Psalm Basics for Catholics (Ave Maria Press)

Dr. John Bergsma is a theology professor at the Franciscan University of Steubenville. He has written many books on Scripture, but the ones I know his best for are his "Basics for Catholics" books. The first one was Bible Basics for Catholics with two follow-ups (so far) entitled New Testament Basics for Catholics and Psalm Basics for Catholics. Today, I am going to tell you about the latter work, as it his most recent one in the series. The book is divided into eleven chapters, which are as follows:

1. What's a "Psalm"? Who Wrote Them? and All That Stuff
2. How the Psalms Fit into the Story of Salvation
3. More About David
4. The Story the Psalms Tell
5. Introducing the Psalter! (Introducing the Psalter!)
6. Book I of Psalms: Weeping and Moaning
7. Book II of Psalms: Triumph and Rejoicing
8. Book III of Psalms: Descending into Grief
9. Book IV of Psalms: Waiting Around in Exile
10. Book V of Psalms: Woohoo! The Exile is Over! At Least Mostly
11. Different Ways to Read the Psalms

The book begins by telling us about who David is, what a Psalm is, why they were written, and the different types of psalms. Chapter Two then walks us through all of salvation history and the seven covenants. They are Adamic, Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic, New and Eucharistic Covenant. Dr. Bergsma tells us that the psalms "flow from the Davidic Covenant, and we use them in the New Covenant because it is the restored and transformed covenant of David. We then learn more about David and get a comparison between his covenant and the Mosaic Covenant. The rest of the book is the meat of this book and gives you summaries and important psalms in each of the five sections of Psalms. The last chapter provides a nice chart, which gives you different psalms to read depending on how you are feeling at the time.

Like his other books in this series, Dr. Bergsma presents this information in an approachable method. He provides you with enough information on the subject matter, as to not overwhelm you, but also invites you to dive deeper after reading his book. The most charming parts of this series are his clever stick-figure drawings. These pictures are not only amusing, but they are also educational. I especially liked the one he made of King David looking like a rock star! These simple drawings help illustrate the main points Dr. Bergsma is trying to convey and so in a way that is helpful and not distracting. If he did a whole book of nothing but stick drawings from every famous Bible story, I would gladly buy it and love every minute of it! I hope there are more books in this series, because I highly recommend them all.

This book was provided to me for free by Ave Maria Press in exchange for an honest review.