Spirituality of the Psalms

by Walter Brueggemann

Based on the bestseller, The Message of the Psalms, this condensed version offers readers simple insight for how the Psalms apply to every season of life. The Psalms nourish and nurture. The Psalms provide voices of faith in the life of community. In this shortened version of The Message of the Psalms, Dr. Brueggemann provides an insightful perspective and a structured overview of the Psalms using three orientation, disorientation, and new orientation. Orientation is the establishment of structure and order. Disorientation is a place of imbalance and nonsense even potentially unjust. New orientation is moving forward away from what was and toward new possibilities. Spirituality of the Psalms brings together the Christian faith, expressions of suffering, hope, and seasons of everyday life. Brueggeman explains how Psalms of negativity, cries for vengeance, and profound penitence are foundational to a life of faith, and establishes that the reality of deep loss and amazing gifts are held together in a powerful tension. In this succinct edition, Brueggemann encourages readers to look up specific Psalms for study and consider God's justice in an unjust world. Spirituality of the Psalms is a brief yet thought-provoking edition for any reader wanting to understand complex dynamics found within the Old Testament Psalms.

Genres: Theology, Biblical Studies, Religion, Christian, Nonfiction, Spirituality, Prayer

76 pages, Paperback

First published September 30, 2001

About the author

Walter Brueggemann was an American Christian scholar and theologian who is widely considered an influential Old Testament scholar. His work often focused on the Hebrew prophetic tradition and the sociopolitical imagination of the Church. He argued that the Church must provide a counter-narrative to the dominant forces of consumerism, militarism, and nationalism.

Reviews

[Ellie · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5 ⭐️

Okay, I wanted to hate this book. I read this for my intro to Old Testament class, and I was very critical of it when I started reading it, especially because of Brueggemann’s reluctancy to cite things properly or use footnotes. But, by the end of this book, I actually really liked it. I think Brueggemann’s 3 categories of the Psalms—Orientation, Disorientation, and New Orientation—are extremely helpful. I was particularly struck by chapter 5, the last last chapter of the book, when Brueggemann discussed justice and vengeance in the Psalms.

This book crept up on me and slowly made me like it. I couldn’t see myself using this entire book for a class, but I could see myself teaching Brueggemann’s 3 categories, and assigning chapter 5 for students to read. I still don’t love his citation style(a lack thereof) and I thought there were some grammatical/formatting errors, but overall, really good, useful scholarship. Plus, it was pretty readable. Someone not in divinity school could totally read this and track with most of it. I would recommend!

[Andy Hickman · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Spirituality of the Psalms” by Walter Brueggemann
Insightful perspective of these ancient poems and useful for empowering groups and teams to be reflective and embrace transformation.
****

PSALMS: THE RHYTHM OF LIFE AS ORIENTATION, DISORIENTATION, REORIENTATION

The basic movement in everyone’s life is:
• Firstly the move “into the pit”, when our world collapses around us
• Secondly the move “out of the pit” into a welcome place

Walter Brueggemann suggests that our life consists of moving with God in terms of:
• being securely oriented - in which everything makes sense in our lives;
• being painfully disoriented - in which we feel we have sunk into the pit; and
• being surprisingly reoriented - in which we realize that God has lifted us out of the pit, and we are in a new place full of gratitude and awareness about our lives and our God

Brueggemann says that the Psalms offer a framework for engaging God

First Movement- Orientation
• Songs of Creation – God’s gifts (Ps 8, 33, 104, 145)
• Songs of Torah - God’s purposes (Ps 1, 15, 19, 24, 119)
• Songs of Wisdom – God’s certainty (Ps 14, 37)
• Songs of Well-Being - God’s goodness (Ps 131, 133)

Second Movement- Disorientation
• Songs of Personal Complaint (Ps 13, 35, 86)
• Songs of Communal Complaint (Ps 74, 79, 137)

Third Movement: Re-Orientation
• Personal Thanksgivings- God’s rescue (Ps 30, 34, 40, 138)
• Communal Thanksgivings- God’s salvation (Ps 65, 66, 124, 129)
• Kingly psalms – God’s leadership (Ps 29, 47, 93, 97, 98, 99, 114)
• Hymns of praise – God’s newness (Ps 100, 103, 113, 117, 135, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150)

Psalms are for people who are living at the edge of their lives, sensitive to the raw hurts, the primitive passions, and the naive elations that are at the bottom of our life. For most of us, liturgical or devotional entry into the Psalms requires a real change of pace, to listen as well as speak. It asks us to depart from the closely managed world of public survival, to move into the open, frightening, healing world of speech with the Holy One.

The speech of the Psalms is abrasive, revolutionary, and dangerous. It announces that our common experience is not one of well-being and equilibrium, but a churning, disruptive experience of dislocation and relocation. These Psalms are a sufficient resource to enable robust faith and provides a model in which we may challenge established consensus, raise true and hard questions about theology and society, and emerge with a truer picture of the nature of God and society.
PSALMS AS SPIRITUALITY

This movement is most clearly played out in the life of Jesus of Nazareth. For example Philippians 2:5-11
Orientation: “Though He was in the form of God…”
Disorientation: “He emptied himself.”
Re-Orientation: “Therefore, God has highly exalted him…”

We see this in Christian baptism
“We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” Romans 6:4 (NIV)

“Sharing in his death by our baptism means that we were co-buried and entombed with him, so that when the Father’s glory raised Christ from the dead, we were also raised with him. We have been co-resurrected with him so that we could be empowered to walk in the freshness of new life.” Romans 6:4 (TPT)

The psalms of negativity, the complaints of various kinds, the cries for vengeance and profound penitence are foundational to a life of faith in this particular God.” (W.B. SofP, page xii).
Hope is rooted in the midst of loss and darkness.
The Psalms are profoundly subversive of the dominant culture, which wants to deny and cover over the darkness we are called to enter.

PSALMS AS SEASONS OF LIFE

Human life consists of:
Satisfied seasons of well-being that evoke gratitude for the constancy of blessing (orientation)
Anguished seasons of hurt, alienation, suffering and death. These evoke rage, resentment, self-pity, and hatred (disorientation)
Surprise when we are overwhelmed with the new gifts of God, when joy breaks through despair. Where there has been only darkness, there is light.

From nomos (order) to anomie (chaos). From plea to praise, and the kingly psalms are further emphasised in Mark 1:14-15; Luke 4:18-19; 7:22; Matthew 6:10.

To preach that ‘everything is awesome’ is not true because life is marked by incoherence and loss of balance. Christian praise songs about God’s order and reliability are at best only partly true. It is not faith or defiance of the devil or resistance to secular worldliness, but a frightened numb denial and deception that doesn’t want to acknowledge, admit or experience the savage disorientation of life.

It is an odd inclination for passionate Bible users because the large portion of Hebrew Scriptures are liturgies of lament, poems of protest and cries of complaint about the angst in the world. I think religious people dismiss lament as negativity as if that is ‘unfaith’ and implies God’s loss of control.

To cling to an insistence that everything is in order and rightly orientated is to completely miss the point of Jesus’ life, betrayal, murder and resurrection. “I must be betrayed and handed over to death.” But his disciples implored him to not go that way, unable to cope with such a threat to our sense of sage, assured orientation. Jesus gave his sharpest rebuke to his friends who tried to stop the process (Matthew 16:21-26). It is re-orientation that Jesus is leading them to. It is being lead from the green pastures to descent into the valley of the shadow of death in order to ascend and enter the house of the Lord (Psalm 23).

Similarly, on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24: “(v17) They stood still, with sadness on their faces… (v21) ‘But we were hoping He was the One..’ (v25) Then Jesus said to them, “O foolish ones, how slow are your hearts to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and then to enter His glory?”

The point I am making is that psalms of darkness are not failures but acts of bold faith. Bold because it exposes pretend superficiality to acknowledge reality, and bold because it insists that disorder is something that we can actually talk to God about. Nothing is out-of-bounds or inappropriate to say to God. Here’s the deal: everything we experience can and must be turned into speech and addressed to God.

This is why psalms of darkness are crucial because God is present in, participating in, and attentive to darkness, weakness and displacement. After all, the Saviour is a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief (Isaiah 53:3).

A religion of secure orientation is terrified by the honest, even visceral, speech that it has always censored, denied and forcibly quenched, because it offends proper and dignified religious sensitivities.

But when a desperate plea is addressed to God (in the form of complaint, petition and unguarded language) the divine breakthrough comes and the plea is then transformed into praises of assurance of being heard, new vows and promises made, and expressions of adoration.

[Patrick Doherty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brueggeman is one of the best. I think my favorite part of this short book is his paradigm for reading the different Psalms. He categorizes them as reflections of the Psalmist's A) Orientation, B) Disorientation, and C) New Orientation. In other words, when you're reading that everything is blue skies and rainbows, this is a Psalm of orientation; everything is as we expect it to be. Disorientation is all the complaint and "why God" Psalms; that's Disorientation. Then when the Psalmists come to terms with the way things actually are, this is New Orientation.

I gave it four stars because Brueggeman can be a little difficult to read (at least for me). I often have to go over lines a few times to get what he's saying. He's a smart guy, and his writing reflects that. Sometimes I wish he could lower the cookies just a bit.

[Mariah · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. An academic but insightful categorization of the psalms. We read this for our Integration course in counseling, and it was particularly impactful to read about the "disorientation" psalms. Scripture models and speaks to the downcast, the suffering, etc. Working through that into new orientation was beautiful!

[Claire Berry · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this brief introduction to the Psalms, Brueggemann marries the academic history of critical theory and the devotional tradition of piety. I find this balanced, thoughtful, and beautifully written. I got a bit lost in the final chapter, but Brueggemann brings it all together in the end.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stars, because the scheme of "orientation-disorientation-new orientation" is a helpful paradigm for thinking about the types of experiences contained in the Psalms. Only three stars, because I disagree fundamentally with the critical scholarship on which most of the author's work is built.

[CJ Bowen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Helpful and illuminating, though one wishes Brueggemann were also curious about how psalms of disorientation might be misused in an analogous way to psalms of orientation.

[Sam Wong · Rating 4 out of 5]

To be read again.

I have experienced a “new orientation” after the “disorientation” as described by Brueggemann many times over. This happened through letting things run its course in me, by conversing in raw honesty with the Lord. This is against my mentor’s theology of “from strength to strength”.

“But a new system of meaning will not come without abrasion, and that is what these Psalm offer. A disruptive break of the theodicy of consensus is a prerequisite to a new theodicy of justice.”

On a personal as well as a corporate level this is so. And truly what a strange and satisfying comfort the expression of the Psalms offer.

Brueggemann calls out on the inconsistencies in our respective belief systems and give insight regarding differences in political standpoint.

Perhaps what struck me most on a personal note is why I do not seem to hope for justice and liberation, and simply succumb to my “fate”? Is this the reason to my wordless prayers?

[Shaun · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful little book that discusses how the psalms are characterized by themes of orientation, disorientation, and new orientation - as the cycle of spirituality and life overall as God intended.

The last chapter also makes a compelling argument of how the psalms also show the interaction the community and God as it faces questions of injustice which is also intricately bound with spirituality.


A little sample from the concluding chapter:

"When we pray these Psalms, in community or in private, we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses who count on our prayers. Those witnesses include first of all the Israelites who cried out against Pharaoh and other oppressors. But the cloud of witnesses includes all those who hope for justice and liberation. This does not detract from the conviction that God is powerful Spirit. It does not reduce the Psalms to political documents. It rather insists that our spirituality must answer to the God who is present where the questions of justice and order, transformation and equilibrium are paramount. We dare not be positivists about our spirituality, as though we live in a world in which all issues are settled. The spirituality of the Psalms assumes that the world is called to question in this conversation with God. That permits and requires that our conversation with God be vigorous, candid, and daring."

-- Walter Brueggemann, Spirituality of the Psalms (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2002), 73–74.

[Tommy Kiedis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting. Insightful. Practical.

Spirituality of the Psalms is not an in-depth devotional commentary such as Spurgeon's Treasury of David or the work of Alexander Maclaren; nor is it strictly speaking an overarching exegetical work, whether that work be brief (e.g. Kidner) or extensive (e.g. Allen, Broyles, Perowne, or Wilson). Instead, Brueggemann helps the reader understand "that a major move of the Psalms is the move from an ordered, reliable life to an existence that somehow has run amok," and how the psalmist re-orients toward God in the face of it. This theme of Orientation, Disorientation, Re-Orientation is the subject of his book.

If you want to understand the Psalms, more so your own walk with God, purchase Spirituality of the Psalms. This is a book to be read and studied. The author provides multiple examples of psalms of orientation, disorientation, and re-orientation. He also offers additional Scriptural support outside the Psalms. Additionally, Brueggemann will help you avoid the tendency to treat the Psalms merely as a guide to a privatized spirituality. As he points out in Chapter 5, "Spirituality and God's Justice," the psalms highlight theodicy (God's goodness and justice in an evil world). That justice operates in community and communion, therefore, "reflections on theodicy . . . always spill over into the public dimensions of life." (Chapter 5).

Brueggemann provides the insightful analysis of a scholar. For example, in discussing the "hidden gap" between verses in a psalm when the writer goes from plea to praise, he takes us to a deeper discussion among scholars, including that of Joachim Begrich:

The deliverance oracle is a promise on God's part to be present with, to help, and to intervene on behalf of the petitioner. The recurring feature of such a speech is the sovereign "fear not" of Yahweh. And that speech -- so goes the hypothesis -- resolves the desperate situation and permits the speaker to begin life anew in confidence and gratitude. It is argued that the "fear not" represents the primal communication that touches the deepest fears and angers and opens the most profound possibilities, when it is spoken by one who has consent from us to change our world.

I appreciate Brueggemann's work for many reasons, but perhaps most notably for taking us to the place most don't want to go -- the place of disorientation -- when our world doesn't make sense and God seems silent. Brueggemann writes:

We have spent a major portion of our time and space on that reality in the Psalms because that is the part of the Psalter that has been most neglected (italics mine) in church use. In the present religious situation, it may be the part of the Psalter that is most helpful, because we live in a society of denial and cover-up, and these psalms provide a way for healing candor.

Bruegemmann reminds us that in the Psalms as in life, "we can never go home again." God works in the unpleasant situations of our lives to take us to new heights (and depths) that we might know more of Him wherever we are.

I gave this book five stars because Brueggemann brought to a light a key insight that impacts my reading of all the Psalms (Orientation, Disorientation, New Orientation). He helped me appreciate the spirituality of the psalms for my walk with God and my walk with God in community. Finally, his treatment of theodicy and community was very helpful.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brueggemann argues that people treat psalms one of two ways: either they treat them devotionally and never critically analyze the genre, structure, etc. or they do treat them academically but never allow them to affect them spiritually. His goal in this book is to do both by providing a new paradigm to see the psalms.

Gunkel showed the world that the psalms fall into specific forms or genres. Mowinckel showed the centrality of the psalms in the cult. Westermann, sidestepping Mowinckel, updated Gunkel’s genres. Brueggemann takes all of these perspectives and combines them with a dash of liberation theology. He argues that there are three movements in the spirituality of the psalms: orientation-disorientation-reorientation. The various genres of psalms correspond with these movements. For example, both creation psalms and Torah psalms see God in heaven and the whole world in perfect harmony. That makes them psalms of orientation. Individual and communal laments, however, see something fundamentally wrong in the cosmos. These fall into the disorientation movement.

Brueggemann concludes the book with a chapter arguing how a spirituality of the psalms expects (demands?) justice from God.

This is a powerful little book. Brueggemann seems to have written this for intelligent lay people. He doesn’t provide footnotes or endnotes but doesn’t shy away from academic vernacular or concepts. I’m not 100% sold on his paradigm (but he doesn’t either!) but I do think it is a helpful paradigm for viewing the psalms and suffering in general.

[Reina-Shay Broussard · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a rather small and short book, but I really struggled to read its academic and dense contents. I have an extensive vocabulary, but I find some academics write in a way that feels almost purposefully obtuse. The author seems to take a lot of words to say not very much. It’s very academic in tone, which seems to contradict the title’s spiritual intent. One of the more interesting aspects presented by the author is how the psalms are likely to be interpreted differently by Jews versus Christians.

Basically, the author presents three categories of psalms belonging to orientation (faith in creation), disorientation (struggle and frustrations), and new orientation (historical liberation). None of the psalms is actually reprinted in the text, though, so you’ll want to have them nearby to consult.

The last chapter was my favorite, and I wonder why it wasn’t the first chapter. I’m actually surprised I made it so far, and I pity the poor reader who gives up before reaching it as I was so tempted to do myself. This final chapter discusses theodicy and the nature of the psalms that makes them central to discussions of society and justice.

[Matt Fisher · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a brief introduction to the thoughts and perspective on the Psalms by one of the greatest Old Testament scholars of the past 100 years. I first read Brueggemann's Praying the Psalms more than two decades ago when I first began praying Lauds and Vespers with some regularity, and his three categories of orientation/disorientation/re-orientation fundamentally changed my perspective on the Psalms. Spirituality of the Psalms was a nice review of that approach. I appreciated that in the chapters devoted to the three different categories, he pointed to specific psalms as examples of different subcategories. I also appreciated that the last chapter in this book is explicitly focused on the question of social justice and the Psalms. Brueggemann's approach to that aspect is framed in such a way that a wide variety of justice issues can be connected to it.

For anyone looking for a short introduction to the Psalms that focuses on overarching themes and their relation to human experience, I highly recommend this book.

[Josiah Peachey · Rating 4 out of 5]

"What goes on in the Psalms is peculiarly in touch with what goes on in our life."
In this short but powerful book Brueggeman offers ways to think about the Psalms that connects them with the whole of human experience. The section on the neglected value of the Psalms of lament ("Psalms of disorientation") was especially helpful. Even though this book leans heavily on critical scholarship, and tries hard to integrate liberation theology (in ways that I find less than compelling) it still retains a reverence for the book of Psalms that calls us to let our lives be formed by our spiritual/devotional engagement with the Psalter.

[Kathy Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brueggemann always brings his wealth of understanding and scholarship to his writing, illuminating new ways to examine the Scriptures. In Spirituality of the Psalms he suggests one way of looking at the Psalms which he suggests is not inclusive but instructive for individuals as well as communities. His orientation-disorientation-new orientation follows the idea that there are seasons of life for all, individual and community, and the Psalms reflect that so one can find something that speaks to them.

[Graceanne Giles · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book started out very dense and hard to understand but the farther I got onto it, the more it made sense. It broke the psalms up into different types of psalms. The chapter on psalms of disorientation was very moving to me. This quote still stands out: “It is no wonder that the church has intuitively avoided these psalms. They lead us into dangerous acknowledgment of how life really is. They lead us to the presence of God where everything is not polite and civil. They ça se us the think unthinkable thoughts and utter unutterable words.”

[Caspian Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to research the Psalms for a school assignment. This relatively quick read was insightful and also critically analytical. I really liked the structure, the presentation, and the subject matter. There were a lot of times where Brueggemann referenced Psalms by number, but it would have been helpful to actually see and read the excerpts, and for Brueggemann to include them in the book. I guess there are justifiable reasons behind this.

[Falon Barton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had learned about and read snippets of Brueggemann's categorization of the psalms into orientation, disorientation, and reorientation for many years, so I was grateful for an opportunity to finally read the foundation of that in this book as I prepared to speak on disorientation at a retreat for college students. Amazing book that helped me appreciate the psalms more deeply.

[Luanne Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

It explores the idea that many of the psalms lead us through three phases of faith reflection: orientation, disorientation, and new orientation. Sometimes Bruegemann is way over my head, but I can usually muddle through and get something out of it. Let’s just say the going is slow and I have to look up a lot of words.🙄😅

[Keith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

This is a must read on the subject of the Psalms and theodicy. The Psalms provide movement for us and the author values (alongside the Psalms) the times of suffering within this the artful process of life.

[Sunday Oke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Balanced view of the role of the Psalms in scripture taking into consideration the three phases of life I.e. orientation, disorientation and reorientation.


The book also considers the spirituality of God's Justice.

Comes highly recommended

[Dianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

An overview of the Psalms explaining the different types. The last chapter on theodicy is a bit hard to grasp at first. This book is not an easy,quick read but did enjoy it as part of a Bible study course.

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Spirituality of the Psalms, Walter Brueggemann puts forward a paradigm of orientation, disorientation, and reorientation. Admittedly, the author notes that this is no complete pattern but a way for one to start when dealing with the sometimes-harsh realities and changes of life. The psalmists do not ignore or cover up individual and communal sorrows and neither should the contemporary church. Brueggemann invites his readers to see that communion with God means that all things polite and crude, joyful and abhorrent should be brought before the throne in whatever manner possible.

[Ephrem Arcement · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unsurprisingly, Brueggemann has a unique and revelatory take on the Psalms. By sketching the movement from orientation to disorientation to new orientation, he helps the reader categorize and comprehend the broad themes that tie these inspiring poems together.

[Demetrius · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good read and the three categories of orientation, disorientation and new orientation are enlightening.

[Brian White · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brueggemann captures the essence of the Psalms in this small volume and once again inspires and disturbs our equilibrium. When thinking of the Psalms it is hard not to think of Brueggemann.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely presented some interesting and thought-provoking concepts, not always written well/clearly.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

definitely felt the "disorientation".

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though brief, this book is filled with eye-opening insights about the psalter and its function in our history, liturgy, and prayer lives.

[Ike Unger · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very important perspective when it comes to reading the Psalms. I'm so thankful to have found this book and it helps to short through the Psalms in a way that gives more meaning to them.