What is so unique about the Book of Psalms? Why is it so beloved by Jews and Christians alike? And how can we use the psalms in worship today? The Psalms, Rabbi Polish writes, are far more personal and intense than most parts of the Bible; they speak to us directly, like a counselor or a friend. They remind us of our "desire to find God and our frustration that God often seems remote, hidden, unapproachable and unknowable." They show us--instead of telling us--the "drama of salvation," the struggle toward faith.

Polish's book consists of close readings of particular psalms (his meditation on Psalm 38, which he likens to the lament of a person who is gravely ill, is especially moving) as well as reflections on what the Psalms have meant to him personally. He discovered the Psalms, he writes, at about the time his father suddenly died: "They had become my companion in the face of human need."

Let Polish's book be your companion to the Psalms.