Psalm 62:9

a sticky kind of faith

My soul hath stuck close to thee: thy right hand hath received me. (Psalm 62:9 DR)

Glue is one of those finicky substances that always seems (at least in my experience!) to not work when you want it to and to work annoyingly well when you do not. I don’t know how many times I have tried to superglue something back together; naturally the thing I want to repair is still broken, yet my fingers are of course glued together, and it takes a seeming eternity for that stuff to finally get off one’s skin. Granted, I suppose I could use gloves, but what if my hand gets glued inside the glove? These are existential questions we all must grapple with…

The spiritual life also has glues of its own. The habit (in the sense of habitus) that we posses in relation to either virtue or vice is not just a psychological groove that we get into, for the colloquial sense of “habit” implies a diminishing of will in that we act “out of habit” rather than as an intentional act. Habitus, on the other hand, implies intentionality on the part of the will by which the disposition is rendered well-disposed to a thing.

Stated otherwise, the more we choose virtue, the more our will is inclined to virtue not out of a blind or unthinking act (like brushing your teeth every night out of habit) but rather by desiring to choose that thing. And through that intentional act we find it easier, as it were, to choose, as we become more and more disposed to do so. Virtue becomes “stickier,” so to speak, the more we choose virtue.

Unfortunately for our fallen race, the inverse is true for vice in that the more we choose vice the “stickier” it becomes as well as our will becomes well-disposed to it.

The Psalmist has thus far in this Psalm described a soul which has chosen to adhere itself to God (cf. Psalm 72:28). This habitus is clearly seen in both the desire and in the actions which have enkindled that desire. Things such as watching for the Lord at break of day and meditating upon the Lord in the morning are themselves acts of the will in which it is turned towards God and thus become virtuous. Such virtue comes about the cooperation with God’s grace, which is simply what the Psalmist has been poetically describing. That is, his soul has stuck close to God because the Lord’s “right hand hath received” him. This assistance of grace is necessary for this increase in virtue which is itself a response to the divine charity of God:

“My soul has been glued on behind You.” Where is that same glue? The glue itself is love. Have thou love, wherewith as with glue your soul may be glued on behind God. Not with God, but behind God; that He may go before, you may follow. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 62, 13.)

In the spiritual life all growth in virtue comes about by means of this sticking close to God. And as with anything that is worth having, such virtue is hard won. It flows from the grace of our Lord as we are joined to Him in His mystical Body, which entails that we not only might but will experience suffering in likeness to our Head in our battle against sin:

Looking on Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, who having joy set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and now sitteth on the right hand of the throne of God. For think diligently upon him that endured such opposition from sinners against himself; that you be not wearied, fainting in your minds. (Hebrews 12:1-2 DR)

The closer we are glued to Christ, the more we can expect to suffer from the world and the flesh and the devil as we are conformed more and more into the image of Christ

With reason he adds, Me Your right hand has taken up. This Christ has said in us: that is in the Man which He was bearing for us, which He was offering for us, He has said this. The Church also said this in Christ, she says it in her Head: for she too has suffered here great persecutions, and by her individual members even now she suffers. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 62, 13.)

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I didn’t want to go too literal with this animation, but I did come up with this idea of visualizing some gravitational force and some viscosity for visual interest. I drew these gradient ellipses and animated the smaller ones jumping in and out of the main ellipse like they were being drawn back in and letting the force push them back out.

For the viscosity I placed all the ellipses in a precomp and then applied a massive Blur to the entire thing. I then used a Simple Choker which retains the gradation of the blur but chokes the edges so they are crisper. It achieved exactly what I wanted, which is probably to be expected as I’ve done this many times before. Still, it’s always nice when things work out the way you plan.

Enjoy.

View a higher quality version of this gif here: