ESV Expository Commentary (Volume 5): Psalms-Song of Solomon
by C. John Collins (Psalms),
Ryan Patrick O'Dowd (Proverbs),
Max Rogland (Ecclesiastes),
Douglas Sean O'Donnell (Song of Solomon)
ISBN-13: 9781433546440
Hardcover: 1216 pages
Publisher: Crossway
Released: September 6th 2022
Source: Review copy from the publisher through Amazon Vine.
Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
A Passage-by-Passage Commentary on Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon. Designed to strengthen the global church with a widely accessible, theologically sound, and pastorally wise resource for understanding and applying the overarching storyline of the Bible, the ESV Expository Commentary features the full text of the ESV Bible passage by passage, with crisp and theologically rich exposition and application. This commentary's contributors include:
C. John Collins (Psalms)
Ryan Patrick O'Dowd (Proverbs)
Max Rogland (Ecclesiastes)
Douglas Sean O'Donnell (Song of Solomon)
This book features passage-by-passage commentary on the books of Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon, taking a biblical-theological and broadly Reformed approach to interpreting and applying the text. It includes introductions to each book featuring an outline, key themes, author and date information, literary features, relationship to the rest of the Bible, and interpretive challenges.
My Review:
This is a (huge) commentary on Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon. Each book first had an introduction section about when and who wrote the book along with the major themes. Then (going passage by passage) the section of text to be commented on was provided in the ESV version and the commentary followed. Each book was commented on by a different person. The first three were more academic in tone while the last was more conversational in the word choice and tone.
Psalms (which takes up over half of the book) is overly thorough. It has the usual overview of the book or the psalm and examined things like the meaning of questionable words. But it hasn't really improved my understanding of the Psalms. I felt like this was more focused on academic debates. For example, Psalm 1 verse 3 refers to "streams of water." The commentary explained a debate about if the stream is natural or artificial (a canal) based on the word used, though they admitted that it doesn't matter to the meaning of the psalm whether the stream is natural or not. So it's a lot of reading with little of it about improving my understanding and more about side issues (like assuring women that a promise to "a man" also applies to women).
Proverbs was basically a mini-sermon for each group of verses. The commentator linked in related verses from both the Old and New Testament but seemed more interested in telling the reader what to think about the theme in those verses than simply helping the reader to understand the words and context.
Ecclesiastes was still academic enough in tone that it wasn't a quick read, but the commentator did explain passages so the reader can better understand the intent of the writer.
Song of Solomon was much easier to read and did help the reader follow what was going on. The commentator interpreted the action as happening to a generic woman and man (her "king" rather than Solomon) as well as pointing toward the churches relationship with Christ.
If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.
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