Book Review: The Book of Psalms

The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary, by Robert Alter.

I'm not a big connoisseur of poetry. In fact as far back as I can recall, I've not enjoyed them much. So it's no surprise that I've never thought too highly the book of Psalms in the Bible. If I was charged with putting together the canon, the Psalms would probably be the first book I'd ditch.

So whenever I'm trying to read through the Bible, the Psalms are a challenge for me -- even more so than say Leviticus and Numbers. This year I spotted Robert Alter's book in our library. So while I was reading through the Bible, I intentionally skipped Psalms with the intention to go through it using Alter's translation.

This other site gives a much more comprehensive review so I'll keep what I write fairly short.

I particularly appreciated Alter's foremost consideration in trying to stay faithful to the best manuscripts. His commentary honestly describes textual difficulties in translation, and does not hesitate to mention places where whole stretches of text are beyond reasonable recovery and thus translators simply have to insert guesses at what the original might have meant.

In the Introduction Alter describes another perspective on how the book of Psalms might have come to be what it is today. According to Alter, the traditional story of much of the Psalms written by David is just a myth. The poetry that ended up in the collection might be earlier or much later. And more likely than not, it was a later compilation of psalms that were generally a part of Hebrew culture.

I think these are what I most appreciated about this book, translation, and commentary. As the other review notes, it is about honesty. There is no attempt to try to find or insert Christologic meanings in the psalms. It tries to explain the psalms in the way a Hebrew reader or listener during the time of the compilation might have understood it. The words and phrases are unfamiliar, even abrupt. It is an attempt to recreate a little bit of Hebrew using English words. The result was that it kept my interest through all 150 psalms.

I recommend it to anyone who wants a fresh perspective on the Psalms. I also recommend the other review for more about the book.