The Indescribability of God

I just started reading The Confessions by St. Augustine again (because I never finished it the first time) and I was amazed by how he tries to describe God and then says how his words come no where close to truly describing God. I'm going to share it with you because it is absolutely powerful. It's in Olde English because that's the way it was first translated, so I separated the parts for easier reading. I hope this impacts you as it did me.

The Confessions Book One Chapter Four

"What, therefore is my God? What, I ask, but the Lord God?
'For who is the Lord but the Lord himself, or who is God besides our God?'
Most high,
most excellent,
most potent,
most omnipotent;
most merciful and most just;
most secret and most truly present;
most beautiful and most strong;
stable, yet not supported;
unchangeable, yet changing all things;
never new, never old;
making all things new, yet bringing old age upon the proud, and yet they know it not;
always working, ever at rest;
gathering, yet needing nothing;
sustaining, pervading, and protecting;
creating, nourishing, and developing;
seeking, and yet possessing all things.
Thou dost love, but without passion;
art jealous, yet free from care;
dost repent without remorse;
art angry, yet remainest serene.
Thou changest thy ways, leaving thy plans unchanged;
thou recoverest what thou hast never really lost.
Thou art never in need but still thou dost rejoice at thy gains;
art never greedy, yet demandest dividends.
Men pay more than is required so that thou dost become a debtor;
yet who can possess anything at all which is not already thine?
Thou owest men nothing, yet payest out to them as if in debt to thy creature,
and when thou dost cancel debts thou losest nothing thereby.
Yet, O my God,
my life,
my holy Joy,
what is this that I have said?
What can any man say when he speaks of thee?
But woe to them that keep silence---since even those who say most are dumb."

(St. Augustine, 7-8).

Here's the citation so no one calls me out for plagiarism.

Augustine, St. The Confessions. Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson, 2004. 7-8.