Longman III, Tremper. How To Read The Psalms. Downer’s Grove: IVP, 1988. 166 pp.
Tremper Longman III has a longstanding reputation as an Old Testament scholar par excellence. His joint editorial work with Raymond Dillard on An Introduction to the Old Testament served to cement his name among such scholars. This particular work serves as a less academic, though no less helpful, work on interpreting and understanding the Psalms.
Summary
Longman begins with an awareness that the Psalms are both “familiar” and “foreign” to the contemporary church. He points out that our constant exposure to the Psalms through public and private devotional life has not made the text, usually, that much clearer as it is rife with poetic idioms, expressions, and structures that we struggle to understand. This work, then, is aimed at giving readers the tools to read the Psalms and understand them. So, Longman invites us to explore the Psalms as a place in the Bible where we encounter God in a unique way and where our emotions are immediately engaged in responding to him (11-15).
The work is broken down into three sections. The first section “The Psalms Then And Now” deals with the origin of the work, and their historic use among Israel, the early Christian church, and how they ought to function in our contemporary setting. Longman points out the importance of genre for reading and understanding the Psalms, indicating that it “determines our reading strategy” (21). He explores then, in a simple and introductory manner, the various genres (or types) of psalms that exist within the larger category of the book of Psalms, noting how each is read with a different “strategy.”
Understanding “what” the Psalms are enables us, then, to make betters sense of their use among the original people of God. Though the Psalms were written by individuals at different times (some by David others by Moses and still others by unknown authors) and in different circumstances (most of which are not clearly outlined for us), they were collected into a larger volume for the purpose of promoting corporate worship among the Israelites. He defends this particular position by highlighting other parts of Scripture where the Psalms were used this way, citing 1 Chronicles 16:4 and 1 Samuel 2:1-11. He also observes that some of the titles given to the Psalms by their authors indicate such usage was understood, he cites here the example of Psalm 92. Part of the reason that the Psalms function so well as congregational “hymns,” so to speak, is because within the Psalms the key themes and doctrines of the whole Old Testament are found and highlighted (see chapter 3). In this way the Psalms remind Israel, as they sing, of the major doctrines of the Old Testament.
The Psalms are not limited, of course, to the Old Testament, for they are the most frequently quoted in all the New Testament, and that is for good reason. Longman points out how Jesus argued that the whole purpose of the Old Testament was to point towards Him and so even the Psalms are about Jesus (63-65). This may lead some to conclude that the Psalms are largely Messianic and predictive, then, and serve that isolated function, Longman disagrees. He contends that while every Psalm is “Messianic” in some sense, none is isolated to this function (67-68). Instead, he argues that the Psalms can function, for the New Testament people of God, just as they did for the Old Testament people: as songs. In each type, then, we sing them as psalms to Jesus our savior. In his last chapter for part 1 Longman demonstrates how the Psalms serve as a mirror for our souls, reflecting back to us what our praise, fear, repentance, sorrow, and obedience ought to look like.
Part two of the work deals with the art of the Psalms. Here Longman develops an understanding of Hebrew poetry, parallelism, and imagery all with helpful examples from the texts themselves. He demonstrates the role of these various attributes of Hebrew poetry and helps his readers understand how each communicates truth to us. The last division of the work delves more fully into the interpretive process by giving us three examples. Each serves as demonstration of Longman’s hermeneutic, as well as exposing the readers to key themes that permeate many different psalms.
Critical Evaluation
Longman has provided a resource in this work which avoids the dense academic discussions surrounding Old Testament hermeneutics, and yet gives for average readers the necessary tools for understanding the Psalms. His discussion of Hebrew parallelism provides the best evidence of this point, but by means of the whole work he demonstrates his ability to aptly communicate difficult subjects with simplicity and clarity. Overall the work serves a need for the average Christian.
His introduction to the subject at hand in the first division of the book clearly highlights both the “why” and the proper framework for the “how” of reading the Psalms. Some, no doubt, will contend that Longman’s division of the types of Psalms is inadequate. Certainly he did not break down the divisions enough, but Longman, himself, recognizes this shortcoming and insists for brevity’s and clarity’s sake he must tend towards more generality. One can certainly, I believe, find a place for each of the psalms under these general categories. Of all the discussions about the use of the Psalm it is the final chapter of this division that stands out as the most impressive (The Psalms: Mirror of the Soul). For here Longman explains how the Psalms do the very thing they were designed to do: engage our emotions, thoughts, and lives in the worship of God. Unlike more academic works which deal with the interpretive process for means of communicating the ideas Longman points out how the interpretive process is primarily engaged in communicating ideas for effecting change. It is, of course, not a fault of commentaries and academic exegetical works that they, sometimes, do not promote this emotional and life changing aspect, but one can be grateful to Longman for exposing his readers to it.
In part two Longman demonstrates his ability to interact intelligently with the dynamics of Hebrew poetry, but it is his ability to explain them that warrants mentioning. The concept of parallelism can be difficult to grasp and Longman avoids the temptation to be reductionist in his definition (97-98). Longman examines various types of parallelism and explains how they each function in a particular psalm. At this level of the discussion it would still be easy for a novice student to get lost in the discussion. To prevent any lost readers, however, Longman blends explanation of the technique with real examples from the Psalms for illustrative purposes. This provides the readers both with clarification of the definitions and explanations but also hands on examples of how to apply hermeneutics to the various poetic examples. This section is one of the strong points of the work as a whole. Other works which deal with the subject of parallelism usually, by design and by nature I would assume, deal with it at a much more technical level. Longman’s chapter serves as a quality introduction.
Likewise, his discussion of imagery in the Psalms serves to introduce us to the concept more than to provide us with specific examples and technical approaches to interpretation. Quality works like The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery provide greater detail on specific examples, but Longman does a good job of delving into the concept of imagery at a beginner’s level. In chapter 8 he explains more why images are used and the impact they have on the reader than on how to interpret specific images. This discussion is much more important, I believe, for beginners than the specific examples are. The latter can easily be looked up and analyzed, the former needs serious consideration if we are to rightly discern a commentators interpretation.
The final division provides specific examples of the process of interpretation. The one thing that I think all readers are longing for as they go through the book is this type of demonstration. It is both helpful and frustrating that Longman waits until the end to provide us with a complete demonstration of his hermeneutic in action. It is frustrating because, though there are a few short demonstrations, there is no overall outworking of his principles piece by piece as we go through each new chapter. But it is helpful in that he gives us a clear, clean, picture of the approach at the end without all the discussion and explanation to break it up.
As I have come to conclude my reading of this work, I have found it helpful in doing exactly what its author states it is aimed at doing: helping me read the Psalms. Its layout and development of ideas makes it very easy to read and I imagine very manageable for group discussions. It is my intent not only to recommend this work but to use it in a small group setting for teaching on hermeneutics.
Sparrow & Heart Soul Care 