The Message of Psalms

The BST is quite closely aligned with the TOTC in that these are shorter, less technical commentaries geared toward a general audience. That makes them ideal for those who wish to read devotionally, but perhaps a little bit less helpful for sermon preparation. Still, they are useful volumes and receive some accolades from the commentators on the commentaries. [Full Review]

Two other popular-level commentaries on the Psalms are worth mentioning. Michael Wilcock's two volumes on Psalms in the BST series are extremely brief. There's little more than you would expect in an exposition. Wilcock is very good at what he does, but he doesn't do very much more than present what a good exposition would present. A good expositor ought to have more behind a study than what the exposition actually says, and these volumes won't help a lot with this. Thinness is common in the BST, but other volumes in this series have a lot more depth. The longest book in the Bible deserves more space than much shorter books, but that's not how it turned out in this series. Wilcock's comments sometimes read like a summary of the text, often with short divergences into theological or applicational issues, usually well enough done for their length, but I was disappointed when I had a chance to look through these volumes. Many questions I was asking weren't even addressed, and he often said too little to help when he did deal with them. Solid scholarship does stand behind Wilcock's work. He's always thorough in his own preparation. It's just that we don't see very much of the fruit of that in this commentary. [Full Review]