The Psalms of David play a decisive role in Augustine’s early Christian life at Cassiciacum, igniting in him a beginner’s ‘authentic love’ of God, fueling his protest against human pride, and simultaneously arousing vehement anger and then pity toward the Manichees, whom he sees as madly hostile to the sacramental ‘remedies’ that could cure them.

By Augustin d'Hippone, from Les Confessions

Key Arguments

  • He describes himself at this stage as a beginner in real love of God, a catechumen resting with Alypius and attended by his mother, situating his experience of the Psalms in an early formative period: "I was but a beginner in authentic love of you, a catechumen resting at a country villa with another catechumen, Alypius. My mother stayed close by us in the clothing of a woman but with a virile faith, an older woman’s serenity, a mother’s love, and a Christian devotion."
  • He recounts intense emotional reaction to the Psalms, which ‘kindled’ his love and provoked a desire to proclaim them against human pride: "How I cried to you in those Psalms, and how they kindled my love for you! I was fired by an enthusiasm to recite them, were it possible, to the entire world in protest against the pride of the human race."
  • He notes that the Psalms are in fact sung ‘in all the world’, linking his personal experience with their catholic reach: "Yet they are being sung in all the world and ‘there is none who can hide himself from your heat’ (Ps. 18: 7)."
  • His reading of the Psalms generates both anger and pity toward the Manichees: first ‘vehement and bitter anger’, then returning pity: "What vehement and bitter anger I felt against the Manichees! But then my pity for them returned because they were ignorant of your remedies, the sacraments."
  • He interprets Manichaean hostility to the sacraments as madness against their only cure: "They were madly hostile to the antidote which could have cured them.12"

Source Quotes

(8) My God, how I cried to you when I read the Psalms of David, songs of faith, utterances of devotion which allow no pride of spirit to enter in! I was but a beginner in authentic love of you, a catechumen resting at a country villa with another catechumen, Alypius. My mother stayed close by us in the clothing of a woman but with a virile faith, an older woman’s serenity, a mother’s love, and a Christian devotion.
My mother stayed close by us in the clothing of a woman but with a virile faith, an older woman’s serenity, a mother’s love, and a Christian devotion. How I cried out to you in those Psalms, and how they kindled my love for you! I was fired by an enthusiasm to recite them, were it possible, to the entire world in protest against the pride of the human race.
How I cried out to you in those Psalms, and how they kindled my love for you! I was fired by an enthusiasm to recite them, were it possible, to the entire world in protest against the pride of the human race. Yet they are being sung in all the world and ‘there is none who can hide himself from your heat’ (Ps.
I was fired by an enthusiasm to recite them, were it possible, to the entire world in protest against the pride of the human race. Yet they are being sung in all the world and ‘there is none who can hide himself from your heat’ (Ps. 18: 7). What vehement and bitter anger I felt against the Manichees!
18: 7). What vehement and bitter anger I felt against the Manichees! But then my pity for them returned because they were ignorant of your remedies, the sacraments. They were madly hostile to the antidote which could have cured them.12 As I read the fourth Psalm during that period of contemplation, I would have liked them to be somewhere nearby without me knowing they were there, watching my face and hearing my cries, to see what that Psalm had done to me: ‘When I called upon you, you heard me, God of my righteousness; in tribulation you gave me enlargement.
But then my pity for them returned because they were ignorant of your remedies, the sacraments. They were madly hostile to the antidote which could have cured them.12 As I read the fourth Psalm during that period of contemplation, I would have liked them to be somewhere nearby without me knowing they were there, watching my face and hearing my cries, to see what that Psalm had done to me: ‘When I called upon you, you heard me, God of my righteousness; in tribulation you gave me enlargement. Have mercy on me, Lord, and hear my prayer’ (Ps.

Key Concepts

  • I was but a beginner in authentic love of you, a catechumen resting at a country villa with another catechumen, Alypius.
  • How I cried out to you in those Psalms, and how they kindled my love for you!
  • I was fired by an enthusiasm to recite them, were it possible, to the entire world in protest against the pride of the human race.
  • Yet they are being sung in all the world and ‘there is none who can hide himself from your heat’ (Ps. 18: 7).
  • What vehement and bitter anger I felt against the Manichees! But then my pity for them returned because they were ignorant of your remedies, the sacraments.
  • They were madly hostile to the antidote which could have cured them.12

Context

Book IX, iv (8): Augustine recalls how praying the Psalms shaped his nascent Christian affections and his attitude toward his former Manichaean co‑religionists, highlighting the Psalms’ anti‑pride ethos and sacramental implications.