We Have Heard, O Lord : An Introduction to the Theology of the Psalter

This book explores the five books of the Psalms and the ways the psalmists ground their sermons and prayers in the nature and activity of the God of Israel. The canonical collection of the Psalter shows psalmists both doubting and trusting God, which together constitute the theology of the Psalter.

The Book of Psalms includes some of the most impassioned language about God in the Old Testament. At the same time, the psalms as a collection constitute one of the most impassioned debates about the nature and activity of God on behalf of individuals, Israel, and the created order. In this learned yet accessible volume, Robert Foster offers the first major introduction to this debate about the person and work of God as it unfolds in the Book of Psalms. If God is the Just King, why does this King delay vindicating the oppressed and saving them from wicked oppressors? What happens when God turns in divine judgment against the people of Israel? Does God keep the promise God made to king of Zion and the covenant made with the people of Israel? Do the psalmists find God faithful and so worthy of the final commands in the Psalter to “Praise the LORD”? These powerful questions drive the debate within the Book of Psalms. By attending to the rhetoric of the psalmists’, Foster shows how the individual psalmists appeal to God in prayer and proclamation and how these contrasting voices give life to the Psalter and to its presentation of the living God.