Summerbook #15: Reflections on the Psalms

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 Reflections on the Psalms, by C. S. Lewis

Today was the first day of the new semester, and it's looking good.  Finally, there are a reasonable number of students on campus and in the library, and the place doesn't look like a ghost town.  I was so busy today!  Lovely.

At my church, I teach the adult Sunday school class once a month, and yesterday was my day to teach.  The lesson was on the psalms, and so to prepare, I thought I'd read Lewis' Reflections, which I'd never done before.  I figured I might as well count it as one of my 20 summer books, since we're obviously getting down to the end and I am not going to reach all 20 (unless you count the fluffy mysteries I read before going to sleep, but I don't blog about those).

The book is quite short, and is really a series of essays.  Lewis starts with enumerating the errors a reader might fall into with the psalms.  He talks about the structure of the songs, and how they use parallelism.  He's kind of horrified at the 'cursing' psalms, which often dwell happily on all the awful things the poet hopes God will do to his enemy, and he delights in the rejoicing ones.  He talks quite a bit about the mindset of ancient Israel, especially about the imagery of the poor and oppressed asking for justice and protection from the great Judge.  (I now finally understand the parable of the unjust judge in Luke 18!)

I enjoyed the book and got a lot from it, but also I feel like I talked myself out yesterday as far as thoughts about psalms.  I do recommend the book to the interested reader.

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