I've been praying the Psalms everyday now for the last few years, too many to count. I love just stepping into them everyday. Sometimes, I use some sort of devotional like Brian Simmons one (which is very good) or simply grab a relevant psalm for the mood I'm in for that particular day.

I grabbed this Book of Psalms from NetGalley not quite sure what I'd be getting but it's simply that: a book of Psalms. All 150 of them. Hamilton believes he's rendered the closest interpretation of the Hebrew translation. I'm enjoying them as I simply read/pray a few each day. I'm now at Psalm 30.

I appreciate the use of 'Yahweh' instead of 'Lord' even though I often revert back to Lord when I pray a psalm because that's what I'm used to. I like the more layman language used so, for example, 'guts' used instead of whatever more formal word might be used in other versions.

Even though I'll always be a big fan of Peterson's Message version, I'm appreciating Hamilton's translation in drawing me closer to the Lord as I pray each one.

I received an early ebook copy from the publisher via NetGalley, however, this has had no bearing on my review.

I don't think I've ever read a book quite like this because, obviously, the Psalms are something so many of us have encountered before, but reading them in this particular translation gave me a slightly different perspective.

What I really appreciated about James M. Hamilton Jr.'s approach is that he tries to stay close to the original Hebrew poetry, keeping things like repetition, parallelism and the structure of the Psalms rather than simply turning them into polished English poetry. It made me slow down and actually pay attention to the wording and patterns instead of just reading through them.

The Psalms themselves cover so many different emotions, praise, fear, grief, anger, hope, trust and gratitude, and I think that's one of the things that makes them so comforting. You can be having a completely different kind of day and somehow find words in the Psalms that meet you exactly where you are.

This isn't necessarily something I'd pick up to read quickly from cover to cover. For me, it's much more of a book to take slowly, read a Psalm at a time, reflect on it and perhaps come back to certain passages again and again.

Overall, I think this is a really interesting translation for anyone who wants to spend more time with the Psalms and understand not just what they say, but how their original poetry works. A beautiful one to have on the shelf and return to whenever you need it.

Those who are unfamiliar with the Psalms or those who are interested in a new, often literal, translation of them, may want to give this title a look. Those who study the Bible, will decide if they think this translation does them justice. However, in my opinion, you don't have to be religious to want to see what these ancient texts say. They are often quoted and some familiarity with them is part of a broad education.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Baker Books for this title. All thoughts are my own.

The author translated the Psalms into English in as literal and readable as he can as an aid to see the connection within the Psalms better. Two key point to highlight: 1. his verse number follows the Hebrew text, and 2. he uses Yahweh in his translation which I strongly agree with. If God gave us his name and wants us to use it, I believe it is not wrong to speak it. However, the author included a note that if this is jarring for you, you can read it as Lord instead of Yahweh.