Book Review: Living the Psalms
Review of David P. Murray, Living the Psalms, Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2023. We live in times when the Psalter is not as well-known as it should be. It is […]
Review of David P. Murray, Living the Psalms, Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2023.
We live in times when the Psalter is not as well-known as it should be. It is a sobering fact that in AD 787 the Second Council of Nicaea – which made some unconvincing defences of icons – nevertheless decreed that all bishops were obliged to know the entire Psalter by heart. Less ambitiously, in 13 short chapters in a small book, David Murray attempts at least to get the reader started on the pathway to knowing the Psalms better.
Murray opens up a number of areas of study. He points to the references to Christ in the Psalms, which are then cited in the New Testament e.g. 2:7; 8:2, 3-5, 6; 16:10; 22:1, 7-8, 16, 18; 34:20; 35:11; 41:9; 45:6; 68:18; 69:9, 21; 109:8; 110:1, 4; 118:22, 26. He makes an important observation that, as a self-centred teenager in a Psalm-singing church, he only related to the Psalms that related to him, not to the whole community. We need to look beyond ourselves. In the singing of any congregation, we also need to be aware that ‘The overly subjective songs detach us from God. The overly objective songs detach us from ourselves.’ Therefore, argues Murray, we need both.
Chapter 11 takes on the difficult issue of ‘Cursing with the Psalms’. Psalms 35, 69, and 109 are treated as imprecatory Psalms, while there are imprecatory verses in Psalms 5, 7, 10, 28, 31, 40, 55, 58, 59, 70, 71, 79, 83, 137, 139, 140. Yet there is also grace abounding in the Psalms, as the disgraced politician, Jonathan Aitken, found in Psalm 130.
One always finds something to question. In tackling ‘Worshipping in the Psalms’, Murray backs up each point with Bible references, but curiously fails to do so pp.27-28 when perhaps Acts 20:35 might have been appropriate. Also, I found rather jarring the generic use of ‘she’ when ‘he’ or even ‘he or she’ would be preferable (e.g. p.41).
To finish as one should, on a note of commendation, the analysis of Psalms 1-8 at the end of Murray’s work is something that preachers especially will find helpful. There is indeed a wealth of stimulating material in just 128 pages.
– Peter Barnes
