Nearing a Far GodPraying the Psalms with Our Whole Selves
Review posted April 21, 2024.
NavPress, 2024. 195 pages.
Review written March 18, 2024, from my own copy, purchased via Amazon.com
Starred Review
Okay, confession up front: I purchased this book in a bit of a panic after a writer friend alerted me that she had heard about its publication. You see, I am currently trying to find a publisher for my book, Praying with the Psalmists: Open your Heart in Prayer Using Patterns from Psalms -- and the descriptions of the books sound remarkably similar. (While I'm doing blatant self-promotion, you can learn a bit more about my book on my Sonderjourneys blog.)
But friends talked me down. Of course our books aren't going to be exactly the same, they will find different audiences, and by the time I find a publisher and get my book published, this book won't be brand-new anymore. Instead of panicking, I shifted my thinking to realize it's a wonderful thing that I'm not the only one encouraging Christians to use the Psalms in their own prayers. What's more, now I have a comparable title for my Book Proposal that's much closer than anything else I've found. Both of us want people to know he richness of emotion found in the Psalms, and are encouraging people to use Psalms as a way to get closer to God.
My one quibble is that I don't like the subtitle, because I think the Psalms show God is not far off. But this book is all about drawing near to God through Psalms, and I feel like we are fellow workers in this endeavor, and I'm happy this message is getting out there!
The books are truly similar, but Psalms are personal, and each of us tells our own story along with talking about the types of Psalms. Leslie Fields tells about coming to Christ, studying in grad school, starting a family. I talk about when my world fell apart when my husband left me and all that followed as I put my life back together. But in any life, there are so many places where the Psalms show us how to cry out to God, and that's what we have in common.
We both approach the topic by type of Psalm. Leslie Fields covers seven types of Psalms, looking at a few examples of the type covered by each chapter. My book is a little more in-depth, dividing all 150 Psalms into ten types, and presenting a Reading Plan so you can read all the Psalms in a twelve-week study, reading each type along with a matching chapter.
Both of us want our readers to soak in Psalms to get them into their hearts. As exercises after each chapter, Leslie Fields suggests writing out the Psalm you're going over, with the act of writing helping the words sink in. She also has suggestions for embodying the Psalm by reading aloud with gestures. On my part, I've got a chapter about memorizing Scripture, having memorized the entire book of Psalms myself. But both of us are after the same thing -- putting those words in the readers' hearts beyond casual reading.
Her approach to praying through Psalms is a little simpler than mine -- she suggests writing out the Psalm, but adding your reactions and prayers after each verse. My approach is to start off by talking about Hebrew poetry and parallelism and encouraging the reader to try that. And with each type of Psalm, I show that specific type's form or key concepts. So you can write your own (small letter p) psalm, matching each different type.
So it's a slightly different approach, but both of us are urging the reader to try it themselves. Read the Psalms, yes! Pray the Psalms, yes! Let the Psalms soak into your heart, yes! But also use them as a pattern of crying out to God when in trouble, of thanking God after deliverance, and of praising God's glory.
And I can only be happy that this message is getting out!