“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Here begins Saleska’s commentary on the first fifty Psalms. Turning to the text first, Saleska identifies God as “Poietes”, the Greek word for both creator and poet. This reality of God as the Creator-Poet, literally the Word incarnate, frames Saleska’s historic approach to the Psalms both as the Word of God given to his people and as words which His people speak back to Him. Saleska’s faithful, philological approach focuses especially on unpacking the emotional language of the Psalms, for the sake of understanding the activity of the Word in each.

Features

• Narrative structure of commentary makes easy reference for preaching and teaching
• Pastoral resources for instruction on Impreccatory and Lamentation Psalms
• Emphasis on formal poetic properties such as parataxis as well as their Hebraic context
• Materials on the Ancient Near Eastern Background of the Psalms
• A reference guide to the texts and versions of the Psalms

Additional Essays

• Why do Humans Write Poetry? And Why is Poetry in the Bible?
• How to Read Poetry and Enjoy the Experience
• Why I Stopped Arguing with My Own Translation (It’s an Argument That Never Ends)
• The Psalms in Modern Scholarship