Living the Psalms Life

Great book that centers around incorporating the Psalms into your everyday life. Encouraged me to walk closer with my God.

I really enjoyed this book. It had many practical applications and I found it to be a great resource for my own personal Bible Study on Psalms.

The author is educated, experienced, and it is evident that he cares deeply about the subject.matter. The book is thorough and well thought out. If you are looking for a Bible study or guiding resource as you study the Psalms, this would be a great resource.

Personally, I struggled to get through this. I felt like I was reading a very long sermon. Not that there is anything wrong with that. But I found it to be dry, and the writing style was not as compelling or personable as I had hoped it would be.

Thanks to NetGalley for.an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Living the Psalms Life is a wonderful book that happened to fall in my TBR list at exactly the right time. Don't you love it when that happens?!? The author states that his book is not intended as a complete examination of this important book of the Bible, but as "an attempt to help you see how the Psalms teach us to live in ten specific areas".

Branon does an excellent job of framing things and making connections that added new and important perspectives for me, despite having read the Psalms multiple times through the years. There are parts of this book I will remember forever, and there are MANY passages that I highlighted. This book will remain on my shelf.

This is the first book I've read by Dave Branon, but it definitely won't be my last. I highly recommend it. It would be an excellent choice for a Bible study.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Discovery House for allowing me the privilege of reading this book in exchange for an unbiased review. All opinions expressed here are my own.

Living the Psalms Life—Dave Branon; Discovery House, 2018

Anyone looking for a book that shows the Bible applies to real life, the life we live, should find this book helpful. The author, Dave Branon, states his goal is to synthesize some of the Psalms major teaching into ten understandable and usable principles. He ads that this book is not a comprehensive study of the book of Psalms but rather to teach us how to the Psalm can be applied in specific areas.
I think the author has achieved that goal and has also given a good overview of the scope of the Psalms. One of the things I appreciate is that he shows us the writers of the psalms were real people who wrote about real events in their lives, events like death, betrayal, sadness.
David and Asaph ,two of the writers faced heartache. They sinned. They also knew joy and can teach by their lives and through their words to worship. In one chapter he suggests Asaph may have had a cranky neighbor who seemed to have great success. In this chapter, The Sanctuary Life, the author pictures Asaph riding around in a beat-up old buggy while his neighbor has the latest model chariot in his garage.
Many of us had certainly asked God why the ungodly seem to prosper. This is what Asaph grapples with in Psalm 73. No spoiler alert necessary because I will point you to Branon’s book (chapter 9).
Dave Branon writes also about his own pain as he and his wife lost a daughter tragically. He is honest with his grief and the questions he asked and still asks. He has found help in the Psalms himself and points us to Psalm 139. So, he is not writing as an academic researcher but as a person trying to live the Psalms life himself.
Each of the chapters focuses on at least one Psalm but I especially appreciate chapter seven being devoted to the Psalms of lament. As the author points out there are about 65 Psalms of Lament. That means about 1/3 of the psalms are psalms of lament.
Compare the percentage of Lament Psalms to hymns of lament found in many of the hymnals gathering dust in church pews. Less than 10% of the hymns in our hymnals are songs of lament. It seems we have lost our sense of lament and it is a huge loss. Thank you, Dave Branon, for including this chapter and I find it is aptly titled “The Real Life”. For most of us lament is real.
I would recommend this book for someone hoping to see how the Bible applies to one’s life today and especially for anyone wondering how songs written 3000 years ago can still be sung today.
I received a copy of the book from netgalley.com with the understanding that I would write an honest review. This is it.

This is such an encouraging book. The author writes in a personal, relatable way. I liked the way he pulled ten guiding principles from the Psalms to help us look at our lives from these perspectives: The Blessed Life; The Examined Life; The Guided Life; The Worshipping Life; The Bible-Based Life; The Secure Life; The Real Life; The Prayerful Life; The Sanctuary Life; The Content Life. Each chapter stands on its own; yet as you examine all ten things together, you get a wonderful view of the Psalms as a whole.

The chapter on “The Guided Life” was especially comforting to me. This author has experienced the loss of his daughter in a car accident. My family has experienced loss and sorrow, too. He was open about his grief and questions concerning her death, but also lead us right back to God and an eternal perspective. Mr. Brandon’s counsel in this chapter will help us as we walk an uncertain road in our own lives.

This would be an excellent book for a book study with a small group or Sunday School class.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions are my own.

For readers who look for biblical guiding principles for their lives
Dave Branon's goal with "Living the Psalms Life: 10 Guiding Principles for Fellowship with God", published by Discovery House Publishers, is to present ten principles so that the reader can draw nearer to God, based on various psalms. The principles are listed under the titles of 1) the Blessed Life, 2) the Examined Life, 3) the Guided Life, 4) the Worshiping Life, 5) the Bible-Based Life, 6) the Secure Life, 7) the Real Life, 8) the Prayerful Life, 9) the Sanctuary Life, and 10) the Content Life. Branon links some of the psalms in an understandable way with useable principles to current events and personal experiences so that the readers can incorporate the psalms into their own lives.
The style of the book is more like a devotional. It is not for somebody who looks for an exegesis of the psalms, nor is it, according to the author, a comprehensive study. I recommend the book for those who need inspiration and blessing for their spiritual life. Sadly the book lacks a reference list of which psalms are used in any particular chapter. Furthermore, there are very few notes and no comprehensive bibliography. Just to give one example where notes could have improved the quality of the book: in chapter four, "The Worshiping Life", Branon refers to the poetic collection of William Wordsworth, there is no bibliographic reference to this collection which is a challenge for readers from another cultural background (I am German not US-American) who do not know William Wordsworth nor his poetic collection.
The complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley free of charge. I was under no obligation to offer a positive review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
#LivingthePsalmsLife #NetGalley

5 Stars ***** 5/5
I love love love love this book!!! It makes a wonderful devotional or personal study guide. I think that it could also be adapted and used for a small-group Bible study. It is easy to read and understand, and theologically sound. It is
well-written. The author is obviously well-versed on the Psalms and has done his research.

Thank you to netgalley and Discovery House for the complementary digital book in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions expressed are my own.

Loved it, I found it easy to read and easy to understand. I feel that you could even use this as a devotional.