Chunks: The Book of Psalms

At some point in your early education, a teacher probably told you that sentence fragments were unacceptable. Your sentences needed to express complete thoughts and end with a period. And Bible translators try to do the same as they work with the original languages in which the books of the Bible were written. But verse 13 of Psalm 27 is notoriously difficult to translate, because it’s a fragment that trails off, leaving the psalmist’s thought incomplete. Should we try to complete the psalmist’s thought, or leave it open-ended? I believe there’s virtue in the latter…

What is Chunks: The Book of Psalms?

If the Bible had a hymnal, it would be the book of Psalms. This diverse collection of 150 poems and prayers runs the gamut of emotion and experience, from songs of highest praise to the deepest depths of lament, from prayers for help and salvation to vehement curses against the psalmist's enemies. We will not cover all the psalms in this podcast, nor take them in order. But my hope is that each episode will help you connect more personally with the riches of the Psalms. All biblical passages will be read from the New International Version, unless otherwise noted.