Considering that the Psalms are some of the most inspired, passionate, and richest writing in all of literature, it’s amazing how many shallow commentaries and devotionals on the Psalms I have read over the years. Thankfully, this offering from Sam Storms is not one of them. On the contrary, he delivers one of the most enjoyable companions to that great work, which brings to the surface the gold lying within.
The subtitle is “50 Daily Meditations on the Psalms,” so the organization of the book is in brief (around 4 pages) devotional examinations of a variety of Psalms, at times honing in on one verse, or an overarching theme, or sometimes both. Somehow Storms manages to be both accessible and wonderfully deep, which is not easy to do. Always within the context of the Psalm and the writer’s perspective, he quickly brings out the meat of a particular passage, and leaves the reader with something to chew on for the remainder of the day - an application to life, or a reality of God that has the power to change our perspective of what we are going through.
To be sure, Storms doesn’t just focus on the standard Psalms that you might expect to be there, such as Psalm 23 (don’t worry, he offers two chapters on that one, including a marvelous meditation on God’s sovereignty which often gets overlooked in that Psalm); but he unearths some gems that rarely are covered in such a book, and he refuses to gloss over difficult passages. One example is the two-part meditation on “Those Troubling Psalms of Imprecation” (you know, those Psalms where it sounds like the writers are praying for the destruction of their enemies?). His take on that is theologically rock-solid, and again gives us something to take away and really makes one appreciate the inclusion of such powerful words in the Bible.
There are also healthy doses of quotations peppered throughout from other notable Christians, such as Jonathan Edwards, John Piper, and Charles Spurgeon which I initially thought to be a bit cumbersome if you are reading more than a chapter a day. But ultimately it just makes it that much more worthwhile to spend a few minutes of your morning in the company of such folks, meditating on some of the greatest words ever recorded for our eyes and ears. Admittedly, I was not familiar with Sam Storms before reading this book, but now I am sure to check out some of his other work as well. This will be a permanent addition to my library, which I highly recommend to anyone who wants a quick and meaty companion to their daily devotional reading.
Reviewed by Matt Milligan
