Learning to Love the Psalms

Dr. W. Robert Godfrey is a Ligonier Ministries teaching fellow and chairman of Ligonier Ministries. He is president emeritus and professor emeritus of church history at Westminster Seminary California. He is the featured teacher for the six-part Ligonier teaching series A Survey of Church History. His many books include God’s Pattern for Creation, Reformation Sketches, An Unexpected Journey, Learning to Love the Psalms, and Saving the Reformation.

"The Psalms join the hearts of believers to the heart of their King as together they pant after the glory of God. As a scholar who loves the psalms, Dr. Godfrey offers a very helpful introduction to reading the Psalter and short reflections on selected psalms that convey the spirit of childlike faith. In a time when biblical studies are dominated by technical scholarship, here we have a simply written, deeply personal, and yet profoundly insightful book on the part of the Bible that Calvin rightly called ’an anatomy of all parts of the soul.’ Read this book prayerfully and be spiritually refreshed, challenged, and fed."

"Learning to Love the Psalms reflects a lifetime of mediation on and love for the Psalter. Dr. Godfrey has demonstrated a deep and sustained engagement with the text, and he shows how these Psalms repeatedly point us to Christ the King without losing sight of how they also encourage us to pursue godly living."

"Almost without our noticing it, a single generation of Christian leaders has managed to eliminate the constant use of the prayer and hymn book of the Savior and the first eighteen centuries of the church. Here, Bob Godfrey prescribes medicine to reverse our sickness and provide a tonic for our spiritual weakness. And this medicine tastes good! By sharing his own love for the Psalms in a way that is both instructive and infectious, he makes us want to know them better—and to discover (and express in worship) the full emotional range of the Christian life. Learning to Love the Psalms is the ideal book for students in college or seminary, for musicians and pastors, and indeed for Christians of every shape and size. May it help to produce a new era of love for the Psalms!"

"My appreciation for the Psalter has grown over the years, largely through the influence of two teachers: John Calvin and Robert Godfrey. An aficionado of great writing, Dr. Godfrey often discovers details the rest of us miss. When we’re talking about the Word of God, that is a singular gift. I can’t wait to read every page of this with my family."