Augustine on Prayer

For our Advent series through the exilic psalms, I was reading through Augustine’s expositions of the Psalms. His comments on prayer from Ps 77:2 struck me:

But many people cry to the Lord about riches they hope to gain or losses they want to avoid, or for safety of their nearest and dearest, or for the security of their household, or temporal happiness, or worldly advancement; or even perhaps for bodily fitness, which is wealth to a poor man. Many people pray for these and similar things to the Lord, but hardly anyone prays for the Lord himself. Indeed it seems quite easy for a person to want something from the Lord without wanting the Lord himself, as though anything he gives could be more delightful than the giver.

Our focal passage for memorization and meditation for this study was Ps 73:25-26.

Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

In my mind, Augustine captures the spirit of these psalms with his call to pray for the Lord himself. What good news we’re reminded of at Christmas that we have God himself come to his in the person of his Son.