How to Read and Understand the Psalms

Preface

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Hermeneutics: Interpreting the Psalms as Believers

Chapter 3: The Historical Setting

Chapter 4: The Royal Orientation of the Psalms

Chapter 5: The Liturgical Setting

Chapter 6: Hebrew Poetry

Chapter 7: Form Criticism and Psalm Forms

Chapter 8: Praise Psalms

Chapter 9: Petition-Lament Psalms

Chapter 10: Individual Songs of Grateful Praise

Chapter 11: Songs of Trust

Chapter 12: Messianic Psalms

Chapter 13: Didactic Psalms

Chapter 14: Rhetorical Devices and Structures

Chapter 15: The Final Arrangement of the Psalter

Appendix 1: Superscripts, Postscripts, or Both

Appendix 2: A Canonical Process Approach to the Psalms

Appendix 3: Psalm Forms Summary

Bibliography

Scripture Index

“As has often been said, the Psalms reflect every aspect of the human soul. Without them, our worship would be impoverished and less honest, lacking the elements of righteous anger, confusion, and dejection that so often permeate the Psalms. Bruce Waltke and Fred Zaspel have provided us with a gem of a book that opens up fresh insights into the structure, meaning, and purpose of the Psalms. This book crystallizes the fruit of long careers of devoted scholarship with clarity, insight, and skill. Hopefully this book will drive the church back to the Psalms to gain much-needed courage and nourishment. What a wonderful gift to the church.”

Derek W. H. Thomas, Senior Minister, First Presbyterian Church, Columbia, South Carolina; Chancellor’s Professor, Reformed Theological Seminary; Teaching Fellow, Ligonier Ministries

“The most obvious virtue of How to Read and Understand the Psalms is its scope. An appropriate subtitle for the book might be What You Always Wanted to Know about the Psalms. As part of this admirable scope, detailed explications of specific psalms balance the chapters that explore the topics important to scholarship on the Psalms.”

Leland Ryken, Emeritus Professor of English, Wheaton College

“This work by Waltke and Zaspel is a milestone achievement, encapsulating a lifetime of study in an accessible form that will serve students, pastors, and anyone else who wants to deepen and enrich their understanding of the book of Psalms.”

Iain M. Duguid, Professor of Old Testament, Westminster Theological Seminary

“Bruce Waltke and Fred Zaspel have provided the academy and the church with a rich and comprehensive book on how to read and understand the Psalms. Years of scholarship and devotion come to fruition in this masterpiece. It is an essential read for those studying the Psalms.”

Mark D. Futato, Robert L. Maclellan Professor of Old Testament, Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando

“What better way to encounter the book of Psalms—a book with such a wide range of topics, emotions, and types of psalms—than through the eyes of a skilled interpreter like Bruce Waltke, assisted by experienced pastor and writer Fred Zaspel. Waltke has spent the better part of a lifetime pondering the Psalms and wisdom literature, and it shows in this eminently readable introduction. It is at once engaging, insightful, and uplifting. I heartily recommend it.”

David M. Howard Jr., Professor of Old Testament, Bethlehem College & Seminary; author, The Structure of Psalms 93–100; coeditor, The Psalms: Language for All Seasons of the Soul and Reading the Psalms Theologically

“A few years ago, I visited the Jeita Grotto in Lebanon. Hidden beneath a nondescript hillside of rock and scrub lies a vast underground cavern, a gallery of dizzying vistas, towering earth sculptures, and precarious chasms—all of it stunningly beautiful. This book feels like that. Waltke and Zaspel take us into and under the Psalter and show a huge, dazzling world teeming there. I’m stumped to know what else could have gone into this monumental book. It is scholarly, highly readable, instantly useful, spilling with insight, and massively comprehensive. The material on David alone is worth the price of the book. Every serious reader, teacher, and preacher of the Psalms needs a copy.”

Mark Buchanan, author, David: Rise and David: Reign