I had plenty of scholarly and devotional books on my bookshelf but hardly any books that offered readers a substantial introduction to the world of the psalms that also was practical-that would in fact help people to become deeply formed by the psalms, not just compelled to study them. Usually IвЂ™d mention EugeneвЂ™s book, Answering God, or one of Walter BrueggemannвЂ™s many wonderful books. Invariably, someone would ask me for a book recommendation- one book they could read on the psalms. Taylor: After the documentary came out with Bono and Eugene Peterson, I found myself presented with a number of opportunities to speak to churches about the psalms. What propelled you forward in adding another to the many options? Moore: There are many good books on the Psalms. I am also fortunate to have a good wife who was willing to read drafts of my chapters and to tell me when IвЂ™d crossed the line into TMI or when I was hiding in fear from the reader. But because the psalms include so many instances of honesty about the human condition, I felt that itвЂ™d be disingenuous of me to ask the reader to be wholly honest with God and with others, but to avoid it myself. Taylor: The bookвЂ™s not a memoir, so there was only so much room for telling a personal story. How did you navigate between what was appropriate to share and what is better left out? A temptation is to overdo this sort of thing, but I think you strike a good balance in being vulnerable, but not overwhelming the reader. Moore: Throughout Open and Unafraid you share some of your own struggles.

I also wanted to offer readers a вЂњmeaty but accessibleвЂќ introduction to the world of the psalms: to themes of honesty and community, poetry and history, sadness and anger, enemies and justice, death and life, nations and creation, joy and love.

But when we choose to read it all, we discover an extraordinary вЂњmedicine chest of the heart,вЂќ as Tim Keller once put it, capable of both naming and curing every malady of the heart. WhatвЂ™s happened in practice is that many of us have ended up reading only our favorite bits of the Psalter and ignored the rest-to our detriment. The sad fact is that Christians in the modern era fell out of a regular habit of psalms-reading, and I think our prayer lives, both individually and corporately, have suffered because of it. Taylor: I wrote it because I wanted people to fall in love with the prayer book of Jesus and the book that Christians have been praying for over 2,000 years. Moore: A good place to start is to inquire what motivated an author to write their book. This interview was conducted by David George Moore and revolves around TaylorвЂ™s book, Open and Unafraid: The Psalms as a Guide to Life. He also serves as director of Brehm Texas, an initiative of worship, theology, and the arts. David Taylor is assistant professor of theology and culture at Fuller Theological Seminary.

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