succeed in all that we plan, the hardness and deceitfulness of our hearts may puff us up in pride; we will rejoice in our wickedness and the attainment of our appetites and passions, unaware that such delights are often tantamount to hatred of God without cause. But in His mercy God may bring us suffering and frustration so as to awaken us from the stupor of our own desires so that we might desire something higher. In this manner the sufferings of this life can be turned to suffering for the cause of righteousness, that on the Last Day we need not fear judgment.

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I liked this engraving by Gustave Dore of an angel leading the Crusader armies, and then wrested the angel from its context for this animation.

I placed the angel figure into a precomp and used Stretch on it to get the motion streaks coming from the angel, and then used Shadow Studio on a duplicate layer for the shadow. I brought in a nice abstract background and used Stretch on it as well to get the motion streaks in the background, but increased the speed a bit for some contrast in motion. I finally added in some color correction, camera shake and twitches for a fun and probably nausea-inducing final look.

Enjoy.

View a higher quality version of this gif here: