From Whom No Secrets Are Hid: Introducing the Psalms

by Walter Brueggemann

Publisher:

Westminster John Knox

, 2014

Overview

The Psalms express the most elemental human emotions, representing situations in which people are most vulnerable, ecstatic, or driven to the extremities of life and faith. Many people may be familiar with a few Psalms, or sing them as part of worship. Here highly respected author Walter Brueggemann offers readers an additional use for the Psalms: as scripted prayers we perform to help us reveal ourselves to God.

Brueggemann explores the rich historical, literary, theological, and spiritual content of the Psalms while focusing on various themes such as praise, lament, violence, and wisdom. He skillfully describes Israel’s expression of faith as sung through the Psalms, situates the Psalmic liturgical tradition in its ancient context, and encourages contemporary readers to continue to perform them as part of their own worship experiences. Brueggemann’s masterful take on the Psalms as prayers will help readers to unveil their hopes and fears before God and, in turn, feel God’s grace unveiled to them.

Key Features

• Explores the rich historical, literary, theological, and spiritual content of the Psalms
• Situates the Psalmic liturgical tradition in its ancient context
• Offers readers an additional use for the Psalms

Contents

• Introduction to the Book of Psalms
• The Counter-World of the Psalms
• Canaanite Tradition and Israel’s Imagination
• Doxological Abandonment
• The Enthronement Psalms
• The Creator Toys with Monster Chaos (Psalm 104)
• On Jerusalem, Secure and Sad
• Cries That Seek God’s Engagement
• The Rhetoric of Violence
• Psalms 22–23 in the Life of the Church
• From Guilt to Joy (Psalm 51)
• The Wise, Reliable Ordering of Creation
• Wisdom Psalms
• From Commodity to Communion (Psalm 73)
• Israel’s Powerful Remembering
• The Wonder of Thanks, Specific and Material

Top Highlights

“These, then, are my two opening questions: (1) Why do we cling to the Psalter and (2) why do we so aggressively limit the parts of the Psalter to which we cling? Or, put differently, we might ask: why do we have a love-hate relationship with the Psalms? Why are we so ambivalent about this script of faith?” (Page 9)

“This ‘though’ is a well-grounded, adamant refusal to participate in the anxiety that is all around.” (Page 17)

“Pennebaker has demonstrated that honest disclosure, especially in writing, has very real benefits for physical and mental health.” (Page xix)

“Second, our closely held world of anxiety rooted in scarcity evokes an ideology of greed” (Page 11)

“The fact that it is God who hears these secrets makes their telling that much more important, that much more fraught, that much more risky and dangerous. The divine presence is not always nonanxious, benevolent, and nonjudgmental!²³ And so, telling secrets in such a presence makes disclosure that much more difficult. How far can we go? How much is permissible? The Psalms suggest that we can go the whole way, that it is all permissible: the praise, yes, but also the grief, the sorrow, the anger, the rage, the cursing. The Psalms disclose all that, and, in their reperformance, manifest it. They are the locus and script of and for our full disclosure before God.” (Page xxiii)

Product Details

• Title: From Whom No Secrets Are Hid: Introducing the Psalms
• Author: Walter Brueggemann
• Edition: First Edition
• Publisher: Westminster John Knox
• Print Publication Date: 2014
• Logos Release Date: 2017
• Pages: 222
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subject: Bible. O.T. Psalms › Criticism, interpretation, etc
• ISBNs: 9780664259716, 0664259715
• Resource ID: LLS:WHMNNTRDCNPSLMS
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T03:45:31Z

About Walter Brueggemann

Walter Brueggemann is William Marcellus McPheeters Professor of Old Testament Emeritus at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia. He is past president of the Society of Biblical Literature and the author of numerous books, including David’s Truth: In Israel’s Imagination and Memory, Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching Genesis, and The Message of the Psalms: A Theological Commentary.