Psalm 62:10
on the earth or below it
But they have sought my soul in vain, they shall go into the lower parts of the earth: (Psalm 62:10 DR)
Sometimes when we taste of the good things of life—which are truly good—it can be easy to forget that this world is not our home, that we are in exile from our true homeland, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears. The prophet Job reminds us that:
The life of man upon earth is a warfare, and his days are like the days of a hireling. (Job 7:1 DR)
The Psalmist has been exulting in his joy in the Lord, and for good reason, for he has experienced the mercy of God (cf. Psalm 62:4) and has developed within himself the habit of virtue as he has cooperated with the grace of God. However, as this Psalm transitions towards the end, the ominous introduction resurfaces. What prompted the composition of this Psalm was the Psalmist’s exile in the desert—he is on the run for his life, fleeing from the powerful who wish to make an end of him.
For David this must have been a bitter pill, as he had been anointed king and had seen God’s power manifested in his life through victories in battle and other such successes. He had been perfectly loyal to King Saul and even refused to take his life when he could have done so without risk and thus secured—from the natural point of view—all that he had been promised. Yet for all his valor and virtue he seemed to be rewarded with nothing but the barrenness of the desert.
It is here that the depth of his faith and the longing of his soul for the Lord is set in stark relief, for this exultation of his soul is not predicated on the goods of this world but is rather upheld precisely despite them. As was noted earlier, in the desert of all places he has found a sanctuary where he now sees the power and glory of God more clearly than anywhere else.
It is also here that he prophesies the downfall of his enemies, in that for the machinations against him the Lord has upheld him, and the plots they have set against him will be turned upon themselves.
There is also a fascinating juxtaposition here. The Psalmist describes his soul as longing for the Lord and finding Him in the desert. But his enemies—instead of seeing the Lord—have sought the soul of the Psalmist, and their end will now be the desert of hell (lower parts of the earth). The Psalmist sought after God and found Him; his enemies sought him and found only death.
The spiritual sense of this passage is manifold, but flows from the previous verse in terms of virtue and vice. When we seek after lower things—the lust of the eyes, the concupiscence of the flesh, the pride of life—we think in the moment that we are grasping something transcendent, but in reality it only debases us and drags us even lower. The brutes have only appetites and have no “choice” but to follow their desires, but man was made higher than the lower animals and had the gift of reason by which he is to direct his appetites towards the good. But when we allow our appetites and lusts to direct and overtake our reason, we not only become like beasts but lower ourselves below them, for we choose a good that is beneath the actual good. My dog will gorge herself on ice cream until she throws up, but she cannot help that; her appetites for ice cream are too strong and she has no free will. But if I do the same I abandon what makes me human and engage in something even though I know in my intellect will be bad. This type of vicious act is what takes us into the “lower parts” of the earth:
What are the lower places of the earth? Earthly lusts. Better it is to walk upon earth, than by lust to go under earth. For every one that in prejudice of his salvation desires earthly things, is under the earth: because earth he has put before him, earth upon himself he has put, and himself beneath he has laid. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 62, 14.)
The Psalmist in the desert is deprived of all earthly delights, which has the salutary effect of emptying out his lusts and fixing his desire and will upon God. Our current society tells us to strive to fulfill all our desires and finds abhorrent any call to deny any appetite, no matter how perverse. But this sort of overwrought self-indulgence is not the promised freedom but rather bitter slavery.
Instead, when we are faced with situations that deprive us of the goods of this world we should perhaps give thanks to God for the opportunity to mortify our desires and bring our flesh into subjugation. Only though this kind of self-denial of the lusts of the earth can we avoid going “under the earth.” The Collect in the Divine Office for Ember Saturday in September fittingly concludes:
O God, Who hast chosen healthy fasting, as a mean to do good both to bodies and to souls, we humbly implore thy Majesty, that the godly prayer of such as be fasting this day may turn away thy wrath, and may be effectual to gain for us thy blessing in time and in eternity.
I wanted to get at the idea contained in the “lower parts” of the earth, so I decided to use Trapcode Mir and create this fiery spinning orb. I found some appropriate textures and applied them to the Texture map and then animated the Y rotation. I also applied some distortion to the background texture to give is a turbulent and magma-like feel. I finally added in some text and color correction.
Enjoy.
But they have sought my soul in vain, they shall go into the lower parts of the earth:
(Psalm 62:10 DR)
View a higher quality version of this gif here: