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Reflections on the Psalms

3.83 of 5 stars 3.83 · rating details · 1,330 ratings · 140 reviews

“We delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation.”

The Psalms were written as songs; we should read them as poetry, in the spirit of lyric, not as sermons or instructions. But they are also shrouded in mystery, and in this careful reading from one of our most trusted fellow travelers, C...more

Paperback, 168 pages

Published October 7th 1964 by Harvest/HBJ Books (first published 1958)

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Aug 21, 2012 John rated it 5 of 5 stars

Some of my favorite things about this wonderful little book by my favorite author:

1. Right away, he takes on the difficult, hard-to-stomach psalms, the ones about such things as dashing the Babylonian babies against the stones. Hard stuff. I'm sure I would have avoided it.

2. This quote:
"But of course these conjectures as to why God does what He does are probably of no more value than my dog's ideas of what I am up to when I sit and read."

3. And this quote:
"What we see when we think we are looki...more

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Apr 25, 2013 Adam Shields rated it 4 of 5 stars

Book Review: Reflections on the Psalms by CS Lewis - I picked it up in part because it is only $2.24 on kindle. But it is a good introduction to the Psalms both as a book of prayers that have been used by Christians to pray for generations and as biblical literature. Lewis was a professor of literature, so bought a pretty sophisticated (but readable) background to what for most Christians is just a book of poetry and nice sayings.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/reflections-on-t ...more

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Apr 29, 2013 Jeri Massi rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book presents Lewis about as far as he gets from the Fundamentalist interpretation of the Scripture. Lewis treats the Psalms much as he would treat any ancient text: with great respect but without any sense that they are more than an ancient text of the writings and songs of devout people who worship God but worship Him in a certain amount of ignorance.

First of all, for readers coming out of Fundamentalism, this is still a great book, because Lewis definitely knows the Psalms that he is dis...more This book presents Lewis about as far as he gets from the Fundamentalist interpretation of the Scripture. Lewis treats the Psalms much as he would treat any ancient text: with great respect but without any sense that they are more than an ancient text of the writings and songs of devout people who worship God but worship Him in a certain amount of ignorance.

First of all, for readers coming out of Fundamentalism, this is still a great book, because Lewis definitely knows the Psalms that he is discussing. There is no proof texting. He makes many excellent points and observations.

But I am amazed at his dismissal and reduction of the imprecation Psalms. Surely as a scholar of ancient literature, he knew that kings uttered boasts before their convocations of all that they would do to their enemies. As men who claimed to be the divine offspring of the gods themselves, they made loud claims about the terrors and horrors they would inflict upon those who harmed them.

The fact that David DOES NOT DO THIS shows a tremendous faith and humility in Israel's King. David quite literally places his boast in God, calling upon God as the defender of the nation to do these things, showing by example that he is refraining from doing them and is waiting upon God to act as Israel's sovereign ruler. Yes, the imprecatory Psalms get really colorful and vivid and horrible in what they describe, but David is deliberately using the method of other nations to show that he places these matters into God's Hands. Lewis' failure to perceive this nuance disappointed me so much that the rest of the book was a bit of a letdown. If we accept David as a real, historic king of Israel, then no wonder Jerusalem was called the City of Justice, for it is clear that there were no purges or secret police under David. The imprecatory Psalms testify of this.

So the book was a bit of a let down for me, but I would recommend it to anybody just emerging from Christian Fundamentalism. Lewis is truly, devoutly Christian. But he has a different point of view from those of us who grew up in the most conservative corners of Christendom. Exposure to his ideas and POV is a good thing.(less)

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Mar 22, 2013 Mark C. rated it 5 of 5 stars

Reflections on the Psalms C. S. Lewis My Thoughts One Year Later

I read this book a year ago. One year later, here are the significant ideas that I remember from Lewis's book.

First, I remember his comments about joy and gusto. He discusses these concepts in Chapter 5, "The fair beauty of the Lord," and Chapter 6, "Sweeter than Honey." Lewis points out that the ancient Jews had less to feel joyful about in their lives than we do today, yet the Psalms resound with loud proclamations of joy and grat...more Reflections on the Psalms C. S. Lewis My Thoughts One Year Later

I read this book a year ago. One year later, here are the significant ideas that I remember from Lewis's book.

First, I remember his comments about joy and gusto. He discusses these concepts in Chapter 5, "The fair beauty of the Lord," and Chapter 6, "Sweeter than Honey." Lewis points out that the ancient Jews had less to feel joyful about in their lives than we do today, yet the Psalms resound with loud proclamations of joy and gratitude.

Second, I remember Chapter 9, A Word About Praising. Lewis openly questions the character and nature of a God who seems to demand and expect praise from his followers on a never-ending basis. Lewis comments, "I don't want my dog to bark approval of my books," so why should God expect us to bark approval of His ways and wisdom?

Lewis argues that praise is not something that God requires; it is something that should result from true understanding of His goodness. Praise follows and flows from ecstasy, gratitude, and (yes, there's that word again) joy. He says that we "praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment..." He says elsewhere: "It is not out of compliment that lovers keep telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed." I agree with him and I sure wish I could express myself as well he does on this point. I also admire how Lewis took a chapter that could have seemed irreverent to the point of disrespect and turned it into what might be the most purely enjoyable chapter of his book.

Third, I remember and continue to admire Lewis's comments about Nature in Chapter 8. He says that the Hebrews separated God from Nature. He said God is not in Nature but behind it. He created it and He manipulates it. Other tribes in the region believed that the gods were in Nature. Thunder was the actual voice of the thunder god, and so forth. To me, this concept is a crucial one that comes up over and over in the Psalms.

Lewis makes another important point when he says that the Psalms praise Nature for its utility rather than beauty. The Psalms are not the sort of "Nature poetry" produced by later, more urbanized cultures. Lewis describes this later nature poetry as an "appreciation of Nature." The Psalmists give us little landscape, but they do give us the "very feel of the weather." They do so because everyone "was close to the land; everyone vividly aware of our dependence on soils and weather." The Psalmists wrote a much more rugged type of nature poetry. The Psalmists were "writing lyrics not romances."

Lewis discusses other important concepts in the other chapters on subjects ranging from the ancient Hebrews' understanding of death and judgment to a brief history of Christian interpretations of individual Psalms. In my opinion, the last three chapters of the book--devoted mainly to the re-viewing of the Psalms through a Christian lens--are the most narrow in appeal and arguably the least successful (though interesting, to be sure, if you're an Anglican or an Episcopalian).

Lewis expresses the notion of Joy beautifully, but some of us in these dark modern times will find the notion of Joy difficult. I somehow think Joy does not come without relinquishing Pride and Regret. Joy is accepting God's will and knowing it is for the best--not subordinating your will to God's, but aligning your will with it. So much of our suffering is not brought on by events themselves, but in our struggle against them and in our will to change them. We need to understand that life's misfortunes either result from our own poor decisions or else they are God's will and we must accept them. This task of accepting life's burdens joyfully is not always an easy one.(less)

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Feb 20, 2013 Lindsey rated it 3 of 5 stars

I'm torn between 2 and 3 stars . . . this is totally not what I expected from Lewis. There are parts that are beautifully said as only Lewis can say, lovely observations about the quality of the Psalms that someone with a history in literature makes the best.

And then there are parts that are weird and totally unexpected . . . like his apparent separation of "Jewish" from "Christian" throughout the book, as though they were completely separate "religions," not something I would expect from someo...more

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Jun 26, 2012 David rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: christianity, nonfiction, read-2012

Lewis finds a niche for himself in these essays on the Psalms. He is no Biblical expert, he says, but the commentaries of Biblical scholars often fail to consider the questions of the average reader of the Psalms, questions that Lewis himself has. So Lewis writes his own thoughts in hopes of "comparing notes" with other students like himself. Of course, as one goodreads reviewer has already pointed out, there are hardly other students like the brilliant Lewis.

How can someone who is a sinner hims...more Lewis finds a niche for himself in these essays on the Psalms. He is no Biblical expert, he says, but the commentaries of Biblical scholars often fail to consider the questions of the average reader of the Psalms, questions that Lewis himself has. So Lewis writes his own thoughts in hopes of "comparing notes" with other students like himself. Of course, as one goodreads reviewer has already pointed out, there are hardly other students like the brilliant Lewis.

How can someone who is a sinner himself ask so confidently for God's judgment on others? What are we to make of the cringe-worthy psalms of cursing? Why does it seem that many of the psalms reflect no belief in the after-life? Why would God, unless he were vain, demand to be praised all the time? How can the psalms have a second meaning beyond that of its original intention? Lewis addresses these questions honestly and beautifully.

What I appreciate about Lewis's approach is that he brings us to the original singer of the particular psalm within its original context without immediately assuming a New Testament interpretation. Thus, mention of salvation almost invariably refers to rescue from danger or sickness, not salvation from sin. (Although, as he points out later, such an interpretation is legitimate for the Christian.) The psalmist's desire for judgment is a desire for a righteous judge to take up the cause of the oppressed; our own hesitancy to pray for such a thing is centered on our well-founded awareness that we are sinners and that we want mercy, not judgment. When a particular psalmist says that no one praises God from the grave, Lewis does not try to invent a convoluted explanation of why the psalmist did in fact expect to be in God's presence when he died; he did not have this hope, Lewis says, because God had not yet chosen to give a clear revelation of this reality, and Lewis goes into a discussion about how God wanted to teach his people to desire him, not an afterlife.

Lewis's take on the inspiration of scripture may find disagreement from those who believe in the infallibility of the Bible. His approach to the psalms and the scriptures as a whole allows for a much greater presence of humanity with all its proneness to errors, ignorance, and even sin. Thus, Lewis condemns the cursing psalms while still finding that God wanted them in the canon. After all, they teach us that injustice done to the individual not only wrongs him, but arouses hatred within him.

I will not go into Lewis's approach to second meanings in the psalms, except to say that he explains well and accepts the multiple layers of meaning within the psalms. The last essay is a beautiful description of the presence of Christ in the psalms. I also won't go into Lewis's explanation of why the psalms demand praise from us, except to say that it's a classic and a must-read.(less)

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Mar 06, 2011 Zack Mollhagen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-read-in-2011

Let me start off by saying how much I absolutely love C.S. Lewis. He is arguably my favorite author of all time. However, this may be my least favorite “book” of his. I use the term book loosely because of how much it reads like an essay. I think that is perhaps why it is my least favorite of his works. It definitely has a treasury of valuable information like all of Lewis’ works. It offers perspectives and explanations on multiple aspects found within the psalms, which is fitting since they are...more

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Jan 24, 2011 Heather rated it 1 of 5 stars

Lewis the higher critic? Dare I say the heretic?? I kept hoping I would find one chapter in this book to embrace, but the entire volume turned out to be reflections of a C. S. Lewis I had not anticipated.

To his credit, Lewis introduces the book by stating that he is no scholar, no Hebraist, (he also says no higher critic, but that I take as a technicality since he certainly employs higher-critical reasoning throughout), but rather one unlearned writing for the unlearned. Of course the fact is t...more Lewis the higher critic? Dare I say the heretic?? I kept hoping I would find one chapter in this book to embrace, but the entire volume turned out to be reflections of a C. S. Lewis I had not anticipated.

To his credit, Lewis introduces the book by stating that he is no scholar, no Hebraist, (he also says no higher critic, but that I take as a technicality since he certainly employs higher-critical reasoning throughout), but rather one unlearned writing for the unlearned. Of course the fact is that C. S. Lewis is about the most NOT unlearned author of the 20th century, so I expected this to be a humble overstatement considering Hebrew poetry is not his primary area of study. I suppose I should have taken the statement more literally.

The main flaw in Lewis's approach is that he views Old Testament Judaism and New Testament Christianity as two completely separate, radically different religions. At times he almost speaks as though they have different deities. From a Jewish scholar I would expect as much, but not from a Christian one. I would even expect this from a higher critic, but I didn't expect Lewis to BE a higher critic, you see. How can he accept New Testament miracles, including the resurrection, but deny that the Psalms were written with any kind of real prophetic purpose? It irks me how he assumes the ancient Jews were several rungs lower on the intellectual ladder--and he does assume this, for he writes as though they were shortsighted in their writing, seeing only an immediate purpose, and cruelly brutal and selfish in their ideas. Divine inspiration for the Psalms is reduced to the notion that maybe we as Christians see things in them that were never really intended but still have value for us personally.

If you want a Christological view of the Psalms, try Luther. Lewis gets so entangled in trying to solve difficulties that he mostly misses a genuine Christian reading of the Psalms. Here is proof positive that no beloved Christian author's entire canon should be accepted without study of its individual parts.(less)

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Jan 07, 2013 Seth Holler rated it 4 of 5 stars

Above all, this book takes an honest look at some hard questions. Some Christians doubtless call it blasphemy rather than honesty. My childhood pastor, from whom I learned so much, and who almost always championed CSL, didn't care for this book. He probably thought it irreverent, particularly the first three and final three chapters.

Honesty notwithstanding, REFLECTIONS is not my favorite of Lewis's books. Odd thing: my favorite CSL books were published in the late 1930s and early 1940s. THE DISC...more

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Sep 06, 2012 Patrick S. rated it 2 of 5 stars

Again, the biggest problem I have with Lewis is that he doesn't apply to same status to some parts of the Bible as he does to other parts like the words of Christ. I think he does a good job at getting people, mostly Western people, to realize that the Psalms aren't written in "their language" but in Hebrew type. However, he sometimes takes to the extremes what to read into them...even after an entire chapter on being careful on not reading into any book things just because you can. Far and abov...more

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Jul 28, 2011 Brian Reagan rated it 4 of 5 stars

As a writer Lewis ponders the Psalms to discern initial meaning and to appropriate a hermeneutic that is accessible to the layman. It is not qualitative Hebrew scholarship, nor does it claim to be such. Lewis, as a late-life Anglican convert approaches the Psalms as a text of devotion and spiritual contemplation.

Some readers, particularly conservative evangelicals, may get little or nothing out of the text which would be of value for themselves. However, if one desires to engage the Psalms in a...more

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Mar 26, 2011 Adam Graham rated it 4 of 5 stars

Reflections on the Psalms is C.S. Lewis' attempt to examine the book. Lewis does not claim to be an expert on Psalms, writing the book plainly because the topic interests him. It is not an apologetic work, but rather is written for Christians.

To be honest, I do not find myself sharing in Lewis' opinions on some points, but on all points he's profound. One thing that impressed me about Lewis' examination is that he would try to take a look at the downside of his own statements, cautioning us abo...more

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Jul 10, 2012 Victoria Wheeler rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: christianity

First off, I would like to say that I think the gentleman who read the text in this audio edition did a fantastic job. As for the text itself, there were many very illuminating, thought-provoking passages, true to Lewis style. Still, this book was much different than what I expected, as I think I expected a text much like Bonhoeffer's Psalms. That work is very systematic although short. I felt this was much the opposite. While each chapter focuses on a specific theme, the essays are very winding...more

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Nov 14, 2012 Megan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

Going in, I expected this book to be a series of mini-sermons on particular Psalms: for instance, a chapter on Psalm 139 and another on Psalm 23. Rather, the book is exactly what its title says: Reflections on the Psalms, as a whole. Lewis takes the Psalms and common motifs therein (vengeance, death, nature) as platforms atop which he builds essays about Christian thinking and living.

Most detractors of the book have, I think, two main concerns: that Lewis is not a biblical scholar and that Lewi...more Going in, I expected this book to be a series of mini-sermons on particular Psalms: for instance, a chapter on Psalm 139 and another on Psalm 23. Rather, the book is exactly what its title says: Reflections on the Psalms, as a whole. Lewis takes the Psalms and common motifs therein (vengeance, death, nature) as platforms atop which he builds essays about Christian thinking and living.

Most detractors of the book have, I think, two main concerns: that Lewis is not a biblical scholar and that Lewis is a heretic. The first concern is the easier to answer. No, Lewis is not a biblical scholar. He is, however, a literary scholar, and what else are the Psalms but preeminent religious literature? God is the author of language; therefore, when He writes a book or poems, we should expect Him to use the same literary devices that everybody else who writes books or poems uses. It is not the other poets (the pagan Greeks, or the Romantics, or the Modernists) that God's Word imitates; it is God's Word that other poets imitate (whether knowledgeably or not).

Thus, Lewis has a clear vantage-point from which to read and discuss the Psalms. In fact, his vantage-point as a literary scholar lends him a certain advantage over the theologian and Hebraist. The theologian is, as Lewis himself points out, often used to seeing the text as a cut-and-dried code that will, if studied properly, print out correct doctrine; the Hebraist, as with any philologist, can get so caught up in the various meanings and translations of a particular word that he loses sight of the whole. I have myself sat through sermons that seemed more devoted to tracing the Greek and Hebrew roots of a word than actually recommending biblical principles. We cannot, of course, simply do away with the theologian or the Hebraist, but neither can we do away with the literary critic. Lewis's job here, and he does it admirably, is exactly what it is whenever he writes on Shakespeare or on one of the medieval poets: to examine the structure of the whole, its ability to depict human emotion and its relationship to other texts (in this case, the texts of Scripture and the traditions of the church).

(Incidentally, a simpler answer than arguing through the literary aspects of Scripture is simply to remind readers that Christ living in us qualifies any single one of us to speak about Scripture and our reading of it. Lewis too is a priest before God in Christ, as we also are priests and may approach God ourselves. Our Christian education need not be mediated only through those who have devoted lives and careers to studying the Scriptures.)

Lewis's possible heresy is a more serious charge. Certainly Lewis does not accept what is in 2012 America, at least, traditional evangelical doctrine. At best, he is an old-earth creationist and believes that the Bible contains God's word (not that it is God's word). Despite his protests, he is quite far from anything we would think of as a "Fundamentalist." However, that Lewis is unorthodox need not, I think, prevent us from reading and enjoying and learning from his book. Milton wrote in Areopagitica that "Good and evil we know in the field of this World grow up together almost inseparably". In other words, this fallen world we live in is not black-and-white but shades of grey. In the movies, the Bad Guy is easy to spot. In real life, the Bad Guy often has a good deal of goodness mixed in, and the Good Guy absolutely has a good deal of badness mixed in. And so with theology: Few individuals have an absolutely good or an absolutely bad theology; their theology is usually more mixed between good and evil, true and untrue. Milton therefore concludes that "the knowledge and survey of vice is in this world . . . necessary to the constituting of human virtue and the scanning of error to the confirmation of truth"; he goes on to encourage wide reading of all books, regardless of whether we agree with the individual theological principles contained therein.

Milton's principles, I believe, apply to Lewis. Yes, Lewis is unorthodox. No, this should not keep us from reading his books and even Reflections on the Psalms, which seems to be one of the most obviously unorthodox books he wrote. As Milton said, "the scanning of error [is necessary for] the confirmation of truth": By reading Lewis's unorthodox beliefs along with his orthodox ones, we believers learn to distinguish truth from error, to applaud that which is biblical and discard that which is not, to evaluate ideas and not accept them on the authority of someone whom we respect. In reading Lewis's unorthodox works there may be almost as many opportunities for good character-building as in reading his orthodox ones.

Milton's argument, of course, goes deeper than, "Read literature you don't agree with because spotting areas of disagreement is good intellectual exercise." Indeed, as virtue and vice grow up so close together, some of Lewis's most unorthodox passages actually contain his deepest truths. As I've mentioned, it is Lewis's chapter on Scripture, which he believes to "contain" God's word but perhaps not be historically or scientifically accurate, that generates the most controversy. Even the most conservative reader, however, should (but often doesn't) find value in Lewis's analysis of what we expected the Bible to be versus what God gave us. Lewis writes that "we may think we should have preferred . . . ultimate truth in systematic form," a "cut-and-dried, fool-proof" book that lays out our theology for us clearly. It is quite true, however, that this is not what God has given us, and it is Lewis the unorthodox who reminds us that God has in fact given us poetry and chronicle and eroticism and cyclical (not clearly expositional, as we would have preferred) theology. Thus, the value in reading Lewis the heretic is not only highlighting areas of heresy but finding value and purpose even in the heresy itself, because all truth is indeed God's.

For me, I found the book useful as a lens with which to better understand the Psalms themselves. Particularly, the chapter on Cursings and Vengeance helped me appreciate (which I had not been able to do before) how such hatred and frustration could exist side-by-side with the beauty and praise of the Psalms. His writing on Nature invites comparison between the historical Jews and those who also wrote about Nature: the Norse, or the Egyptians. As Lewis wrote a Preface to Paradise Lost, he has here written what is essentially a Preface to the Psalms: literary and historical background which he thinks will be useful for the reader beginning (or continuing) to interpret the Psalms.(less)

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Feb 05, 2012 Daniel Routh rated it 3 of 5 stars

It's a little unfair to give C.S. Lewis only three stars. But maybe it's his own fault, since I'm comparing this work to some of his better pieces. Reflections on the Psalms is worth reading primarily for three reasons:

1) It wipes away much of our modern assumptions about the psalms and helps us see them as the Jews in the original audience would have seen them. They turn out to be rather more primitive and much more frank than we would have supposed. Lewis argues, for example, that the Psalmis...more

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Mar 14, 2012 Marlene Rohr rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: christian

As an avid reader of the Psalms, I found this book to be enlightening and thought provoking. The start of the book was somewhat daunting to wade through; the topics of judgement, death, cursings aren't easy topics to discuss at the best of times, but are part of the historical reality of that time. Lewis's musings on "The Fair Beauty of the Lord", Nature and Praising are more uplifting and reflective of the Psalms that I prefer to dwell on. I especially liked his view of what we as church attend...more

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Jul 03, 2009 Noah rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: c-s-lewis

A very good approach, I think. Understanding the problems, world, and issues of the writers of the Psalms is key to understanding a lot of the troublesome parts of the Book (and any book, really, is better understood by knowing the context in which it was written). Lewis' comments on allegory and prefiguration were also welcome, as modern critical theory seems to deny the ability of seeing things on multiple levels at once. More is required to have a full understanding the work (I'm sure Lewis w...more

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Apr 23, 2013 Brendan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction, theology

I love Lewis, and have nearly completed reading all his christian works, but I didn't much care for this one. There were some great insights that he had throughout the book, but as he says in the beginning, he writes for people who are not learned in the psalms, as someone who is not learned in the psalms. This translated into a lot of speculation, and most of his analysis was literary, not necessarily theological, which is what I had hoped. The highlights of the book are the beginning chapters...more

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Jul 23, 2012 Rebekah rated it 3 of 5 stars

Oh man, GoodReads, why you do dis to me? I wish I could give Mr. Lewis 3.5 stars. I listened to the audio book version of this. Lewis made some very good points and had some VERY good analogies (duh). The book did open my eyes, but I don't think I was very thrilled to read (listen to) it. It was more informational. There were some points where I had to keep rewinding the AudioBook to figure out what he was trying to say. But hey, maybe if I had actually seen the words my opinion would be differe...more

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Jul 07, 2011 Tina rated it 4 of 5 stars

Why don't I read more C.S. Lewis? I haven't read all his books, so why do I read other Christian authors when there's so much still to glean from Lewis? Since I learned that Benedictine monks read through the entire book of Psalms every week, I've been trying read some psalms everyday. I don't feel like I'm getting as much out of the Psalms as I should, which I take as my ignorance and not the fault of the psalms! A couple outside sources mentioned Lewis' book, so I read it with the hope of incr...more

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Feb 26, 2013 Timothy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-reviewed-in-2013

When one begins reading the book Reflections on the Psalms, by CS Lewis, one reads the author's initial disclaimer that the book is not a serious work of theology. Lewis notes that it is his rambling ideas and personal “reflections” that he explored in his own private devotions. This is an important caution he gave his readers, as he knew that some may take his words for the best interpretation, and he feared that often this would be a spiritual error for them.

That said, he did have some experti...more When one begins reading the book Reflections on the Psalms, by CS Lewis, one reads the author's initial disclaimer that the book is not a serious work of theology. Lewis notes that it is his rambling ideas and personal “reflections” that he explored in his own private devotions. This is an important caution he gave his readers, as he knew that some may take his words for the best interpretation, and he feared that often this would be a spiritual error for them.

That said, he did have some expertise that many theologians do not have. His knowledge of the medieval, training in interpretation of literature, and knowledge of language, allowed him to put forth truths that many modern readers, even trained theologians, miss. The part that makes this exceptionally helpful, Lewis' disclaimer notwithstanding, is that he persuasively argues that the older, more literally true, interpretations, and the newer interpretations, are equally valid. The reason being that the Lord can reveal His will to people and reveal Himself to folks via His “Natural Law”, and so the literal meaning can be given by God in such a way that alludes to, and even obviously speaks of, or predicts, the equally true spiritual interpretation.

Now, to be honest, the book doesn't really say “natural law”. I use that as a term to encapsulate the general point. Natural Law essentially can have secular and spiritual (Christian) meanings. We will ignore the secular ones, and refer to the Christian understanding. Essentially, the moral law, the sense of beauty and of God's existence, that He lays on men's hearts, is the “Natural Law”. This is a very rough definition, but gets across the crux of Lewis' thoughts on the Book of Psalms. God has his truth revealed to us who are, as Randy Alcorn puts it, His “image-bearers”. We reflect His truth and glory in our imperfect, sin-filled way. So therefore the literal meanings of the passages in the Psalms, and the rest of the Scriptures for that matter, either “anticipated” or were somehow reflective of the true, Divine meanings of the Coming of Our Lord, Savior, and God Jesus Christ, man's afterlife, etc.

It is interesting to see Lewis work out the history of the development of spiritual truth by Our Lord, as He slowly revealed Himself over the years from Abraham down to Christ and the Apostles. Not much concrete doctrinal or “spiritual” issues can be found in this volume, but a very good historical and literary discussion of the issues in the Psalms and how they connect to the later New Testament writings is offered.

The final part I liked was how Lewis dealt with the uncomfortable, militant, bloody Psalms. Too many Christians avoid such Psalms, or any commentary on them. Lewis does not. He outright states that many of them are not in line with the moral sentiment of the rest of the Psalms and the rest of the Bible period. Yet he at least tries to understand why they were written as they are, why they are in the Bible in the first place, and how they can be of benefit to Christians who read them. He takes both those who are too harsh, and those who are too lenient, on the writers of the bloody Psalms, to task, and this is a great spiritual boon to the reader. Instead of avoiding this tough issue, he tackles it head-on. His guesses (that's all they really are, as he himself freely admits) are not nearly completely satisfactory, but at least he tried, which is more than most Christians do. For that, he deserves a great deal of credit.

As Lewis himself points out, this is definitely not a theological work, but the personal expertise he brought to exploring the Book of Psalms does reveal some truths and potential-truths. For that reason, it is well-worth reading.(less)

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Oct 10, 2012 Danny Yang rated it 3 of 5 stars

"I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed. It is frustrating to have discovered a new author and not to be able to tell anyone how good he is; ...to hear a good joke and find no one to share it with (the perfect hearer died a year ago). This is so even whe...more

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Feb 01, 2011 Joe rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: theology

There were a couple parts in this book that seemed empty at times, and one chapter even seemed to be trying to do something that Lewis said he was not as experienced with and seemed to almost contradict later statements he made.

However, setting that part aside, the rest of the book was wonderful at giving new ways of looking at those parts of the Psalms that are not easy to make sense out of at times. It even helps give better ways at looking at some of those moral issues that are hard to take a...more

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Nov 30, 2011 J. Alfred rated it 4 of 5 stars

A collection of wonderful quotes and an exposition of how a strong, devout mind can deal intellegently and yet faithfully with difficulties in dogma and scripture (at least I think so. Some people find this book scandalous). Spurgeon thought that line of Tennyson's "there's more faith in honest doubt than in half the creeds" was nothing but "wicked nonsense," but I think there's real virtue in honestly wrestling with tough aspects of one's faith. Also, Lewis is absolutely wonderful on poetry in...more

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Mar 23, 2011 Brooke rated it 5 of 5 stars

I'm sorry to say that I've owned this book for two years and had not even turned a page until the beginning of Lent this year. I read it last week and it just blew me away (but I expected as much from Mr. Lewis).

He tackles the difficult themes within the Psalms from the humble perspective of an ordinary person of faith. The opening anecdote makes this clear and is highly instructive because of his reverence for the office of learning, occupied by those of every variation and shade of understandi...more

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Sep 19, 2012 Kent rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: commentaries

Fresh perspective on themes in Psalms (jugdment, cursing others, death, dealing with wicked people, the Lord's beauty, nature, praise, Scripture, and second meanings). Lewis's routine approach is to lay out the problem he had with each theme, and then to explain the new understanding that he arrived at. Following are a couple of my notes.

1: “Judgement” in the Psalms
We moderns fear judgment. We don’t look forward to God’s judgment. But the ancient Hebrews rejoiced in it and talked of it fondly in...more

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Feb 23, 2012 Joseph R. rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2012, biblical-commentary

This book has a refreshing honesty and candor. Lewis immediately states that this writing is not scholarly, definitive, or all-encompassing. He writes as one simple Christian to another, seeking a better understanding by pondering problems he has discovered and sharing insights he has gained while reading the Psalms.

Lewis writes about a variety of topics in the Psalms that strike him as significant. First, he notes the difference in the Psalms's presentation of divine judgment and the Christian'...more This book has a refreshing honesty and candor. Lewis immediately states that this writing is not scholarly, definitive, or all-encompassing. He writes as one simple Christian to another, seeking a better understanding by pondering problems he has discovered and sharing insights he has gained while reading the Psalms.

Lewis writes about a variety of topics in the Psalms that strike him as significant. First, he notes the difference in the Psalms's presentation of divine judgment and the Christian's understanding of it. Christians usually think of the dies irae judgment when God separates the sheep from the goats or the wheat from the weeds at the end of time, an act full of fear and awe. The Psalms look at judgment as winning a civil lawsuit--the unjustly persecuted or deprived has their day in court and their recompense. The Psalms either praise this when it happens or implore God to make it happen. The contrast of views does not mean one is right and one is wrong; rather, a greater richness can be discovered in both views.

Other topics he looks at are death in the Psalms (which don't seem to embody the fully developed Christian notion of an afterlife), the sometimes shocking, sometimes juvenile cursing of enemies/desire for revenge on persecutors (even Psalm 23 wants God to set up a festive table in front of enemies, as if to rub their noses in it), the love for God as embodied in nature and in temple worship, the love of the law as something truly to embrace as joyful and not to fear as punishing, and several other ideas or themes.

The book is delightfully accessible. Lewis uses very down-to-earth language and explanations. It's as if he was talking with you rather than lecturing at you. He fosters a personal relationship through his writing. Isn't that what we as Christians look for in reading the Bible, to find a more personal relationship with God Himself? The book helps the reader be a better Christian by better knowing God through the Psalms.

Here's a sample where Lewis discusses the different interpretations of why certain Pagan myths are similar to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ:

And what are we to say of those gods in various Pagan mythologies who are killed and rise again and who thereby renew or transform the life of their worshippers [sic] or of nature? The odd thing is that here those anthropologists who are most hostile to our faith would agree with many Christians in saying "The resemblance is not accidental". Of course the two parties would say this for different reasons. The anthropologists would mean: "All these superstitions have a common source in the mind and experience, especially the agricultural experience, of early man. Your myth of Christ is like the myth of Balder because it has the same origin. The likeness is a family likeness." The Christians would fall into two schools of thought. The early Fathers (or some of them), who believed that Paganism was nothing but the direct work of the Devil, would say: "The Devil has from the beginning tried to mislead humanity with lies. As all accomplished liars do, he makes his lies as like the truth as he can; provided they lead man astray on the main issue, the more closely they imitate truth the more effective they will be. That is why we call him God's Ape; he is always imitating God. The resemblance of Adonis to Christ is therefore not at all accidental; it is the resemblance we expect to find between a counterfeit and the original, between imitation pearls and pearls." Other Christians who think, as I do, that in mythology divine and diabolical and human elements (the desire for a good story), all play a part, would say: "It is not accidental. In the sequence of night and day, in the annual death and rebirth of crops, in the myths which these processes gave rise to, in the strong, if half-articulate, feeling (embodied in many Pagan 'Mysteries') that man himself must undergo some sort of death if he would truly live, there is already a likeness permitted by God to that truth on which all depends. The resemblance between these myths and the Christian truth is no more accidental than the resemblance between the sun and the sun's reflection in a pond, or that between a historical fact and the somewhat garbled version of it which lives in popular report, or between the trees and hills of the real world and the trees and hills in our dreams." Thus all three views alike would regard the "Pagan Christs" and the true Christ as things really related and would find the resemblance significant. [pp. 105-107]

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Apr 15, 2012 Brian rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: c-s-lewis

Wow. C.S. Lewis was no Evangelical and it is for that we like him, even at his worst.

C.S. Lewis can really articulate some of our deepest struggles with the Psalms, which demonstrates how much he is still reacting with Scripture. His chapters on 'The Cursings' and 'Scripture' are the worst offenders: "The total result is not "the Word of God" in the sense that every passage, in itself, gives impeccable science or history. It carries the Word of God; and we ... receive that word from it not by u...more

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Jul 21, 2011 Julia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: literary-cricicism, theology, anglican

This little book includes some very lucid (but what else could we expect from Lewis) and thought-provoking reflections. A couple memorable passages from a first read through (July 2011):

- Lewis treats the Jewish call for justice (frequently found in the Psalms; a call to defend the poor, defend the cause of the widow and orphan) as a different plea from the Christian call for justice (which pins all our own hopes for mercy on the Character of Christ).(The authors of the Psalms, in general "think...more This little book includes some very lucid (but what else could we expect from Lewis) and thought-provoking reflections. A couple memorable passages from a first read through (July 2011):

- Lewis treats the Jewish call for justice (frequently found in the Psalms; a call to defend the poor, defend the cause of the widow and orphan) as a different plea from the Christian call for justice (which pins all our own hopes for mercy on the Character of Christ).(The authors of the Psalms, in general "think they have been wronged", although they sometimes adopt "Christian humility and wisely lose their self-confidence")

- Lewis' thoughts on the Jewish beliefs about death: "It seems quite clear that in most parts of the Old Testament there is little or no belief in a future life; certainly no belief that is of any religious importance. The word translated 'soul' in our version of the Psalms means simply 'life'; the word translated 'hell' means simply 'the land of the dead', the state of all the dead, good and bad alike, Sheol."

- Comments on the relationship between ritual and reverence in Chapter V, "The Fair Beauty of the Lord"

- On avoiding temptation: "...I am inclined to think a Christian would be wise to avoid, where he decently can any meeting with people who are bullies, lascivious, cruel, dishonest, spiteful and so forth. Not because we are 'too good' for them. In a sense because we are not good enough. We are not good enough to cope with all the temptations, nor clever enough to cope with all the problems, which an evening spent in such society produces." And when in these situations: "Silence is a good refuge. People will not notice it nearly so easily as we tend to suppose. And (better still) few of us enjoy it as we might be in danger of enjoying more forcible methods. Disagreement can, I think, sometimes be expressed without the appearance of priggery, if it is done argumentatively not dictatorially; support will often come from some most unlikely member of the party, or from more than one, till we discover that those who were silently dissentient were actually a majority. A discussion of real interest may follow. Of course the right side may be defeated in it. That matters very much less than I used to think. The very man who has argued you down will sometimes be found, years later, to have been influenced by what you said.[...] What makes this contact with wicked people so difficult is that to handle the situation successfully requires not merely good intentions, even with humility and courage thrown in; it may call for social and even intellectual talents which God has not given us. It is therefore not self-righteousness but mere prudence to avoid it when we can. The Psalmists were not quite wrong when they described the good man as avoiding 'the seat of the scornful' and fearing to consort with the ungodly lest he should 'eat of ' (shall we say, laugh at, admire, approve, justify?) 'such things as please them'." from Chapter VII, Connivance

- On having been called a Fundamentalist: "Some people find the miraculous so hard to believe that they cannot imagine any reason for my acceptance of it other than a prior belief that every sentence of the Old Testament has historical or scientific truth. But this I do not hold, any more that St. Jerome did when he said that Moses described Creation "after the manner of a popular poet" (as we should say, mythically) or than Calvin did when he doubted whether the story of Job were history or fiction." from Chapter XI, Scripture

Overall a short, elegant and thoughtful book.(less)

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Jan 26, 2011 Rebekah Choat rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: owned

Synopsis:
Lewis opens the introductory chapter of this book with the statement that it is not a work of scholarship; but simply "the thoughts…to which I found myself driven in reading the Psalms." He then gives a brief history and analysis of the Psalms, the main point of which is that they are poems and must be read as such in order to be understood, followed by an explanation of the primary poetic characteristic of the Psalms – parallelism.
The next eight chapters address recurrent ideas or phra...more Synopsis:
Lewis opens the introductory chapter of this book with the statement that it is not a work of scholarship; but simply "the thoughts…to which I found myself driven in reading the Psalms." He then gives a brief history and analysis of the Psalms, the main point of which is that they are poems and must be read as such in order to be understood, followed by an explanation of the primary poetic characteristic of the Psalms – parallelism.
The next eight chapters address recurrent ideas or phrases in the Psalms, the original meaning of which may not be readily comprehended by modern English readers – judgment, cursings, "sweeter than honey," praise, and others. Lewis examines the Hebraic thought behind these concepts and leads us to a better understanding of what they must have meant in the minds of the writers and early readers, as well as what application they may have for us today.
In the final three chapters, Lewis takes on what he considers the more difficult task of exploring the second or hidden meanings in the Psalms - those passages which may be interpreted, from the vantage point of many hundred years, as prophetic or allegorical. His position is that these occurrences are neither coincidence nor supernatural prevision; rather in these cases "the later truth (which the speaker did not know) is intimately related to the truth he did know; so that…he was in touch with that very same reality in which the fuller truth is rooted…we are not foisting on [his words] something alien…[but] prolonging his meaning in a direction congenial to it."

Comments:
One of the many things I love about Lewis is that he never claims to be – in fact takes great pains to insist that he is not – a theologian. His approach is that of a fellow-pupil "comparing notes, not presuming to instruct." And while he is widely known today as a great apologist, he points out that this particular book is not an apologetic work: "A man can't be always defending the truth; there must be a time to feed on it."
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About C.S. Lewis

CLIVE STAPLES LEWIS (1898–1963) was one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century and arguably one of the most influential writers of his day. He was a Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Oxford University until 1954, when he was unanimously elected to the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University, a position he held until his retirement. He wrote more th...more

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Books by C.S. Lewis

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia, #1)

The Chronicles of Narnia (Chronicles of Narnia #1-7)

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Chronicles of Narnia, #3)

The Magician's Nephew (Chronicles of Narnia, #1)

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Quotes from Reflections on the Psalms

“Lead us not into temptation' often means, among other things, 'Deny me those gratifying invitations, those highly interesting contacts, that participation in the brilliant movements of our age, which I so often, at such risk, desire.'
Reflections on the Psalms, ch 7” — 14 people liked it

“I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed. It is frustrating to have discovered a new author and not to be able to tell anyone how good he is; to come suddenly, at the turn of the road, upon some mountain valley of unexpected grandeur and then to have to keep silent because the people with you care for it no more than for a tin can in the ditch; to hear a good joke and find no one to share it with. . . . The Scotch catechism says that man’s chief end is ‘to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.’ But we shall then know that these are the same thing. Fully to enjoy is to glorify. In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him.” — 5 people liked it

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