Thursday 5 December 2013

An app for the Psalms

Have Psalter will travel.

I have laid out my Psalter with the poetry phrase by phrase, line by line, in Hebrew and English so that the reader (especially I myself) may be able to read and study the poems in Hebrew as poetry. With respect to technique, my translation highlights word recurrence, but without neglecting prosody or parallelism.

Now I am teaching these reading 'techniques' but also in the second half of the course, moving into engagement through the text based on the pattern of the use of the Psalms in the epistle to the Hebrews as dialogue between father and son. This latter is the greater challenge for our time. It is not academic, though the academic be important. What is key is to engage the word of God on our behalf, the behalf of the people in a present political and social situation.

Biblical studies is not my primary field, though I have loved my 7 years of immersion in Hebrew. My field is data base analysis and software. You could say that the book is 'an app for the psalms'. (But it requires a human reader not an android and it needs no technology).

The publisher Energion Direct has a special on for Advent. 20% off - just enter advent in the coupon code.

You can buy the book Seeing the Psalter here.


2 comments:

  1. It looks like a very interesting and helpful "app"! I just placed an order. I'll show it to my students in a course on the Psalms and Wisdom Lit this term.

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  2. Thank you Randall. I would be happy to hear any feedback that you or your students have.

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