Psalm 44:6
the death that brings life
Thy arrows are sharp: under thee shall people fall, into the hearts of the king's enemies. (Psalm 18:6 DR)
St. Paul’s conversion is one of the most famous in history, and the story is well known. He is a persecutor of Christians who was present—if not the overseer—of St. Stephen’s martyrdom, and is on his way to Damascus to continue his campaign against this new upstart sect.
On the road to Damascus he is accosted by a bright light:
And falling on the ground, he heard a voice saying to him: “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” Who said: “Who art thou, Lord?” And he: “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against the goad.” And he trembling and astonished, said: “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” And the Lord said to him: “Arise, and go into the city, and there it shall be told thee what thou must do.” (Acts 9:4-7 DR)
Saul is not only shaken with fear at this encounter, but is also left temporarily blinded. The words of Jesus to him shake him to his core, not only because of the shock of the experience and the overwhelming nature of Christ’s revelation to him, but also because his conscience is pricked by the arrow of truth, as he now sees himself as his Lord sees him.
After all, St. Paul later relates that he was a very devout man, with an impeccable pedigree, someone who longed to do what was right and was zealous for the law:
Being circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; according to the law, a Pharisee: According to zeal, persecuting the church of God; according to the justice that is in the law, conversing without blame. (Philippians 3:5-6 DR)
Before encountering Jesus he thought himself righteous for his deeds, and saw his persecution of the Church as a righteous cause, something that God wished for him to do. Yet as he sees Jesus face to face he realizes that he has been fighting against the one he had wanted to serve, and it seems that this stuck with him his entire life:
For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. (1 Corinthians 15:9 DR)
Jesus tells him that “It is hard for thee to kick against the goad.” This metaphor refers to goads (sharp sticks) used on oxen to compel them move forward. If the ox would kick against the goad, it would only further the pain of the goad, and thus the phrase is essentially an idiom for futile resistance.
In St. Paul’s case he has been pricked by the goad of the word of Jesus, who is wanting to steer him in a different direction. His zeal for the law and for God is not misplaced, but it is misdirected, and now he must choose to either follow where his Lord will lead him, and suffer a futile campaign against the Lord’s Church. This wound that St. Paul receives becomes a transformational moment, for while he suffers a death of his own will and the sin that he is engaged in, he also is brought to life in Christ.
In this verse the Psalmist speaks prophetically of these arrows of God’s word which pierce into the heart. The purpose of an arrow is to kill, and in this case the thing to be killed is sin. They bring a wound of love which opens up the heart to receive Christ:
“Your arrows are sharp, are most powerful” [Psalm 44:5]; words that pierce the heart, that kindle love. Whence in the Song of Songs it is said, “I am wounded with love.” [Song of Songs 2:5] For she speaks of being “wounded with love;” that is, of being in love, of being inflamed with passion, of sighing for the Bridegroom, from whom she received the arrow of the Word. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 44, 14.)
These sharp arrows can pierce through the armor that sin and habitual vice erect around us, the Word being sharper so that it reaches to our inmost depths and allows for the opportunity to put sin to death so that we can truly live. St. Paul becomes emblematic of this:
Saul was a blasphemer of Christ: he was then lifted up, he prays to Christ, “he is fallen,” he is prostrate before Him: the enemy of Christ is slain, that the disciple of Christ may live! By an arrow launched from heaven, Saul (not as yet Paul, but still Saul), still lifted up, still not yet prostrate, is wounded in “the heart:” he received the arrow, he fell in heart. For though he fell prostrate on his face, it was not there that he fell down in heart: but it was there where he said aloud, “Lord, what dost Thou bid me do?” [Acts 9:6] (ibid.)
By means of this healthful wound the enemies of God can be made into his friends. Our sin takes root deep within us and is not easily removed; there must be a death by which sin is put to death in us so that we can be made alive. This is never a pain-free process, and the more habitual our sin becomes the more painful it is to remove and the harder to let go of. But—as Jesus says to St. Paul—it is hard to kick against the goad— and so the arrows of God’s word and truth that pierce into our hearts to root out sin are not to be despised but rather desired, so that we can be transformed:
“The peoples shall fall under You in the heart of the King's enemies.” They were enemies before; they have been stricken by your arrows: they have fallen before You. Out of enemies they have been made friends: the enemies are dead, the friends survive. This is the meaning of, “for those which shall be changed.” (ibid.)
For this animation I came across this wonderful image of St. Michael the Archangel slaying the devil, and decided it’d be a great direction for this piece.
I cutout the figures in Photoshop and separated the wings so that I could animate them separately, using a bit of Content Aware Fill to add in a bit of the wings that were obscured in the original image.
In After Effects I brought in the various layers and applied the Puppet tool to the main figures and linked the pins to Nulls with PuppetTools 3, and then parented the wings to one of the upper Nulls. I linked the rotation of one wing to the other and used a quick expression to reverse the value so the wings would flap oppositely. Finally I did a bit of swaying animation just to give a bit of visual interest to finish off the animation.
I didn’t actually realize until well after this was finished that the tip of the spear comes out of the head of the dragon; in the future I may return to this and revise it to give more of a thrusting motion to the spear.
Enjoy.
Thy arrows are sharp: under thee shall people fall, into the hearts of the king's enemies.
(Psalm 18:6 DR)
View a higher quality version of this gif here: