Reflections on the Psalms

Overall, an outstanding look at the Psalter. This review a shortened version of my full review, which can be found on my website if anyone is interested in more detail.In the text by C. S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms, Lewis writes from a self proclaimed, people's point of view, "avoiding controversial questions as much as possible", with the intention of providing his readers with a contemplative book, on certain Psalm sections, so as to remove some of the mysteries that surround the great poems.1 Although Reflections was widely criticized at the time of it's release, today, more than fifty years since the original publication date in September 1958, Reflections remains a popular and valuable resource when examining the Psalms. While not "an apologetic work" by Lewis, Reflections has firmly rooted it's place in modern literature, as a place to "feed" and understand God's word.2 This critique will briefly examine the context in which Reflections was written, a summary of the overall content, and attempt to identify some of the strengths and weaknesses of this classic book.SUMMARY AND INTERACTION WITH REFLECTIONS ON THE PSALMSReflections on the Psalms presents the book of Psalms in ten different sections, not including an introduction and an alternative view on the Psalms, which Lewis titles "Second Meaning in the Psalms." Each section examines the Psalms not chronologically or in literary order, but clustered into a common set of characteristics such as the "cursings", "death", or "nature." As previously noted, Lewis starts with an introduction by way of disclaimers in a self effacing mannerism to show that this is not intended to be a scholarly work, but one that should enlighten readers of all levels. Lewis also explains that his work will follow the Book of Common Prayer by Coverdale, which is used by many Anglicans.Chapter two begins the heart of Lewis' examination of the Psalms with his look at the judgment, cursings, death, and beauty of the Lord. In the judgment section, Lewis sees Christians as viewing judgment similar to how people view being judged in a court of law where the "little man" has less chance to be heard and vindicated. Judgment here is seen as good news to the righteous because they "know their case is unanswerable - if it could only be heard."12 Similar in nature to the judgments, next Lewis tackles the imprecatory Psalms, or those Psalms that deal with the cursings, found in various places from Psalms chapter 7 through 139, with "the worst" coming in chapter 109.13 Here, Lewis sees "some of the Psalms in the spirit of hatred which strikes us in the face" and calls on his readers to examine the literary feature allegory, one he often used in previous works, as a possible explanation.14 Next, Lewis deals with "death in the Psalms" by looking at how Psalms deals with how the Old Testament Jews viewed life after death without the benefit of a risen savoir. Lewis states that "it seems quite clear that in most parts of the Old Testament there is little or no belief in a future life; certainly no belief that is of any religious importance" and contrasts that view with how people from other backgrounds and religions viewed death in that time period.In the following section of Reflections, Lewis moves away from the problematic or negative aspects of the Psalms and investigates the delights found within the Psalter. Lewis compares these Psalms with the dancing of David and transitions into a quote borrowed from the writer of the book of Hebrews, "sweeter than honey", to describe "an enthusiasm for God's commandments or prohibitions which modern people find hard to empathize with."15 Lewis then briefly returns to the problematic, with a section on connivance, and how dangerous such an attitude can be when professing to hate God. After which the author then moves back again into a more positive section that looks at how the Psalmist used nature as part of the divine life. Lewis ends this section of the text with "a word about praising" that he hopes will be "unnecessary for most" readers.16 As the author sees it, the Psalms are seen by most, in their most natural state, as poems of praise rather than cursings and evil, and he suspects most familiar with the Common Book of Prayer are also familiar with the praiseworthiness of the Psalms.The third major section of the book, which deals with "second meanings" and how scripture relates to the Psalms, is something Lewis spends the remainder of his time discussing. Here Lewis takes a very current topic, even in the 21st century, and discusses the "hidden meanings" or ways Christians can take an understanding of the Psalms in any way they choose, usually far removed from the original writers context. By way of three examples, Lewis looks at how a Christian can find a coincidental meaning, one in "which the speaker [or author of the Psalms] did not know" to explain current situations.EVALUATION AND CONCLUSION OF REFLECTIONS ON THE PSALMSLewis' Reflections has been widely criticized and praised, by both scholars and lay people, since it was first published in 1958. With fifty years hence, an emotional review of Reflections' strengths and weaknesses can be somewhat more objective than it could be in the late 50's. Lewis certainly provides a unique perspective on the Psalms, one that can still be seen as a unique study fifty years later. His writing style, much like his other works, is easy to read, yet deep in thought. Reflections transitions well from one subject to another, but the author has a tendency to move back and forth between sections of negativity to those sections, which contain a more positive evaluation.Early on, Lewis tries to remove his own history of apologetics and religious knowledge from the rigors of scholarly criticism by stating the book is written for lay people, basically by a layperson, but this is hard to take at face value. For an author of apologetic works likes Mere Christianity, and a professor at the prestigious University of Oxford in England, this request may have at the time, fallen on deaf ears. If the reader is to take Reflections as a serious literary work on the Psalter, a conclusion hard to argue against, one must also evaluate the arguments and suppositions of Reflections as such. Lewis' use of modern day "common" language, or perhaps crude in some cases, which is used throughout the book, like "priggish", goes towards his approach to appeal to the more modern lay reader, but his scriptural references and ideas have a much deeper meaning. Lewis claims in the introduction to only be "comparing notes" and not to "instruct", but Reflections helps the reader to understand ancient poetry and literature, and takes an more Anglican approach to the Psalms that is almost foreign to a modern day evangelical Protestant. In this respect, Reflections largely instructs from beginning to end. Lewis does not gloss over the most difficult issues presented, though he does leave the reader wondering what he has left out "as his own interests" led him to do.Where Lewis leaves himself open to criticism is in his view, and somewhat veiled ideas, of scripture. As previously quoted, early on Lewis states that "all Holy Scripture is in some sense - though not all parts of it in the same sense - the word of God" leaving open to the reader which parts of the "Holy Scriptures" Lewis finds to be the true "word of God" and which parts he does not.18 Only a few pages later Lewis explains.At the outset I felt sure, and I feel sure still, that we must not either try to explain [the Psalms] away or to yield for one moment to the idea that, because it comes in the Bible, all this vindictive hatred must somehow be good and pious... and we should be wicked if we in any way condoned or approved it, or (worse still) used it to justify similar passions in ourselves.So should the reader understand the Psalms "as the word of God in a different sense than Romans", and if so, in what sense are they different?19 This phrase, "in some sense", is not isolated to Reflections. In one of Lewis' letters, written to Clyde Kilby on May 7, 1959, just after Reflections was published, Lewis again stated "if every good and perfect gift comes from the Father of Lights, then all true and edifying writings, whether in Scripture or not, must in some sense by inspired."20 This interpretation of the Psalms may not adequately take into account the enormous context of the Psalms being a large collection of poems, written by many different authors, dating back to at least King David. While the task of trying to summarize such context into a small book would be difficult on any account, Lewis' view of the evil portrayed from within the scripture could need further examination, especially in light of current Hebraic poetry research, which has come about since Reflections.Overall, Reflections shows itself to be a worthy and valuable text when taken in it's own context of mid-twentieth century Anglican scholasticism. Although Lewis may not have wanted to see Reflections viewed as a scholarly work, it is hard to put aside a masterful author such as Lewis, and he more than accomplishes his goals from beginning to end. Reflections in the 21st century may be best viewed as one part of a whole in the complete works of C. S. Lewis, but it still instructs and teaches a better understanding of the Psalms. In a short but thoughtful work, Lewis "helps to remind us [that] we worship the one true and eternal God."WORKS CITEDBramlett, Perry C. "Reflections on the Psalms." In The C. S. Lewis Reader's Encyclopedia, edited by Jeffrey Schultz and Jr. John G. West. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1998.Carpenter, Humphrey. The Inklings: C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, and their Friends. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1979.Constable, Thomas L. "Notes on the Psalms: 2010 Edition." Sonic Light. 2010. [...] (accessed August 1, 2010).Day, John N. "The Imprecatory Psalms and Christian Ethics." Bibliotheca Sacra (Dallas Theological Seminary), no. 159 (April-June 2002): 166-186.Lambert, Bryon C. "Reflections on Reflections on the Psalms." CSL: The Bulletin of the New York C. S. Lewis Society (New York C. S. Lewis Society), no. 13 (November 1970): 1-8.Lewis, C. S. Reflections on the Psalms. New York, NY: Harcourt Books, 1986.Lewis, W. H., ed. Letters of C. H. Lewis. Revised Edition. New York, NY: C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd., 1988.Review of Reflections on the Psalms by C. S. Lewis. Vols. 35-36, in Current History. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace and Company, 1958.Robbins, John W. "Did C. S. Lewis Go to Heaven?" The Trinity Review (Trininty Foundation), no. 226 (November, December 2003).Sayer, George. Jack: A Life of C. S. Lewis. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1994.Williams, Donald T. An Apologist's Evening Prayer: Reflecting on C. S. Lewis' Reflections on the Psalms. Vol. 3, in C. S. Lewis: Life, Works, and Legacy, by Bruce L. Edwards, edited by Bruce L. Edwards, 237-256. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2007.

When one begins reading the book Reflections on the Psalms, by CS Lewis, one reads the author's initial disclaimer that the book is not a serious work of theology. Lewis notes that it is his rambling ideas and personal "reflections" that he explored in his own private devotions. This is an important caution he gave his readers, as he knew that some may take his words for the best interpretation, and he feared that often this would be a spiritual error for them.That said, he did have some expertise that many theologians do not have. His knowledge of the medieval, training in interpretation of literature, and knowledge of language, allowed him to put forth truths that many modern readers, even trained theologians, miss. The part that makes this exceptionally helpful, Lewis' disclaimer notwithstanding, is that he persuasively argues that the older, more literally true, interpretations, and the newer interpretations, are equally valid. The reason being that the Lord can reveal His will to people and reveal Himself to folks via His "Natural Law", and so the literal meaning can be given by God in such a way that alludes to, and even obviously speaks of, or predicts, the equally true spiritual interpretation.Now, to be honest, the book doesn't really say "natural law". I use that as a term to encapsulate the general point. Natural Law essentially can have secular and spiritual (Christian) meanings. We will ignore the secular ones, and refer to the Christian understanding. Essentially, the moral law, the sense of beauty and of God's existence, that He lays on men's hearts, is the "Natural Law". This is a very rough definition, but gets across the crux of Lewis' thoughts on the Book of Psalms. God has his truth revealed to us who are, as Randy Alcorn puts it, His "image-bearers". We reflect His truth and glory in our imperfect, sin-filled way. So therefore the literal meanings of the passages in the Psalms, and the rest of the Scriptures for that matter, either "anticipated" or were somehow reflective of the true, Divine meanings of the Coming of Our Lord, Savior, and God Jesus Christ, man's afterlife, etc.It is interesting to see Lewis work out the history of the development of spiritual truth by Our Lord, as He slowly revealed Himself over the years from Abraham down to Christ and the Apostles. Not much concrete doctrinal or "spiritual" issues can be found in this volume, but a very good historical and literary discussion of the issues in the Psalms and how they connect to the later New Testament writings is offered.The final part I liked was how Lewis dealt with the uncomfortable, militant, bloody Psalms. Too many Christians avoid such Psalms, or any commentary on them. Lewis does not. He outright states that many of them are not in line with the moral sentiment of the rest of the Psalms and the rest of the Bible period. Yet he at least tries to understand why they were written as they are, why they are in the Bible in the first place, and how they can be of benefit to Christians who read them. He takes both those who are too harsh, and those who are too lenient, on the writers of the bloody Psalms, to task, and this is a great spiritual boon to the reader. Instead of avoiding this tough issue, he tackles it head-on. His guesses (that's all they really are, as he himself freely admits) are not nearly completely satisfactory, but at least he tried, which is more than most Christians do. For that, he deserves a great deal of credit.As Lewis himself points out, this is definitely not a theological work, but the personal expertise he brought to exploring the Book of Psalms does reveal some truths and potential-truths. For that reason, it is well-worth reading.