What have the Psalms to do with ethics? Readers prize the Psalter for its richly theological prayers, but into these prayers are woven a variety of ethical issues. This book explores the ethics of the Psalter by examining the four portraits of the righteous person that punctuate Book I. It begins by studying these psalms as individual compositions and then employs both the canonical approach and dialogic criticism to identify the complex relationship between the portraits' vision of the righteous life and its outcome. Does the righteous person enjoy security and the good life? The answer may be surprising, but joining the psalmist on the rocky path of the interface of faith and experience is certain to prove a formative experience.

Through Christ's death, believers have been credited with Christ's righteousness in the courtroom of heaven and have a new identity. Yet as long as we tread planet earth we are all bound by some level of sin - none of us in this life can fully escape our fallen nature inherited from Adam which dwells in our unredeemed "flesh." Although we will not be fully released from the presence of sin until Jesus returns, we do not have to remain incarcerated by sin. Paul reassures believers that in fact we can have progressive deliverance from the power of sin to live out our new identity in Christ on earth. "Portraits of Righteousness" draws from the Apostle Paul's writings in Romans 5-8 of the Bible to elucidate this life-changing opportunity.

In David, Marti J. Steussy provides a critical examination of the man who receives more attention from the Old Testament's writers than any other human character. This volume, written for the nonspecialist, explores the Hebrew Bible's three major portraits of David - found in 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 Chronicles, and Psalms - and what each implies about the relation between divine and worldly power.

An analysis of the thirteen historical psalms in the Psalter that refer to crucial moments in King David's life as recorded in the Samuel narrative (1 Sam 16—1 Kings 2).

Who are the righteous in the Psalms? Prayer and the profile of the righteous ; Clean hands and pure hearts ; To be near God -- The destiny of the righteous and the shape of the psalter. The Lord's anointed and the suffering of the righteous ; The suffering servants as the Lord's anointed -- The embodied hope of the righteous. David : defender of the righteous ; David : the enduring hope ; Mount Zion ; Zion and the longing of the righteous ; Torah.

What does the Old Testament—especially the law—have to do with your Christian life? In this warm, accessible volume, Carmen Joy Imes takes readers back to Sinai, arguing that we've misunderstood the command about "taking the Lord's name in vain." Instead, Imes says that this command is really about "bearing God's name," a theme that continues throughout the rest of Scripture.