Psalm 41:12

Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why dost thou disquiet me? Hope thou in God, for I will still give praise to him: the salvation of my countenance, and my God. (Psalm 41:12 DR)

In the Sermon on the Mount our Lord preaches about the importance of prayer, and in the English-speaking world one particular exhortation has become immortalized through the prevalence of the King James Version:

But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. (Matthew 6:7 KJV)

This notion of vain repetitions has entered thus entered into the consciousness of the English-speaking world, and is often reduced from vain repetitions to simply repetitions, which is ironic, in that such a reduction makes vain repetitions itself into practically a repetition.

But what is the nature of what our Lord is speaking about? The Greek term used here is βατταλογήσητε, which is a compound of Βάττος and λόγος, meaning to stammer or to speak idly, with the sense of repetition built in. The etymology is uncertain, as the root Batta may derive from the King Battus of Cyrene who is said to have been a stammerer, or it may come from an Aramaic term battah meaning idle or vain, or may simply be what is known as onomatopoeia, where the word sounds like the sound of the word, such as the term “tick tock” in English for the sound of a clock.

The “repetition” aspect of βατταλογήσητε is derived from the figure of stammering; that is, the words are repeated but not on purpose. Our Lord thus compares the prayers of the pagans to a kind of stammering, but then transfers the figure to that of lengthy speech; that is, the essence is that they pray meaningless things for lengthy periods of time because they think there is something about the words and length of those words themselves that has efficacy. The final analysis is that they associate some sort of magical power to the words: they think there is some sort of formulaic connection between X words aid Y result from the gods.

Indeed, the ancient world was populated with many gods, and it was important to not “leave them out” when praying. In the ancient world the names of gods were important, and in some respects to know these names and invoke them was the essence of the “power” of the prayer. There is then a sense in which having the “right words” for the deity was crucial.

But even more so was the attitude behind these prayers, for it was chiefly concerned with appeasement and favors, the latter of which especially tended towards baser things like wealth, fame, power, etc.:

And as there He derides the hypocrites, so here the heathen; shaming the hearer everywhere most of all by the vileness of the persons. For since this, in most cases, is especially biting and stinging, I mean our appearing to be likened to outcast persons; by this topic He dissuades them; calling frivolousness, here, by the name of vain repetition: as when we ask of God things unsuitable, kingdoms, and glory, and to get the better of enemies, and abundance of wealth, and in general what does not at all concern us. (St. John Chrysostom, Homily 19 on St. Matthew, 5.)

Some Church Fathers in commenting on this passage note the distinction between the prayers of the Pharisee and Publican as an illustration of what our Lord is talking about. The Pharisee speaks many things—almost all about himself—in his “prayer,” whereas the Publican lowers his eyes and pleads in humility for mercy. Other Fathers note the parable of the poor widow seeking justice as an example of how perseverance in prayer (which is a form of repetition) is commended rather than condemned:

By the example of the importunate widow who prevailed with the pitiless and cruel ruler by persevering in her requests, we are shown how to pray. We hear the insistent voice of the friend who came late at night and roused the sleeper from his bed, not for friendship’s sake but out of his urgent need. By these examples Jesus called us continually to make earnest supplication to the Father. He did not ask us to compose a prayer of ten thousand phrases and so come to him and merely repeat it. He warned against those who “think that they shall be heard for their loquacity.” “For your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” But if he already knows what we need, why do we pray? Not to inform God or instruct him but to beseech him closely, to be made intimate with him, by continuance in supplication; to be humbled; to be reminded of our sins. (St. John Chrysostom, Homily 19 on St. Matthew, 5.)

As the Psalmist concludes this exceptional Psalm, he does so with an exact repetition of the phrase found in verse six in the middle of this Psalm. In this respect this phrase forms a sort of refrain for each half of the Psalm, each concluding its section with a similar sentiment. Cassiodorus—understanding that there is nothing superfluous in the Scriptures—finds in this repetition the conclusion of what he sees as a five-part syllogism, which consists of the following parts:

1. Proposition (verse 6)

2. Proof of Proposition (verses 7-9)

3. Minor Premise (verse 10)

4. Proof of Minor Premise (verse 11)

5. Conclusion (verse 12)

Cassiodorus goes on to make the case:

Now let us cite the limbs of this argument one by one. The proposition is: Why art thou sad, O my soul? and why dost thou trouble me? Hope in God, for I will still give praise to him: the salvation of my countenance. The proof of the proposition is undoubtedly appended in the four verses that follow. Then the minor premise emerges: I will say to God: Thou art my support. Why hast thou forgotten me? and why go I mourning, whilst my enemy afflicteth me? The proof of the minor premise follows in the two further verses. Finally there is introduced by way of repetition of the first verse the final conclusion of the syllogism which has been propounded: Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and the rest. It should not disturb you that the statement in the proposition appears to extend over two verses, but at the close is clearly abbreviated in one. It was appropriate that what is seen to be earlier proposed in more extended form should be summarized at the end. (Cassiodorus, Explanation of the Psalms, 41, 11, Ancient Christian Writers.)

In this manner the repetition is seen by Cassiodorus to help frame the argument and to provide its conclusion. And while this might be baked into the rhetorical framework of this Psalm, on an existential level this repetition serves as an anchor for the Psalmist’s soul.

The reality of this sojourning of ours is that we must often be remined of God’s goodness and in our own souls make acts of faith when beaten down by the trials of life. Such repetitions are hardly vain but are in fact the evidence of great charity in the soul, for even when we do not feel like it or when the evidence of the world is stacked against us, this refrain becomes a guiding star back to faith. After all, there is also another repetition in this Psalm, where the mockers and enemies taunt him by asking Where is thy God? The repetition of his sorrow and its resolution through hope in God is thus of course meant to be a parallel response to the mockery.

In this sense then repetition is good, for every time the old playbook of the world, the flesh and the devil is brought to bear upon the soul to lead it into temptation or into despair, there is available an equally well-worn playbook to grow in holiness. Virtues and vices are habits in the moral sense, and each becomes easier the more we engage in them and become conformed to them. For time-bound embodied creatures like ourselves, this involves the daily grind of life and all its accompanying struggles.

In this Psalm we have also seen the repetition of how his mockers mocked him daily and day by day, and there is a concomitant act of hope on the part of the Psalmist. His hope in the Lord is not a one-time act of confidence that carries him through the rest of his life, but rather is equally played out every single day. As we traverse this vale of tears we will take many of the same steps and experience many of the same sorrows, but in each instance we have the opportunity to turn them into occasions of hope and faith and confidence in God. The sadness and disquietude of the soul is inevitable in our sojourning, but need not be the final word; the babbling repetition of the world and its goods and pleasures and empty promises can be drowned out by the litany of God’s goodness as we unite out hearts and wills to Him:

But again, it may be asked (whether we are to pray in ideas or in words) what need there is for prayer itself, if God already knows what is necessary for us; unless it be that the very effort involved in prayer calms and purifies our heart, and makes it more capacious for receiving the divine gifts, which are poured into us spiritually. For it is not on account of the urgency of our prayers that God hears us, who is always ready to give us His light, not of a material kind, but that which is intellectual and spiritual: but we are not always ready to receive, since we are inclined towards other things, and are involved in darkness through our desire for temporal things. Hence there is brought about in prayer a turning of the heart to Him, who is ever ready to give, if we will but take what He has given; and in the very act of turning there is effected a purging of the inner eye, inasmuch as those things of a temporal kind which were desired are excluded, so that the vision of the pure heart may be able to bear the pure light, divinely shining, without any setting or change: and not only to bear it, but also to remain in it; not merely without annoyance, but also with ineffable joy, in which a life truly and sincerely blessed is perfected. (St. Augustine, On the Sermon on the Mount, Book II, Chapter 3, 14.)

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In this animation I found a nice image of a flower and brought it into After Effects. I drew quite a few masks and then applied several instances of Stretch to that layer, mapping the masks to the various instances to create the flowing forth from the flower.

I added in some color correction, noise and textures to finish this up.

Enjoy.

View a higher quality version of this gif here: