Customer Reviews

The Lord Reigns - A Theological Handbook to the Psalms

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Mays' thesis is that the root metaphor of Psalms is the proclamation "the LORD reigns."

Prior to reading his book, I was skeptical about that idea, but now I can see his argument has more justification than I had originally thought.

A good case can be made that Mays' thesis subsumes the "centers" postulated by competing theories. For example, "torah" as root metaphor can be related to "the LORD reigns" through the observation that the torah in question is not that of Moses but of David which serves to "teach" God's people that "the LORD reigns."

The subordination of other central metaphors is even more apparent. Since the Israelite kings reigned as God's regents, the notion of the "messiah" as the center is easily related to "the LORD reigns."

Bruggemann's theory on the progression from orientation to disorientation to reorientation can also be viewed as the application of Mays' thesis to the vicissitudes of Israelite experiences.

Wisdom psalms extend the notion of "the LORD reigns" beyond God's elect to every nation on earth through the language of creation theology. Other subcategories of Psalms such as creation hymns, hymns of Zion, royal psalms, etc. also have obvious affinities to "the LORD reigns."

Mays offers other valuable insights apart from his treatment of the root metaphor behind the Psalms. I particularly like (1) his listing of dissonances between our culture and the world of ancient Israel on pages 9 and 70, (2) his observations on the imprecatory psalms on page 38, (3) his explanation for the absence of lament in modern worship on page 48, and (4) his interpretation of Ps 100 in chapter 8.

-- Bill Brewer