This volume represents the collaborative critical imagination of psalms studies, fostering a dialogue between close reading and an informed imagination that provides an engaging and refreshing approach to researching ancient texts. As a highly varied, challenging and inspiring text, the book of Psalms has provoked numerous interpretative and cultural responses. Consequently, a sophisticated historical reconstruction of how the Psalms were used, originally in subsequent periods is created. This emphasizes the need in critical Psalms scholarship for vitality and imagination.

The contributors provide fresh insight into the context surrounding the composition and reception of the Psalms, the relationships between the Psalms, and of early audiences who engaged with the material. Close attention is also paid to specific interpretative problems which emerge in the Psalms, both linguistic and theological. Consequently, there is the creation of a more sophisticated historical reconstruction of how the Psalms were used originally and in subsequent periods, opening up challenges and possibilities for scholars through emphasizing the need in critical Psalms scholarship for vitality and imagination.