Psalms: The Divine Journey

This slim volume serves as an introduction to the psalms. The first two chapters are typical introductions to two aspects of Hebrew poetry - the techniques and the world view. As I read these I developed an image of the book as a typical college textbook introduction to the psalms with an occasional overzealous attention to detail.My image was quickly proven to be wrong. The two core chapters - "The Psalmists' Journey to God in Jerusalem and the Temple" and "God's Journey to the Psalmist" are excellent, innovative introductions to the themes of the psalms. Smith's tying together of passages from the prophets and the Penteteuch is clear and brilliant. Among his insights are Jerusalem/Zion as paradise/Eden; God as storm and sun; the meaning of seeing God's face ... Smith pulls together interesting (fascinating, even) scholarly material and makes it very understandable to the average lay person.The final chapter brings the psalms into the present. Here the attention moves to the interrelationship between our inner experience of God and the outer experience of nature.