On Christian Teaching: Signs, Symbols, and Psalms

In reading Book II of On Christian Teaching, I was struck by chapter 7 "Steps to Wisdom". This chapter stood out to me because it brought back a controversial issue we discussed while reading the psalms. According to Augustine, "fear of God is the beginning of wisdom". Later in Book II, Augustine writes that "those who fear God...seek the will of God". Even though the psalms we read were Jewish texts and Augustine wrote about Christian Scriptures, there is still the idea that one must fear God in order to follow his will. However I don't understand how the "Steps to Wisdom" ultimately lead to fearing God. For the majority of the chapter, Augustine states "God is to be loved with all the heart" and talks about man loving his neighbor as he loves himself. The whole chapter seemingly has an upbeat and loving perception of God, stating that by following these steps man ascends into peace and tranquility. This sentence is immediately followed by the statement that fearing god is the beginning of wisdom. I definitely got an impression from the psalms that it is wise to fear God, however I fundamentally disagree with this idea on a personal level. Seeing this continuation of God-fearing mentality in religion from Jewish psalms to Christian teachings shows how religious principles get passed on through the centuries. You can see the influence that the psalms had on Augustine's writings.
On another note, I did find the ideas in the reading to be helpful for interpreting psalms and scriptures in terms of the concept of using simple scriptures to figure out more obscure passages. This is definitely true when thinking about the historical references of the psalms. Some of the psalms we read have a historical context that changes how one can interpret it. In this sense, some of the psalms are a sign for events in Jewish history. I also thought it was interesting how Book II fit into our definition of religion as a system of symbols establishing moods and motivations. In this reading, Augustine referred to the words in scriptures as signs that indicate “all manners of faith and way of life”. While scriptures definitely have a symbolic meaning in religion, it was interesting to think about breaking down that meaning to units of words. As single units, words seem rather insignificant as far as being religious signs or symbols. On the other hand, it shows how powerful words can be that when they are used together they create the moods and motivations of religion.