Psalms, Volume 1: 1–72

I admit that I prefer Wilson’s commentary in vol. 1 over vol. 2. Nonetheless, Grant and Tucker’s commentary is a solid contribution. Wilson sees an important Davidic motif in the compiling and arranging of the Psalter which lends to messianic expectation built into the Psalms. This interpretive grid comes out throughout his discussions. The layout of the commentary is simple and helpful with each Psalm being discussed in three sections: [Full Review]

One difficulty in suggesting commentaries for Psalms is that they are often multi-volume and in some cases the volumes are of unequal quality while in others they have not yet been completed. Wilson’s commentary does not cover all of the Psalms but is said to be excellent and a great place to begin. The format of the series ensures that it is heavy on application and contemporary significance. [Full Review]

The NIVAC series is a mixed bag, but Gerald Wilson's initial volume on the Psalms is one of the standouts. The NIVAC series divides comments into three sections: Original Meaning, Bridging Contexts, and Contemporary Significance. In most of the commentaries in this series, the author will do very well in one or maybe two of those sections. Wilson is one of the few who succeeds in all three. To the best of my knowledge, he will not be writing the second volume on Psalms in the NIVAC series, but this should not deter students of Scripture from using this first volume, which covers Psalms 1-72. [Full Review]

Gerald Wilson's NIVAC on Psalms 1-72 is my favorite of all the Psalms commentaries. It's technically a popular-level commentary, but it's a good deal more in-depth than most NIVAC volumes in the area of Original Meaning, and it's even got a fairly significant introduction, something very uncommon for this series. As with most of them it's very good in its Bridging Contexts and Contemporary Application sections. The main point is to move from the original setting to contemporary application through deriving the general principles behind what the text says in its original setting. Unfortunately, the commentary is incomplete. It really is the first place I look for anything on the first 72 psalms. This one seems to be especially good with theology, and it's got a much greater degree of exegetical detail than some other popular-audience commentaries. [Update: Wilson has died. I'm guessing that this volume will be reassigned (or perhaps completed by someone else as a co-author if Wilson has made enough progress for the publisher to want to use his work).] [Full Review]