Psalms Ecc Series

In this colossal work, his most ambitious undertaking, the late Samuel Terrien brings together a lifetime of scholarship on the book of Psalms, long the wellspring of Jewish spirituality as well as the main hymnal of the Christian church.

Terrien's insightful and clearly written introduction treats such subjects as the longevity and ecumenicity of the psalms, their Near Eastern background, the Hebrew text and ancient versions, their music, their strophic structure, their literary genre, and their theology.

In the commentary itself Terrien freshly elucidates the theological significance of these collected poems by putting readers in touch with the formal versatility and religious passion of the psalmists themselves.

While Terrien always engages in scientific exegesis before drawing theological conclusions, he is careful to allow full expression to the theological -- and doxological -- voice of these unmatched spiritual songs.

As a result, his commentary bridges the archaic language of Psalms and the intellectual demands of modern thinking and spirituality.