James Luther Mays

An excellent, consistently useful and practical commentary due to its readability and lack of academic apparatus. I'm a bit taken aback that I've never noticed this commentary until now, but I'm very pleased with it. Judicious and conservative, Mays occasionally references other sources from within the text, but not in a burdensome way. The overall impression is one of thoughtfulness, well-written brevity, and a high standard of scholarship. This one belongs on your shelf, and I've resorted show more to it again and again. show less

Always insightful and brief enough to be useful on an as-needed basis. That is, if the psalm raises a question in you, Mays can point you to the answer. He is not shy of the Christological meanings either, to his Christian credit. -Met him Vancouver 1989. Gracious.

Less than helpful. I did not find the aid for preaching the Psalms that I expected when I bought this book. This book is more appropriate for an academic study than as a preaching aid. As much as this author loves the Psalms, his technique is to make them impersonal, anthropomorphic, anthropocentric, cultic recitations by professionsal writers rather than prayers and hymns of the Tabernacle and Temple. By doing so, he empties them of meaning and personality.

Good Bible study of Psalms