Praying the Psalms with Augustine and Friends

Chapter 2: Psalms 18–38

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glory appears? If the small drops of this foretaste of you are so refreshing, what will it be like, O God of my

salvation, when you absorb my spirit in you? He makes me lie down in green pastures (v. 2)

Oh how rich will be the pastures of the intimacy of your mellifluous 6 face when, admitted to the pastures of your gentleness here, (in, alas, an hour rare and for a moment brief) my soul, having melted, may thus pass over into you. Oh, what will be the refreshment in the presence of your divine countenance 7 when [even] here, at the waters of internal refreshment, you so merrily and so pleasantly nourish . . . my spirit and soul. God, my God, when you turn my soul to you, you do not allow me either to think or to sense anything but you, and you take me away from myself into you so that nothing can be of concern to me because you hide me from myself in you. And then, what joy there will be, what exultation, what jubilation when you open to me the comeliness 8 of your divinity and my soul sees you face to face? Surely, then, there is nothing I would more willingly do than be at leisure and see your glory, God.

6 Mellifluous – soothing 7 Countenance – face 8 Comeliness – beauty