Hey, Everbody! Welcome back to Tumnus’s Book Shelf, where we review any and all books by and about CS Lewis and the land of Narnia. Today we will be reviewing CS Lewis’s Reflections on the Psalms.
Title: Reflections on the Psalms
Author: CS Lewis
Publisher: Harvest Books
ISBN-10:015676248X
ISBN-13: 978-0156762489
Summary:
One of the more wittier works of literary analysis written by CS Lewis, this particular book covers the book of Psalms and examines them as literature . From the notions of death, blessings and curses that occur in the psalms, to the possible interpretations of the text, Reflecitions on the Psalms provides plenty of insights into the Bible’s great collection of ancient Hebrew hymns of worship.
Review:
Reflections in the Psalms is a wonderful mixture of both CS Lewis as Christian thinker and CS Lewis as a literary scholar. Though it is true, that even in his apologetic works that he referred to great works of literature ( along with Scripture) it is very insightful to see him looking at a portion of scripture through the lens of literature. He admits early on that Reflections in the Psalms is not meant to be an “apologetic work” or a “scholarly work” It is not written or the literati or to preach to the unconverted. It is to essentially preach to the choir and engage in discussion with them about the Psalms.
One thing that Lewis reminds us is that the Psalms, despite their brevity in their verses, are intended over all as songs to be sung in worship, not statements of doctrinal truth. After all, when Christ was tempted in the wilderness, Satan used the Psalms, whereas Christ refuted with the true doctrine of the law. It is through the context of the Psalms as songs of worship that he begins to examine them. He looks at all the intricate facets we find in these ancient Near Eastern poems and shows just how truly perplexing they are when taken in their whole context and not reduced to the bumper sticker slogans they have become.
Lewis certainly does not look at things like pentameter, and structure in the Psalms ( as such things would be irrelvant with that form of poetry, especailly in an English translation of the Bible). He does look at however several reoccurring themes such as curses, blessings, death, nature, the beauty of the Lord, the ordinance of praise, and possible meanings to the Psalms. Lewis shares his own struggles with understanding the Psalms, which are struggles many readers have when they come across them, and also shares his insights into them.
As this book is not meant to be a weighty theological book, or a work of apologetics, but rather a few brief reflections from one lay person to another, it is fairly easy and concise in terms of it’s readability.The chapters of this book are surprisingly short and refreshingly brief, which is just as well as analyzing literature at great lengths, can get rather dreary for non-literature majors. There is plenty of wit in this book, as well as wisdom. Also along with the Bible Lewis uses the Book of Common prayer as a resource.
On a humorous note, in relation to the possible hidden meanings to the text, Lewis relating to his own work and allegorical meanings says that he has found some of them to be so ingenious and innovative that he wished that he himself thought of them.
In all this is a most enjoyable read, and is sure to provide many more questions and discussions of the Psalms, and make readers look at them in a much broader frame of mind.
Five out of Five Sheilds
Buy the book from Amazon.com