I write about Stuff

Revisiting the Psalmist

Tremper Longman III’s “How to Read the Psalms” (2nd edition) encourages readers to appreciate the psalms as central to understanding God’s relationship with humanity. The book is structured into three parts, focusing on their relevance today, artistic features, and in-depth explorations of select psalms. It includes practical exercises and prompts for deeper reflection.

Suzie Gallagher

11 Nov 2024

1–2 minutes

book review, Father, God, Holy Spirit, How to read the psalms, Jesus, Jesus Christ, love, old testament, psalm, psalmist, Psalms, tremper longman III

How to read the psalms by Tremper Longman III (2^nd edition)

The first edition of this book was published in 1988 and it was one of the books I dipped into when I was studying the psalms at bible college. I have been therefore intrigued to read this edition.

Tremper says he wants this book will

“encourage the next generation of readers to understand and love this book of songs, poems and prayers that bring us into intimate relationship with God.”

The parts of the books are clearly labelled:

Part One: The Psalms Then and Now

Part Two: The Art of the Psalms

Part Three: A Melody of Psalms

Really encouraging for me is Chapter 3 where Tremper talks about the Psalms being at the heart of the Bible. Literally in the middle of the Bible when we open up the word of God and more than that it is the heart story of the overarching meta narrative of God’s plan of redemption for all of creation. At the end of the chapter he invites us, the readers to ask when we read a psalm, “what is the psalm communicating about God and his covenant relationship to his people?”

The ending of some chapters have exercises to help us in our quest to read the psalms, some suggested further study and further reading.

The most helpful part for me was part three. This is where Tremper goes in depth with three psalms. He chose Psalms 98, 69 and 30. This for me was golden. Nugget upon nugget of heart knowledge for me to store up. In the first as he describes Psalm 98 stanza by stanza I can hear the roar of praise getting louder and louder to a crescendo of praising instruments, voices and nature. And then Jesus – what is this psalm telling us about our Lord and Saviour: Praise Jesus who has saved us in the past, is our King in the present and will be our Judge in the future.

I highly recommend this book as a read all the way through, pick the chapter you need today and as a studying theology course book.