Resources

Voicing God's Psalms (Eerdmans, 2005)

Description
This poignant volume, along with its finely produced audio CD, will help people hear the voice of God speaking through fresh verse translations of the biblical psalms.

Calvin Seerveld has rendered forty of the psalms into idiomatic English and structured his verses as singable melodies based on Genevan, Reformation German, and Welsh tunes. The selected psalms are clustered around these themes: Torah (God's law), Melchizedek (the rule of gentle justice), enemies, repentance and forgiveness, wrestling with the Lord, comfort, trusting God, God-promises, and Hallelujah! An introduction and an afterword set the Psalms in historical context, highlight the rough and tender quality of God's psalms, and offer concrete suggestions for helping the Psalms come alive in our prayers and public worship today.

The audio CD, which comes packaged with the book, features oral readings of Seerveld's psalm translations. Superb recorder solos back many of the readings, demonstrating how even simple melodic lines can make the psalms come alive. One blues melody is also played to catch the tenor of a psalm of lament.

Used together, the book and CD will help worship leaders and music directors prepare liturgies and will inspire many believers in their personal devotions.

Resources
Additional audio tracks and complete psalter reading guide
Feature story about this book
Table of Contents from Eerdmans

Author
Calvin Seerveld is professor emeritus of philosophical aesthetics at the Institute for Christian Studies, Toronto, Ontario.

Endorsements
"A simply remarkable recovery, vigorous and engaging, of the original tone and range of the biblical prayers that give us the voice of 'God talking live.' "
-Eugene H. Peterson, author of The Message

"For many years Calvin Seerveld has brought freshness, vitality, and rigor to the interplay between Christian faith and the arts. These very qualities mark his compelling psalm translations. I commend them warmly."
-Jeremy Begbie, Ridley Hall, Cambridge

CICW Liturgical Studies Series with Eerdmans
This series is designed to promote reflection on the history, theology, and practice of Christian worship and to stimulate worship renewal in Christian congregations. Written by pastoral worship leaders from diverse communities and scholars from a range of disciplines, these volumes seek to nurture worship practices that are at once spiritually vital and theologically rooted. To find all the books in this series, go to Publications and under "Publisher," select "Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing."