Praying the Psalms with Augustine and Friends

Chapter 5: Psalms 81–101

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Psalm 84 with Augustine – God as Our Only Object of Desire Being placed under pressure, we are crushed for this purpose: so that our misplaced love that draws us towards those worldly, secular, unstable, and perishable things might itself perish. Having suffered torments and hardships in this life, and an abundance of temptations, we may begin to seek that rest which is not of this life, nor of this earth. Then the Lord becomes, “a refuge for the oppressed” (Ps 9:9), for the one who is destitute, without aid, without help, without anything on which to rest. For God is present to those who are poor. For though people abound in money on earth, they are filled more with fear than enjoyment. Such people, though they have something, are still poor. But those who have none of this wealth, but only desire it, are counted also among rich men who will be rejected. God does not consider our actual power, but rather our desire. The poor then are deprived of the world’s substance, for even though it abounds around them, they know how fleeting it is. Crying out to God, having nothing in this world with which to delight themselves, they experience abundant pressures and temptations. Yet their desires are good! For God remains their only object of desire. Now they do not love the earth. For they love the one who made heaven and earth, but are not yet with him. Their desire is delayed so it may increase; it increases so they may receive it. For it is not a little thing that God will give to those who desire, nor do they need only minor preparation to be made fit to receive such a great good: God will not give anything he has made, but rather himself who made