Psalm 67:23
points of view
The Lord said: I will turn them from Basan, I will turn them into the depth of the sea: (Psalm 67:23 DR)
One of the most fascinating features of the Psalms is how rich they are in there potential meaning. This passage is illustrative of this in the respective commentaries of St. Robert Bellarmine and St. Augustine who come to different yet congruent interpretations.
St. Bellarmine—although certainly not exclusively—tends towards a more literal interpretation, and also is working off of the Vulgate rather than the Latin version of St. Augustine’s time. To be sure, St. Bellarmine often follows St. Augustine in his reading of the Psalms, but here diverges.
In the previous passage St. Bellarmine took the more literal approach, noting that this verse shows what becomes of God’s enemies in terms of judgment in contradistinction from what becomes of the saints in the verses which preceded. And while he may not exclude other interpretations, he doesn’t include them. To be fair, his reading fits the literal meaning most fully and doesn’t require the stretching that might seem to characterize some of St. Augustine’s interpretations, at least from a post-patristic perspective.
For this passage, St. Bellarmine continues his previous reading of the text, seeing this as a natural extension and continuation of the previous thought. He sees the Psalmist as confirming the destruction of the wicked as announced in the preceding passage; this verse more or less fleshes it out:
God here confirms the sentence pronounced by the prophet on the destruction of the wicked. I will turn them out of Basan, a rich and fertile country, and I will cast them into the depths of the sea, as I formerly did to Pharao. (St. Robert Bellarmine, A Commentary on the Psalms, 67, 22-23)
He draws together two separate events that the Psalmist alludes to, which is the defeat of Og, King of Basan prior to the entry into the Promised Land and the overthrowing of Pharoah’s army in pursuit of the Israelites as they were escaping Egypt. These two events bookend, as it were, God’s deliverance and fulfillment of His promise to His people, and for the Psalmist functions as a paradigm of God’s acts on behalf of His people.
Although he does not specifically address this in this passage, St. Bellarmine understands this entire Psalm as concerning the establishment of the Church, and thus what is predicated of the God’s people in the Old Testament is fulfilled in the New Testament. We see our Lord speak of his people in terms of sheep who will pasture (cf. John 10:7-16)—as it were in the fertile lands of Basan—and also the fascinating incident of the demons cast into the Garasen swine who hurl themselves into the sea (cf. Matthew 8:28-34), perhaps a potential fulfillment of this displacement so that the flock of the Lord can find pasture.
St. Augustine, on the other hand, takes a remarkably different approach to this passage. In the previous verse he saw the potential to apply the breaking of the heads of God’s enemies as a reference to both divine judgment but also to repentance and conversion, in that the pride of those who oppose God may be broken and they come to faith.
He continues this line of thought and sees Basan not as a reference to fertile ground but rather confusion, based (presumably) on its etymology:
But he has said, “Out of Basan I will turn.” Basan is interpreted confusion. What is then, I will turn out of confusion, but that there is confounded because of his sins, he that is praying of the mercy of God that they may be put away? Thence it is that the Publican dared not even to lift up his eyes to Heaven: [Luke 18:13] so, on considering himself, was he confounded; but he went down justified, [Luke 18:14] because the Lord has said, “Out of Basan I will turn.” Basan is also interpreted drought: and rightly the Lord is understood to turn out of drought, that is, out of scarcity. For they that think themselves to be in plenty, though they be famished; and full, though they be altogether empty; are not turned. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 67, 28.)
St. Augustine’s reading certainly seems—from a modern point of view—far more forced, but it should be noted that he is not simply pulling it out of thin air. Like other patristics he is absolutely convinced of both the unity of the Scriptures and that Christ is the ultimate subject of the Psalms. This allows him to understand a seamless whole between both testaments, and thus the story of the Publican is a fitting hermeneutic by which to read this Psalm. After all, the verse has this movement of turning (from confusion) and then of going down, which St. Augustine rightly notes is characteristic of the story of the Publican.
He continues with the second clause of this verse, noting that this turning into the depth of the sea in not necessarily about judgment (although it is not precluded) but rather about the mystery of salvation:
“I will turn unto the deep of the sea.” If, “I will turn,” why, “unto the deep of the sea?” Unto Himself indeed the Lord turns, when savingly He turns, and He is not surely Himself the deep of the sea. Does perchance the Latin expression deceive us, and has there been put “unto the deep,” for a translation of what signifies deeply? For He does not turn Himself: but He turns those that in the deep of this world lie sunk down with the weight of sins, in that place where one that is turned says, “From the depths I have cried to You, O Lord.” (ibid.)
We can see St. Augustine’s method at work yet again, as well as his introspection and honesty. He notes (and will note later) potential translation issues and takes account of how those may affect his interpretation, but even then is careful to make sure that his reading can accord with them.
Whereas in St. Bellarmine’s reading the object (God’s enemies) of God’s action is in view, in St. Augustine’s reading the subject (God Himself) of God’s action is in view. The distinction in vantage point brings about the distinction in readings while also allowing both to be plausible and reconcilable. For St. Bellarmine the locus of God’s action in this passage is on those having judgment passed on them, which precludes such action as having a salvific framework, since it is in a sense eschatological. In other words, this is the action against God’s enemies simpliciter.
However, for St. Augustine the framing of this passage from the vantage point of God as the subject of the action means that it can be seen in terms of either judgment or salvation. After all, although we conceptually distinguish wrath from mercy, in God they are not distinct since God is not made of parts. In this sense St. Augustine can legitimately view this passage in a different sense than St. Bellarmine without necessarily being contradictory.
St. Augustine’s point is that the “turning” of God to Himself is that He turns those who have sinned back to Himself. This might seem a strained reading, but it should be remembered that St. Augustine is reading this from the vantage of the divine action. God in His divine nature does not move, but in our common expression we say that “God turned to me” as a means of stating that we have had a conversion of heart, for faith is required for the beginning of conversion.
Thus, we can see the multivalent meaning embedded in the Scriptures, and particularly the Psalms, which form an ocean of profundity whose depths will never be fathomed.
For this animation I was inspired by old illustrated postcards for beach destinations and decided to take that direction for this.
I began in Illustrator, using the 3D text tools to create the initial extrusion for the text. I then added in the detail text above and below and turned the layers into shapes and applied some wrap to it to get the nice flowing warp.
I then separated all the faces of the 3D text and made them into separate layers and brought the entire document into After Effects. I precomped the “Depth” text and then brought in some other vintage postcards and matted them to the faces of the “Depth” text and applied some wiggle hold on the position.
I then composed everything in the main composition, adding another vintage postcard for the background and finished by adding some color correction and slight wiggle hold.
Enjoy.
The Lord said: I will turn them from Basan, I will turn them into the depth of the sea:
(Psalm 67:23 DR)
View a higher quality version of this gif here: