The Aspen Grove

1--Index--Psalms and Prayer

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4 min read

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

  • 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 Text: Letter to Marcellinus
  • 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.
  • Martin Luther’s Commentary on the first 22 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

  • Basil the Great — Homily on the First Psalm

    • Date: c. 370–378 AD
    • Overview: Basil presents the Psalter as a comprehensive spiritual pharmacy of the soul and a cohesive structural guide for daily moral living. He emphasizes how the pneumatic structure of the poetry trains the mind to filter out idle thoughts and anchor virtue through rhythmic recitation.

  • Gregory of Nyssa — The Inscriptions of the Psalms

    • Date: c. 379–390 AD
    • Overview: Gregory treats the five-fold division of the Psalter as a developmental ladder for psychological and moral ascent. Each book corresponds to a stage of spiritual maturation, providing structural mnemonic cues for the soul’s progression from practical ethics to contemplation.

  • Augustine of Hippo — Enarrationes in Psalmos (Expositions on the Psalms)

    • Date: 391–420 AD
    • Overview: Developed across decades of preaching, Augustine’s expositions frame the Psalms as the voice of the totus Christus (the whole Christ—head and body). He demonstrates how every line speaks either of Christ or the Church, turning the text into a tool for deep internal self-examination and scriptural memory.

  • Cassiodorus — Explanation of the Psalms (Expositio Psalmorum)

    • Date: c. 540–550 AD
    • Overview: Written at the Vivarium monastery, Cassiodorus’s comprehensive commentary synthesizes earlier Latin and Greek patristic traditions. It serves as an advanced pedagogical framework for Late Antique monastic literacy, utilizing Christian philosophy and structural categories to anchor the texts in memory.

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