We Have Heard, O Lord: An Introduction to the Theology of the Psalter [Hardcover]

The Book of Psalms includes some of the most impassioned language about God in the Old Testament. At the same time, the psalms as a collection constitute one of the most impassioned debates about the nature and activity of God on behalf of individuals, Israel, and the created order. In this learned yet accessible volume, Robert Foster offers the first major introduction to this debate about the person and work of God as it unfolds in the Book of Psalms. If God is the Just King, why does this King delay vindicating the oppressed and saving them from wicked oppressors? What happens when God turns in divine judgment against the people of Israel? Does God keep the promises made to the descendants of David and the covenant made with the people of Israel? Do the psalmists find God faithful and so worthy of the final commands in the Psalter to Praise the Lord? These powerful questions drive the debate within the Book of Psalms. By attending to the psalmists rhetoric, Foster shows how the individual psalmists appeal to God in prayer and proclamation and how these contrasting voices give life to the Psalter and to its presentation of the living God.Robert L. Foster is lecturer in religion and New Testament at the University of Georgia.

Foster's monograph offers an engaging, thoughtful meditation on God's presence in the psalms and is a welcome addition to the literature on the psalms, one that makes a needed contribution to our understanding of the many ways in which the psalmists understood God. Horizons In Biblical Theology

This book is indeed an introduction to the theology of the book of Psalms. Fosters careful examination of the individual psalms and their understandings of God lays a solid foundation for future work that will draw some of his observations together in more constructive ways. For those working within faith contexts, his concluding suggestions for teaching the Psalters ethics provide a helpful springboard for pedagogical innovatiolh