Alright, so no offense to anyone who is very into the psalms but truthfully, I am already liking Saint Augustine better. It’s not that I didn’t like the psalms… I thought they were interesting and everything but they were just unbelievably hard for me to understand. Saint Augustine’s teachings are very common language and intriguing for me. I like page 36 when he explains all of the important scriptures, which of course include David’s book of psalms that should be read. Even St. Augustine himself said that some written text fails to be understood because of unknown signs that can hinder the reader’s ability to comprehend. I think this was the problem for me; to some, these psalms probably make complete sense because they’ve grown up with them and understand their meanings hidden by “unknown signs or ambiguous signs.”
But I like his line on pg: 37 saying that “…to know these books; not necessarily understand them but to read them so as to commit them to memory or at least make them not totally unfamiliar.” This line explains exactly what I did; I read the psalms and even though I definitely didn’t completely understand them, they are no longer totally new to me.
It is important to keep in mind the six stages when reading such book as the psalms:
Stage 1: Fear of God: what exactly he instructs us to seek or avoid.
Stage 2: Through Holiness: to become passive and not contradict holy scripture even if it is not completely understood.
Stage 3: Seek Knowledge: love God for himself and one’s neighbor for God’s sake with a whole heart, soul and mind.
Stage 4: Fortitude: turn to the love of external things, that being the unchangeable Trinity
Stage 5: Resolve of Compassion and purify one’s mind: confused and in conflict with self because impurity gathers by the want of what is lesser.
Stage 6: Purification of heart so that no one is given a higher priority than the truth.
With the use of these six stages, a person can more easily come to interpret, understand, accept and appreciate such scriptures as the Psalms.
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