Psalm 76:10
the end has come
Or will God forget to shew mercy? or will he in his anger shut up his mercies? (Psalm 76:10 DR)
In this verse is the final in the triplet of these rhetorical interrogatory exclamations of the Psalmist, who in the silence of prayer and interior recollection understands his own failings and longs for God’s mercy.
Recollecting and recognizing one’s sins is a good practice, but it must be coupled with humility of heart and hope in God’s justice and mercy. Peter and Judas both betrayed our Lord in different ways, yet Judas—though repentant—despaired of God’s mercy. Peter on the other hand came back to Jesus and received mercy and forgiveness.
The humble of heart who are truly contrite have an expectation of mercy not in the sense of entitlement, but rather because of supreme confidence in God’s promises. The sin against the Holy Ghost has been traditionally understood as final impenitence, wherein we have more regard for our own pride than for God’s mercy.
The Psalmist thus concludes this series of questions with an expectation of the answer, for he knows and trusts that God is faithful and will pour forth his mercy. The contrition we feel for sin should cause us grief at having offended God, and in our self-exile from God we will naturally sense a certain stand-off-ish-ness which is, it should be noted one sided, for God’s desire is not for us to perish but rather to come to repentance. A hefty price was paid for our conversion, and thus we should approach God in penitence with a hopeful confidence, as the Psalmist does here:
“Or will God forget to show mercy? or will he in his anger shut up his mercies?” He will not forget, nor shut up his mercy, for it is easier for God to repress his anger than his mercy; and, therefore, however justly he may be angry with sinners, in his anger he will not withhold his mercy but will pour it out to mitigate his anger. (St. Robert Bellarmine, A Commentary on the Book of the Psalms, 76, 9.)
This was a pretty simple animation, both in concept and in execution.
I drew some simple icons in Illustrator and brought them into After Effects, and then drew a box and animated its scale and position to cover an icon. I then duplicated this many times and moved them around to cover up the icons and offset them in time for visual interest.
I still like it though, even if it’s simple.
Enjoy.
Or will God forget to shew mercy? or will he in his anger shut up his mercies?
(Psalm 76:10 DR)
View a higher quality version of this gif here: