Patrick D. Miller konzentriert sich in den hier gesammelten Essays zum Alten Testament besonders auf den Dekalog und die Psalmen. Die Zehn Gebote deutet er als eine verbindende Richtlinie für das Leben der Gemeinschaft der Gläubigen, die dann im Rest der Bibel in viele verschiedene Richtungen weiterentwickelt wird. In seinen Auslegungen zu den Psalmen legt der Autor besonderes Augenmerk darauf, daß das Buch der Psalmen sowohl ein theologisches Buch als auch eine Sammlung von Liedern und Gebeten ist. Er befaßt sich auch mit methodologischen Fragen sowie mit Aspekten des göttlichen Charakters und der menschlichen Natur.

The essays in this volume represent a theological interpretation especially focused on the Decalogue and the Psalms. The essays on the Commandments lay out an understanding of them as a kind of constitutional guideline for the life of the community of faith that is then developed in many specific and illustrative ways in the rest of Scripture - legislation, narrative, prophetic oracle, psalm, and wisdom saying. The various treatments of the Psalms focus especially on the way in which the Psalter is a book of theology as much as it is a collection of hymns and prayers. The final section of the book continues the theological reading of the Old Testament with some specific attention to the methodological issues as well as to aspects of the character of God and the nature of the human.

Autorentext
Born 1935; Ph.D in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures at Harvard University; currently Charles T. Haley Professor of Old Testament Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary.

Inhalt
The Commandments
The Place of the Decalogue in the Old Testament and Its Law - The Sufficiency and Insufficiency of the Commandments - Metaphors for the Moral - The Good Neighborhood: Identity and Community through the Commandments - The Story of the First Commandment: The Book of Exodus - The Story of the First Commandment: The Book of Joshua - The Psalms as a Meditation on the First Commandment - The Commandments in the Reformed Perspective - "That It May Go Well with You:" The Commandments and the Common Good
The Psalms
The Ruler in Zion and the Hope of the Poor: Psalms 9-10 in the Context of the Psalter - The Poetry of Creation: Psalm 104 - The Hermeneutics of Imprecation - Prayer and Worship - The Psalter as a Book of Theology - What is a Human Being: The Anthropology of the Psalter I - The Sinful and Trusting Creature: The Anthropology of the Psalter II
Theology
Constitution or Instruction: The Purpose of Deuteronomy - Slow to Anger: The Good of the Prophets - What the Scriptures Principally Teach - Imagining God - Theology from Below: The Theological Interpretation of the Scripture - Man and Woman: Towards a Theological Anthropology - Preaching the Old Testament at Easter