Psalms as Poetry: The Language of Wonder, Prayer, and Praise

The message of the Bible is urgent and comprehensive. Why then is it written in the compressed and concise language of poetry? Some find the Bible's poetry irrelevant; others consider poetic language something to be decoded and ultimately discarded so as to arrive at summary, theme, or sermon. Psalms as Poetry: The Language of Wonder, Prayer, and Praise takes what is known as the "little Bible," the book of Psalms, and listens to its language. Its poetry is inescapable. But more importantly, it is revelatory.

Moving beyond standard taxonomies and tropes, this book explores the imagination, sound, metaphor, lines, form, and theology of poetry. Distinct from other approaches, Psalms as Poetry reads the Bible alongside modern poetry. George Herbert, Malcolm Guite, A. E. Stallings, Mary Oliver, Wendell Berry, Michael O’Siadhail, R. S. Thomas, Seamus Heaney, and more direct our attention to the world of poetic language. Modern poetry is not identical to the Hebrew poetry of the Psalms. Yet, in attending to the nature of modern poetry we are ready to leave entrenched positions and overworked labels in Psalms study and see what has always been in the poetry of Psalms: a language latent, lucid, and generative.

This book is for scholars and students. Many of the advancements in the study of Hebrew poetry and Psalms are summarized and at times furthered. Students and interested readers will profit from the discussion, analysis, and illustrations throughout the body of the chapters. Scholars will benefit from chapters on understudied topics in biblical poetry, such as imagination, sound, and theology, as well as the rich examples and the technical details in the footnotes. In all, Psalms as Poetry draws readers to the countless ways the Psalter elicits wonder and prompts both prayer and praise.