Latest / Reformed Thinking / What Is Man? The Glory of God and the Dignity of Humanity (Psalm 8) | Augustine

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What Is Man? The Glory of God and the Dignity of Humanity (Psalm 8) | Augustine · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to Reformed Thinking. I am thrilled you are joining us
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  today for this. Yeah, it is great to be sitting
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  down to talk about this. So my goal is to take some of
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  the most substantive theological writings in church history and
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  just break them open so we can see the brilliant truths inside.
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  And we have a very specific mission for this particular deep
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  dive. We do.
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  We are going to look closely at an excerpt from Volume 8 of the
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  Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers. Specifically, we are looking at
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  Saint Augustine's exposition on Psalm 8, right?
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  And it is a really dense, fascinating text.
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  It really is. The goal is to analyze how a 4th
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  century theologian interprets the Psalms through a highly
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  allegorical Christ centered lens.
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  As we look at this text, we need a clear framework as adherence
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  to the Westminster Confession. We're going to process
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  Augustine's words through a reformed theological lens,
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  Which. Is going to be so helpful for
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  the listener. Yeah, because what is
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  fascinating here is how often his 4th century thoughts align
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  brilliantly with our confessional categories.
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  We will see early formations of concepts like federal headship,
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  the stark distinction between the visible and the invisible
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  church, and the absolute necessity of faith preceding
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  human reason. We are going to process as
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  allegories and pull out the robust orthodox theology
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  underneath. But before we jump in, let us
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  lay down a quick housekeeping rule for the show today.
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  Right, Yes, we want to establish a relaxed conversational tone,
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  so we are guaranteeing the listener a smooth discussion
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  where both of us allow each other to finish our thoughts
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  completely without talking over one another.
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  I love that. A smooth, clear exchange of
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  ideas. So let us unpack this.
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  We begin with the title of Psalm 8, and here is the first
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  surprising fact from the source text.
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  It is a great little detail. Augusta notes that the title of
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  Psalm 8 mentions Wine Press. The title actually reads to the
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  end for the wine presses a Psalm of David himself.
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  But if you read the actual text of Psalm 8, wine presses are
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  never mentioned once. Not a single time.
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  Augustine jumps right on this mystery.
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  He says this proves that one and the same thing is often
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  signified in Scripture by many and various similitudes.
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  The omission in the body of the Psalm is the catalyst for his
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  entire theological exposition. He concludes that we must take
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  wine presses to represent the churches.
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  He compares the wine press to a threshing floor, which is
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  another really common biblical metaphor.
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  The core action of both a wine press and a threshing floor is
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  separation. Spot on.
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  You are clearing the produce of its covering.
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  Think about the agricultural reality of this.
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  This covering is entirely necessary for the first growth
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  and increase of the harvest. You need the husks to grow the
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  grapes. Right.
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  The husk protects the tender fruit from the elements, from
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  insects, from the harsh sun. You need the chaff to grow the
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  wheat, but to get the wine or the grain, the covering must be
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  stripped away. Augustine applies this directly
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  to the congregation. Augustine says the husks and the
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  chaff represent the multitude of worldly men.
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  These worldly individuals are collected together with the
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  good. And here's where it gets really
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  interesting. Augustine says this worldly
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  multitude was actually necessary for the birth and adapting of
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  the good to the divine Word. The good and the bad are
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  currently mixed together. Yes, they have converse together
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  in the churches as far as respects bodily presence, but
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  they are separated, as Agustin puts it, not in space but in
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  affection. I think about how this relates
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  to the Reformed doctrine of the visible and the invisible
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  church. It is a direct parallel.
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  We often look at the local congregation and feel frustrated
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  by the glaring flaws, the hypocrisy, or the blatant
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  worldly ambition we see sitting right there in the pews.
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  It is a really common frustration, but Augustine gives
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  us a brilliant framework for understanding it.
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  If we look at the Westminster Confession, we see a perfect
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  illustration of the visible church.
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  The visible church consists of all those throughout the world
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  who profess the true religion along with their children.
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  And because it is visible and earthly, it is mixed.
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  It has wheat and tares, wine and husks.
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  Augustine is telling us that this mixture is the intentional
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  design of the Winepress era. The husks are there, the
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  pressure is being applied. Right.
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  God's ministers are operating the press through the preaching
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  of the Word and the administration of the sacraments
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  through spiritual love. A separation is occurring
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  internally. The true believers are being
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  sanctified. They are separated in their
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  affections from the world, even while sharing the exact same
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  physical space as the reprobate. The friction you feel in the Pew
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  is not a bug, it is a feature. It is the pressure of the wine
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  press separating the eternal from the temporary.
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  That distinction between space and affection is incredibly
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  helpful. The sorting is happening right
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  now in the desires of the heart, long before it happens in
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  physical space. But Augustine does not leave
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  them mixed forever. No, he moves to the
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  eschatological separation, the end of all things, the final
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  judgement. He points out that another time
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  will come when the separation is absolute and physical.
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  The wheat will be stored apart in the garners and the wine will
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  be laid up in the Cellars. The valuable purified produce
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  goes into the Lord's treasury. But the coverings face a
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  terrifying end. The chaff is burned with
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  unquenchable fire, and in his winepress similitude, Augustine
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  says the husks are cast forth to the cattle.
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  He allegorizes the bellies of the cattle to represent the
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  pains of hell. It is a striking somber image.
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  It is a sobering theological reality.
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  The pressing process of this life reveals what we truly are.
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  The pressure of the world, the preaching of the law, the trials
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  of Providence. These are the heavy wooden beams
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  coming down on the grapes in the VAT.
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  At the final judgement, near outward proximity to the church
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  will not save the husks. Only the true wine, the
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  invisible Church, the elect who have been regenerated by the
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  Holy Spirit, will be gathered into the cellar.
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  The outward covering. Those who possess dead orthodoxy
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  or intellectual ascent without saving faith will be cast out.
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  The physical nearness to holy things does not impart holiness
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  to the husk. I want you to think about that
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  as you consider your own local congregation.
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  Think about how this changes your view of the local church.
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  We often want the Church to be a pristine Country Club of
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  perfected Saints. We want a sanitized environment.
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  But Augustine asks us to recognize it as a wine press.
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  It is a loud, messy, heavy industrial space where a vital,
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  sometimes painful sorting process is actively occurring.
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  When you experience friction or see worldly behavior in the
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  church, you should not be shocked you are in a wine press.
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  That brings us to a second interpretation Augustine offers
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  for the mind presses. He keeps the meaning connected
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  to the churches, but he shifts the focus to the divine Word
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  itself. He says the divine word may be
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  understood by the grape. He notes that the Lord himself
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  has been called a cluster of grapes.
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  He references the spies sent by the people of Israel into the
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  Land of Promise in the Book of Numbers.
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  They brought back a massive cluster of grapes hanging on a
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  staff. Augustine sees a vivid typology
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  here. He likens that cluster of grapes
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  hanging on a wooden staff to Christ crucified on the cross.
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  It is a stark visual. Linking the great cluster from
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  the Promised Land to Christ on a wooden staff completely changes
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  how you read the Old Testament narrative.
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  Christ is the ultimate cluster of grapes crushed for our
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  iniquities. But Augustine takes this analogy
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  into the actual practical mechanics of preaching and
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  hearing the word. Let us unpack this mechanical
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  analogy because it is incredibly nuanced for a thinker in his
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  era. Augustine says that when the
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  Divine Word needs to declare himself to us, he uses the sound
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  of a human voice. The sound of the preacher's
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  voice is like the husks. Inside that sound is the
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  knowledge, which is the wine. So the grape comes into the
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  listener's ears. The ears act as the pressing
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  machines of the wine press. He is breaking down the
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  epistemology of hearing the gospel.
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  The separation happens right at the ear.
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  The physical sound of the voice goes no further.
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  It hits the eardrum and stops. The syllables, the volume, the
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  tone of the preacher, all of that is the husk.
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  But the spiritual knowledge, the wine, is pressed out and
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  received into the memory. Augustine calls the memory a
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  sort of VAT. The VAT holds the fresh juice,
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  but it cannot stay there. From the VAT of memory the
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  knowledge must pass into the discipline of the conversation
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  and the habit of the mind. He calls the habit of the mind
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  the seller. Augustine is essentially saying
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  if you let your theology sit in the memory of that without
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  applying it, you are not getting fine vintage wine, you are just
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  making spiritual kombucha that has gone bad.
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  That is a great way to phrase it.
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  You hear a sermon, the sound stops at your ear.
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  The facts go into your memory that.
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  But if it just sits in your short term memory, it does not
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  do you any good. It has to flow down into the
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  cellar of your mind, becoming part of your discipline, your
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  habits, your worldview. Augustine gives a severe warning
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  about what happens if we fail to move the wine into the cellar.
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  He says if the wine is neglected, it grows sour.
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  If it is stored properly, it acquires soundness by age.
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  But if neglected, it turns into vinegar.
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  He points out that the word grew sour among the Jews, and it was
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  this sour vinegar they gave the Lord to drink on the cross.
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  What a striking condemnation of dead orthodoxy.
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  The Old Testament revelation was pure wine.
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  It was given to the Jews, received into their memory, but
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  through negligence and hard heartedness.
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  It did not produce the discipline of spiritual love.
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  It grew sour. It became legalism, self
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  righteousness, and murderous hatred for the Messiah.
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  They took the sour vinegar of their corrupted religion and
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  literally fed it to the Lord on the cross.
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  Augustine contrasts this with the wine from the vine of the
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  New Testament, which the Lord will drink with his Saints in
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  the Kingdom of his Father. That wine must be most sweet and
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  most sound. For the Reformed believer, this
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  highlights the necessity of the inward working of the Holy
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  Spirit. The word preached must be mixed
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  with faith or it's sours into a condemning legalism.
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  Augustine offers a third layer to this wine press analogy is a
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  brief but heavy point. He says wine presses are also
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  usually taken for martyrdoms. When believers who have
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  confessed the name of Christ are trodden down by the blows of
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  persecution, their mortal remains are left on earth as
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  husks. But their souls flow forth into
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  the rest of heavenly habitation. The world thinks it is
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  destroying the church through persecution, but in reality it
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  is just operating the winepress. It is crushing the earthly
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  vessel so the pure wine of the soul can flow into heaven.
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  This interpretation fits perfectly with the historical
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  context of the early Church, which had endured centuries of
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  brutal Roman persecution. The blood of the martyrs is the
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  seed of the Church. The pressing brings forth the
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  fruitfulness. Augustine ties this back to the
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  establishment of the Church. After the resurrection.
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  Christ descended into heaven and sent the Holy Ghost.
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  The disciples were filled with the Spirit and preached the Word
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  of God with confidence, allowing the churches to be collected.
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  The pressing of the Apostolic age yielded the wine we are
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  still drinking today. So if the mature believers are
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  the wine in the cellar, what about the new believers?
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  Augustine addresses that right in the next verse when he talks
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  about babes and sucklings. Verse two of the Psalm reads out
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  of the mouth of babes and sucklings.
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  Thou has made perfect praise because of thine enemies.
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  The first thing Augustine does is define who these babes and
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  sucklings are. He references the Apostle Paul
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  in First Corinthians who said, As unto babes in Christ, I have
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  given you milk to drink, not meat.
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  These babes are the ones who praise the Lord when he entered
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  Jerusalem, the ones the Pharisees wanted Christ to
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  rebuke. Augustine points out that the
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  text says God has made perfect praise out of their mouths.
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  It is not just adequate praise, it is perfected.
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  To understand why it is perfect, we have to look at what the milk
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  represents, Augustine says. There are those in the churches
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  who eat meat, meaning they speak wisdom and possess a high
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  capacity for spiritual and eternal knowledge.
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  But if the Church only consisted of these advanced perfect minds,
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  little consideration would be had for the human race.
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  God considers the weakness of humanity.
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  Those who cannot yet grasp eternal things are nourished by
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  the faith of the temporal history.
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  This is the milk. It is the basic historical
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  reality of the Incarnation, the sacrament of the assumed
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  manhood. It is the straightforward gospel
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  narrative. Christ lived, died, and rose
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  again in history. Believing the historical facts
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  of Jesus Christ is the milk, and this milk purifies the believer.
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  Augustine says that by obeying the precepts of this temporal
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  history, the believer is rooted and grounded in love.
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  Then they become able to run with Saints, no longer a child
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  in milk but a young man in meat, able to comprehend the breadth,
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  length, height and depth of the love of Christ.
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  Here is where we hit a massive epistemological claim that
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  aligns with our reformed framework, Augustine says.
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  Faith is the necessary first step to ascend to certain
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  knowledge. This is one of Augustine's most
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  famous contributions to Christian philosophy, and it
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  heavily influenced John Calvin and the Reformed tradition.
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  Faith precedes understanding. Croydo Uten telegum.
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  Augustine quotes Isaiah as it was translated in his version of
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  the Septuagint. Except you believe, you shall
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  not understand. He also quotes Christ saying to
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  Thomas, Blessed are they that have not seen, and shall
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  believe. For Augustine, the human mind is
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  broken. It cannot independently reason
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  its way up to maternal truths. You must begin with the humility
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  of faith. You must drink the milk of
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  believing the historical gospel before you can digest the meat
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  of eternal spiritual realities. This brings us to the enemies
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  mentioned in verse 2. Because of thine enemies.
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  Who are these enemies that God is confounding with the perfect
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  praise of babes? Augustine targets two groups,
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  heretics and those in the superstition of the Gentiles
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  called philosophers. What is their crime?
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  They forbid belief in things unknown and they promise certain
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  knowledge. They tell people do not rely on
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  blind faith. We will give you pure reason.
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  We will give you certain knowledge.
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  This is the illusion of human wisdom, Augustine says.
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  They deem the most healthful and necessary step of faith as
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  something to be neglected. By trying to bypass faith, they
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  prove they do not actually possess the knowledge they
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  promise. The only way to ascend to
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  something certain, which must be something eternal, is through
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  the step of faith. The philosophers claim to be
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  lovers of truth. They try to assault the
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  Christian faith by acting as its defenders.
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  They use the language of wisdom, but they recommend noxious
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  superstitions like worshipping the elements of this world.
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  So it is not just that our morals are broken, our actual
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  ability to logic our way to truth is compromised.
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  Our mental compass is spinning. This ties directly into the
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  Reformed view of the noetic effects of sin.
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  The fall of Adam broke our intellects.
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  Our reason has fallen. The philosophers think their
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  reason is pristine. They think they can climb a
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  ladder of logic right up into the heavens.
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  But God hides His truth from these so-called wise men and
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  reveals it to babes. The Babes, by simply trusting
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  the historical incarnation of Christ, possess A truer higher
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  wisdom than the greatest Pagan philosopher.
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  God destroys the enemy and the false defender by perfecting
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  praise in the mouths of infants who simply believed the Word.
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  Augustine turns his attention to the written word in verse 3 of
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  the Psalm, which says, For I shall see thy heavens, the works
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  of thy fingers. Augustine immediately identifies
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  the fingers of God. He notes that the law was
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  written with the finger of God and given through Moses.
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  He recalls how the Egyptian magicians, when conquered by
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  Moses, admitted this is the finger of God.
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  Augustine asserts that by the finger of God we are to
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  understand the Holy Ghost. If the finger of God is the Holy
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  Ghost, then the works of his fingers are the scriptures.
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  Augustine sets up a beautiful allegory.
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  He says the books of both testaments are called the
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  heavens. He quotes the verse The heavens
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  shall be rolled up as a book. So when the psalmist says, I
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  shall see the heavens, the works of thy fingers, Augustine
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  interprets this to mean, I shall discern and understand the
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  Scriptures which God by the operation of the Holy Ghost, has
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  written by his ministers. The ministers are filled with
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  the Spirit, and they produce the textual heavens we look up to
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  for light. This introduces a concept highly
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  valued in our Reformed theology, specifically outlined in the
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  Westminster Confession, the doctrine of divine
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  accommodation. Augustine explains that God's
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  glory has been raised above the heavens, meaning his true glory
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  exceeds the declarations of all the Scriptures.
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  It transcends all words and languages.
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  We cannot. Handle the raw, unfiltered glory
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  of God. Therefore, Augustine says, God
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  lowered the Scriptures even to the capacity of babes and
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  sucklings. He quotes another Psalm.
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  And he lowered the heaven, and came down.
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  I love how John Calvin later described this.
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  He said God speaks to us in scripture like a nurse lisping
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  to a toddler. God brings His massive eternal
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  truth down to the slowness of babes.
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  He gives us the lowness of the faith of history, things
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  transacted in time so that we can be raised up, well nurtured
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  and strengthened under the grand height of the understanding of
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  things eternal. The heretics and philosophers
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  despise this. Through their pride of
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  talkativeness they assault this simple faith.
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  But because they refuse to step on the bottom rung of the
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  ladder, which is childlike faith in the accommodated scriptures,
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  they can never mount up to the truth.
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  The rash and blind promiser of truth is destroyed when the
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  heavens are seen. When the babes look up at the
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  Scriptures and understand them by the Holy Ghost, the arrogant
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  philosopher is left in the dark. Augustine adds A brief, stunning
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  detail here about the celestial bodies.
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  If the Scriptures are the heavens, what are the moon and
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  the stars ordained in those heavens?
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  He suggests the moon represents the church universal and the
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  stars represent the local particular churches established
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  within those scriptures. The local churches are the stars
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  shining the light of the textual heavens down upon the earth.
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  The local church as a star ordained in the firmament of
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  Scripture. That brings us to verse 4.
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  What is man that thou art mindful of him, or the Son of
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  Man that thou visitest him? Augustine focuses on a crucial
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  tiny grammatical distinction. Why does the psalmist use the
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  disjunctive? Or what's a man or the Son of
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  Man? If there were no difference, it
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  would just be a redundant repetition.
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  But Augustine argues there is a massive distinction here.
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  He notes that every son of man is a man, but not every man is a
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  son of man. For instance, Adam was a man,
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  but he was not a son of man. He had no human father.
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  This is where Augustine lays down a framework that sounds
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  remarkably like Reformed covenant theology.
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  To put it simply, Augustine saying humanity only has two
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  representatives, Adam or Christ. You are either wearing Adam's
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  jersey and inheriting his earthly fate or Christ's.
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  He connects man to the earthy man bearing the image of Adam.
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  The earthy man is the old man. He is far removed from God.
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  God is mindful of him, but only from a far distance.
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  God extends multiplied mercy to the earthy man, but it is a
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  common grace, Augustine says. God saves the earthy man the
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  same way he saves the beasts, giving them carnal wholeness,
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  keeping them breathing, providing rain and sunshine.
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  It is a physical preservation, not an inward illumination.
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  Then you have the Son of Man. This represents the heavenly new
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  man bearing the image of Christ. The Son of man is present with
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  God. God is not just remember him
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  from afar. God visiteth him.
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  God enlightens him with his countenance.
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  God extends saving mercy, bringing him under the covering
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  of his wings, making him drink of the torrent of his pleasures.
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  The Son of Man represents the spiritually regenerated
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  believer. The theology of federal headship
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  is on full display here. In Adam, we are all the earthy
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  man. We are fallen, carnal and far
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  from God. In Christ, the ultimate Son of
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  Man, we are regenerated into the new man.
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  But Augustine points out that this transition from the old
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  earthy man to the new heavenly man is agonizing.
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  He writes A striking phrase, The Newman.
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  The repentance of the old man begets with pain and tears.
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  The repentance of the old man begets with pain and tears.
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  That perfectly describes the Reformed doctrine of
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  sanctification and mortification.
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  Putting the old flesh to death hurts.
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  We are born again. But as Augustine notes, the
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  Newman is still fed with milk at first.
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  He is still fighting carnal tendencies when?
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  The believer relapses into the old life.
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  The Apostle Paul reproves them by saying are ye not men And
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  walk as men. Paul is telling them you're
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  acting like the earthy man of Adam rather than the heavenly
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  Son of man in Christ. Augustine makes sure to ground
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  this entirely in Christology. The Son of Man was first visited
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  in the person of the Lord. Man born of the Virgin Mary.
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  Christ took on the weakness of the flesh.
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  He was lowered a little lower than the angels during the
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  humiliation of his passion, but then he rose and ascended,
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  crowned with glory and honor. God has set him over the works
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  of his hands, even over the angels.
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  Everything is put in subjection. Under his feet, nothing is
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  accepted. That sets the stage for the
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  final and perhaps most psychologically fascinating part
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  of this deep dive, the menagerie of the church.
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  The psalmist lists the things put under Christ's feet, all
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  sheep and oxen, yay, moreover, the beasts of the field, birds
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  of the air, and the fish of the sea, which walk through the
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  paths of the sea. Augustine analyzes this catalog
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  of animals. He starts with the good animals.
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  He says the sheep represent holy souls.
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  He even ties the sheep to the angels, referencing Christ's
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  parable of leaving the 90 and 9 sheep in the mountains to rescue
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  the one lost sheep. Augustine says the mountains are
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  the higher regions, the heavenly places and the 99 are the
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  angelic hosts. The oxen represent the ministers
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  and evangelists, Augustine quotes Paul.
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  Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn.
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  The ministers are the oxen pulling the plow of the gospel,
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  treading out the grain on the threshing floor we discussed
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  earlier. The sheep and the oxen represent
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  the Holy spiritual creation, the believers and ministers actively
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  participating in the winepress of the Church.
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  If the text had stopped there, we would have a very clean,
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  pure, visible church. But the text does not stop
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  there. Augustine zeroes in on the word
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  Moreover. Yay, moreover, the beasts of the
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  field, He says. This edition is by no means
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  idle. The.
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  Moreover, signals a shift. We are now looking at the mixed
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  multitudes still inside the church walls.
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  We are back to the husks and the chaff.
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  Agustin categorizes these church attending sinners into three
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  types of animals, beasts of the field, birds of the air, and
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  fish of the sea. Augustine maps these three
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  animals onto the three categories of vice listed by the
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  Apostle John the lust of the flesh, the pride of life, and
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  the lust of the eyes. He also maps them onto the three
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  temptations of Christ in the wilderness.
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  It is a brilliant psychological and theological synthesis.
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  Let's break them down. First, the beasts of the field.
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  Augustine says the field represents the Broadway that
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  leads to destruction. The beasts of the field are men
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  rejoicing in the pleasure of the flesh.
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  They seek nothing high, nothing laborious.
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  This corresponds to the lust of the flesh.
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  It corresponds directly to Christ's first temptation,
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  turning stones into bread. It is the raw carnal appetite.
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  These are people in the church whose primary drive is physical
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  comfort, ease, and sensual pleasure.
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  They avoid the laborious mountains of God's
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  righteousness. They want a consumer
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  Christianity that feeds their flesh without demanding any
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  exertion. Then we have the birds of the
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  ore. Augustine says these represent
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  the proud. They have set their mouth
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  against the heaven. They are carried high by the
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  wind of their own ego. They say we will magnify our
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  tongue. Our lips are our own.
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  Who is our Lord? This maps perfectly to the pride
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  of life. It corresponds to Christ's
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  second temptation, where the devil told him to cast himself
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  down from the pinnacle of the temple to be caught by angels.
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  It is the desire for spectacle, for vain boasting, for elevation
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  above others. These are the people in the pews
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  who are arrogant, puffed up by their own perceived knowledge or
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  status. They float on the winds of
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  cultural approval and self righteousness.
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  You see this in local churches when individuals care more about
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  being seen as theologically superior than they do about
• 24:05
  actual spiritual love. Finally, the fish of the sea.
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  Augustine calls the fish the curious.
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  These are the ones who walk through the paths of the sea,
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  searching in the deep after the temporal things of this world.
• 24:17
  Augustine says these temporal things vanish and perish as
• 24:19
  quickly as water comes together after a ship passes through it.
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  The psalmist says they do not just walk, they walk through the
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  paths of the sea, showing a determined earnestness to seek
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  after vain and fleeting things. This is the lust of the eyes.
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  It corresponds to Christ's third temptation, where he was shown
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  all the kingdoms of this world from a high mountain.
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  It is a relentless, restless curiosity for worldly novelty,
• 24:42
  political sway and temporal knowledge.
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  Inside the winepress of the church, you have sheep and oxen,
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  but you also have beasts driven by bodily appetite, birds driven
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  by arrogant pride, and fish driven by an insatiable,
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  restless curiosity for passing worldly things.
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  All of them are currently mingled together.
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  I want you, the listener, to evaluate this menagerie.
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  Look at your own life. Which animal represents your
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  current struggles? We all fight the flesh.
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  Are you functioning as a sheep, quietly following the shepherd?
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  Are you an ox laboring in the Word and bearing burdens for the
• 25:15
  Saints? Or are you acting as a beast,
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  seeking the broad, easy path of comfort?
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  Are you a bird, letting your pride and your tongue carry you
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  away in arrogance? Or are you a fish, constantly
• 25:28
  distracted, swimming through the deep waters of cultural
• 25:30
  obsessions and temporal vanities that will disappear like the
• 25:33
  wake of a boat? The husks and the wine are
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  mixed, but God is operating the press.
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  That brings us back to Augustine's plea.
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  May he work then in his churches and separate the wine from the
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  husks. Let us give heed that we be wine
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  and sheep or oxen. The goal of this earthly life,
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  The goal of gathering in the visible church, is to be pressed
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  into pure wine fit for the master's cellar.
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  We have covered a massive amount of theological ground today.
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  We started with Augustine's vision of the church as a noisy,
• 26:04
  crushing wine press where the visible mixture of wheat and
• 26:07
  chaff is actively being sorted in the affection.
• 26:09
  We looked at the absolute necessity of faith preceding
• 26:12
  understanding, drinking the milk of historical belief before
• 26:15
  chewing the meat of eternal knowledge.
• 26:17
  We saw the Scriptures as the heavens accommodating our
• 26:20
  weakness brought down by the finger of the Holy Ghost, and we
• 26:24
  analyzed the stark division between the earthly man of Adam
• 26:27
  and the heavenly Son of Man in Christ, ending with that
• 26:30
  brilliant breakdown of the vices and the pews.
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  I want to leave you with a final thought to Mull over.
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  Building upon this text, but pushing it directly into your
• 26:38
  daily reality. Consider Augustine's specific
• 26:41
  definition of the fish of the sea.
• 26:43
  He defines them as the curious who walk through the paths of
• 26:46
  the sea, earnestly searching after vain, fleeting temporal
• 26:50
  things that vanish quickly. In our modern age of endless
• 26:54
  scrolling, 24 hour news cycles and Internet rabbit holes,
• 26:58
  consider how much of our daily lives is spent acting like those
• 27:01
  fish We swim endlessly through oceans of digital information,
• 27:05
  chasing temporal, outrageous and fleeting novelties that
• 27:08
  disappear as soon as the next news cycle washes over them.
• 27:11
  Ask yourself, is your pursuit of information making you wise, or
• 27:14
  is it just another form of worldly vice distracting you
• 27:17
  from the eternal meat of the word?
• 27:19
  Are you a fish drowning in the temporal sea, or are you a sheep
• 27:22
  feeding on the eternal mountains?
• 27:24
  That is a heavy, necessary question for all of us to
• 27:26
  answer. Thank you for joining us for
• 27:29
  this deep dive into Augustine and Psalm 8 on Reformed
• 27:32
  thinking. Keep resting in the sovereign
• 27:34
  grace of God, keep reading the Word, and we will see you next
• 27:37
  time.