Psalm 9:22
bringing it all back together
Why, O Lord, hast thou retired afar off? why dost thou slight us in our wants, in the time of trouble? (Psalm 9:22 DR)
The Psalmist now seems to dramatically shift the theme of this Psalm from the judgment of the wicked and the vindication of the righteous to the suffering that the righteous will face at the hand of the wicked. Seeing this Psalm as a type of the Church, St. Bellarmine perceives in this juxtaposition both the triumph of the Church in the end (the Church Triumphant) and the sufferings and persecutions of the Church in the temporal order (the Church Militant):
[I]n the first part, hitherto the Church was exulting in the victory of God over his and her own enemies; and in the succeeding part she mourns over the success of the same enemies over the Church. The whole difference, though, consists, not in the matter, but in the times of which David prophesies. In the beginning of the Psalm, David exulted in spirit on account of the secret mysteries of the Son of God, who by his death subdued the evil spirits and paganism, and destroyed their idols; and then in the end of the said part, and the beginning of this part, foretells the persecutions that will be raised by the gentiles, and by the evil minded persons, assuming betimes such a magnitude that it would appear God had entirely forgotten the people he had delivered with such glory to himself… (St. Robert Bellarmine, A Commentary on the Book of the Psalms, 9, 21.)
St. Augustine—following his distinction between the manifest judgment of God on the Last Day and the hidden judgment as seen in the “hidden things of the Son”—attributes this persecution to the hidden wisdom of God which allows such tribulations for the purpose of increasing the ardor of faith and charity towards God and longing for that Last Day:
“Why, O Lord,” says he, “have You withdrawn afar off?” Then he who thus inquired, as if all on a sudden he understood, or as if he asked, though he knew, that he might teach, adds, “You despise in due seasons, in tribulations:” that is, You despise seasonably, and causest tribulations to inflame men's minds with longing for Your coming. For that fountain of life is sweeter to them that have much thirst. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 9, 20.*)
This of course comports perfectly with St. Paul’s admonition that the discipline of the Lord is intended to bring about righteousness:
Persevere under discipline. God dealeth with you as with his sons; for what son is there, whom the father doth not correct? But if you be without chastisement, whereof all are made partakers, then are you bastards, and not sons.
Now all chastisement for the present indeed seemeth not to bring with it joy, but sorrow: but afterwards it will yield, to them that are exercised by it, the most peaceable fruit of justice. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, And make straight steps with your feet: that no one, halting, may go out of the way; but rather be healed. (Hebrews 12:7-8; 11-13 DR)
In this manner the seeming shift in theme of the Psalm is not a shift at all but rather the flip side of the future exaltation of the Church which—as the Body of our Lord—follows His model in which exaltation comes after suffering (cf. Philippians 2:6-11). Our prayers sometimes seem to be unanswered and the wicked prevail, but these times of testing and trials and meant to enable to increase in perseverance:
My brethren, count it all joy, when you shall fall into divers temptations; knowing that the trying of your faith worketh patience. And patience hath a perfect work; that you may be perfect and entire, failing in nothing. (James 1:2-4 DR)
In fact, without these times of being slighted in our wants we would probably end up getting all the things that we want, which is very often the exact opposite of what we need. Our appetites and passions lust after the things of this world and desire to be sated by them, even though rationally we know that the fleeting things of this life cannot satisfy. Yet when we constantly receive the desires of the flesh we become too accustomed to this world and desires its delights, rather than longing for our true country. The indulgence of the flesh ties us down to this world and prevents the soul from soaring to the heights in contemplation of the divine as our minds get fixated on the things of this world.
This is why God will often bring trials and sufferings into our lives as a means of purifying our desires, of severing our attachments to this world. In the moment it seems like God has abandoned us, but the reality is that in those moments God is nearest and we have the greatest opportunity for sanctification as our our plans and devices and resources come to and end and we are forced to turn our eyes heavenward. The Psalmist may have the cry of abandonment in his voice, but the crucial part of it is that he is in prayer. If he were indulging his desires he would (so he would think) have no need to turn his heart to God. But in this moment of great need he has only one recourse, and this turning to God is thus a sanctifying act even if voiced in terms of seeming despair. It is the essence of penance, this turning, for he turns from himself and his own self-sufficiency to God who alone is his help and salvation.
There is a final juxtaposition here within the Psalm and thus provides a fitting unity. The phrase rendered “slight us in our wants” is in the Vulgate “despicis in opportunitatibus,” which can also be translated as “despise us in due seasons” which stands in contrast to verse 10: “adjutor in opportunitatibus,” a helper in due time. In other words, the Psalmist wonders aloud why God Who is the helper when we most need it seems to be absent precisely in those times. Our Lord voices a similar cry from the Psalmist on the cross:
O God my God, look upon me: why hast thou forsaken me? (Psalm 21:2 DR)
The linking thread that unifies this Psalm is precisely what St. Augustine notes following St. Paul, that God’s “help” in the times of tribulation must be understood beyond the temporal or physical manifestation of what we in our human understanding consider help and seen within the hidden things of the Son, that these very trials and tribulations themselves are the help to increase our perseverance and sanctification. If we truly believe that unity with God is the end to which our lives are directed, then we can rejoice even in suffering as it is what increases the very life of God in us, the charity which He pours into our souls through the Holy Ghost:
Being justified therefore by faith, let us have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access through faith into this grace, wherein we stand, and glory in the hope of the glory of the sons of God. And not only so; but we glory also in tribulations, knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience trial; and trial hope; and hope confoundeth not: because the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost, who is given to us. (Romans 5:1-5 DR)
*End Note
This verse marks the disjunction in Psalm numbering between the Septuagint/Vulgate and the Masoretic Text, with the latter beginning Psalm 10 with this verse. I hold to the primacy of the Septuagint numbering and thus will continue to number the posts and Psalms .gifs accordingly.
I found this great image of a set of hands praying and thought it would nicely fit with this passage. I cut them out in Photoshop and precomped them in After Effects. I then drew several masks on the precomp to divide the hands into pieces and then duplicated the hands that many times and deleted the duplicated masks so that each piece has a separate mask. I then parented all the pieces to a Null so as to animate the hands as a whole and then animated the pieces breaking apart and falling out of frame.
For the explosive movement that then tapers its falling point I used Keystone 2 which automatically smooths out the transition to constant movement without tedious keyframe curve adjustments.
I added in some shadows using Shadow Studio 3 and added a quick glow for the moment of impact.
Enjoy.
Why, O Lord, hast thou retired afar off? why dost thou slight us in our wants, in the time of trouble?
(Psalm 9:22 DR)
View a higher quality version of this gif here: