-
Brueggemann’s Typology of Function Paradigm
Walter Brueggemann’s essay Psalms and the Life of Faith: A Suggested Typology of Function [1] initiated nothing less than a new paradigm of psalms interpretation. It has much to commend it. In particular it has been adopted by others because of its strength in bridging the often wide gap between scholarship on the Psalms and… Continue reading
-
Review: ‘Finding God in the Psalms: Sing, pray, live’
Wright, Tom, Finding God in the Psalms: Sing, pray, live, London: SPCK Publishing, 2014. This review is a copy of the one I posted on the same book under its US title of The Case for the Psalms: Why they are essential Tom Wright is well known as a prolific author of Christian books. For… Continue reading
-
An Acrostic of Psalms Books
A number of the Psalms take the form of acrostics, in other words they make use of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, one by one, to begin a verse or series of verses (see earlier article on acrostics). This poetic device raises complications for the poet. This post uses this device to identify 26… Continue reading
-
‘Psalms – New Cambridge Bible Commentary’, by Walter Brueggemann and William H. Bellinger, Jr.
Walter Brueggemann and William H. Bellinger, Psalms, New Cambridge Bible Commentary, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2014). Opening Remarks It has seemed like a long wait for this commentary. Both authors have a strong track record with Psalms scholarship. Walter Brueggemann’s contribution to Psalms scholarship, in particular, is immense. He famously initiated little less than a… Continue reading
-
‘A Journey of Two Psalms’ by Susan Gillingham
Susan Gillingham, A Journey of Two Psalms: The reception of Psalms 1 & 2 in Jewish & Christian tradition, Oxford: Oxford University Press (2013). Those who follow the more academic literature on the psalms will know that Susan Gillingham has already made some highly significant contributions to psalms scholarship. She is the author of The… Continue reading
-
Lessons from The Wall and The Psalter
This short post was inspired by Pink Floyd’s The Wall. You might be wondering, at this point, if you are reading the right blog. Please trust me for just a little longer! The Wall is a concept album that was released in 1979. It is the story of a life, a sad narrative of decline.… Continue reading
-
150 Days of Psalms
For almost a year now I have, on a daily basis, Tweeted a psalm. In my personal devotions I have focused on that psalm for the day, which sometimes has led to other Tweets. The plan has been to work from psalm 1 to psalm 150. I have now done this twice. Some of the… Continue reading
-
Psalms for the New Year
The Christian life has many challenges. One of the common problems encountered, in our devotional life, is a lack of passion and enthusiasm for finding time to spend in prayer and Bible reading. This malaise rarely appears overnight. More usually it is a slow process helped by a self-deception that does not want to admit… Continue reading
-
‘The Case for the Psalms: Why they are essential’ by Tom Wright
Tom Wright is well known as a prolific author of Christian books. For example, he is working on a massive scholarly project, of which three volumes are in print and a fourth is imminent, on nothing less than the whole of the New Testament and its implications for Christian doctrine. Thus his academic expertise includes… Continue reading
-
Psalms of Ascents as a Devotional Pilgrimage
There are times in the Life of Faith when, for a variety of reasons, our walk with God, and the associated discipline of reading Scripture, becomes a struggle. Once in this situation it can be difficult to find a way out of this bad routine. My personal reading through the Psalms of Ascents recently has… Continue reading
About Me
This blog’s central aim is to explore all aspects of how the Psalter (the biblical psalms) functions as Scripture today.
To this end it will also include book reviews on the Book of Psalms and related topics.
Some posts will reflect more broadly on biblical interpretation or hermeneutics.
If you like what you see here and want to arrange for me to give a lecture, run a teaching event or a short retreat based around The Psalms then contact me so we can discuss how this might work.
PsalterMark 