Psalm 56 – Excerpts from Augustine

 

Psalm 56 – Excerpts from Augustine

(Updated with some paraphrase by R. Withers)

 

“Held in a winepress is His Body, that is, His Church. What does it mean to be in a winepress? It means to be subject to pressings. A grape on the vine doesn’t experience pressing, it appears whole, but nothing flows from it. When the grape is thrown into a winepress, it is walked on, stomped on, it is pressed down; it appears as if it is being harmed, but this harm is not barren; if fact, if there had been no harm, if no pressure, then that grape that appeared whole on the vine would have been barren – nothing would have flowed form it.

 

“Do not fear because man has pressed you down; let wine be produced, in fact, you’ve become a grape in order that you might be trodden down in the winepress.

 

“The first cluster pressed down is Christ…Let His Body likewise say, looking upon its Head, “Be gracious to me, O God, for man has trampled upon me,” [Psalm 56:1a]…If you look at your life and don’t have troubles, if you cannot relate to this passage and image, then perhaps you have not really begun to be a Christian…If you have not yet suffered any persecution for Christ, you should be concerned whether or not you have really started to live a godly life in Christ [2 Timothy 3:12], you should be concerned whether or not you have entered into the winepress of Christ; prepare yourself for pressings, do not be a dry grape, for then when you are pressed there will be no juice flowing from you.

 

“A grape I was, wine I shall be.”  

 

This was true of Christ, let it be true of me. This was true of the Head, so it will be true of His True and Faithful Body.

It sure seems as if much of our preaching and teaching is about avoiding the Cross of Christ, avoiding suffering for Him. Are you living your life avoiding the winepress? Or, are you embracing the Cross of Jesus Christ? Are we living in the winepress? Are others partaking of the wine of the Head poured out through His Body? Are we, in Christ, broken Bread and poured out Wine?

 

Mark 8:34 – 38; Galatians 2:20; 6:11 – 16.