Psalm 9:26

living in the danger zone

God is not before his eyes: his ways are filthy at all times. Thy judgments are removed from his sight: he shall rule over all his enemies. (Psalm 9:26 DR)

As humans we often take for granted the things that are most important to us, generally because they form such a necessary part of our existence. Sometimes these things—like breathing—happen automatically, and we don’t notice them until something gets in the way of their operation. You might never think about each breath you take until you have to hold your breath or are out of breath, in which case it takes on an all-important aspect.

The same is true with our eyes, and with normal sight it is as natural as breathing. But once light gets taken away we find ourselves stumbling in the dark, searching out the least glimmer of light to guid our way. Suddenly the sight which we take for granted becomes the most important thing to reclaim, and since sight is so integral to our existence, to be blind is an apropos metaphor for more than just a physical limitation.

To be spiritually blind is to have the goods of the soul occluded or obscured by the darkness of sin, in which we cannot judge aright between good and evil, much like the objects in a dark room are difficult to distinguish and easier to run into. And just as walking blind is dangerous for us physically, it is even more so spiritually, for the perils surrounding our souls and lurking in the dark are manifold.

The Psalmist compares the wicked man—by which he intends those who deliberately set themselves against God and are thus in mortal sin—to someone who is blind, and intentionally so. It is not just that he cannot see, but that he chooses to not see; he deliberates within himself to not place God’s law before his eyes. As the Psalmist describes elsewhere:

Why dost thou glory in malice, thou that art mighty in iniquity? All the day long thy tongue hath devised injustice: as a sharp razor, thou hast wrought deceit. Thou hast loved malice more than goodness: and iniquity rather than to speak righteousness. Thou hast loved all the words of ruin, O deceitful tongue. (Psalm 51:3-6 DR)

This inversion of the ordering of reason to the good has the effect of the wicked person making the accomplishment of evil into a good, so that he delights in evil. Some sins we commit through human weakness, but the Psalmist has in mind the man who does so through malice. He understands and fully intends the wickedness he commits and feels secure in the goods and pleasures he receives through them. But this sense of security is illusory and blinds his eyes from the truth, this blindness being part of the judgment upon his wickedness as he cannot see the danger to which his soul is exposed:

“God is not in his sight, his ways are polluted in all time.” He that knows what in the soul gives joy and gladness, knows how great an ill it is to be abandoned by the light of truth: since a great ill do men reckon the blindness of their bodily eyes, whereby this light is withdrawn. How great then the punishment he endures, who through the prosperous issue of his sins is brought to that pass, that God is not in his sight, and that his ways are polluted in all time, that is, his thoughts and counsels are unclean! (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 9, 23.)

This spiritual blindness is accompanied by a dulling of the conscience, and the more he prospers in his wickedness, the greater the danger that the light of truth will never alight upon the eyes of his soul again.

We should always be wary when we seem to “get away” with our sins, for while we might seem to have evaded punishment, if we do not turn to penance we sear our consciences and dull them to the truth, which makes the committing of the same sins or more grievous ones all the easier. King David started off with the relatively small sin of neglecting his duties. This led to the sin of sloth, which led to the sin of lust, which led to the sin of adultery, which culminated in the sin of conspiracy and murder. It was possibly a year before he repented, and only because he was confronted by the prophet Nathan. Had he not been confronted, his conscience might have become so deadened with time that he might have never repented. In all that time he knew of the evil he had done, but refused to confront himself over his sin because he had not yet suffered for it:

Your judgments are taken away from his face. For the mind conscious of evil, while it seems to itself to suffer no punishment, believes that God does not judge, and so are God's judgments taken away from its face; while this very thing is great condemnation. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 9, 23.)

We thus see once again the distinction between the hidden judgment of God and the manifest judgment at the Last Day, for the hidden judgment is always occurring as God apprehends all the good and evil that we commit. The hidden judgment of God in this case is manifested negatively, by means of the light of truth being kept from the eyes of the soul of those who continue in their wickedness. Our Lord comments on this reality when explaining why He spoke in parables:

For he that hath, to him shall be given, and he shall abound: but he that hath not, from him shall be taken away that also which he hath. Therefore do I speak to them in parables: because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And the prophecy of Isaias is fulfilled in them, who saith: By hearing you shall hear, and shall not understand: and seeing you shall see, and shall not perceive. For the heart of this people is grown gross, and with their ears they have been dull of hearing, and their eyes they have shut: lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. (Matthew 13:12-15 DR)

The wicked in their pride blind their eyes and stop their ears from the truth, and our Lord’s parables pertain to this paradigm, for those who think themselves wise in their own eyes are unable to grasp the truth, while those who in humility seek after the words of the Lord are enabled by grace to hear and be converted. The wicked in their pride cut themselves off from the grace which is necessary for conversion, and thus the parables of our Lord fall on deaf ears, as St. James explains:

But he giveth greater grace. Wherefore he saith: God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. (James 4:6 DR)

King David in his pride refused to repent, but God in his mercy had the prophet Nathan confront him before it was too late and he had completely blinded himself to the truth. He still had enough humility to recognize his sin before the Lord and repent and was able to be converted.

There is somewhat of on irony in that in David’s life we see both a type of Christ and of the Antichrist as demonstrated in the humility of our Lord and the pride of the Antichrist:

“And he shall have dominion over all his enemies.” For so is it delivered, that he will overcome all kings, and alone obtain the kingdom; since too according to the Apostle, who preaches concerning him, “He shall sit in the temple of God, exalting himself above all that is worshipped and that is called God.” [2 Thessalonians 2:4] (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 9, 23.)

The spiritual life is thus this constant warfare within ourselves between which will will imitate: either the humility of our Lord Jesus Christ or the pride of the antichrist. Pride which blinds us to the truth, confirms us in our sins and cuts us off from grace makes each of us into a little antichrist, whereas humility of heart that turns to God and submits to His will refashions us into the likeness of our Lord:

Be subject therefore to God, but resist the devil, and he will fly from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners: and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into sorrow. Be humbled in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you. (James 4:7-10 DR)

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I thought it would be interesting to focus on the filthy aspect of this passage, but wanted to keep it kind of abstract so as to not have to deal with scandalous imagery.’

I decided therefore to make this text based, and started off by laying out the text vertically in the composition, with each character as its own layer. I precomped each of those letters and used a different texture in each one for some visual separation. Back in the main composition I applied some wiggle hold to the position and rotation of each character for some random motion. I then precomped all the characters into one precomp.

I then applied Motion Tile to that precomp and animated the text vertically and then duplicated that precomp and spaced it out in the composition and reversed the vertical movement of every other one. I then applied some Time Remapping to the precomps so that the internal animation would be offset.

Lastly I added Shadow Studio 3 to the precomps and some color correction.

Enjoy.

View a higher quality version of this gif here: