Augustine in His Own Words
of heaven even though the Church continues to labor on earth. Augustine saw the Psalms as the feelings of the whole Christ. They thus offered a therapeutic program for repairing the diseased human heart, a sort of spiritual cardiological rehab. The Psalms provided a paradigm and pedagogy for the affections, offering a path both of purgation and of delight that instilled in the faithful the graced courage to make the often grueling journey to God.73 Christ's ascent made possible believers', and one savors this in both Christ and the Church's forerunners, the martyrs. Both dwell in the City of God, and because of the union of our hearts with theirs, we glimpse the endpoint and see ourselves in their mirror. From Expositions of the Psalms 123:
(1) Dearest brothers and sisters, you already know quite well that a Song of Steps is a song of our ascent, and that this ascent is done not by the body's feet, but the heart's feelings. And this song you have just heard sung to you: It has "Song of Steps" written on its top line. That's its title. Sing it, therefore, as people ascending upwards. Sometimes it seems as though one person is singing, sometimes as though many are. Since we many are one because Christ is one, thus in Christ the members of Christ become one with Christ. And the Head of all these members is in heaven. The Body, even if it labors on earth, is not cut off from its Head. For the Head looks down from above and takes care of the Body. For if He had not been taking care of it, He would not have said to His persecutor, Saul (not yet Paul): "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" (Acts 9:4) You know all this really well. These things are old hat to you. . . . Well then, either one sings or many sing, and many people are one person because there is unity; and Christ, as we have said, is one, and all Christians are members of Christ.
(2) What then do they sing, these members of Christ? What do they sing? For they are in love, and loving, they sing; yearning, they sing. Sometimes, when troubled, they sing, and sometimes exulting, they sing; when in hope, they sing. Trouble is our lot in this present age; hope is ours in the future age. And unless the hope of that future age console us in our present-age troubles, we will perish. Thus joy is not yet ours, brothers and sisters, in reality, but it is already ours in hope. Hope is certainly ours, as if the reality has already come to fulfillment. For that reason, we don't get anxious about what Truth promises us. Truth, you see, cannot be deceived nor deceive us. It is good that we cling to Truth. It frees us, but only if we remain in His word. So now we believe; later we will see. When we believe, it's in the hope of that future age; when we actually see, it shall be in the reality of that age. We shall then see
73. Michael Cameron has adopted that neologism "psychagogy" (that is, "soul-leading" or "soul-education") to describe what Augustine is doing here; see his "Totus Christus and the Psychagogy of Augustine's Sermons," Augustinian Studies 36 (2005): 59–70.
The Exegete 197
[God] face to face. But we shall see face-to-face only when we have a cleansed heart. For "blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God" (Mt 5:8). By what are hearts cleansed if not by faith, just as Peter said in the Acts of the Apostles: God "cleansed their hearts by faith" (Acts 15:9). Faith cleanses our hearts as well, that we be able to be fit enough to seize the sight. So we walk now by faith and not yet by sight, for just as the Apostle says, "While we are in the body, we are on pilgrimage to the Lord" (2 Cor 5:6). So what's "being on pilgrimage"? "We walk," he says, "by faith, not by sight" (2 Cor 5:7).
So one who is on pilgrimage and walks by faith is not yet home, but is already on the road. One who does not believe, however, is neither home nor on the road. So let us walk as if we're already on the road. Because the King Himself has made Himself the road. The King—that's the Lord Jesus Christ. There He's the Truth, but here He's the road. To whom are we going? To Truth. How are we going? By faith. To whom are we going? To Christ. How are we going? Through Christ. That's the reason He Himself said: "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life" (Jn 14:6). He had said sometime earlier to those who believed in Him: "If you remain in my word, truly you will be my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (Jn 8:31–32). Now He did say, "and you will know the truth," but added: "if you remain in my word." In what word? It's just as the Apostle says: "This is the word of faith that we preach" (Rom 10:8). First, therefore, the word is a word of faith. In that word of faith, if we remain in it, we will know the truth, and the truth will set us free. Truth is immortal, Truth is unchangeable. Truth is that Word of whom it is spoken: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (Jn 1:1). Who can see this unless the heart be cleansed? How's the heart cleansed? "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us" (Jn 1:14). The Word—what He remains in Himself—is the Truth to whom we are coming and the One who sets us free. What is preached is the word of faith, in whom the Lord wishes us to continue to remain so that we understand the Truth; that is, "The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us." You believe in Christ born in the flesh, and you are journeying to Christ born of God, God with God.
(3) In what we read, the singers are jubilant, exulting. It is the members of Christ exulting—they're singing this Psalm. Now, who can exult here, as I said, unless it be in hope. Let this hope hold steady in us, and let us sing exulting for joy. It's not that those singers are foreign to us. And it's not as if the voice in this Psalm wasn't also our voice. So listen as though listening to yourselves. Yes, listen as if you were gazing at yourselves in the mirror of the Scriptures. So when you gaze into the scriptural mirror, your own cheerful face looks back at you. When you find that image of yourself exulting in hope, you