Psalm 90:15
in this world you will have distress
He shall cry to me, and I will hear him: I am with him in tribulation, I will deliver him, and I will glorify him. (Psalm 90:15 DR)
This vale of tears is called such for good reason, as we are never out of reach of sorrow and hardship. Even things like good health and great wealth cannot shield us from the troubles of this life which can touch deeper into our hearts than we can even know.
The Psalmist invokes this reality in the penultimate verse of this Psalm, which is one of the traditional Psalms of Compline in the Divine Office. As one prepares to retire for the day all the troubles of that day are naturally brought to mind, including those feared or foreseen to come. In the face of these sorrows and worries the Psalmist reiterates his trust and hope in the Lord, especially for his presence in the midst of adversity. It is important to note that the terminology used is with him “in” tribulation; this entails that tribulations and trials are something to be expected and an inescapable part of this life:
“In tribulation;” this gives us to understand that, however great the consolations, whether temporal or spiritual, bestowed by God upon his friends here below, that they are not without a certain admixture of tribulation. (St. Robert Bellarmine, A Commentary on the Book of the Psalms, 90, 15.)
This of course concurs with our Lord’s words:
These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you shall have distress: but have confidence, I have overcome the world. (John 16:33 DR)
But that we will have tribulation is no cause for despair, but is rather for the Psalmist another opportunity for hope in the Lord, for that hope is not in vain. The patience that is developed in the soul which suffers the slings and arrows of this life in hope are the cause of sanctification and spiritual progress that last beyond the temporal pain of the moment. For while the Lord is present in the midst of tribulations, there are promises of deliverance:
Now, the Lord who said, “I will hear him,” promises him, in the first place, the gift of patience, when he says, “I am with him in tribulation,” each word of which has a peculiar force of its own. “I am,” in the present tense, whereas everything else was expressed in the future; “I will deliver, I will protect, I will hear, I will glorify, I will fill;” and this was so expressed, with a view to show us that the troubles of this world are momentary, as the Apostle, [2 Cor. 4,] says, “For our present tribulation, which is momentary and light, worketh for us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory;” and, therefore, God’s mercy causes our tribulations to fall upon us, as it were, drop by drop, whereas our future glory will flow upon us like the inundation of a river; as the Psalm expresses it, “Thou shalt make them drink of the torrent of thy pleasure…” (ibid.)
As the day comes to a close and the remembrances of the day’s evils are brought to mind, they can be consoled by the promise that God will brings deliverance and glorification by means of these tribulations. God’s grace works in our hearts through suffering, as it teaches us patience which eventually gives birth to righteousness. In our sufferings and tribulations we imitate our Savior, and in a sense this verse with its promises provides a truncated triduum of sorts:
Three promises correspond most exactly to the three most remarkable days in the year: the Friday on which the Lord, hanging on his cross, was in his greatest tribulation; the Saturday on which he rested in peace from all his troubles; and the Sunday on which, by rising from the dead, he had a most glorious triumph. All the just and the elect have three such days before them; for, with Christ, we must all go through our own tribulations on Friday, that is, in this life, which is the shortest, and is counted but as one day; we must rest in the sepulchre on the Saturday; and, finally, rise on Sunday, and be glorified with Christ. The Lord, therefore, says, “I am with him in tribulation;” for the person praying asked for the gift of patience above all things, “which is necessary for you, that you may receive the promise,” [Heb. 10.] (ibid.)
This process of sanctification and growth in the spiritual life will not occur without passing through a daily Good Friday in which not only do we suffer the tribulations of this life, but in which we intentionally mortify and immolate our self-will. It is not a mere metaphor when our Lord said:
The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the ancients and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and the third day rise again. And he said to all: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. (Luke 9:22-23 DR)
This taking up the cross daily follows the pattern that our Lord mentions here of dying and rising again, the triduum of this verse in the Psalm. The sorrows of life we cannot always avoid, but there is an interior sorrow for sin that we must bring upon ourselves, an intentional denial of what we think is due to us in imitation of our Lord. The various sufferings that we face and undergo each day become a purifying sacrifice that leads to the transformation of our hearts and minds (cf. Romans 12:1-2), and thus it is fitting at the close of the day that these things are brought to mind and resolved again for the following day.
In this world you shall have distress, our Lord promises, but he also promises to be with us in the midst of those tribulations, and to deliver us finally into his eternal kingdom therein to reign with him in glory. The soul that is in the throes of distress should not fear them or take them as a sign of God’s abandonment. Rather, as Christ slept in peace on the boat when the waves tossed the disciples on the sea, so faith can rest in our hearts in the midst of this storm-tossed life:
Fear not when you are in trouble, as if the Lord were not with you. Let faith be with you, and God is with you in your trouble. There are waves on the sea, and you are tossed in your bark, because Christ sleeps. Christ slept in the ship, while the men were perishing. [Matthew 8:24-25] If your faith sleep in your heart, Christ is as it were sleeping in your ship: because Christ dwells in you through faith, when you begin to be tossed, awake Christ sleeping: rouse up your faith, and you shall be assured that He deserts you not. (St. Augustine, Exposition on the Psalms, 90, 19.)
This animation was more of a chance to play around with an idea than having any particular reference to the verse, which I sometimes like to do, although I generally find that there is often a providential connection I only become aware of in retrospect, which is always a fascinating aspect of this as an exercise.
The base of this animation is pretty simple in that it involves one rectangle that I drew in After Effects, thus showcasing my immense artistry….
I placed the rectangle in the center and made sure it was perfectly aligned with its anchor points, both on the layer and in the shape itself. I then applied the Repeater, which can be unruly but very useful when wrangled judiciously. I started by creating multiple copies and animated the X Position property of the Repeater so that as the value increases so does the distance between them.
Next I added another instance of the Repeater and applied the animation to Y Position so that they created columns and thus animated away from the center on both X and Y axes.
I could have brought them all perfectly center to create a solid rectangle, but I wanted to keep the rows separated. The original reason for this was that I was going to use this as a track matte for some text that would be revealed as the rows came together, but ultimately the look just wasn’t working so I scrapped the idea but still kept the animation.
Finally I brought used Trapcode Mir to create the flowing background and used duplicates and various blending modes to create the offset colorization for what appears in the boxes and with the text.
Enjoy.
He shall cry to me, and I will hear him: I am with him in tribulation,
I will deliver him, and I will glorify him.
(Psalm 90:15 DR)
View a higher quality version of this gif here: