Psalm 44:13
under the laver
And the daughters of Tyre with gifts, yea, all the rich among the people, shall entreat thy countenance. (Psalm 44:13 DR)
In this verse the Psalmist continues the nuptial theme, as the wedding party is completed. In perhaps a surprising twists it is the “daughters of Tyre,” who were foreigners, who are bringing gifts to the bridegroom and his bride. But perhaps less surprising, as this denotes rule over the nations who bring tribute to the king and show him honor.
This verse typologically refers to the nations of the world—that is, the Gentiles—who will come unto Christ and take their part in his body, the Church:
The daughters of Tyre are the daughters of the Gentiles; the part standing for the whole. Tyre, a city bordering on this country, where the prophecy was delivered, typified the nations that were to believe in Christ. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 44, 25.)
This prophetic insight concerning the Gentiles is of course not limited to this verse or the Psalms, but is replete throughout the prophetic books, often in more explicit language:
For from the rising of the sun even to the going down, my name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my name a clean oblation: for my name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of hosts. (Malachi 1:11 DR)
In the Church the Gentiles are made a part of the family of God, not in a natural manner but a supernatural one:
But as many as received him, he gave them power to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in his name. Who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:12-13 DR)
In baptism we are brought into this family, from death to life as the Holy Spirit pours the charity of God into our hearts. The gifts we bring are our love for Christ when we offer him ourselves and all that we have so as to render it unto him:
These are the gifts with which the daughters of Tyre worship the King; for when they said, “When saw we You?” He who is at once above and below (whence those ascending and descending are spoken of), said, “Inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of Mine, you have done it unto Me.” [Matthew 25:40]
In this animation I wanted to do a hybrid of literal and metaphorical. I found a great image from the Book of Divine Works by St. Hildegard von Bingen in Part III, Vision 3. Even though the original intent of this image is different, I thought it would serve as a good illustration of baptism.
I cut out the figures and separated them, adding missing water pixels back in with the Content Aware Fill tool. In After Effects I composited all the figures and used the Puppet Tool to give them a bit of swaying motion.
I then used LoopFlow on the water to give it a flowing motion, which actually turned out a bit better than I expected.
I finally added in a fun texture at the top and a dove sticker cutout and gave them both a bit of wiggle hold motion for visual interest and to better frame and balance the composition.
Enjoy.
And the daughters of Tyre with gifts,
yea, all the rich among the people, shall entreat thy countenance.
(Psalm 44:13 DR)
View a higher quality version of this gif here: