The Psalms: A Christ-Centered Commentary (4-Volume Set) — Christopher Ash, Crossway

I received a review copy of this four volume commentary set from Crossway several months ago. I held off writing this review because I wanted to actually use the set first, so I spent the last few months working through Psalms 1 through 22 with it as my companion for inductive Bible study. Highly recommend.

One of the things I love most is the layout and structure. Some days I want to slow down and work through a psalm methodically, the old fashioned analog way, alongside my Bible. Other days I just need to look something up quickly for a lesson or a question I’m chewing on. This set works well for both.

The writing itself is the perfect mix of academic and devotional. Christopher Ash brings real exegetical depth, careful attention to structure, and strong connections to the New Testament and to Christ, but he never loses sight of the fact that these are prayers. Most commentaries lean hard into one side of that or the other. This one holds both.

Working through the Psalms this systematically, rather than at the pace of my normal daily reading, helped me grasp them at a deeper theological level. I could see the lament psalms and the psalms of comfort as part of one larger conversation between God’s people and God himself. But the set didn’t leave me only with theology. It kept pointing me toward application, into my work, my parenting, church leadership, my family and friendships, and the places in my own soul where I need God the most.

I have often said that what draws me to the Psalms is the sense of looking over the shoulders of the psalmists as they pour out their souls to God. This commentary set protects that experience rather than getting in the way of it. Ash’s Christ centered approach never turns the psalmists into abstractions. If anything it gives me more language to borrow as my own, to praise, to lament, and to cry out to God in whatever season I am in.

I am only through the first 22 psalms and I am already confident this will be my go to resource for studying the Psalms for years to come. Highly recommend, especially for pastors, teachers, and anyone who wants to sit with these prayers instead of reading past them.

For more information, click on the picture above, or access the Crossway website here: The Psalms: A Christ-Centered Commentary