A friend of mine was recently talking about which school they should attend to study theology. In advising them I suggested that they should ensure that the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible course included Walter Brueggemann. Simply put, I believe he is the most important single contemporary biblical scholar. He is a poet as well as an academic. He "gets" and applies the key postmodern ideas. His work is insightful and accessible. And there is no reason why he should be reserved for seminarians — so I want to recommend something for you...something for the long hot summer that we are about to enjoy...hmmmmmm.

Actually there's no contest. The work that made the most impact on me was not his seminal, "The Prophetic Imagination" or the magisterial, "Theology of the Old Testament" (which I still haven't finished); it was "The Message of the Psalms." The psalms are possibly more significant for us as Anglicans than for any other denomination. In our liturgy we say them — maybe twice a day. That means we could get through the whole book of psalms four times a year — more than any other book of the bible. Yet we do not spend much time thinking about them — how often have you heard a sermon on the psalm of the day? (I'm feeling virtuous on this — I preached on the psalms through Lent).

In "The Message of the Psalms," Brueggemann is not attempting to give us something definitive — THE understanding of the psalms, but is offering a paradigm — a model of how the psalms work. He does not cover every psalm, but gives a clear enough model so that we can apply it to those psalms he does not cover — in other words, this book encourages us to think for ourselves (!). The model analysis of psalms in three groups are those of orientation, disorientation and new orientation.

The psalms of orientation say that everything is right with the world and this is how it ought to be —Psalm 1 provides a great example: "The Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish." Like many of us, Brueggemann does not have a lot of time (less than 25 pages) for these words. He notes that psalms of orientation have a tendency toward social control, and identifies their potential to act as social criticism. His argument is that "a major move of the psalms is the move from an ordered, reliable life to an existence that somehow has run amok." The psalms of disorientation are the cries from the heart — it's gone wrong, it shouldn't be this way. Brueggemann identifies that these have been "most neglected in church use" The penitential psalm, Psalm 51, is a good example, making it clear that in this instance, what has gone wrong is within the psalmist. But Brueggemann takes us beyond the simplistic into a consideration of the cause as being the abuse of power. He ends by suggesting, "The issues in this psalm do not concern guilt of a moralistic, privatistic kind... They concern rather the realities about how to live and die in a world where the only wind that counts is God’s holy wind." Brueggemann spends 75 pages on these psalms, dividing them helpfully into a variety of categories and drawing out the ways that they can speak to us as well as bringing insight from other commentators. Finally, the psalms of new orientation are the psalms of journey, where "the speaker and the community of faith are often surprised by grace." In this category fit both psalm 23 and my favourite, psalm 40 (thanks U2) "I waited patiently for the Lord, who turned to me and heard my cry, who lifted me up from the pit and put my feet on a rock."

Brueggemann can cope with the way this psalm turns from orientation to disorientation, just as in real life "the joy of deliverance is immediately beset by the fear of the pit." This is the joy of this book and of the psalms — they don't have to be distant, they can be a real resource for us in our daily struggles. Brueggeman understands this and communicates it for us. He wants us to have these as a resource for our journey with God.

So here's the challenge for you. Buy this book — that's the easy bit. And start on the Psalms. Aim to read them through by the end of the summer. If you say morning or evening prayer then that will do most of the work for you. Reading the Psalms through alongside Brueggemann will give you new insight which will resource you for every time you hear the Psalms read in church. Good luck!