Conversations with Scripture: The Psalms

by L. William Countryman

Written in accessible language and sensitive to those who have little or no experience in reading the Bible, each book in the Conversations with Scripture series focuses on exploring the historical and critical background of the biblical texts, while illustrating how these centuries-old writings still speak to us today. Countryman brings his considerable biblical studies erudition as well as his skills as a popular writer and published poet to bear on the Psalms. Though an accomplished scholar of the New Testament, Countryman illumines the Psalms with insight and creativity. Readers will experience this most beloved part of the scriptural canon in a fresh and exciting way.

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Bill Countryman is a retired seminary professor and Episcopal priest (still assisting at Good Shepherd Church in Berkeley, CA). He and his spouse, Jon Vieira, live in Oakland, CA, where he tends the garden and writes mostly poetry these days.

I'm a lover of poetry, classical music (with a particular fondness for choral and chamber music and for late-ninteenth-early-twentieth-century orchestral music. I spread my reading broadly: poetry, fiction, history, theology.

And I blog on gardening, reading the Scriptures, and whatever else interests me at billcountryman.com.

Reviews

[Cathryn Conroy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a conflicted relationship with the Bible's psalms. Over my lifetime, I have read each of the 150 psalms more times than I can count, and yet I still am flummoxed by so many of them. What do they mean? What did they mean when they were written? How did they speak to a Jewish audience thousands of years ago? And what does that mean for us today and how we read and interpret the psalms?

I read this book as part of my Lenten discipline, and while it's excellent, I feel like I need to revert to a college student and take notes while I'm reading to get any real benefit from it. Author and scholar L. William Countryman definitely knows his topic and did his research—no qualms there—but the way he organized the text won't help me six months from now when I'm reading Psalm 119 and want to know more about it.

Still, if you're looking for a well-written overview of the psalms organized by genre, this might be just the book you want.