Can God be positively understood? The very respectable tradition of negative theology would claim that this is impossible and that only what God is not can be understood. There is a saying of Augustine that is often quoted in this context, “If you understand it is not God.” What did Augustine mean by this? Does this dictum not entail a contradiction in that we all understand the meaning of the word God? Did God not also reveal himself in Scripture and creation, thus opening himself to undersanding? This study sorts out the meaning and context of this saying in Augustine’s Sermon 117 and argues that an understanding of God and indeed a “touching” of God are possible for Augustine. It also argues against the obsessive and widespread attempt of some to debase humankind’s capability of understanding.