Expositions on the Book of Psalms
THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN. [PsALmM LXXXIV.
down into the storehouses of God. He hath the coverings of carnal desires stripped off from him, like grape-skins: for this hath taken place in him in carnal desires, of which the Apostle speaks, " Put ye off the old man, and put on the new man.'"7 All this is not done but by pressure: therefore the Churches of God of this time are called winepresses.
which are made are not, compared with Him by whom they are made. He adds, " Thou only art the Most Highest in all the earth:" or, as other copies have it, " over all the earth ;" as it might be said, in all the heaven, or over all the heaven : but he used the latter word in preference, to depress the pride of earth. For earth ceaseth to be proud, that is, man ceaseth, to whom it was said, " Thou art dust ;''* and " why is earth and ashes proud?"'? when he saith that the Lord is the Most Highest above all the earth, that is, that no man's thoughts avail against those " who are called according to His purpose," and of whom it is said, 'If God is for us, who can be against us?" 3
2. But who are we who are placed in the winepresses? 'Sons of Core." For this follows: "For the winepresses, to the sons of Core." The sons of Core has been explained, sons of the bald: as far as those could explain it to us, who know that language, according to their service duéto God sea 3. But being placed under pressure, we are crushed for this purpose, that for our love by which we were borne towards those worldly, secular, temporal, unstable, and perishable things, having suffered in them, in this life, torments, and tribulations of pressures, and abundance of temptations, we may begin to seek that rest which is not of this life, nor of this earth ; and the Lord becomes, as is written, "a refuge for the poor man." 9 What is, " for the poor man'? For him who is, as it were, destitute, without aid, without help, without anything on which he may rest, in earth. For to such poor men, God is present. For though men abound in money on earth, . . . they are filled more with fear than with enjoyment. For what is SO uncertain as a rolling thing? It is not unfitly that money itself is stamped round, because it remains not still. Such men, _ therefore, though they have something, are yet poor. But those who have none of this wealth, but only desire it, are counted also among rich men who will be rejected ; for God takes account not of power, but of will. The poor then are destitute of all this world's substance, for even though it abounds around them, they know how fleeting it is; and crying unto God, having nothing in this world with which they may delight themselves, and be held down, placed in abundant pressures and temptations, as if in winepresses, they flow down, having become oil or wine. What are these latter but good desires? For God remains their only object of desire; now they love not earth. For they love Him who made heaven and earth; they love Him, and are not yet with Him. Their desire is delayed, in order that it may increase; it increases, in order that it may receive. For it is not any little thing that God will give to him who desires, nor does he need to be little exercised to be made fit to receive so great a good: not anything which He hath made will God give, but Himself who made all things. Exercise thy-
PSALM LXXXIV.4
1. This Psalm is entitled, " For the winepresses."' And, as you observed with me, my beloved (for I saw that you attended most closely), nothing is said in its text either of any press, or wine-basket, or vat, or of any of the instruments or the building of a winepress ; nothing of this kind did we hear read; so that it is no easy question what is the meaning of this title inscribed upon it, " for the winepresses." For certainly, if after the title it mentioned anything about such things as I enumerated, carnal persons might have believed that it was a song concerning those visible winepresses ; but as it has this title, yet says nothing afterwards of those winepresses which we know so well, I cannot doubt that there are other winepresses, which the Spirit of God intended us to look for and to understand here. Therefore, let us recall to mind what takes place in these visible winepresses, and see how this takes place spiritually in the Church. The grape hangs on the vines, and the olive on its trees. For it is for these two fruits that presses are usually made ready , and as long as they hang on their boughs, they seem to enjoy free air; and neither is the grape wine, nor the olive oil, before they are pressed. Thus it is with men whom God predestined before the world to be conformed to the image of His only-begotten Son,' who has been first and especially pressed in His Passion, as the great Cluster. Men of this kind, therefore, before they draw near to the service of God, enjoy in the world a kind of delicious liberty, like hanging grapes or olives: but as it is said, " My son, when thou drawest near:to the service of God, stand in judgment and fear, and make thy soul ready for temptation :" © so each, as he draweth near to the service of God, findeth that he is come to the winepress ; he shall undergo tribulation, shall be crushed, shall be pressed, not that he may perish in this -world, but that he may flow
3 Rom. viii. 28, 31. 2 Ecclus. x. 9. : 6 Ecclus. ii. 1, I Gen. iii. 19
7 Col, iii. 9, 10; Eph. iv. 22. 8 (See pp. 132, 140, supra. —C,] 9 Ps, ix. 9.
5 Rom. viii. 29. 4 Lat. LXX XIII.