Book Review: Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: Psalms 1-50 ed. by C. Blaising and C. Hardin

Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: Old Testament VII: Psalms 1-50 edited by Craig A. Blaising and Carmen S. Hardin

This commentary provides an overview of patristic thought on the first third of the Psalms. The book has the text of each psalm (the translation is the Revised Standard Version) followed by a synopsis of the comments from the ancient Fathers of the Church. After that is texts from the Fathers (usually a paragraph of commentary, see the sample texts below), with citations for further research. 

This book is valuable as a study guide for exploring the Psalms as the earliest Christians saw them. The Fathers range from the first disciples of the apostles down to Saint Augustine in the 400s. They have a lot of interesting insights intot the meaning of the psalms. The commentaries also provide a way to pray the psalms more deeply by extending the time a reader spends with each psalm, highlighting nuances that can be passed over with a quicker reading.

I found this very valuable and am looking forward to the next volume.

Highly recommended.

Some sample texts:

From the commentary on Psalm 29, by Basil the Great on false glory:

The cedar is at time praised by Scripture as a stable tree, free from decay, fragrant, and adequate for supplying shelter, but at times it is attacked as unfruitful and hard to bend, so that it offers a representation of impiety.

And from the commentary on Psalm 32, by Caesarius of Arles on confession:

God wants us to confess our sins, not because he himself cannot know them but because the devil longs to find something to charge us with before the tribunal of the eternal Judge and wants us to defend rather than to acknowledge our sins. Our God, on the contrary, because he is good and merciful, wants us to confess them in this world so we will not be confounded by them later on in the world to come.

And from the commentary on Psalm 42, by Augustine on seeing God:

"Where is your God?" If a pagan says this to me, I cannot retort, "What about you? Where is your God?" because the pagan can point to his god. He indicates some stone with his finger and says, "Look, there's my god! Where is yours?" If I laugh at the stone, and the pagan who pointed it out is embarrassed, he looks away from the stone toward the sky; then perhaps he points to the sun and says again, "Look, there's my god! Where is yours?" He has found something he can demonstrate to my bodily eyes. For me it is different, not because I have nothing to demonstrate but because he lacks the kind of eyes to which I could demonstrate it. He was able to point the sun out to my bodily eyes as his god, but how can I point out to any eyes he has the sun's Creator?

Book Review: A Joyful Noise by Mike Aquilina

A Joyful Noise: Praying the Psalms with the Early Church by Mike Aquilina

Aquilina changes up his usual devotional format in this book that explores the Psalms through the eyes of the Church Fathers. Each Psalm has a brief introductory comment, the Psalms itself, followed by a callout of a few lines from the Psalm that show a key insight. Then he has a commentary from one or two of the Church Fathers. The end has another callout with questions to reflect on, looking at ways to apply the messages in your own life. The book only covers thirty-five Psalms, to keep it a manageable length (just over 200 pages). The book ends with a bunch of biographies of the cited Church Fathers which have their own charm, life stories ever ancient and ever new.

I like the format Aquilina uses which is more robust than other devotionals. The presentation is a nice way to get more insight into some of the PsalmsIt also inspires the reader to explore the rest of the Psalter and of the Church Fathers too.

Highly recommended.

Book Review: The Book of Psalms A Translation with Commentary by Robert Alter

The Book of Psalms A Translation with Commentary by Robert Alter

Having listened to Alter's translation and commentary on the Book of Genesis on the Forgotten Classics podcast, I was looking forward to reading this book and finding out more about the Psalms.

The introduction covers the historical and literary background of the Psalms. The discussion gets a bit technical, especially reviewing the nuances of the Hebrew language and the various purposes, styles, and quirks of ancient poetry. The text is rather dense and requires a re-reading to get a better sense of it all. The effort is worth it.

The translation of the Psalms walks the hard line of conveying both the more literal sense of the words and the (to modern ears) foreign cadence and rhythm of Hebrew poetry from thousands of years ago. Often, ideas are repeated in the Psalms to give them more vividness or more concreteness, such as in Psalm 35: 5-6, where the psalmist prays for his enemies to undergo misfortune: "Let them be like chaff before the wind,/with the LORD's messenger driving. [6]May their way be darkness and slippery paths,/ with the LORD's messenger chasing them." (p. 122)

Alter's comments point out sections where the text is difficult to translate due to awkward constructions, which may be due as much to scribal error as to the poetic license of the author. He's honest enough to admit when he is making intelligent guesses and presents his decisions well enough to be persuasive.

Alter more or less rejects a theological interpretation of the texts and limits such comments mostly to possible liturgical uses by the ancient Hebrews or how they compare to other ancient texts and poems about the gods. On the other hand, he often compares the Psalms to other biblical literature, like Job, Ecclesiastes, and the Pentateuch (as well as other Psalms) to give a context for and a possible explanation of difficult passages or to highlight a contrast. For example, in Psalm 37:25, the psalmist says, "A lad I was, and now I am old,/ and I never have seen a just man forsaken." (p. 132) Alter points out this is the exact opposite of what Job argues in his book, that the suffering of a man is not necessarily because he has done something evil. Alter puts it this way: "The Job poet challenges this received wisdom and proposes a more complicated, indeed paradoxical, moral vision." (p. 132, footnote to verse 25)

The footnote ends there and left me wanting more. More than just saying, "they don't agree." It left me wanting a deeper exploration if not some final say on the matter. The book lays aside 2500 years of Jewish and Christian reflection on the Psalms in favor of the ancient context that is less relevant to our lives today, if not less interesting.  I did enjoy the book but it was not fully satisfying for me. It's a strange result since I liked his translation and commentary on Genesis so much. Perhaps the historical context is more relevant for that book of the Bible than it is for the Psalms.

Book Review: Singing in the Reign by Michael Barber

Singing in the Reign: The Psalms and the Liturgy of God's Kingdom gives the reader a theology of the Psalms focused on the Davidic covenant and the longing for the restoration of Israel. The Psalms reflect the understanding and expectations of God's people throughout salvation history. First, the author looks at the covenants God made with Adam, Abraham, Moses, and David. Second, he shows David's as the culmination of the Old Testament covenants. David is entrusted to rule God's people. After the kingdom of Israel is divided and exiled, the later Psalms show the longing to return to the Promised Land and to be reunited (the northern kingdom was carried off, never to return; the southern kingdom eventually returned under Persian Emperor Xerxes circa 539 BC). Basically they long for the restoration of David's kingdom. Third, the author gives both a high-level analysis of the entire book of Psalms and a low-level look at the individual Psalms. Finally, he shows how Christ fulfills this desire to see God's kingdom restored. Christ explicitly claims He is restoring the kingdom, though not in the political or military way some expected. His Church is the fulfillment of that kingdom, inviting all nations and peoples to worship the loving Father of the Jewish covenants.

The book is a fairly quick read, though in the introduction Scott Hahn recommends re-reading this book several times to gain greater insight into the Psalms. The book is jam-packed with fascinating ideas that are well-grounded in the Bible and well-reasoned. The emphasis on David's covenant and the restoration of the kingdom is something I hadn't considered before. I've gained new appreciation of what the Psalms are saying and how they fit in to salvation history, a part of which is my own salvation. Finding that relevance is important. Praying the Psalms is not just a corporate act of the Body of Christ or a pleasant-sounding hymn on Sunday, but a real encounter with God, both presenting one's own expectations and listening to God's call for us to come to Him, to love Him as He loves us. Such a give-and-take is made possible by the greater understanding given by books like Michael Barber's Singing in the Reign. I plan to add this book to Thomas More's The Sadness of Christ as spiritual reading for Lent next year.