Exploring the Psalms (2 Volume set)

The psalms are rich in human experience. At times they ring with the din and noise of battle, at other times they take us with hushed hearts into the inner sanctuary, into the immediate presence of God. At times they set our hearts aflame and our feet dancing for joy, at times we turn to them when our face is drenched with tears. For the psalms touch all the notes in the keyboard of human emotion. Here we have love and hate, joy and sorrow, hope and fear, peace and strife, faith and despair. This is the stuff of which life is made. No wonder God’s saints in all ages have felt the tug of the psalms. The book is a vast storehouse of human experience. There is one feature of this particular exposition which should appeal to general reader and student alike. Author Phillips has been very much aware that often a given psalm could be handled in several ways. He has tried, therefore, to vary the approach to the psalms. Sometimes he has thrown a psalm back into its historical setting and expounded it in the light of its author’s own experiences - David’s circumstances, Hezekiah’s dilemma, Moses’ experience. Sometimes he has touched but lightly on the historical mold and emphasized the way a psalm relates to the life of a struggling soul today. Sometimes for the sake of variety, the author had taken the prophetic aspect of a psalm and handled it in the light of the coming great tribulation or the millennial reign of Christ. Some psalms are full-length prophecies revealing an astonishing picture of coming events. One problem many have found in approaching the psalms relates to their complicated structure. They seem to be especially difficult to analyze structurally and put in preachable form. As in all his other books, Phillips has given with each psalm a complete alliterated outline. He has been careful never to "sacrifice the sense for the sake of the sound." The outlines will be found to be true to the text and a useful tool for preachers and Bible teachers.