Psalm 90:14
30,000 foot view
Because he hoped in me I will deliver him: I will protect him because he hath known my name. (Psalm 90:14 DR)
In the midst of the constant trials and temptations of this life, it can be easy to get bogged down in the struggle itself, to consider no further than the things we experience themselves. In the heat of the battle such focus can turn to myopia, in which we never consider something higher. This can lead to despair, for our eyes can become fixed on the things we battle themselves rather than that for which we battle, our efforts a seeming Sisyphean task without end.
This can be especially true for those vices and temptations against which we particularly and individually strive, for the incessant and seeming ubiquitous phantasm of them to our mind’s eye can be wearying and wearing; it can seem like there is nothing more than this struggle, that it is all in vain for the same temptation arises again and again.
In some respects this can resemble the acedia of the desert fathers, who in the heat of the midday seemed to always find the noonday devil ready to beat them down with sloth and despair of spiritual progress. For one can resist sin but become so focused on it that even the temptation itself can lead to despair. After all, if I am progressing in the spiritual life, why am I still continually assaulted by the same things?
In such situations it can be helpful to take a higher view, to rise above the individual trials and look to see how God has been working in one’s life to free one from sin. Temptations will never cease, for by the trying of our hearts we are proved, but in retrospect we can also see how some things which used to trip us up and make us stumble have been overcome by God’s grace. We can see, if we have allowed God’s grace to work in us, how he is freeing us from the tyranny of sin, as the Psalmist intimates here:
Looking at the passage from a higher point of view, the deliverance here promised may be said to mean deliverance from the tyranny of sin, which may be said specially to be a mark of the perfect, and a most desirable one; our Savior himself, speaking thereon, says, “Whosoever committeth sin, is the servant of sin. If, therefore, the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.” Now such liberty is not granted unto all, but to those that hope in God, “Because he hoped in me I will deliver him.” (St. Robert Bellarmine, A Commentary on the Book of the Psalms, 90, 14.)
In the midst of our struggle against sin we cannot make the mistake that it is we ourselves fighting, but God working in us to bring about our sanctification. This is why we cannot hope in our own inadequate strength, but must hope in him and have confidence that his grace can work in us to bring us to perfection. In this way the more we suffer the trials and temptations of life, the more opportunity we have to taste of God’s grace and mercy:
The more numerous my sufferings, the sweeter will be Your mercy. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 41, 14)
The progress may be hard to see from within the fray, but the hope the Psalmist speaks of is able to take this aerial view, to see the struggle from above and not merely with human vision. This hope is one that unites itself to God’s will, which is for our sanctification (cf. 1 Thess. 4:3, Ephesians 1:4, Philippians 1:6, 2 Thess. 2:13-14) and thus derives confidence from God’s promises rather than from one’s own efforts. This confidence and hope then perceives things rightly, and can see where progress has been made as our affections become purified and our hearts attuned to God’s will:
It is not, then, every hope, but that confidence that is the fruit of a good conscience, and springs from filial love and affection, that frees man from the vices that tyrannize over him; for, as avarice ties him down, and holds him captive, and the more he advances in charity, the more is his avarice diminished; and when his charity and attachment to the supreme good shall be most perfect, then, too, will his liberty be most complete, that liberty that is styled by the Apostles “the liberty of the glory of the children of God.” (St. Robert Bellarmine, A Commentary on the Book of the Psalms, 90, 14.)
In this life we will never be out of reach of temptation and trial, now are we ever outside of the need of God’s grace and strength. That is why this Psalm becomes a renewing cycle of exhorting the reader to make God his refuge and his shield, to hope in him, to trust in him. These are not platitudes but the essence of the life of holiness and sanctification, the sine qua non of friendship with God and advancement in holiness:
For he that is freed from the tyranny of vice in this world, still is not perfectly free, he needs God’s help to advance in grace until he shall have come to glory. God, therefore, promises continual protection to those “who have known his name;” that is, to those who have come to the knowledge of his power, wisdom and goodness which raises up in them the most firm hope and confidence… Wonderful altogether is God’s kindness to man, when he speaks to him not only as a Lord but as a friend, and no wonder David should exclaim: “Lord, what is man that thou art made known to him?” (ibid.)
This animation was a fairly simple concept. I found an image of this guy rapt in contemplation (at least in my view) and thought it’d be a good base for this piece.
I isolated the figure in Photoshop and brought it into After Effects. There I added an ellipse to use both for a frame and a matte and added some various textures into that matte and applied differing blending modes.
In the background I found this nice textured image and applied LoopFlow to it to give it some movement, and all the various blend modes in the foreground imagery bled pretty nicely into to create some nice colorization . For the images in the matte I applied a quick wiggle hold expression to the position property.
Finally I typed out the text and drew an ellipse mask on the text layer, using that mask as a map for the text layout, which makes it follow the contours of the ellipse, which is pretty handy.
Enjoy.
Because he hoped in me I will deliver him: I will protect him because he hath known my name.
(Psalm 90:14 DR)
View a higher quality version of this gif here: