Digital Logos Edition
The book of Psalms has been the subject of daily and nightly meditation throughout the history of the church, and has been a significant resource for Christian belief and practice, often serving as the church's prayer book and hymnal. Like generations of Christians before them, the Protestant Reformers turned often to the book of Psalms, but they did so during a time of significant spiritual renewal, theological debate and ecclesiological reform.
In the Psalms the Reformers found comfort, guidance and wisdom from God that applied to their context as much as it did to David’s. As John Calvin explained, the Psalms demonstrate every emotion that people have experienced: “The Holy Spirit has presented in a living image all the griefs, sorrows, fears, doubts, hopes, cares, perplexities, in short, all the emotions with which human minds are often disturbed.” Moreover, as Martin Luther proclaimed, the Reformers also heard in the Psalms a resounding affirmation of the good news of Jesus Christ: “The Psalter ought to be a precious and beloved book because it promises Christ’s death and resurrection so clearly.”
In this volume, Herman Selderhuis guides readers through the diversity of Reformation commentary on the first half of the Psalter. Here are both familiar voices and lesser-known figures from a variety of theological traditions, including Lutherans, Reformed, Radicals, Anglicans and Roman Catholics, many of whose comments appear here for the first time in English. By drawing on a variety of resources—including commentaries, sermons, treatises and confessions—this volume will enable scholars to better understand the depth and breadth of Reformation commentary, provide resources for contemporary preachers, and aid all those who seek to meditate upon God's Word day and night.
“Reading Scripture with the church fathers and the reformers is a corrective to all such imperialism of the present” (Page xxi)
“the first step to living well is to renounce the company of unbelievers” (Page 10)
“clothes, hide, skin, flesh and whatever else of all who pass by. Second Psalms” (Page 13)
“A tree does not bear fruit for itself, but it gives its fruit to others” (Page 13)
“hinder persons from reflecting on their own faults. David, therefore” (Page 41)
Timothy F. George is a Reformation historian and author of Theology of the Reformers, as well as other theological and historical works. He is dean of Beeson Divinity School, Samford University and an executive editor of Christianity Today.
Scott M. Manetsch is associate professor of church history at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and author of Theodore Beza and the Quest for Peace in France, 1572—1598.