Description
Book SynopsisThe Mowbray Lent Book for 2016.The Psalms lie at the heart of Jewish and Christian worship. For thousands of years people in despair and praise have cried to God through the words of these ancient poems. Fragments of them are still widely known and loved, but such is the gulf between their ancient culture and our contemporary world that much of the depth of their meaning is lost to us.
Life in the Psalms aims to bridge that gulf, enabling the modern reader to find hope in these ancient texts by re-imagining their meanings for our times. The Psalms include texts that illuminate issues including climate change and environmental degradation; the illusions of consumerism and celebrity culture'; our response to migrants and asylum seekers; conditions of depression, anxiety, and grief, and the question of attention' in a digital age. Many texts take us deeply into the experience of meditation and contemplation; and teach us how to wonder, and find happiness. Three introductor
Trade ReviewWoodhouse ... demonstrates over and over again, in a series of thoughtful daily reflections on selected Psalms, that the real object is alive and forceful and ultimately "relevant": the loving God of Israel. * The Tablet *
Table of ContentsIntroduction 1 Why the Psalms? 2 What are the Psalms? 3 Praying the Psalms First Week: Pilgrimage Psalm 122 The peace of Jerusalem Psalm 84 Journeying towards integrity Psalm 133 Oil running down Psalm 42 Deep calls to deep Psalm 43 What is true?
Second Week: Prayer Psalm 63 Come and see Psalm 123 Mercy within mercy within mercy Psalm 131 Like a weaned child Psalm 1 A tree planted by the waterside Psalm 4 My heart, their corn and wine and oil
Third Week: Wonder Psalm 8 Infants and stars Psalm 104 Wonder and protest Psalm 19 A theatre of glory Psalm 139 The uttermost parts of the sea Psalm 103 Forget not
Fourth Week: The Way Psalm 119.1-8 The path of happiness Psalm 119.9-16 Mind change Psalm 119.129-36 Passion and compassion Psalm 23 Lacking nothing Psalm 27 In a secret place
Fifth Week: Hope Psalm 71 Hoping continually Psalm 46 Be still and know Psalm 36 The well of life Psalm 131 From where is my help to come? Psalm 62 Tottering and leaning
Holy Week: Suffering Psalm 91 Trampling the serpent Psalm 13 How long, O Lord? Psalm 137 By the waters of Babylon Psalm 130 Out of the depths Psalm 22 The image of the crucified
Notes Acknowledgements
