Last Sunday provided an overview of the Old Testament book of Psalms. Here are some of the resources referenced in that message.

1. Martin Luther’s Preface to the German Psalter (1531)

Psalms is a little Bible. It seems to me as if the Holy Spirit had been pleased to take on himself the trouble of putting together a short Bible, touching the whole of Christianity, in order that they who are unable to read the whole Bible may nevertheless find almost the whole sum comprehended in one little book. 

2. Treasury of David: A Commentary on the Psalms, 3 Vol. C. H. Spurgeon 

Even though it is dated, Spurgeon’s Treasury of David is still the best collection of devotional insights on the Psalms. The link above provides a wonderful online version. For a hard copy, you can go here. 

3. “What Can Miserable Christians Sing?” in Wages of Spin. Carl Trueman

This insightful essay reminds us of the harm done to the church by feeding on “a diet of unremittingly jolly choruses and hymns” while neglecting the anguished cries and melancholy themes of the Psalms. Here is an excerpt from Trueman’s essay:

By excluding the cries of loneliness, dispossession, and desolation from
its worship, the church has effectively silenced and excluded the voices of those who are themselves lonely, dispossessed, and desolate, both inside and outside the church. By so doing, it has implicitly endorsed the banal aspirations of consumerism, generated an insipid, trivial and unrealistically triumphalist Christianity, and confirmed its impeccable credentials as a club for the complacent.