Reading the Psalms as Scripture

Winner of 2025 Christianity Today Book Award, Bible and Devotion

The psalms cultivate a life of prayer grounded in Scripture. In Reading the Psalms as Scripture, James M. Hamilton Jr. and Matthew Damico guide the reader to delight in the spiritual artistry of the psalms.

Psalms is a carefully arranged book saturated in Scripture. The psalmists drew from imagery and themes from earlier Scripture, which are then developed by later Scripture and fulfilled in Christ. The book of psalms advances God's grand story of redemption, and it gives us words to pray by drawing us into this story. When we meditate on the promises and patterns in the psalms, we can read, pray, and sing them with faithfulness.

James M. Hamilton Jr., PhD, is professor of Old Testament interpretation and biblical theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and senior pastor of Kenwood Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. He is the author of several books, most recently Typology and a two-volume commentary on the Psalms in the Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary series.

Matthew Damico is pastor of worship and operations at Kenwood Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, and director of Kenwood Music.