I picked this book up because I thought it would help deepen my understanding of Hebrew poetry. It surely did that but taught me much more as well.

Mark Furtato, a professor at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, wrote the book as a guide to sound exegesis and interpretation of the Psalms. He begins with the offering the reader a skill set for interpreting Hebrew poetry which is useful for much more than the Psalms, then moves to a chapter describing how the whole of the Psalms are arranged for a specific purpose. I found this chapter to be quite enlightening.

His third chapter, covering the historicity and textual criticism as applied to the Psalms is rather academic, but not out of place for his task. The set of resources with which he ends this chapter is quite useful for a student of the Psalms.

His fourth chapter on the categories of the Psalms and how to recognize them was quite helpful. His final two chapters on proclaiming the Psalms and practicing its principles will be most useful for exegetes, though helpful to any student of the Psalms.

In short, a clear, readable and useful tool in deepening understanding of the Psalms for any student of the Bible. ( )