Tuesday Tome - The Case for the Psalms

My preaching series for Lent and Easter 2014 will be titled: Search Me, O God: Praying Reflectively with the Psalms. Each week, I'll be exploring ways the Psalms help us work through the issues and attitudes of our hearts. I'll show how the Psalms can be a faithful companion to us as we work through fears, guilt, hope, anger, doubt, relationships, questions, purpose, and more. As part of my preparation for that series, I'm reading N. T. Wright's new book, The Case for the Psalms.

I had the privilege of hearing Wright teach on the Psalms a bit at conference in Milwaukee last year. The conference was primarily about the New Testament book of Romans, but Wright made frequent reference to the Psalms. I'm guessing he was wrapping up the final touches on this new book around that time, and so the Psalms must have been very fresh in his mind.

There is also good video posted on YouTube of Wright lecturing about the Psalms and prayer. You can find it here. It's well worth watching.

The publisher's book description:
From the earliest times, the Psalms were the daily lifeblood of Christians. Yet in much of Christian practice today, these ancient worship songs and poems have become largely ignored.

One of the world's most trusted Bible scholars, N. T. Wright turns his attention to the central collection of prayers that Jesus and Paul knew best: the book of Psalms. Wright points out that the Psalms have served as the central prayer and hymnbook for the church since its beginning—until now. In The Case for the Psalms, Wright calls us to return to the Psalms as a steady, vital component of healthy Christian living.

Reading, studying, and praying the Psalms is God's means for teaching us what it means to be human: how to express our emotions and yearnings, how to reconcile our anger and our compassion, how to see our story in light of God's sweeping narrative of salvation. Wright provides the tools for understanding and incorporating these crucial verses into our own lives.