In the series “Handbooks for Old Testament Exegesis” that teaches us how to interpret the different genres of the Old Testament, the Book of Psalms is rightfully seen as so important as to receive its own volume in the series. This book will complement “Interpreting Poetry”, which can also be found in this series by Kregel.

Chapter 1 discusses appreciating poetry and seeks to differentiate Hebrew poetry from what is common in our culture. For one thing, rhyming is not important in Hebrew poetry. This chapter also serves to define all the terms like line, colon, by-colon, strophe, stanza, and correspondence. The chapter also seeks to explain imagery and patterns. As you will find throughout the book, many examples are pulled from the Book of Psalms to make his point.

The next chapter on “Viewing the Whole” was one of the best in the entire book. The author gave much discussion on the purpose and message of the Psalms where he found the theme of the book to be the kingship of God and the eschatological hope that our King is coming.

Chapter 3 is about preparing for interpretation. In this chapter, we learn to ascertain the historical setting of a Psalm, to see the timelessness of the Psalms, and how to do text criticism. This chapter ends with bibliographic suggestions for further study. Chapter 4 is about interpreting the categories, or as we might normally express it, the genres. He explains how these things guide our expectations and give another level of context to help us. Chapter 5 moves us on to the sermon and putting into practice what we’ve learned in the book. The book is concluded with a helpful glossary.

This book by Mr. Futato, and edited by David Howard, is a worthy addition to this series. It stacks up well with the others that I have had the chance to use. It gives hermeneutic help in the narrow, but vitally important, Book of Psalms. I highly recommend it.

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