Psalm 50:8

the cut of the scalpel

For behold thou hast loved truth: the uncertain and hidden things of thy wisdom thou hast made manifest to me. (Psalm 50:8 DR)

If you’ve ever had major surgery, you are aware of what an unpleasant experience it can be. Even in current times with anesthesia there is still the pain of recovery, because the wounds inflicted by the surgery will be felt one way or the other. It is an amusing thing that the same act of someone slicing one’s flesh with a knife is in most circumstances unwanted and criminal, but in this one instance desired and something we pay lots of money for.

In the ancient world there was both surgery and various forms of anesthesia. Hemlock could be used in small doses to induce temporary motor and sensory paralysis, and hallucinogens like cannabis and opium were well known. Henbane could produce unconsciousness in the patient, and in medieval England an herbal anesthetic mixture called Dwale could do the same (cf. Wood Library Museum, History of Anesthesia). Even with such interventions surgery was still very dangerous and often very painful. One of the most notable examples (and one that spans cultures and time) is called trepanning, which was used to treat head injuries. The surgeon would have used a drill to widen the hole in the skull so as to remove the fragment or in some cases scrape the bone until the procedure was complete.

The wounds inflicted upon by sin may not physically hurt, but the damage done to the soul is incalculable. And just as surgery is a painful remedy but sometimes necessary, so Penance is a merciful punishment, as it were, that cuts into the soul and removes the disease of iniquity. It is because, as the Psalmist says, that God loves Truth that confession and penance is necessary. In it we agree with God’s just judgment about sin and in effect admit the rightness of the punishment we are due for it (cf. Romans 6:23) and thus punish ourselves, as it were, as we put no excuses between ourselves and that punishment. Instead, in Penance God places His mercy in between, so to speak; not that there is any contradiction or disjunction between His justice and mercy, but rather that in showing mercy He sets us free from our sin to live in that self-same justice. St. Augustine comments:

“For, behold, truth You have loved: uncertain and hidden things of Your wisdom, You have manifested to me” [Psalm 50:6]. That is, You have not left unpunished even the sins of those whom Thou dost pardon. “Truth You have loved:” so mercy You have granted first, as that You should also preserve truth. Thou pardonest one confessing, pardonest, but only if he punishes himself: so there are preserved mercy and truth: mercy because man is set free; truth, because sin is punished. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 50, 11.)

However, lest we have any reason to boast in ourselves, the Psalmist goes on to relate that this wisdom of God is “uncertain and hidden,” which means that it is not something that we can earn nor appropriate to ourselves, but flows forth from the depths of God’s being which we cannot comprehend. We thus cannot presume upon it as if it is something we are owed but rather must entrust ourselves to God’s mercy not because of our goodness but because of His. St. Augustine uses the example of Jonah’s preaching at Nineveh as a paradigmatic example of this, for Jonah’s message was one of certain judgment rather than an explicit call to repentance. Not even Jonah was expecting mercy; in fact, he later pouted over God’s mercy towards them. But herein we see the hidden and uncertain mystery of God’s mercy:

What “hidden things?” What “uncertain things?” Because God pardons even such. Nothing is so hidden, nothing so uncertain. For this uncertainty the Ninevites repented, for they said, though after the threatenings of the Prophet, though after that cry, “Three days [note: St. Augustine probably means 40 days here; he is probably thinking of Nineveh being a city of three days’ journey] and Nineve shall be overthrown:” [Jonah 3:4] they said to themselves, Mercy must be implored; they said in this sort reasoning among themselves, “Who knows whether God may turn for the better His sentence, and have pity?” [Jonah 3:9] It was “uncertain,” when it is said, “Who knows?” on an uncertainty they did repent, certain mercy they earned: they prostrated them in tears, in fastings, in sackcloth and ashes they prostrated them, groaned, wept, God spared. Nineve stood: was Nineve overthrown? One way indeed it seems to men, and another way it seemed to God. (ibid.)

Because of our limited intellect we can never comprehend the ways of God (cf. Romans 11:32-36) and thus can never be presumptuous of His mercy. Yet neither should we presume that we are beyond His mercy, but rather like the Ninevites accept the judgment as just upon us and implore God’s mercy and goodness which we with confidence know exists in the sacrament of Penance. This confession is the scalpel that cuts deep, but is a wound that heals:

So is said to Jeremiah, “Behold, I will give to you to root up, to dig under, to overthrow, to destroy,” and again, “to build, and to plant.” [Jeremiah 1:10] Thence is that voice of the Lord, “I will smite and I will heal.” [Deuteronomy 32:39] He smites the rottenness of the deed, He heals the pain of the wound. Physicians do thus when they cut; they smite and heal; they arm themselves in order to strike, they carry steel, and come to cure. But because great were the sins of the Ninevites, they said, “Who knows?” This uncertainty had God disclosed to His servant David. For when he had said, before the Prophet standing and convicting him, “I have sinned:” straightway he heard from the Prophet, that is, from the Spirit of God which was in the Prophet, “Your sin is put away from you.” [2 Samuel 12:13] “Uncertain and hidden things” of His wisdom He manifested to him. (ibid.)

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I wanted to keep this animation fairly ethereal to fit the uncertainty and hiddenness spoken of in this passage. I found various abstract textures and blended them together and added some slight distortion to create something like a heat ripple effect. I then added in some ellipses and added a lot of glow to them and added a looping wiggle to the position. I added more glows on top and some other effects to create the streaking for what I thought was a nice effect.

Enjoy.

View a higher quality version of this gif here: