Showing posts with label psalms. Show all posts
Showing posts with label psalms. Show all posts

Introduction to the Psalms Review

Introduction to the Psalms
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
DeClaisse-Walford's short introduction to the Psalms is a helpful text for those who want an honest, academic overview without huge numbers of details. It is particularly lay-friendly, and puts the psalms in context quite clearly.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Introduction to the Psalms

Introduction to the Psalms: A Song from Ancient Israel seeks to provide the reader with a solid introduction to the Hebrew Psalter, one that is informed by an interest in its shape and shaping. Its author, Nancy deClaissé-Walford, provides an up-to-date study on the poetic style of the psalms in the Psalter, their Gattungen or genres, the broad shape of the book, and the history of its shaping. She introduces each of the five books of the Psalter, providing a detailed examination of those individual psalms that are either key to the shaping of the Psalter or interesting studies in poetic style. In the final chapter, deClaissé-Walford draws conclusions about the shape of the Psalter and about its story and message. She proposes a way to read the Psalms as a unified whole and in relationship to one another rather than as individual pieces. giving an inclusive, all-encompassing shape to the Psalter.Included are two appendices that provide a listing of the Superscriptions and Gattungen of the psalms in the Hebrew Psalter and an explanation of many of the technical terms found in their superscriptions.

Buy Now

Click here for more information about Introduction to the Psalms

Read More...

On the Book of Psalms: Exploring the Prayers of Ancient Israel Review

On the Book of Psalms: Exploring the Prayers of Ancient Israel
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Believe it or not, it's hard to find a good commentary on the Book of Psalms. I screen for two things--books that are too "spiritual" and books that are too "Christian" ("Christological," to be more precise). As far as spirituality goes, I feel fully cabable of having my own spiritual or devotional response to the Psalms. I don't need books to tell me how to feel. (One of the truly amazing things about the Psalms is that they evoke different responses every time one reads them.) Nor do I need books that explain away the uglier aspects of the psalms, such as the powerful vengeance motif found in Psalm 137:8,9 ("Happy are those who pay you [Babylon] back for what you have done to us--who take your babies and smash them against a rock.") Similarly, while I enjoy hearing psalms read in church and understand that part of what Christians know and believe about Jesus Christ is based on the way the first Christians read and understood the Psalms, I do not have a compelling need to see every verse of every psalm as a one-way vector pointing to Christ.
Sarna's book consists of a short introduction (20 pages) and commentary on a mere ten psalms (1, 8, 19, 15, 24, 30, 48, 82, 93, and 94). But as limited as this selection is, Sarna is able to introduce us to a good range of biblical themes and to equip us to continue our exploration of the Psalms on our own. Sarna is an excellent biblical scholar and the author of the Genesis and Exodus volumes in the Jewish Publication Society's Torah Commentary Series. He appreciates the psalms as ancient texts that share traits with other writings from the ancient Near East. Any intelligent, open-minded Jew or Christian looking for a way to deepen his or her own experience of reading the psalms need not fear that Sarna has an agenda to dismantle their faith and debunk everything they treasure. The grounding and context that Sarna provides will only enrich your psalm-reading experience.
If you have never read the Psalms all the way through, start with this book. It's only 200 pages long (excluding endnotes), but it tells you everything you need to know to get started. Hopefully, one day Sarna will publish commentary on the other one hundred forty Psalms.

Click Here to see more reviews about: On the Book of Psalms: Exploring the Prayers of Ancient Israel

This book is the result of a lifetime of study of the Hebrew Bible by a mature scholar whose love of the Tanakh, and especially of the Psalter, shines through on every page.

Buy NowGet 25% OFF

Click here for more information about On the Book of Psalms: Exploring the Prayers of Ancient Israel

Read More...