Psalm 9:24

the desires that blind

For the sinner is praised in the desires of his soul: and the unjust man is blessed. (Psalm 9:24 DR)

The Psalmist proceeds to underscore why the righteous can be set on fire by the scandal of the prosperity of the wicked. For it is not only that they seem to do well in this life and obtain temporal goods, but often they seem to have divine favor in their doings.

It should be remembered that in the ancient world temporal wealth and success were often seen as tracking very closely—if not completely associated—with righteousness and were understood as a sign of God’s favor and blessing. This is why when Job loses everything his friends assume he has fallen into some great sin and refuse to believe his protestations of innocence. For if he were innocent—so they reasoned—God would not allow him to suffer such misfortune.

This mindset likewise is shared among Jesus’ contemporaries and even His disciples, who when faced with suffering or misfortune wonder aloud at the presumably sinful cause of the malady:

And Jesus passing by, saw a man, who was blind from his birth: And his disciples asked him: Rabbi, who hath sinned, this man, or his parents, that he should be born blind? Jesus answered: Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents; but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. (John 9:1-3 DR)

Elsewhere our Lord rejects the notion that misfortune is always the result of sin or that its intensity is an indication of its greatness:

And there were present, at that very time, some that told him of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answering, said to them: Think you that these Galileans were sinners above all the men of Galilee, because they suffered such things? No, I say to you: but unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen upon whom the tower fell in Siloe, and slew them: think you, that they also were debtors above all the men that dwelt in Jerusalem? No, I say to you; but except you do penance, you shall all likewise perish. (Luke 13:1-5 DR)

The Psalmist thus sees the seeming blessedness of the wicked and wonders why God has seemingly forgotten, as he voiced to begin this section: “Why, O Lord, hast thou retired afar off?” (Psalm 9:22 DR) It is perhaps not the temporal goods and niceties themselves that are the scandal, but rather the manner in which the wicked seem to be able to thumb their nose as God without impunity and—as far as the things of this world are concerned—never lack for their desires. It is this combination which creates the scandal, for man sets himself above God and does not seem to suffer for it, but often rather seems to profit for it.

“Seems” is—of course—the operative term, for it judges the situation on the most superficial level. When we draw a 1:1 correspondence between temporal blessing and righteousness or between suffering and sin we think as men think. When St. Peter rebuked our Lord for prophesying His forthcoming suffering and death, our Lord replied:

Go behind me, Satan, thou art a scandal unto me: because thou savourest not the things that are of God, but the things that are of men. (Matthew 16:23 DR)

He immediately follows this rebuke of St. Peter and his worldly mentality by instructing His disciples in the way of the Cross:

Then Jesus said to his disciples: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For he that will save his life, shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for my sake, shall find it. (Matthew 16:24-35 DR)

This forms the crux (pun intended) of the way of the Cross, for a heavenly-minded perspective inverts the normal worldly-minded reasoning that sees stuff as indicative of blessing and suffering as indicative of cursing. What creates blessing or cursing is not the situation itself but rather the state of the soul. The actual loss of one’s life is—on the natural level—a great evil, but when done out of charity for God is the greatest blessing and a one-way ticket to heaven and eternal beatitude. The stuff of this world or the lack thereof can either hinder or help us on our way to heaven, but more often than not that stuff becomes chains that tie us down to this world. This is why the seeming blessedness of the wicked portends their eternal ruin:

“For the sinner is praised,” says he, “in the desires of his soul.” The tongues of flatterers bind souls in sin. For there is pleasure in doing those things, in which not only is no reprover feared, but even an approver heard. “And he that does unrighteous deeds is blessed.” Hence “are they taken in their thoughts, which they think.” (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 9, 21.)

St. Augustine draws out this point yet again, that the seeming blessedness of the wicked becomes a stumbling-block to them in that the ease of their life and the pleasures they enjoy of this world blind them to the state of wretchedness in their soul and prevents them from coming to repentance. What seems from a natural perspective the ideal life is on a deeper analysis a slavery to sin and concupiscence that keeps them from actual happiness, choosing to be amused for the short span of this life rather than to seek after the righteousness of God and eternal beatitude.

The indulgence of the appetites in the goods of this world makes the soul dull and sluggish and indelibly stains it unless brought to penance. All the goods we can accumulate in this life or all the experiences and pleasures are not sufficient to compensate for the loss of that which is most central to us:

For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul? (Matthew 16:26 DR)

Our Lord demonstrates the dynamic of this passage of the Psalmist in His parable of the rich fool who builds larger barns to hold his goods and feels secure in the blessedness his temporal possessions seem to provide him:

And I will say to my soul: Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years take thy rest; eat, drink, make good cheer. (Luke 12:19 DR)

However, little does he know that the seeming blessedness of his prosperity merely covers over his impending death, after which he will be brought to account:

But God said to him: Thou fool, this night do they require thy soul of thee: and whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich towards God. (Luke 12:20-21 DR)

The rich fool in this parable was as the wicked in the passage from the Psalms: he was praised for his wealth and thought himself blessed. Instead of rendering thanks to God for the blessings he had received he framed his blessedness around himself as if he were the source of his prosperity. Instead of humbly saying to himself: “Soul, give thanks to God what He has graciously given you,” in his pride he chose to increase the indulgence of his appetites and make the blessings bestowed on him the occasion of further pleasures and indulgence. The more this mindset it inculcated the more blind one becomes, and the goodness of God as found in the natural blessings of this world (cf. Matthew 5:45) can become the source of one’s own condemnation as they are twisted to serve the appetites rather than used for righteousness’ sake.

The righteous man thus holds loosely to the things of this world, and while not rejecting the blessings that God disposes as He wills, nevertheless orients them within a heavenly mindset. As our Lord says:

Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you. (Matthew 6:33 DR)

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I decided to go with some chunky text blocks for this animation, and while I wasn’t exactly thinking of this at the time, it strikes me that the frenetic nature of the texture changes within the text desires feels kind of distracting, like how the desires of this life and world can distract us from our true end.

Anyway, I created a precomp and placed the text in there and then brought in a bunch of abstract textures and offset them in time and then used the text as a matte to reveal those textures.

Back in the man composition I time-remapped the precomp and duplicated it many times and arranged them within the main composition and then offset them in time so the textures are changing at different times. I duplicated all those precomps and placed them below and applied Shadow Studio 3 to them for some deopth.

Enjoy.

View a higher quality version of this gif here: