This is the first of a two-volume bible commentary covering the Psalms and examining the role of these biblical poems throughout Jewish and Christian history.

• Provides a fascinating introduction to the literary, historical, and theological background of psalmody
• Examines the psalms through liturgy and prayer, study and preaching, translation and imitation, and musical composition and artistic illustration
• Includes illustrations of significant psalms, helpful maps, and an extensive bibliography; an expanded bibliography to accompany the book is also available at www.wiley.com/go/gillingham
• A forthcoming second volume is planned, which will take an alternative psalm-by-psalm approach
• Now available in paperback, and published in the innovative reception-history series, Blackwell Bible Commentaries

Susan Gillingham is Fellow and Tutor in Theology at Worcester College and is Reader in the Old Testament at the University of Oxford. She has written various books and articles on the Psalms and Biblical Interpretation, including The Poems and Psalms of the Hebrew Bible (1994), One Bible, Many Voices: Different Approaches to Biblical Studies (1998) and The Image, the Depths and the Surface: Multivalent Approaches to Biblical Study (2002).