Psalm 44:18

making a name

They shall remember thy name throughout all generations. Therefore shall people praise thee for ever; yea, for ever and ever. (Psalm 44:18 DR)

One of the deepest longings of human nature is to make a name for oneself. In the modern world we might use this parlance or others like it such as make my mark or make a difference. But at base is this desire to be known and remembered.

In the garden of Eden one of Adam’s tasks is to name the animals, and by this he demonstrates his dominion over them. In a fascinating twist, he does not name his wife until after the Fall when one of the curses on the woman is that “thou shalt be under thy husband's power, and he shall have dominion over thee.” (Genesis 3:16 DR)

Names thus were understood to have a certain power. The name given to a child was important and was thought to have some bearing on the child’s character and future fortunes or work; it is not accident that Jesus received the name he did which means “God saves” or “God is my salvation”, which is why St. Matthew remarks that he will be given this name “for he shall save his people from their sins.”(Matthew 1:21 DR)

In one of the most enigmatic stories of Genesis the people who dwell in the land following the Flood take it upon themselves to build a tower to heaven, now referred to as the Tower of Babel. The motivation for their construction (and hubris) is to make a name for themselves:

Come, let us make a city and a tower, the top whereof may reach to heaven: and let us make our name famous before we be scattered abroad into all lands. (Genesis 11:4 DR)

What’s fascinating here is that the intent seems to be to centralize and memorialize the memory of their greatness, as they sense the pull away from where they are and foresee that eventually they will be scattered abroad, which they assume before the languages are confused. This seems to indicate that they wish their name to be perpetually remembered in all places and by all peoples, which could be construed as having dominion over all the earth wherever their name is known.

The end of the story, of course, is that God confuses their language and they are scattered, but now without the memory of their name, and thus their dominion is circumscribed by various people groups and nations (cf. Acts 17:26)

In the making of our names, we desire to be remembered and to have dominion, but in our fallen state we desire that on our terms. The hubris and pride that underlies such a motivation has been the rise and fall of every empire, and is true in every heart.

The way to truly make a name, the Psalmist notes, is in humility. In earlier verses he calls the daughter to forget her people and her father’s house, which is equivalent to abandoning all the prestige and privileges which would have accompanied it. In humility she is called to join a new family, to enter into the courts of a new king. The reward was mentioned in the penultimate verse: sons are born to her, and they will be made princes over the earth. But this promise is now continued and intensified: those princes that will be born to her will remember her name throughout all generations.

This is of course a multivalent verse which is not limited in its application, for the same is applied to Christ Jesus who as head of the Church is preeminently the object of praise and remembrance. But as the Church is his body, so by participation the same is applicable to the Church. One can also see here a foreshadowing of the Incarnation, as the words of the Psalmist find an echo in the Blessed Virgin’s Magnificat:

My soul doth magnify the Lord. And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid; for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. (Luke 1:46-48)

In humility our name will be remembered, for as we submit ourselves to God in his will, so we find a share and participation in his life through the Church he has established, just as the body shares in the head, which is Jesus Christ who, as the Scriptures proclaim, through his humility was given the name which is above all names. (Philippians 2:9)

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This was a very straightforward animation. I found this hand image and cut it out in Photoshop and then brought it and a few background images and textures into After Effects and composited them together.

I added a quick wiggle hold to the Position and Rotation properties of the hand to give it a bit of jitter, and then drew and animated some squares growing and slightly rotating. I then used them as Track Mattes for some background images to frame the hand and then offset the animation slightly to give a more organic growing and oscillating motion.

Enjoy.

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View a higher quality version of this gif here: