Encountering God in the Psalms
Travers' treatment of the Psalms is accessible so that any evangelical Christian can benefit from its devotional use. Yet, the work also serves as a valuable resource for pastors and seminary students who wish to incorporate its insights into their preaching and exegesis. (Ohio Baptist Messenger2004-06-03). . . Powerful, perceptive, and pastoral, and full to the brim of wisdom. (Pastor's Page2004-06-03)Travers provides all readers with fresh views of well-known nuggets of understanding, arranging them into a mosaic that reveals a glimpse of the glory and the majesty of God himself. (R.C. Ryan Center for Biblical Studies2004-06-03)"Michael Travers has planted a refreshingly God-centered and application -oriented book in the landscape of Psalms studies. His purpose in writing is devotional -- to challenge the reader to know and love God more and to apply the Psalms in daily life. Although the work is devotional in nature, Travers has not omitted scholarship. He examines the major features of the study of Hebrew poetry: communicated experience, terseness/intensity, parallelisms, macro/micro structures, and figures of speech (simile, metaphor, image, symbol, personification, metonymy, and synecdoche). These features are critical for understanding the message of the Psalms. As an English professor, Travers has sophisticatedly supplemented the work with poems from non-canonical authors (e.g. Milton, Tennyson) when appropriate. The title of the book is true to its substance." (Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society2005-05-01)Encountering God in the Psalms is not intended as an exegetical commentary, but it provides basic exegetical guidance. It does not discuss fully major problems like imprecatory and messianic psalms, but it offers the reader some valuable insight with which to begin a more detailed study. The volume's strength is in Travers' purpose to create an attitude of worship in the reader. Preachers and lay people alike will benefit from this catalyst for a devotional study of Psalms. (William D. BarrickThe Master's Seminary Journal2007-03-01)