Psalm 9:9

the equally equanimous equity of equanimity

And he shall judge the world in equity, he shall judge the people in justice. (Psalm 9:9 DR)

In our present time there is much talk about equity, generally without the term ever being defined. This leads to the unfortunate circumstance in which we talk about one thing as if it is another, and by doing so mis-define all things involved.

For example, we often conflate equity and equality as if they are the same thing, but there is a substantial difference between them. Equality refers to comparing two things relative to themselves and their similarities or differences. If I have two bowls filled with 2 cups of cereal, I have an equal amount of cereal in each bowl.

Equity, on the other hand, is the uniform relation of one thing to other things, and thus the uniformity is predicated on the relation itself rather than on the uniformity of the things amongst themselves.

In other words, for two things to be equal requires them to be the same in some manner in relation to themselves; this relation is thus a closed circle, as it were. Equity, on the other hand, inherently involves a hierarchical relation as the relation itself towards things is what is uniform or equal.

An example of this can be found in the parable of the vineyard workers in which some workers are hired for a certain fee early in the day but then others are hired later in the day. As they come to receive their wages all the workers receive the same wage, even though not all put in the same amount of work. Their amount of work was thus inequal, yet they were treated with equity since the relation of the payer to the payee in respect to the agreed upon wage was uniform.

And since there is nothing new under the sun and irony is always evergreen, even though the workers with the longest hours agreed to the wages they earned and were not cheated by any means, they bristled at this lack of inequality:

But when the first also came, they thought that they should receive more: and they also received every man a penny. And receiving it they murmured against the master of the house, saying: These last have worked but one hour, and thou hast made them equal to us, that have borne the burden of the day and the heats. But he answering said to one of them: Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst thou not agree with me for a penny? Take what is thine, and go thy way: I will also give to this last even as to thee. Or, is it not lawful for me to do what I will? is thy eye evil, because I am good? So shall the last be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen. (Matthew 20:10-16 DR)

In the modern world—like the ancient world, apparently—we all want to be treated equally until we don’t. In fact, when it comes to what might benefit us or what might inconvenience us, we reject equality out of hand without the slightest hesitation.

As the Psalmist considers the judgment of God, he creates this couplet wherein God will judge the world in equity and judge the people in justice. On one level this is the poetic parallelism in action, in which the idea of the first half is further expanded or explicated in the second. But there is more here than just a restatement or use of synonyms.

For God to judge the world in equity denotes the relation of God to that which He is judging. In other words, His relation of judgment is uniform to that which is judged because He is not swayed by position or standing or anything that men consider when judging things:

Not as men judge who see not the heart, by whom very often worse men are acquitted than are condemned: but “in equity” and “with justice” shall the Lord judge, “conscience bearing witness, and thoughts accusing, or else excusing” [Romans 2:15]. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 9, 9.)

St. Augustine’s quotation of Romans 2:15 is especially pertinent, as St. Paul’s point in that passage is to demonstrate that God “will render to every man according to his works” (Romans 2:6). God is not a respecter of persons (cf. Romans 2:11) but judges both Jew and Gentile with equity. In many respects St. Paul is piggy-backing off of our Lord’s parable of the workers in the vineyard, for the Gentiles were akin to the latecomers in the parable, yet they were able to receive justification even apart from circumcision (cf. Romans 2:29; 3:29-30). Both Jew and Gentile stood before God’s judgment in equity, condemned if they transgressed but redeemed by faith which St. Paul points to as evidence of God’s justice:

But now without the law the justice of God is made manifest, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Even the justice of God, by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe in him: for there is no distinction: For all have sinned, and do need the glory of God. Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption, that is in Christ Jesus, Whom God hath proposed to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood, to the shewing of his justice, for the remission of former sins, Through the forbearance of God, for the shewing of his justice in this time; that he himself may be just, and the justifier of him, who is of the faith of Jesus Christ. (Romans 3:21-26 DR)

The Incarnation of our Lord brings this reality into being, for He as the Word made flesh is both the Law and the Lawgiver. By entering into the world—which He will judge, as the Psalmist says—He makes possible the entry of all mankind (cf. Ephesians 2:11-19) into the New Covenant through penance, as St. Paul declares to the Gentiles:

And God indeed having winked at the times of this ignorance, now declareth unto men, that all should everywhere do penance. Because he hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in equity, by the man whom he hath appointed; giving faith to all, by raising him up from the dead. (Acts 17:30-31 DR)

The equity of this relation between all men and their Divine Judge is thoroughly evidenced in St. Peter declaring the same message to the Jewish converts on the Day of Pentecost:

For David ascended not into heaven; but he himself said: The Lord said to my Lord, sit thou on my right hand, Until I make thy enemies thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know most certainly, that God hath made both Lord and Christ, this same Jesus, whom you have crucified… Do penance, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of your sins: and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. (Acts 2:34-36, 38 DR)

The Psalmist thus foresees that in the justice of God our Lord will—in His condescension in the Incarnation—judge the world in equity and make possible the redemption for all mankind, no matter how late they come to work in the fields:

That you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the conversation of Israel, and strangers to the testament, having no hope of the promise, and without God in this world. But now in Christ Jesus, you, who some time were afar off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and breaking down the middle wall of partition, the enmities in his flesh: Making void the law of commandments contained in decrees; that he might make the two in himself into one new man, making peace; And might reconcile both to God in one body by the cross, killing the enmities in himself. And coming, he preached peace to you that were afar off, and peace to them that were nigh. (Ephesians 2:12-17 DR)

This equity of judgment also has the sense of equanimity; that is, unlike men who are swayed in their judgments by power or class or temptation or titillation or greed or other vices, God’s judgment is perfect and unmoved by any exterior cause.

Some in the modern world see in this a coldness on God’s part since it implies no emotional impact; that is, unlike the saccharine sentiments often expressed, God’s heart does not break over things. It is not as if God sits in heaven, sees an injustice, and is thus moved by an emotional movement to act. We project that onto God because of our limitations and because that is how we act. Anger in us—when it is righteous—is a movement prompted by the existence of an injustice and cause us to act. It allows for the alignment of intellect and will towards the remedy of that injustice.

But since we are finite and limited beings, this is an imperfect movement, and thus we find it difficult to judge with an equity that is also equanimous. To be justly angry over injustice is equitable, but our anger rarely accomplishes the justice of God (cf. James 1:20) because we are double-minded and inconstant (cf. James 1:8).

It is thus an incredible confidence that we can have in God’s justice, precisely because it is both accomplished in equity and equanimity. We can fully hope that God’s justice is always actually just and not just an emotional response like ours so often is, for the same Lord who offered Himself for our salvation when we were His enemies (cf. Romans 5:10) is the One Who will judge the world with equity.

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I wanted to use a throne for this animation, and so I found a great 3D model of a throne and brought the .obj into After Effects and used it as the source for a new Trapcode Mir object. I modified a few of the parameters and materials and added in some lights to give it a bit of a dramatic look and then animated the rotation to get the seamless loop.

I then precomped this and duplicated it and arranged the duplicates in a grid. I applied some Time Remapping to all the duplicates and set the Time Remapping to loop and then offset them in the timeline to offset the animation sequence.

I added in a bunch of color correction and glows—probably too much glow—but I kind of liked how it turned out. Unfortunately the .gif compression sort of murdered this one. Oh well.

Enjoy.

View a higher quality version of this gif here: