The Psalms Through Saint Augustine

Saint Augustine's suggestions offered in his second book are good suggestions when reading in anything not just religious texts, so yes they could most certainly be applied to the Psalms. When Augustine talks about needing knowledge to correctly interpret stories, this can directly apply to our class reading the psalms. If I knew more about the history of Jerusalem or more bible stories, I would be much better at understanding the references in the Psalms. There is also the general knowledge about that time of certain plants or animals or practices that we would not pick up on simply because we don't know everything about their way of life. Another idea of Saint Augustine's that seems evident in the Psalms is that ideas are repeated. If there is a passage that you don't understand in the Psalms it's ok because it is extremely likely that the ideas expressed in that passage are also expressed in another psalm that is probably easier to understand. This sentiment was expressed in class on Monday. Several people mentioned that they felt the subject matter of the Psalms was a bit repetitive. Lastly Augustine's idea of cross referencing translations to extract the true meaning of the author was used in our reading of the Psalms. The footnotes on multiple occasions provided explanations for why Alter chose the words he used and what other translator have chosen to give the reader a greater understanding of the verse .