Inflamed By The Psalms

Scripture

How long will you be heavy hearted human creatures? Why love emptiness and chase after falsehood?

~Psalm 4:3, Augustine

Quote

I was inflamed by the Psalms with love for You {God}.

~Augustine {My Confessions, p.162}

I was reading Augustine’s My Confessions and he quoted Psalm 4:3, How long will you be heavy hearted human creatures? Why love emptiness and chase after falsehood? I knew it was a quote from the Psalms but it took me a minute to figure out which Psalm. The footnotes are even smaller than the print and it is tiny.  When I saw it was Psalm 4:3, I began comparing it to other translations. I was impressed: I love this translation and my first thought was: “Jack, you have to find this translation and get it.” Then, it hit me like a ball pen hammer, I thought you dummy; Augustine lived in the fourth century and there were no English translations at the time. There were manuscripts of the various books in Hebrew, Greek {Septuagint}, Old Latin and the New Latin {Vulgate, Jerome}. Not I am inflamed with passion to get a copy of Augustine’s commentary on the Psalms which will have his translation I assume. It is a three set volume and expensive. Right now, I am debating the price and the best choice for my personal study.

Augustine loved the Psalms. He said they inflamed his love and devotion for our Savior.  He said they were the perfect remedy for human pride and that no one could hide from their burning heat. He said concerning reading the Psalms, “I shuttered with awe, yet all the while God’s hope, joy and love surged up like a spring of mercy.” Augustine was a prodigal, who pursued his lust which lead him directly to the far country. He was converted at the age of 31. He kept a mistress right up to the time of his conversion. In all fairness, he did love one woman at time but it was a vice that he did not think he could give up. Like many great Christian apologist, he was an antagonist to Christ and the church before becoming a disciple. This was also true of Paul who persecuted the church violently and also true of C.S. Lewis who was a professed atheist. Wow, God moves in mysterious ways. Augustine was also a heretic. He joined an heretical group called the Manichees. They did not believe Jesus came in the flesh. Matter of fact, they believed all flesh is evil and therefore Jesus could not have had a body of flesh. This led them to an extreme in licentiousness. They indulged in the flesh as if one can separate the body from the soul. Of course, no one can separate the body {flesh} from the spirit and thus they corrupted themselves as all heretics do.

My point is plain and simple: if you are not into the Psalms, get in them. Find a devotional that deals with the Psalms and read at least one per day. It you read one per day, you can read through them twice in a year. Change translations every time you read through them. Example: Show me how much You love me LORD and save me according to your promise. This is Psalm 119:41 in the Good News Translation. By the way, He has shown us how much He loves us {the Cross} and has saved us by His word {promise}. The Psalms are inspiring, encouraging, prophetic, instructional and they deal with every emotions we experience. I do love the Psalms.

Extra

PTL we are getting a slow drizzle, something that seemed impossible a week ago. Thank you Jesus for the rain. Last day of VBS at the POINT and we have had a ball. Today we will be presenting the gospel to the older children. Tonight we will be wrapping up the YOUTH VBS. We’ve been running between 30-40 kids in the AM and between 40-50 youth at night.

Have a great day and enjoy this short break from the heat. Thank you for reading the blog.

1 thought on “Inflamed By The Psalms

  1. Thank you for your time and study that you put into writing the blog, thank you for this it is great to add to my morning Bible study.

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