Psalm 5:6
another housing shortage
Neither shall the wicked dwell near thee: nor shall the unjust abide before thy eyes. (Psalm 5:6 DR)
This verse forms a corollary to the previous verse, as the God who does not will iniquity in the previous verse is juxtaposed with the wicked who will not dwell near him.
In the modern world we are (at least in many places) able to move about much more easily than in the past, and while not being able to dwell in a certain place might be unpleasant or inconvenient, it is rarely a life or death situation.
In the ancient world to be banished from dwelling somewhere—that is, to be in exile—was often practically a death sentence. It meant leaving the support of one’s extended family, foregoing any lands or inheritance. It meant having to dwell with a foreign people who may very well be the enemies of one’s people and who would not have had any expectation of helping. There were no social safety nets, no capitalistic economies in which one could just work hard and earn one’s wealth again. Slavery was a very real possibility for someone in this situation.
Thus when the Psalmist speaks of how the wicked will not dwell near to God, he is speaking not of preference or convenience but on an existential level. If God is the source of life and salvation and all the rest, then to not dwell near him is to be an exile from him, cut off from all his mercy and kindness. This exile, however, is one self-imposed by the wicked, for they choose to dwell in darkness.
St. Augustine looks at this verse and sees the playing out of wickedness in the heart, how evil deeds blind the sinner from the truth:
For their eyes, that is, their mind is beaten back by the light of truth, because of the darkness of their sins; by the habitual practice of which they are not able to sustain the brightness of right understanding. Therefore even they who see sometimes, that is, who understand the truth, are yet still unrighteous, they abide not therein through love of those things, which turn away from the truth. For they carry about with them their night, that is, not only the habit, but even the love, of sinning. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 5, 6.)
In respect to our own lives, the truth will be like a house we choose to dwell in. The night is constantly on the outside, pressing in upon us through temptation to sin. In a very real sense, this outside is actually within us, as St. Augustine says—we carry it within us through the habit and love of sinning. But even though we are pressed on all sides, we do not have to go into self-imposed exile:
But if this night shall pass away, that is, if they shall cease to sin, and this love and habit thereof be put to flight, the morning dawns, so that they not only understand, but also cleave to the truth. (ibid.)
I was struck by the line in the Psalm about the wicked not dwelling near to God, and coupled with St. Augustine’s application of the light vs. the dark within one’s heart I thought that having a house assaulted by the darkness in some form might be interesting.
For some reason the notion of a floating house was interesting to me, and then I imagined a house being suspended on a light bulb. I found the various images and composed them together in After Effects and did a little position animation in the light bulb, parenting the house to it and then animating the rotation to give it a bit of visual interest.
I drew a simple ellipse and added some glow, and then just animated some projectiles hitting and bouncing off the ellipse like it was a force field of sorts. I animated the glow to react to the projectiles hitting, so fairly simple.
Enjoy.
Neither shall the wicked dwell near thee:
nor shall the unjust abide before thy eyes.
(Psalm 5:6 DR)
View a higher quality version of this gif here: