Praying the Psalms with Augustine and Friends

Chapter 2: Psalms 18–38

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Psalm 31 with Augustine – Desperate for God Be merciful to me, LORD, for I am in distress (v. 9). How can these persecutors be so cruel, striking such dread into me? For I am no longer scared of death, but of torments and tortures. My life is consumed by anguish (v. 10). For my life is to praise you, but it is consumed by pain when the enemy says: Let them be tortured until they deny Him. And my years by groaning. The time that I pass in this world is not taken from me by death, but persists, and is spent groaning. My strength fails because of my affliction . I lack physical health, and racking pains come on me. I desire to die, but death delays in coming, and this unfulfilled desire weakens my confidence. I am . . . an object of dread to my closest friends (v. 11). And my dreadful hardship struck fear into them. Those who see me on the street flee from me . Because they do not understand my inward and invisible hope, they flee from me to things outward and visible. I am forgotten as though I were dead; I have become like broken pottery (v. 12). I have seemed to be lost to the Lord’s service, living in this world, and gaining nothing, when all were afraid to associate with me. Let your face shine on your servant (v. 16). Make it known to people who do not think that I belong to you that your face is watching me, and that I serve you. How abundant are the good things that you have stored up for those who fear you (v. 19). Even those whom you correct, you love much: but if they go on carelessly, you hide from them the sweetness of your love, for whom it is profitable to fear you. But you perfected this sweetness for those who hope in you. For you do not withhold from them what they look for perseveringly until the end.