Amazon.com (ISBN 0805420355, Hardcover)

In this extended reflection on the life of David, drawn from the accounts in the two books of Samuel and from the Psalms, author and self-described Sunday school teacher Beth Moore translates into plain and direct language the message she finds in this story of a shepherd boy who is chosen as God's own servant. Moore approaches these texts not as a scholar but as a believer. As the inclusion of review questions would suggest, her interest here is less historical and more immediately pragmatic: she wishes to see what David's life has to say to followers of Christ. Her reading is personal, yet supported by a study of the Hebrew and Greek texts--above all, the notes to the book suggest, through a number of Bible dictionaries and concordances. While apparently not well-versed in English poetry (she calls John Dryden a 16th-century philosopher when most would call him a 17th-century poet), the real appeal of the book for many will lie in its approachable style: the writing is direct, personal, and honest. She writes, she tells people, as a "regular" person who says, "I don't make Christ part of my life; He is my life." --Doug Thorpe