Customer Reviews

Praying the Psalms: Engaging Scripture and the Life of the Spirit

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Walter Brueggemann, one of the (perhaps "the") OT scholar of our time classifies Psalms into three categories (following other Psalms scholars):

* Psalms of Orientation
* Psalms of Disorientation
* Psalms of Reorientation

This view is part of the cannonical view of the Psalter that takes the arrangement of the Psalter (what is placed in each of the five books of the Psalter) as key to its interpretation.

Highly recommended as a brief introduction to Brueggemann's classification. Other Psalms scholarship is better for a more detailed (scholarly) approach.

Also, you really don't find detailed instructions of the form, "Here is how you pray the Psalms..." If you're looking for that, you might try one of the books by Phyllis Tickle: The Divine HoursTM, Pocket Edition (This is the condensed edition. The three-edition set is the full edition, but this is a good, inexpensive introduction to fixed hour prayer.)

This looks to be a beautiful book. Its subject matter is not psalms unto themselves, but rather an engagement with these magnificent, ancient poems. I likes very much that Brueggemann starts by putting them into the context within which they were first written. They are not the direct word of God but have been written by human beings within their own lives. Further to this, he goes on to present the drama of the psalms and the constructs used by their scribes to express the truths they experienced in their daily lives. I also appreciated very much the discussion on language, as I believe myself that language merits great reflection. All in all, I am delighted with this short but wise book.

This little book, which has the text of all the Psalms appended, can prove to be an invaluable aid in prayer. It serves as something like a "vademecum" which is easily referenced when looking up the full text of a Psalm, segments of which are commonly used in Christian Liturgies. By its brevity it tends to prevent the reader from getting too caught up in intellectual meanderings rather than focusing on prayer based on experience.

Hebrew Scripture scholar Walter Bruggemann's love of his subject and lifetime of scholarship and writing are clearly evident in his clarity and persuasiveness, moving a reader to practice prayer in the mode of the Psalms.

Brueggemann's text clearly describes how the Psalms can be used for prayer and have been for centuries. It helps counter the tendency in the culture of much of Western Christianity--in formal worship and in private devotion--to shortchange the emotions and thus block real access to one's true self, blocking in turn a candid conversation with the God of the whole person--emotion and all.

If you constantly find it challenging to bring your everyday experiences to prayer or to be faithful to reviewing how the day went, for example with an examination of consciousness, you will find Bruggemann's work particularly helpful. The concepts of orientation, disorientation and reorientation, which Brueggemann uses to describe our life experience, as well as the rhythm of many of the Psalms are also helpful. They serve as an effective way to engage our experiences in prayer, to see God in them and see them as our real--and truly only--way to God. You will probably find that your appropriation into your daily living of the many fundamental themes and attitudes of the Psalms improves immeasurably as you read this little book.

This book is well written and very inspiring. You cannot go wrong with the writings of Walter Brueggmann.

The service was very fast, and the condition of the book was as promised. I'd do business with them for sure.