Wenham shows us how to approach the Psalms (free book)

Skip to content

Gordon Wenham’s excellent book “The Psalter Reclaimed: Praying and Praising with the Psalms” is free this month (Nov 2021).

Gordon Wenham’s ebook, The Psalter Reclaimed: Praying and Praising with the Psalms is free this month (November 2021).

I’ve learned heaps from Wenham about understanding the Old Testament in context. Particularly, his commentaries on Genesis (2 volumes, WBC) and Leviticus (NICOT) and Numbers (TCOT) are so insightful, and Story as Torah: Reading Old Testament Narrative Ethically (T&T Clark, 2000) makes sense of difficult passages.

In this book, he guides us to the Psalms, showing us how to:

  1. celebrate the God revealed in the Psalms
  2. present our needs to him
  3. read Psalms in the context of the whole story of Scripture
  4. understand Psalms in light of the Messiah
  5. apply the ethics of the Psalms
  6. handle the imprecatory Psalms

He then pulls it all together with a specific example from Psalm 103, before the final chapter on how the other nations fit with the Psalms.

Do you treat the Psalms as stand-alone songs? Or were they assembled in a meaningful way, so that one Psalm relates to the others around it? How do you read them in context?

Chapter 7 shows how. From Psalm 103: The Song of Steadfast Love:

So in this exposition of Psalm 103, I want to read it as the editors of the Psalter understood it. This will involve looking at its place in the Psalter, its connections with other psalms (especially those close to it), and its title.

The first thing to note is that it begins and ends with the exhortation, “Bless the LORD, O my soul.” This links Psalm 103 to the immediately following Psalm 104, which also begins and ends with those words. Psalm 104 praises the perfection of God’s creation; it is a poetic paraphrase of Genesis 1. Psalm 105 sums up the story of Israel from the patriarchs to the exodus. And, finally, Psalm 106 concludes book 4 of the Psalter by recounting Israel’s sins in the wilderness, that is, the stories found in Exodus to Deuteronomy. In other words, Psalms 104 to 106 are a poetic recapitulation of the Pentateuch, Genesis to Deuteronomy.
— Gordon Wenham, The Psalter Reclaimed: Praying and Praising with the Psalms (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2013).

The link above works with Logos Bible Software. Like Kindle, the software is free and you pay for the books you want. You can read it on your phone or tablet (iOS or Android) or computer (PC or Mac). There are free books each month from Logos, Faithlife and Verbum. Wenham’s book is the one Faithlife one.

Enjoy.

Related posts

Seeking to understand Jesus in the terms he chose to describe himself: son of man (his identity), and kingdom of God (his mission). Riverview College Dean
View all posts by Allen Browne

Post navigation

Give

Subscribe to the Daybreak Devotions for Women

Be inspired by God's Word every day! Delivered to your inbox.


More from Allen Browne

Editor's Picks

  • featureImage

    Gratitude on the Go — Carol McLeod Ministries

    In case you have forgotten this important piece of information about my life or have somehow missed it – my daily walks are nothing if not legendary . I have had numerous divine appointments with needy, hurting people as I saunter along my 3-mile route in the neighborhoods near my home.

    7 min read
  • featureImage

    It’s crazy to be ‘crazy busy’

    By Elizabeth Prata SYNOPSIS The seventh day, sanctified by God for rest, underlines a universal need for downtime. Studies indicate productivity diminishes beyond 55-hour workweeks, showing GodR…

    8 min read

More from Allen Browne