These things I remembered, and poured out my soul in me: for I shall go over into the place of the wonderful tabernacle, even to the house of God: With the voice of joy and praise; the noise of one feasting. (Psalm 41:5 DR)
In the frantic and frenetic pace of our world it is often difficult to stop and simply “think” for even a moment. In fact, most of our current culture positively rejects allowing for these moments of recollection, and the constant background radiation of noise ensures that we are always directed towards something other than the often uncomfortable reality of silence within our own contemplation.
It is difficult to escape. We all have the unfortunate experience of being accosted by noise—what some would without irony call “music”—any time we have to go get groceries or really anything. Gas stations have often had “music” playing near the pumps, but now there is a disheartening trend of screens attached to the pump that autoplay some nonsense or another while you are attempting to fill your tank so that even more of your senses are assaulted. Retail stores are often worse and will play the most mindless cacophony that ensures no peace can be found even while trying to do something as simple as getting a new garbage can.
The reason for this, I suspect, is that we fear silence, for in that silence we actually have to confront the reality of ourselves and our finitude. Without constant distractions there is the possibility of recognizing the emptiness of this world and its pleasures, and thus of the depravity of our seeking after it with so much effort. There is then the increased danger of contrition, for if we come to the end of ourselves, we might find something or Someone beyond.
The Psalmist in his longing for God prepares to enter the tabernacle of God, but beforehand takes a moment to recollect himself and prepare. He “remembers,” and in this act of remembering pours out his soul in him. The things that he remembers are both how he longed after God through both prosperity and affliction, as well as how he was mocked for this longing by his enemies. Yet the quality of this longing is such that it is now directed entirely towards God, and it wells up within him in such measure that as he mediates on these things it flows out of him, as it were, like the tears which have been his bread.
St. Robert Bellarmine sees in this “pouring out” three distinct yet related readings:
First, when about to enter the wonderful tabernacle, the very house of God. I cleared, banished all earthly delights out of my soul, that I may fill it with the delights of my Lord. Second, I extended, expanded my soul to be able to contain the immense good to be had in that wonderful tabernacle; where there is the “never failing plenty of the house of the Lord.” Third, “I poured out my soul:” rose above it in contemplation, as it is expressed in Lam. 3, “He shall sit solitary, and hold his peace; because he hath taken it upon himself.” (St. Robert Bellarmine, A Commentary on the Book of the Psalms, 41, 4.)
It is this latter reading that St. Augustine takes, which is predicated in part on the Latin translation he used which reads:
Hæc meditatus sum, et effudi super me animam meam.
I thought on these things, and poured out my soul above myself.
The Vulgate has in me rather than super me, but as St. Bellarmine noted, such a reading is an implied interpretation of the text. Cassiodorus observes that:
[A]ll pouring out results in a movement to the neighboring area; the soul is poured out upon him when it returns to itself with the impulse of remorse. (Cassiodorus, Explanation of the Psalms, 41, 5, ACCS.)
Since to pour out the soul metaphorically has this movement away from itself by virtue of the metaphor, to pour out the soul in me can be equivalent to above me, as St. Augustine will demonstrate.
The Psalmist is, after all, seeking after the strong living God, the One for whom his soul longs. The outpouring of his soul is thus part of this seeking after God, which implies a movement beyond itself, as St. Augustine describes:
When would my soul attain to that object of its search, which is above my soul, if my soul were not to pour itself out above itself? For were it to rest in itself, it would not see anything else beyond itself; and in seeing itself, would not, for all that, see God. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 41, 7.)
In other words, if in contemplation of God he never goes beyond his own mind or thoughts or the confines of his own soul, as it were, he will never actually attain to God but rather merely to his own conception of God. To see God face to face in the Beatific Vision is to become united to Him in a sublime union that necessarily takes the soul beyond its own powers and faculties; this is the nature of theosis in which we participate in the divine nature (cf. 2 Peter 1:4). This reality is perfected and completed in the end of the Beatific Vision, but is begun through Baptism by which we are incorporated into the Body of Christ, His holy Church. The pouring of the water in Baptism becomes in some respects a mirror image of this pouring out of the soul, in which we are buried with Christ in Baptism and raised to new life with Him by being united to Him as the branches are to the vine.
As the soul is poured out, that pouring out is a movement, as Cassiodorus noted, to the surrounding areas, which means that there is nowhere for this pouring out to go but up, so to speak:
I seek my God in every corporeal nature, terrestrial or celestial, and find Him not: I seek His Substance in my own soul, and I find it not, yet still I have thought on these things, and wishing to see the invisible things of my God, being understood by the things made, [Romans 1:20] I have poured forth my soul above myself, and there remains no longer any being for me to attain to, save my God. For it is there is the house of my God. His dwelling-place is above my soul; from thence He beholds me; from thence He created me; from thence He directs me and provides for me; from thence he appeals to me, and calls me, and directs me; leads me in the way, and to the end of my way. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 41, 7.)
The soul that is fixed on the things of this world is never poured out in this manner, for it finds a satiation of sorts with the pleasures of this world and never looks beyond itself. But when the soul longs for God, it will necessarily pour forth itself above itself, for only something higher than the soul can fulfill its deepest longings:
And, in fact, in this our exile there is no more ready way of getting up to the “wonderful tabernacle,” and the actual house of God, than through our own soul, which is the image of God. It is more sublime than the heavens, and deeper than the abyss; and he who can steady his own soul and rise above it, will rise to him whose image it is, and he “will go over to the place of the wonderful tabernacle and the house of God.” (St. Robert Bellarmine, A Commentary on the Book of the Psalms, 41, 4.)
However, these longings are not fulfilled in some abstract manner; the Psalmist speaks of how this outpouring of his soul leads him to go over into the place of the wonderful tabernacle, even to the house of God. It may seem a throwaway line, but in response to the outpouring of his soul he says: for I shall go over into the place, which implies several things.
Firstly, he forms within himself a determination on the part of his will. He says I shall which indicates the will to do this as a means of satisfying his longing for God. The mere longing for God is not enough; there must be a cooperation on the part of the will in response to the grace which prompts this longing.
Secondly, he shall go over into the place which indicates that his longing of itself is not the house of God. The thirst for the strong living God is a desire for the greatest good, but the desire itself is not the same as to possess that good. The desire is meant to lead to the action of going to the house of God.
The final observation is that he speaks of a certain and definite place. His longing has a definite object, which is God, which can only be fulfilled in a definite manner. The house of God where the wonderful tabernacle resides speaks prophetically of the Church which—as the mystical Body of Christ—is where Christ dwells:
For He Who has His House very high in secret place, hath even on earth a tabernacle. His tabernacle on earth is the Church, which is yet on her pilgrimage. But it is here that He is to be sought: for it is in “the tabernacle” that we find the Way, by which we arrive at the House. For when I was pouring out my soul above myself, in order to reach my God, why did I do so? For I will go into the place of Thy Tabernacle. For I should be in error were I to seek for my God without the place of His tabernacle. For I will go into the place of Thy wonderful tabernacle, even unto the house of God. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 41, 9.)
It should not be missed that St. Augustine explicitly states that he would be in error if he were to seek after God outside of the Church, which is the place of the wonderful tabernacle. This reality is made literally present in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, when the body and blood, soul and divinity of our Lord is at home, as it were, on the altar. The longings of the soul are thus meant to lead to the Church in which our Lord is truly present and the soul finally finds “Him Who my soul loveth: I held him: and I will not let him go” (Song of Solomon 3:4 DR).
The attainment of so sublime a desire for which the soul was poured forth is then mirrored by the mirth which accompanies it, for the tears of longing which have been the Psalmist’s bread in prosperity and affliction are now replaced with joy, and the Psalmist foresees the end for which this Psalm is written, and the longing of his soul attains to the understanding of the sons of God:
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes: and death shall be no more, nor mourning, nor crying, nor sorrow shall be any more, for the former things are passed away. And he that sat on the throne, said: Behold, I make all things new. And he said to me: Write, for these words are most faithful and true. And he said to me: It is done. I am Alpha and Omega; the beginning and the end. To him that thirsteth, I will give of the fountain of the water of life, freely. He that shall overcome shall possess these things, and I will be his God; and he shall be my son. (Apocalypse 21:4-7 DR)
The fountains of the water of life for which the Psalmist longs as the hart pants after the water-brooks is the charity of God poured forth into the soul by the Holy Ghost in Baptism, a foretaste of the union in the Beatific Vision of which St. John speaks. The grand tapestry of the soul’s union with God is thus seen to be woven deeply throughout the Scriptures, as the Psalmist gives voice to that desire for which our Lord took on flesh in the Incarnation. On the cross one of His final words was I thirst, which responds to the thirst of the Psalmist for God, the desire of the soul for the One Who made him, Who loved him even unto death:
Many waters cannot quench charity, neither can the floods drown it: if a man should give all the substance of his house for love, he shall despise it as nothing. (Song of Solomon 8:7 DR)
For this animation I found an imagine of someone in contemplation and isolated the figure in Photoshop. In After Effects I drew an simple flaring shape and then applies Wave Warp and Mirrow to create the wavey pattern matte. I then added in a texture and used loopFlow to get it to “flow,” and then duplicated both of these and made it slightly smaller and used a different texture to create some offset.
I added in some more wavy textures, lighting and color correction to finalize this project.
Enjoy.
These things I remembered, and poured out my soul in me: for I shall go over into the place of the wonderful tabernacle, even to the house of God: With the voice of joy and praise; the noise of one feasting.
(Psalm 41:5 DR)
View a higher quality version of this gif here:
