Praying the Psalms: A Commentary - Softcover

Jaki, Stanley L.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802847714 ISBN 13: 9780802847713

Publisher: Eerdmans Pub Co, 2001

Synopsis

Since the psalms are Old Testament prayers by origin, their teaching is very incomplete about trials, whose full meaning was revealed only through Christ’s suffering. The psalms contain only faint hints about the fact that in God’s perspective life really begins with death. But the psalms remain unparalleled expressions of souls who struggle to hold on to God no matter what and who experience moments of surpassing joy.

The purpose of this fine book is to help Christians grasp the basic meaning of each psalm so that the act of praying them might truly become an elevation of the mind to God. After providing general background on the psalms, including reflections on their use as both Jewish and Christian prayers, Stanley Jaki offers commentary on each individual psalm. He avoids exegetical minutiae, providing instead precisely enough explanation of the original cultural and theological setting of each Scripture to let the usefulness of praying the psalms fully emerge.

A widely respected Christian scholar, Jaki has recited all 150 psalms at least once every two weeks for the past sixty years. As a result, this book not only offers learned insight into the meaning of the psalms but is also built on personal experience, making it a powerful devotional tool as well. Readers will find here helpful pointers for turning the recitation of the psalms into living prayers relevant to today’s troubled world.

About this title

From Library Journal

Jaki, a professor at Seton Hall University in New Jersey and a much-published author, has produced a highly accessible and rather nonacademic guide to the Psalms. Jaki's psalm-by-psalm comments should prove unthreatening and reasonably helpful to the general reader, but his remarks are personal and subjective. Jaki seems to accept certain tenets of critical scholarship, but some readers may find him distressingly conservative; he has rather tart things to say against Kant and atheism and philosophy, but his straightforwardness is appealing and should provide a point of entry to these important texts for many readers. Recommended for larger collections.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Eerdmans Pub Co
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0802847714
• ISBN 13: 9780802847713
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 237