Christopher Ash shows us how to read and apply the book of Psalms. He takes us through 15 pairs of psalms that represent various ātypesāāincluding some that are very familiar and some that are often ignored.
He helps us to see how they are fulfilled by Jesus and therefore point to Jesus first and foremost, transforming how we read them, enjoy them and sing them.
Christopher Ash comments that this understanding of the Psalms "can shape the dynamics of our Christian lives in ways that neither a dry and arid intellectualism nor a rootless emotionalism can do. The Psalms can make us Christians with deep feelings, deep emotions, deep thoughts, ...and deep desires."
(Review written for 'Psalms For You')
Our Bible study group is using this book. Members have copies and some are using āPsalms for Youā to prepare material for all the group.
We are finding that Christopher Ash has used his knowledge of the Psalms to write lucid explanations of them. He shows how we might use them in worship together as well as privately. He leads us into the breadth of praying and thanksgiving that the Psalms cover. As well as knowing the Psalms, it is ...clear that Christopher Ash loves and enjoys them. His skill as a communicator means that he entices us towards the enthusiasm he has for the Psalms.
He not only sees the Psalms as our Lordās own hymn book and prayer book, but encourages us to see how the Psalms can speak of the Lord Jesus himself. Seeing how the Psalms do this concerning the Lord Jesus is one of the values of studying āPsalms for Youā.
(Review written for 'Psalms For You')
Psalms For You by Christopher Ash is one volume of many in the āGodās Word For Youā series published by The Good Book Company. Christopher Ash is the Writer-in-Residence at Tyndale House, Cambridge, UK, and has been teaching and preaching the Bible for many years. As this book (along with his other writings) has shown, he is a man who knows how to rightly divide the Word of Truth.
This volume, like all others in the series, is a hardcover ...book. The cover is really neat! I like how they place the authorās name at the top, the title at the bottom, and a neat little saying on the āread, feed, and leadā goal for the book. I also like the size of the book. Most of my commentaries are rather large, but this book is small enough that it could be comfortably held and read for long periods of time. This volume is 281 pages, including the glossary, appendix, bibliography, and acknowledgments. Obviously with the book being under 300 pages, Ash does not cover all 150 psalms. Since he is going verse by verse through the Psalms, he chooses 16 related pairs of Psalms for a total of 32. In all of my reviews, I attempt to provide some cons of the book. This would be my only con, that I wish the book were longer, or at least that the book of Psalms was broken into multiple volumes. Ash did such a great job on these 32 Psalms, that I wish he would have been granted the opportunity to exposit more of them (if not all of them). But considering this book contains only 16 pairs of Psalms, Ash does an excellent job of choosing different types of Psalms (some very familiar to many, some not familiar at all to many) and helping the reader to understand how to interpret the other Psalms that arenāt covered in this book.
This book is excellent! I am excited to read more books in this series, and I want to highly commend it to you. All Christians, no matter where they are in the journey, will benefit from this great book! Take up and read.
