Reflections on the Psalms

An amateur, not a scholar, reads the Psalms “like a student showing his homework to a classmate.” Lewis dares to discuss the psalms of cursing, the praise that seems to demand compliments, and the joy of loving a law.

Lewis warns that he is neither a Hebraist nor a theologian: he writes for those who, like him, read the Psalms in the English translation of their prayer book. He begins with the texts that trouble him: the curses, the hatred of enemies, the self-satisfaction of some righteous people. He sees them as an honest reflection of what anger does to humans, and a reminder that injustice is a serious matter. Then he discusses death in the Old Testament, the beauty of nature, and the love of the Law “sweeter than honey.” He addresses the question that long perplexed him: why does God demand our praise? His answer: praise is the natural way joy finds its expression, as one cannot help but say “look!” when faced with a beautiful landscape.

• Original title — Reflections on the Psalms
• First publication — 1958
• Genre — Essay (Bible reading)
• First English edition — Geoffrey Bles, London, 1958
• Available in bookstores — Available (Empreinte temps présent).
• Reading level — Easy to intermediate
• For whom — For Bible readers, believers or not, and for those troubled by violent psalms.
• Year — 1958

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• Reflections on the Psalms — Raphaël — Le Mont-Pèlerin — 1999 — first French translation
• Reflections on the Psalms — Empreinte temps présent — 2020

themes

• Praise that completes joy.
• Anger and justice.
• Reading an ancient text honestly.
• The secondary meanings of Scripture.

Short quotes with source

• Praise seems almost to be the inward health made audible. — Reflections on the Psalms, ch. 9 — website translation

Family

Apologetics and spirituality

Other names

• Reflections on the Psalms
• Essay (Bible reading)
• Spirituality

An amateur, not a scholar, reads the Psalms “like a student showing his homework to a classmate.” Lewis dares to discuss the psalms of cursing, the praise that seems to demand compliments, and the joy of loving a law.

In brief

How to approach it

Level: Easy to intermediate. For Bible readers, believers or not, and for those troubled by violent psalms.

The book in a few words

Lewis warns that he is neither a Hebraist nor a theologian: he writes for those who, like him, read the Psalms in the English translation of their prayer book. He begins with the texts that trouble him: the curses, the hatred of enemies, the self-satisfaction of some righteous people. He sees them as an honest reflection of what anger does to humans, and a reminder that injustice is a serious matter. Then he discusses death in the Old Testament, the beauty of nature, and the love of the Law “sweeter than honey.” He addresses the question that long perplexed him: why does God demand our praise? His answer: praise is the natural way joy finds its expression, as one cannot help but say “look!” when faced with a beautiful landscape.

In Lewis’s workshop

Lewis served from 1959 to 1962 on a committee of the Church of England tasked with revising the translation of the Psalms, alongside the poet T.S. Eliot, whose poetry he had harshly criticized in his youth and with whom he now worked in good agreement.

What announces Narnia

The spontaneous praise of the creatures around Aslan, in The Magician’s Nephew, perfectly illustrates this chapter.

What a modern reader retains

Lewis does not shy away from the psalms of cursing that trouble so many readers today: he takes them as an honest mirror of human anger. And his reflection on praise, this spontaneous way of saying “look!” when faced with something one loves, speaks to all who share a sunset or a book.

Did you know

A discreet book, but one that has left its mark, especially for the chapter on praise, often quoted.

Going further

• Praise that completes joy.
• Anger and justice.
• Reading an ancient text honestly.
• The secondary meanings of Scripture.

On screen

“Praise seems almost to be the inward health made audible.”
— Reflections on the Psalms, ch. 9 — website translation

On screen

Reflections on the Psalms — Raphaël — Le Mont-Pèlerin — 1999 — first French translation

Reflections on the Psalms — Empreinte temps présent — 2020

See also

• Letters to Malcolm
• Reasoning or Telling? Lewis’s Two Approaches and Those Who Responded to Them
• The Magician’s Nephew

Sources

• https://lafree.ch/les-livres-de-c-s-lewis-traduits-en-francais/
• https://www.pintswithjack.com/csl-in-france/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflections_on_the_Psalms