Psalm 7:8
a tale of two congregations
And a congregation of people shall surround thee. And for their sakes return thou on high. (Psalm 7:8 DR)
As the Psalmist considers the response of God to his pleas for help in the face of his enemies, he prophetically sets forth the mystery of salvation. St. Augustine notes that there is an ambiguity in this passage—to whom, after all, does this “congregation of people” refer? Since this Psalm is prophetically about Christ, he thinks it can be understood of either those of Christ’s enemies who persecuted Him, or of those who loved Him and stood by Him on the cross. The former, of course, would a be larger number than the latter, which would on the face of it seem to more likely apply to those who persecuted our Lord.
However, the expansion of the thought in the second half of the verse causes him to lean more towards those who believed in Him, for His ascension “for their sakes” leads to the eventual belief of the Gentiles and the increase of the Church:
But of them that believe through His humiliation the multitude so surrounded Him, that it could be said with the greatest truth, “blindness in part is happened unto Israel, that the fullness of the Gentiles might come in:” [Romans 11:25] and again, “Ask of me, and I will give You the Gentiles for Your inheritance, and the boundaries of the earth for Your possession.” (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 7, 6.)
There is thus a hiddenness to this congregation while our Lord is suffering His death on the cross, for in His being rejected the way is opened for the Gentiles to believe in Him. Out of his pierced side came forth blood and water, which Sts. Cyril and Chrysostom says signified the Eucharist and Baptism, whereas Tertullian sees it as representing the baptism of martyrdom and of water, and St. Augustine as the source of all the sacraments. This “opening” of Christ’s side is necessitated, so to speak, by His death upon the cross, and thus the “opening” of salvation for the congregation which will believe is preceded by the rejection of Christ by the congregation which does not. Our Lord’s resurrection and ascension seal this opening through the coming of the Holy Spirit:
“And for their sakes return Thou on high:” that is, for the sake of this congregation return Thou on high: which He is understood to have done by His resurrection and ascension into heaven. For being thus glorified He gave the Holy Ghost, which before His exaltation could not be given, as it is written in the Gospel, “for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified.” [John 7:39] Having then returned on high for the sake of the congregation of the people, He sent the Holy Ghost: by whom the preachers of the Gospel being filled, filled the whole world with Churches. (ibid.)
The wonderful irony is that the actions of the “congregation” which persecuted our Lord and put Him to death are the means by which the way is opened to salvation; thus this same congregation which despised Him can now be brought into His friendship and become the congregation which believes. It was not, after all, the righteous for whom our Lord gave up His life, but the unrighteous:
But God commendeth his charity towards us; because when as yet we were sinners, according to the time, Christ died for us; much more therefore, being now justified by his blood, shall we be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son; much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. (Romans 5:8-10 DR)
I found a nice antique architectural drawing of a church and thought it’d make a nice focus for this animation. I cut it out in Photoshop and brought it into After Effects, using a simple ellipse as a matte for it.
I then drew another ellipse and applied a Repeater to it to create the ring of ellipses and animated the rotation. I then added in some clouds for compositional balance and applied Shadow Studio 3 to the ellipse layer for some visual interest.
Enjoy.
And a congregation of people shall surround thee. And for their sakes return thou on high.
(Psalm 7:8 DR)
View a higher quality version of this gif here: