On the Book of Psalms: Exploring the Prayers of Ancient Israel [Paperback]

Nahum M. Sarna (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 3, 1995

This book is the result of a lifetime of study of the Hebrew Bible by a mature scholar whose love of the Tanakh, and especially of the Psalter, shines through on every page.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This book is the result of a lifetime of study of the Hebrew Bible by a mature scholar whose love of the Tanakh, and especially of the Psalter, shines through on every page. It is a beautiful book written in a poetic style worthy of the psalms themselves."

-- James A. Sanders, Professor of Biblical Studies, The School of Theology at Claremont, and President of the Ancient Biblical Manuscript Center

"A towering scholar elucidates not only the scholarly issues involved in the psalms, but also the way these powerful religious texts impart their emotional and spiritual message. Sarna leaves us with a fresh understanding of the Psalter that will inspire Jew and Christian alike."

-- Hershel Shanks, Editor of Bible Review and Biblical Archaeology Review

"The psalms speak to every aspect of the human condition, and are as timely today as when they were first written. Their message comes through with strength and beauty in Nahum Sarna's work."

-- Robert McAfee Brown, Professor Emeritus of Theology and Ethics, Pacific School of Religion

From the Inside Flap

This book is the result of a lifetime of study of the Hebrew Bible by a mature scholar whose love of the Tanakh, and especially of the Psalter, shines through on every page.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: Schocken (January 3, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805210237
• ISBN-13: 978-0805210231
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.6 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #96,496 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #70 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Bible & Other Sacred Texts > Jewish Texts > Hebrew Bible (Old Testament)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If it were any better, it would be Scripture, July 28, 2001

By 

Charles S. Houser (Binghamton, NY) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: On the Book of Psalms: Exploring the Prayers of Ancient Israel (Paperback)

Believe it or not, it's hard to find a good commentary on the Book of Psalms. I screen for two things--books that are too "spiritual" and books that are too "Christian" ("Christological," to be more precise). As far as spirituality goes, I feel fully cabable of having my own spiritual or devotional response to the Psalms. I don't need books to tell me how to feel. (One of the truly amazing things about the Psalms is that they evoke different responses every time one reads them.) Nor do I need books that explain away the uglier aspects of the psalms, such as the powerful vengeance motif found in Psalm 137:8,9 ("Happy are those who pay you [Babylon] back for what you have done to us--who take your babies and smash them against a rock.") Similarly, while I enjoy hearing psalms read in church and understand that part of what Christians know and believe about Jesus Christ is based on the way the first Christians read and understood the Psalms, I do not have a compelling need to see every verse of every psalm as a one-way vector pointing to Christ.

Sarna's book consists of a short introduction (20 pages) and commentary on a mere ten psalms (1, 8, 19, 15, 24, 30, 48, 82, 93, and 94). But as limited as this selection is, Sarna is able to introduce us to a good range of biblical themes and to equip us to continue our exploration of the Psalms on our own. Sarna is an excellent biblical scholar and the author of the Genesis and Exodus volumes in the Jewish Publication Society's Torah Commentary Series. He appreciates the psalms as ancient texts that share traits with other writings from the ancient Near East. Any intelligent, open-minded Jew or Christian looking for a way to deepen his or her own experience of reading the psalms need not fear that Sarna has an agenda to dismantle their faith and debunk everything they treasure. The grounding and context that Sarna provides will only enrich your psalm-reading experience.

If you have never read the Psalms all the way through, start with this book. It's only 200 pages long (excluding endnotes), but it tells you everything you need to know to get started. Hopefully, one day Sarna will publish commentary on the other one hundred forty Psalms.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars new wine in old bottles, August 26, 2002

By 

Michael Lewyn (Forest Hills, NY) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: On the Book of Psalms: Exploring the Prayers of Ancient Israel (Paperback)

Another reviewer has already described the book's format and brilliance, so I won't do that. But what struck me as unique about this book is how Sarna compares Psalms and pagan equivalents -- that is, how Jews took the old bottles of pagan concepts and figures of speech, but filled them with the new wine of monotheistic theology. For example, Sarna points out that Mesopotamian prayers speak of pagan sun gods as resting at the end of the day, and as a runner traversing heaven and earth. Psalms 19:5-7 similarly describes the sun, but makes it clear that the sun's "running" and "resting" is one of the miracles of God's creation rather than the behavior of an independent sun-god. Reading Sarna, I could almost imagine the lights going on in Hebrew heads as they thought: "Well, it's all very well and good for my sun-worshipping neighbors to say that the sun runs around the sky -- but who created the sun?"

2 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars On the Book of Psalms, May 15, 2007

By 

KIM KEE SIK "±è±â½Ä" (Seoul, South Korea.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: On the Book of Psalms: Exploring the Prayers of Ancient Israel (Paperback)

I must study ps82.
This book was very good conference.

Thank you.