Useful Texts about the Psalms

The Big Idea

These are books that have influenced me or have been suggested to me as I have studied and thought about the Psalms

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• Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible

  • A powerful yet short book on how to see Jesus praying the Psalms with us and for us and how we can pray them faithfully.

• Athanasius, Letter to Marcellinus, trans. and ed. Joel C Elowsky. New Haven, CT: ICCS Press, 2021.

  • A fascinating look into how familiar Athanasius was with the Psalms and how highly he regarded them as a practical way to be formed by God’s word and taught how to handle every emotion or “inner movement.”
  • PDF of the Text: Letter to Marcellinus translation-jce edit 08242016 final changes accepted (1).pdf

• Timothy Saleska. Concordia Commentary on Psalm 1-50

  • Introduction has a ton of resources and well laid out information about how to read and apply the psalms.

• Martin Luther. First Lectures on the Psalms: Psalms 1-75. Luther’s Works, Vol. 10. St. Louis, MO: Concordia Pub., 1974.

  • Started to read through and am surprised I have never hear this part of Luther quoted much.

• Martin Luther. A Manual on the Book of Psalms.

• The Homilies of Saint Jerome, Volume 1 (1–59 on the Psalms) (The Fathers of the Church, Volume 48). Trans. Marie Ewald. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1964.

  • Started skimming his treatment of superscriptions and have found a ton of really fascinating stuff.

Suggestions from Dr. Joel Elowsky

These are potential texts that Dr. Elowsky suggested to me:

• Blaising, Craig and Harding, Carmen, eds. Psalms 1-50, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2007.

• Homilies on the Psalms: Codex Monacensis Graecus 314 by Origen, trans. Joseph Trigg. Fathers of the Church, Vol. ___ Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2020.

• Didymus Lectures on the Psalms, trans. and ed. Jonathan Hicks. Ancient Christian Text Series. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2024.

• Theodoret of Cyrus: Commentary on the Psalms 73-150. Trans. Robert C Hill. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2000.

• Cameron, Michael. Essential Expositions of the Psalms by Augustine. Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2015.

• Martin Luther. Selected Psalms. Luther’s Works, Vol. 12. St. Louis, MO: Concordia Pub., 1974.

Suggestions from Dr. Timothy Saleska

These are potential texts that Dr. Saleska suggested to me. They are especally focused on Biblical Poetry as a whole:

• Robert Alter. “The Art of Biblical Poetry,”
• Adele Berlin. “The Dynamics of Biblical Parallelism.”
• Wilfred Watson. “Classical Hebrew Poetry: A Guide to its Techniques.”

Other Possible Reads

• Martin Luther. Selected Psalms. Luther’s Works, Vol. 11,13-14
• Luther discovers the Gospel