Expositions on the Psalms — Psalm 55

St. Augustine of Hippo

1. Chapter 1
2. Chapter 2
3. Chapter 3
4. Chapter 4
5. Chapter 5
6. Chapter 6
7. Chapter 7
8. Chapter 8
9. Chapter 9
10. Chapter 10
11. Chapter 11
12. Chapter 12
13. Chapter 13
14. Chapter 14
15. Chapter 15
16. Chapter 16
17. Chapter 17
18. Chapter 18
19. Chapter 19
20. Chapter 20
21. Chapter 21
22. Chapter 22
23. Chapter 23
24. Chapter 24
25. Chapter 25
26. Chapter 26

Of this Psalm the title is: At the end, in hymns, understanding to David himself. What the end is, we will briefly call to your recollection, because you have known it. For the end of the Law is Christ, for righteousness unto every man believing. [[Romans 10.4]] Be the attention therefore directed unto the End, directed unto Christ. Wherefore is He called the end? Because whatever we do, to Him we refer it, and when to Him we shall have come home, more to ask we shall not have. For there is an end spoken of which does consume, there is an end spoken of which does make perfect. In one sense, for instance, we understand it, when we hear, there is ended the food which was in eating; and in another sense we understand it when we hear, there is ended the vesture which was in weaving: in each case we hear, there is ended; but the food so that it no longer is, the vesture so that it is perfected. Our end therefore ought to be our perfection, our perfection Christ. For in Him we are made perfect, because of Himself the Head, the Members are we. And he has been spoken of as the End of the Law, because without Him no one does make perfect the Law. When therefore you hear in the Psalms, At the end, — for many Psalms are thus superscribed — be not your thought upon consuming, but upon consummation.