The mountain of God is a fat mountain. A curdled mountain, a fat mountain. (Psalm 67:16 DR)
The Psalmist continues with the metaphor of a mountain, using language that sounds strange to modern ears. What, after all, is fat mountain, let alone a curdled mountain?
In the idiom of the Psalmist fat is not generally used pejoratively as in the sense of obese or some condition arising from a disordered appetite, but rather in the sense of abundance or prosperity. It refers to an increase in something, although that increase can be good or bad. Take for example, the Psalmist’s lament in Psalm 72:
Their iniquity hath come forth, as it were from fatness: they have passed into the affection of the heart. (Psalm 72:7 DR)
To open the Psalm the Psalmist laments the prosperity of sinners, and struggles later with the reality that sinners seem to abound in the world and obtain riches (cf. Psalm 72:12). He notes here that their iniquity seems to increase the more their prosperity increases, and this cycle of sin and wealth seems intolerable on the natural level. Their fatness is the increase of their wealth and health and safety.
In the case of the passage before us, however, fatness is referring to the abundance of the mountain of God. In the previous passage this mountain is whited in snow, which prefigures Holy Orders and the remission of sins as wrought through Baptism and Penance. As that thought is expanded here we can understand that the fatness of this mountain thus refers to the abundance of grace:
The same mount Selmon is “the mountain of God, a fat mountain;” for the Church, by reason of its dignity is like a mountain, it is the “mountain of God,” for God dwelleth in her, and chose a habitation for himself in her, and she is “a fat mountain,” abounding in the graces and gifts of the Holy Ghost. (St. Robert Bellarmine, A Commentary on the Book of the Psalms, 67, 14-16.)
We can then proceed to the next clause, which is that of the curdled mountain. Given the expansion in thought through the parallelism, the term curdled is meant to convey an overflowing or unceasing flow of milk, both in its liquid and curdled forms:
She is also “a curdled mountain,” because the milk of divine grace never fails or flows away, but remains as it were, curdled in her. (ibid.)
St. Augustine understands this curdled mountain as being a prophetic signification of our Lord:
But what mountain ought we to understand by “the mountain of God, a mountain fruitful, a mountain full of curds,” but the same Lord Christ? Of whom also another Prophet says, “There shall be manifest in the last times the mountain of the Lord prepared on the top of the mountains?” [Isaiah 2:2] He is Himself the “Mountain full of curds,” because of the babes to be fed with grace as though it were with milk; [1 Corinthians 3:1] a mountain rich to strengthen and enrich them by the excellence of the gifts; for even the milk itself whence curd is made, in a wonderful manner signifies grace; for it flows out of the overflowing of the mother's bowels, and of a sweet compassion unto babes freely it is poured forth. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 67, 19.)
Because of the overflowing of grace which comes from our Lord, we can have confidence that this will never run out and is always available. And since—as was seen in the previous passage—he has delegated the administration of this grace to His ministers through the sacraments, we can tangibly come to this fat, curdled mountain of grace in our time of need.
I went sort-of-kind-of literal with this, and being unsure what a curdled mountain might look like, I decided to create a dripping mountain for lack of other ideas. I cut out the mountain in Photoshop and brought it into After Effects. I then created a matte using shape layers in which I animated the drips which were just ellipses falling from the main portion of the shape. I applied a Gaussian Blur and a Simple Choker effect to merge the shapes together in a more liquid-like form and then precomped the mountain and matte. I applied Shadow Studio 3 for the light rays and added in some textures to the background.
Enjoy.
The mountain of God is a fat mountain. A curdled mountain, a fat mountain.
(Psalm 67:16 DR)
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