Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Sliced and Diced Psalms

My latest book review is of The Word of Promise: The Gift of Psalms: Devotional Wisdom from 50 of the Best Loved Psalms.

There are a few things I would want to know about this book before buying. First, the devotionals written by Lori Jones to accompany each psalm are wonderful. They are easily the best part of this book.
Second, the psalms are often radically cut down, for example Psalm 145 as printed in the book has only verses 3,4,8,9,13,14,15,16,17,18,19. I think presenting the Psalm written out, but missing various verses is a little strange. It would be especially strange for those who are extremely familiar with the Psalms and would miss the known verses.
Third, in each of the Psalms there are several random words in italics. There are 2-5 or so in each one and they are SO RANDOM. I have no idea what rhyme or reason was applied when choosing which words to italicize. It threw me off while I was reading so I wish they had left italics out altogether.
Fourth, even though most of the Psalms printed in the book are excerpts, the psalms are read in their entirety on the three CD's that come with the book. Not all of the psalms are read, only 30. But not only is the psalm read but also the devotional thought that accompanied it is read. There is a quiet instrumental presence in the background that I did not find disturbing. The quality of the readings is very good. I would rather read it than listen to it, but for those that enjoy audio books, this would probably be well-liked. I gave it 3 out of 5 stars on Barnes and Nobel.com.

1 comment:

bp said...

I have this book/audio from Thomas Nelson too. I am not finished with it. I found the exact things you mentioned! It confused me they only printed some of the verses but read all of them on the audio. I found some misprints on the text as well (typos).