Commending The Psalms, A Christ-Centered Commentary

Christopher Ash is one of the most insightful voices of our day. He is that wonderful combination of a pastor and scholar—he’s heart and mind in one package. His earlier works on Job (one large and one small) and marriage are excellent.

In 2024 Crossway released his four-volume set, The Psalms, A Christ-Centered Commentary. This is a mini-library that is patient, insightful, comprehensive, and useful to all readers and leaders. As the first volume shows, there are few commentaries on the Psalter that are ignored by this set. Indeed, the first volume is one of the most valuable, although most teachers will resort to the other volumes more readily.

In Ash’s first volume he provides an overview of the literature, discussing ceteris paribus: who are the righteous, where is Christ in each Psalm, how do we sing the Psalms, and can Jesus pray imprecatory prayers? His review of the literature and survey of the history of interpretation—spanning from the patristics to medieval commentators to the Reformation and up to modern analysis is as fine as any in the past century.

The strength of the introductory volume is its comprehensive grasp of studies from many periods and perspectives. Moreover, it provides a foundation for what is to follow but does so in an approachable way, without being overly technical. This is high shelf scholarship that is put within reach of us who are short in stature.

One of the distinctives is the attempt to tie every Psalm in some way to Jesus. At times, Ash will relate a verse that the NT takes over and places in Jesus’ lips. At other times, he will suggest that the sentiments of a psalm could have been the thoughts or prayers of Jesus. At times, he may stretch to reach his goal, which is an admirable one.

Volumes 2-4 provide a commentary on each psalm. This is one of those works that can either help the busy pastor with a reliable guide or point a student to go deeper. Among the strong points for each Psalm are: (1) an introduction page with stellar quotes; (2) an exposition that gets to the point and also that covers the needed thoughts; (3) embedded quotes from others and from the original language; and (4) a concluding Reflection and Response page or two. The 150 Psalms are well covered in these three volumes of 2,000 pages, yielding about 13 pages per Psalm (obviously Psalm 119 is lengthier).

Each volume is well-indexed by Scripture verse, subject, and name. An extensive bibliography is also provided for each volume.

The author is intending to provide a corrective that, at times, has not always integrated the Psalter into Christology. And while any corrective may overshoot at times, this is a work (albeit pricey but it provides almost 2,500 pages) to consult often. It is superbly organized, well written, and thoroughly researched.

Even though it is still hard to surpass Spurgeon’s Treasury of David, this is a modern commentary on the Psalms that embraces the best of the past and also points us to the center of the Psalms.