Augustine refers to “calling upon the Lord” throughout his corpus, especially in the *Confessions* and his *Expositions on the Psalms*, where the phrase becomes a programmatic description of true prayer, faith, and conversion. He reads “call upon the Lord” as a synthesis of praise, petition, and obedient faith rather than a bare verbal cry.[1][2][3]
## Confessions and Romans 10
– In *Confessions* I.1 Augustine’s famous line “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you” occurs in the context of learning to know God through prayer, raising the question “how are they to call upon the Lord until they have learned to believe in him?” (alluding to Rom 10:14). Here “calling upon” presupposes faith awakened by preaching, and Augustine ties the whole spiritual life—knowing, loving, resting in God—to this act of invocation.[4][5]
– Later Augustinian excerpts used for devotion paraphrase this same logic: God creates the heart for himself, the heart is restless, and therefore the believer must “call upon the Lord” so as to rest in him. These devotional uses faithfully reflect Augustine’s own linkage of calling on God with the movement from restlessness to rest.[6][7]
## Expositions on the Psalms
– In *Exposition on Psalm 17(18)*, commenting on “With praise will I call upon the Lord, and I shall be safe from mine enemies,” Augustine glosses: “Seeking not my own but the Lord’s glory, I will call upon Him, and there shall be no means whereby the errors of ungodliness can hurt me.” For him, *right* calling on the Lord is inseparable from seeking God’s glory and thus functions as deliverance from both inner passions and external enemies.[2]
– In *Exposition on Psalm 14*, Augustine says: “They have not called upon the Lord. For he does not really call upon Him, who longs for such things as are displeasing to Him.” This sharp sentence shows that, for Augustine, authentic calling on the Lord requires a will turned from sinful desires; a life that loves what God hates voids the sincerity of the invocation.[3]
## Homiletic use: “In praising I will call”
– In a sermon on the New Testament (Sermon 17), Augustine cites the psalmic line, “In praising I will call upon the Lord, so shall I be safe from mine enemies.” He uses it to teach that the Christian’s “defense” is precisely to praise God, so that praise itself becomes the manner of calling upon the Lord and the means of protection.[8][9][1]
– In this homiletic context Augustine weaves together Rom 10:13–14 (“everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” and “how are they to call upon him in whom they have not believed?”) with the Psalms, arguing that calling upon the Lord is the proper response to the preached Word that discloses our enemies (sin, the devil, death) and God’s saving power.[10][1]
## Theological profile of “calling upon the Lord”
– Augustine consistently assumes the Pauline order: preaching → faith → calling upon the Lord (Rom 10:14–15). Calling upon the Lord therefore functions as the outward expression of inward faith and trust, never as a mechanical formula.[5][4]
– Across the Psalms and *Confessions* he treats “calling upon the Lord” as:
– Praise that glorifies God rather than self.[2]
– Petition for deliverance from enemies, temptations, and inner passions.[3][2]
– A moral posture in which one refuses desires displeasing to God.[3]
– The culmination of the restless heart’s journey into rest in God.[7][4]
If you want specific Latin phrases and exact locations (e.g., *Enarrationes in Psalmos* 17.4, 14.6, plus *Confessions* I.1, X.27), a next step can be a brief, text‑level dossier keyed to Joel 2:32 / Rom 10:13 in Augustine’s works.
Sources
[1] Augustine on NT 6702 https://www.clerus.org/
[2] NPNF1-08. St. Augustine: Exposition on the Book of Psalms https://www.ccel.org/ccel/
[3] CHURCH FATHERS: Exposition on Psalm 14 (Augustine) https://www.newadvent.org/
[4] [PDF] BOOK I – Stanford University https://web.stanford.edu/~
[5] A word from Augustine | Growing in Public – WordPress.com https://chrismartin17.
[6] Augustine Day-By-Day February 1 – Call Upon the Lord “You have … https://www.facebook.com/
[7] FEBRUARY 1 Call Upon the Lord YOU have made us for Yourself, O … https://www.facebook.com/
[8] CHURCH FATHERS: Sermon 17 on the New Testament (Augustine) https://www.newadvent.org/
[9] Sermon XVII. – Augustine of Hippo, Sermons On Selected Lessons … https://catholiclibrary.org/
[10] Joel 2:32,Romans 10:13 KJV – And it shall come to pass, that https://www.biblegateway.com/
[11] Augustine’s Confessions – Sermon Audio https://www.sermonaudio.com/
[12] The Meaning and Significance of ἐπικαλέω in Romans 10:13 https://www.
[13] St, Augustine Expositions on the Psalms http://where-you-are.net/
[14] What does it mean that “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall … https://www.gotquestions.org/
[15] Commentary on Psalm 144, 2 PRAYER: I call upon You, my God, my … https://www.facebook.com/
