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Walter Brueggemann
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Spirituality of the Psalms (Facets) Abridged Edition, Kindle Edition

by Walter Brueggemann (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 245 ratings
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Based on the bestseller, The Message of the Psalms, this condensed version offers readers simple insight for how the Psalms apply to every season of life.

The Psalms nourish and nurture. The Psalms provide voices of faith in the life of community. In this shortened version of The Message of the Psalms, Dr. Brueggemann provides an insightful perspective and a structured overview of the Psalms using three categories: orientation, disorientation, and new orientation. Orientation is the establishment of structure and order. Disorientation is a place of imbalance and nonsense even potentially unjust. New orientation is moving forward away from what was and toward new possibilities.

Spirituality of the Psalms brings together the Christian faith, expressions of suffering, hope, and seasons of everyday life. Brueggeman explains how Psalms of negativity, cries for vengeance, and profound penitence are foundational to a life of faith, and establishes that the reality of deep loss and amazing gifts are held together in a powerful tension.

In this succinct edition, Brueggemann encourages readers to look up specific Psalms for study and consider God's justice in an unjust world. Spirituality of the Psalms is a brief yet thought-provoking edition for any reader wanting to understand complex dynamics found within the Old Testament Psalms.

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  1. ISBN-13
    978-0800634506
  2. Edition
    Abridged
  3. Sticky notes
    Not Enabled
  4. Publisher
    Fortress Press
  5. Publication date
    November 16, 2001
  6. Language
    English
  7. File size
    667 KB
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From the brand

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Walter Brueggemann is William Marcellus McPheeters Professor of Old Testament Emeritus at Columbia Theological Seminary and the author of numerous books including, from Fortress Press, The Prophetic Imagination; Theology of the Old Testament; and The Creative Word.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B001DDNIBG
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Fortress Press; Abridged edition (November 16, 2001)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 16, 2001
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 667 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Not enabled
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 96 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 245 ratings

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Walter Brueggemann

Walter Brueggemann

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Walter Brueggemann is William Marcellus McPheeters Professor of Old Testament Emeritus at Columbia Theological Seminary. He is the world's leading interpreter of the Old Testament and is the author of numerous books, including Westminster John Knox Press best sellers such as Genesis and First and Second Samuel in the Interpretation series, An Introduction to the Old Testament: The Canon and Christian Imagination, and Reverberations of Faith: A Theological Handbook of Old Testament Themes.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
245 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Molly
5.0 out of 5 stars A helpful and succinct book on stages of Spiritual formation found in the Psalms.
Reviewed in the United States on July 19, 2020
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In Spirituality of the Psalms, Walter Brueggemann puts forward a paradigm of orientation, disorientation, and reorientation concerning the Psalms. Admittedly, the author notes that this is no complete pattern but a way for one to start when dealing with the sometimes-harsh realities and changes of life. The psalmists do not ignore or cover up individual and communal sorrows and neither should the contemporary church. Brueggemann invites his readers to see that communion with God means that all things polite and crude, joyful and abhorrent should be brought before the throne in whatever manner possible.
6 people found this helpful
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Anonymous
5.0 out of 5 stars Simple, thought provoking read.
Reviewed in the United States on February 11, 2014
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This was required in a list of junior level "Hebrew Writings" texts. It turned out to be one of the most fascinatingly simply works I've read to date on Psalms. I'm a Biblical Studies major & pastor of a small (120-150) evangelical church, and recommended this to all my peeps. The simplicity of Brueggemann's presentation does not subtract any value from the weight of what he presents. Brueggemann has tied the Psalms together to reflect our human condition and God's goodness, sovereignty and might. A perfect read for all levels.
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Peter Dubbelman
4.0 out of 5 stars A Hunger for God Minus Love for Neighbor Is an Oxymoron.
Reviewed in the United States on February 3, 2015
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Published by Facets, this book deserves a quick review.

It's written with humility and skill, head and heart; it's also pensive, theologically deep, and better suited for those either interested or trained in theology, ethics, worship, and/or community life. It:

➢ Focuses on the "psalms of negativity, the complaints of various kinds, the cries for vengeance and profound penitence." (xii)
➢ Asks that these songs still find their proper place in the life of faith, for "Israel does not purge this unrestrained speech but regards it as genuinely faithful communication" and so should we. (33)
➢ Applies these psalms to areas of ethics, social justice, and theodicy. (58-74)

Towards the above points, Brueggemann helpfully categorizes many, but not all, of the psalms into one of the three categories: orientation; disorientation; new orientation. Here human life - individual or communal - is either currently in or transitioning from one of these stations to the other. Both God and the Psalmist assume "different roles in these conversations ... We might wish for ... a spirituality not so inclined ... but the Psalms reject such a way with God as false to our daily life, and false to the memory" of Israel. (74)

Defining spirituality as "a concern for communion with God" and theodicy as "a concern for a fair deal," Brueggemann declares that the Psalter frequently juxtaposes these two themes and Israel's faith, including Psalms, demands that a hunger for God minus love for neighbor is an oxymoron. (59-60)

Significant in nature, this book merits a longer review. Brueggemann's:

1) Psalms of Orientation represent satisfied seasons of well being that evoke gratitude, celebrate God's order and also didactically encourage it.

2) Psalms of Disorientation represents seasons of anguish, hurt, alienation, suffering, or death. Here there is a crisis in the ordering of life epitomized by the conflict and loss of balance, coherence, position, etc. "As life collapses, the old disciplines and safeguards collapse. One speaks unguardedly about how it is in fact." (33)
a. In the Penitential Psalms, the psalmist desires to return to the lost orientation and except fault.
b. In the case the societal unjust cases of life, there is a "yearning for retaliation against the unjust enemy," which in rare instances includes God (70-71) After all, "Israel insists that communion [with God] must be honest, open to criticism, and capable of transformation." (68)

3) Individual and corporate Psalms of complaint are exemplified by 74, 79, 137.

4) Psalms of New Orientation represent joy breaking through despair, an intrusion of a fresh gift from God making all things new. Gospel.
a. Transition from a state of disorientation to a new orientation is "embodied in the resurrection of Jesus."
b. Transition from orientation to disorientation is "embodied in the crucifixion of Jesus."
c. These psalms of thanksgiving celebrate an act of either God's power or character that has moved either the community (65, 66, 124, 129) or individual (30, 34, 40, 116, 138) from death to life.

Quotes worth remembering:

A. "Much Christian piety and spirituality is romantic and unreal in its positiveness. As children of the enlightenment, we have censored and selected around the voices of darkness and disorientation, seeking to
go from strength to strength, from victory to victory. But such a way not only ignores the Psalms; it is a lie in terms of our experience." (xii)

B. The psalms "do not permit us to ignore and deny the darkness, personally or publicly, for that is where new light is given, whether on the third day or by some other uncontrolled schedule at work among us." (xiii)

C. These psalms invite us "into the wholeness that comes in embraced brokenness." (xv)

D. "It can surely be said that the Psalter presents a struggle of the just against the unjust." Jose Miranda (xvi)

E. "The psalms are helpful because they ... [express] both sides of the conversation of faith ... Israel's faithful speech addressed to God, from profound praise to the utterance of unspeakable anger and doubt ...and as Martin Luther understood so passionately, the Psalms are not only addressed to God. They are a voice of the gospel, God's good word addressed to God's faithful people." (1-2)

F. "The remarkable thing about Israel is that it did not banish or deny the darkness from its religious enterprise. It embraces the darkness as the very stuff of new life. Indeed, Israel seems to know that new life is rooted nowhere else." (29)

G. "The psalms crave for and mediate communion with God." (68) "Religious hungers in Israel never preclude justice questions. Indeed, it is through justice that communion [with God] is mediated: Matt 5:23-24." (60-61)

H. "The shift from a consensus about the theodicy to a crisis in the theodicy can be identified in every liberation movement that questions the old settled arrangements. A crisis occurs in a societal scheme of theodicy when some members of the community (perhaps a class or social group) conclude that the agreed settlement is inequitable and not to be honored. There may then be a harsh end to docility and the articulation of vigorous dissent, [for] the challenged theodicy includes both a doctrine of God and a social system of authority." (64)
17 people found this helpful
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David E. Engle
5.0 out of 5 stars and lament is better than complaint
Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2015
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In the profoundness of a scholar, with the wisdom to keep it simple for the first time I realized the composition of the Psalms into three sections of purposeful meaning that expanded my spirituality and explained the sections into prayer and meditation processes for maturity, tenderness, and lament is better than complaint. Good primer before "Praying the Psalms"
2 people found this helpful
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2017
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This is a must read on the subject of the Psalms and theodicy. The Psalms provide movement for us and the author values (alongside the Psalms) the times of suffering within this the artful process of life.
3 people found this helpful
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Ruah
5.0 out of 5 stars Heart and Mind Opening
Reviewed in the United States on November 30, 2014
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What can I say? I love Brueggemann- he is a heart-centered scholar whose scholarship always serves the individual and community spiritual journey-- I am spending this winter sinking into the psalms with his various books as a guide.
4 people found this helpful
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Andrew John
3.0 out of 5 stars Academic; Assumes a LOT of its Readers
Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2005
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I agree with the one other reviewer of this book on the PSALMS and take no issue with that review. However, I wish to review from another angle......that of the beginner to the study of scripture. This book is not a book for beginners. It is very academic. When I purchased this book, because it is short, less than 100 pages, I assumed it would be sort of a "primer" introduction to the study of the Psalms. That it is NOT! My Bible study class is studying the Psalms at my church and I am sure most people in the class studying the Psalms for the first time would be quite put off by this book. One thing that I find quite troublesome, even for an academic treatment is this: Brueggemann cites name of other authors in the text and then does not place a citation for that author reference in the bibliography. The practice of doing this is drilled into any high school student writing their first term paper and Brueggemann is lax in this regard as is the publisher who allowed that oversight and lack of rigor by Brueggemann, an academic author who should know better.
15 people found this helpful
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Susan A. Smith
5.0 out of 5 stars Easy read for COS
Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2015
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I like the fact that Brueggerman admits that his knowledge is accrued and that providing exact citing would be cumbersome. I appreciate the quick read, too.
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Top reviews from other countries

Milly Jacobs
5.0 out of 5 stars comprehensive overview which enables in-depth study
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 24, 2013
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I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wishes to study the psalms in depth. It provides a comprehensive overview of psalms which encompasses the entire range of human experience in relation to God, including not only one's more 'acceptable' responses of praise and thanksgiving, but also the anger, protest and resentment that are part of the human experience and which we are more reluctant to address to the Almighty.
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RPR
5.0 out of 5 stars Spirituality of the Psalms, Breuggemann
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 8, 2013
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Sets out, in only seventy pages, his basic thesis of the three phases of life captured in the Psalms, namely, Psalms of Orientation, Psalms of Disorientation and Psalms of Reorientation. Great for understanding a good number of Psalms and life itself.
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Mark Meynell
4.0 out of 5 stars An inspiring and refreshing roadmap for reading and praying the psalms
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 18, 2010
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As Brueggemann briefly outlines at the start, there is a gulf between the worlds of the lecture hall and the ordinary pew - and this is perhaps nowhere clearer than with the Psalms. This is a short (only 75 pages) introduction which seeks to bridge that gulf, in a scholarly but thoroughly constructive way. He is not overly in thrall to academia, nor patronising to the devoted - which is a refreshing combination.

The primary reason for reading this book is to gain his insightful articulation of the three primary modes of psalm (which he has developed in other places):
-psalms of orientation
-psalms of disorientation
-psalms of new (or re-)orientation
Too often, believers are too scared (or too much in denial of their own / the world's problems) to invest in the disorientation psalms because of their disturbing and unsettling challenges to faith. That explains why so little of modern hymnody and worship music echoes the refrains of these psalms. Yet there is such providence and wisdom in their inclusion in (and even dominance of) the psalter. In fact, one of the most striking insights of the book is Brueggemann's insistence that to restrict oneself to the psalms of orientation alone is actually dangerous - for it solidifies the status quo, overlooking the cries of the oppressed and marginalised.

This book helpfully shows why they are there and, more importantly, how they can grow people's faith. Particularly interesting in this book is his articulation of what dynamics bring about the change from one orientation to another. And while this is not the only element at work in the psalms, it is very useful to have these dynamics spelled out - our interpretation and praying of the psalms can only be deepened as a result.
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Mark Harrison
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 6, 2015
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The book was sold at a good price and delivered in time.
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MouseMat
5.0 out of 5 stars Inspirational
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 28, 2017
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Really inspiring book
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