Psuper Psalm 119: Collaboration of Blake, Dali, DaVinci & David
Seated at the table are four men with their four works that provided the raw material for this painting.
William Blake’s watercolor The Ancient of Days provided the pose for the old man on top of the blocks.
Salvador Dali’s painting Christ of St. John of the Cross provided the perspective and the position of the young man inside the grid of Hebrew letters.
Leonardo Da Vinci’s drawing of his Vitruvian Man provided the multi-limbed pose of the young man inside the surrounding circle, which is transformed into a serpent.
David and his parchment provided the text of Psalm 119, which inspired this painting. David’s head is modeled after Michelangelo’s famous sculpture of David. Michelangelo sculpted David with his left hand holding a sling over his shoulder. For this painting, Michelangelo’s David is repositioned so his right hand holds the quill that he utilized to pen Psalm 119.
As in Psuper Psalm 119: The Measure of a Man, so here the serpent’s head is under the feet of the young man, portraying the defeat of the serpent by the seed of the woman, as prophesied in Genesis 3:15. The Hebrew text on the block beneath the serpent says
Bereshiyt gimel:tet-vav, “Genesis 3:15.” The constellations at the top of the painting proclaim the same truths that are embedded in Genesis 3:15. The Bible says that the luminaries in the sky were created not only for giving light, but also to “be for signs” (Gen. 1:14). The constellations are signs that go back to ancient times. They were perverted by pagan astrologers, who attached foolish superstitions to the positions of the stars. Those ancient foolish superstitions still exist today in the minds of people who consult and heed their daily horoscope readings. The constellations, though later perverted by pagan astrologers, were originally created by God to garnish the heavens. Some constellations are mentioned in the Bible. The Book of Job, believed by some scholars to be the oldest book of the Bible, mentions Arcturus, Orion, Pleiades, and Mazzaroth (Job 9:9 & 38:31f). Job 26:13 describes God creating the constellation Hydra, the Serpent. “By His Spirit He hath garnished the heavens; His hand hath formed the crooked serpent.”
In the top left corner of this painting, we see that the constellation of Leo the Lion emerges from Virgo the Virgin and crushes the head of Hydra the Serpent. This is the Lion of Judah, the seed who comes forth from the Virgin, and crushes the Serpent’s head.
In the top right corner, we see another constellation with a serpent. The serpent in this constellation is called Serpens, who is trying to obtain Corona, the Crown that is worn by the one who rules. But Serpens is restrained from obtaining the crown by Ophiuchus, the Serpent Holder and Healer, because the Crown does not belong to the Serpent. Ophiuchus, like the seed of the woman, has one foot raised, ready to crush Scorpio the Scorpion (not pictured here, but located below Ophiuchus’ foot in the sky).
These ancient truths were written in the stars long before they were written in the Bible, and long before they were painted on this canvas.