Psalms: Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary
Lexham Press has recently begun releasing volumes of their Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary. I have gained a growing interest in Biblical Theology so I am very excited about these commentaries. I’m especially excited that they’ve released a two volume edition of the Psalms from one of my favorite teachers, Dr. Jim Hamilton (or Dr. James M. Hamilton Jr. for the long form).
Dr. Hamilton is a professor of biblical theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, preaching pastor at Kenwood Baptist Church, and podcast extraordinaire on a podcast called Bible Talk. He’s also written several awesome books with the most recent called Typology-Understanding the Bible’s Promise-Shaped Patterns.
One of the defining features of these commentaries is that they are geared toward the lives of Christians and the life of the church. This means this commentary is more accessible to the average reader and less academic. This will be a great tool to both strengthen the church and those who are teachers in it. The base translation for this series is the Christian Standard Bible, but authors are free to differ where they deem necessary. This will play an interesting role in this volume in particular.
In this two volume series, Dr. Hamilton has translated every Psalm as literally as possible. In doing this, he desires the reader to see the connectedness of the language between Psalms and throughout the whole Psalter. His goal is for the reader to realize that the Hebrew authors were not just like us and were very different culturally and they used the words in their writing very intentionally. In these two volumes, the reader will find the CSB as well as Dr. Hamilton’s translation. I think this feature alone makes these commentaries worth owning. If that weren’t enough, you also get his exposition of each Psalm. The Introduction and the discussion in the beginning on Biblical and Theological Themes also make these volumes worth the price of admission.
These are books that I want to read cover to cover, but there are over 1,000 pages of material, which certainly will make this a time intensive task. However, they are also useful tools for your study, preaching, and teaching of the Psalms. I certainly will find myself going to specific Psalms to read about them right away.
There are great riches in these books and I think Dr. Hamilton has given the church a great gift in putting forth the time and effort to make these available. While the whole series has not been released yet, I would already bet that these will be the “must have” volumes in this commentary series. Do yourself a favor and go ahead and pick them up and recommend them to a friend while you’re at it!
You can pick up Psalms in the Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary series on Amazon. (affiliate)
Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of these volumes from Lexham Press in exchange for a fair and honest review.
