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Making the most of your devotional lifeOn the way up?MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR DEVOTIONAL LIFE When I read the title of this book sent me for review I was delighted. Any help I can get to enhance my devotional life is very welcome; and I guess I may not be untypical of many readers. As I scanned the contents I saw that it promised a practical manual rather than a theoretical treatise - better still. Derek Thomas uses a simple method and works it out in a day-by-day study of the 15 Songs of Ascent: Psalms 120-134. While most of us would find it difficult to give it the time required every day, over a period of a few weeks we could use its structure to our profit. So I set to with a will. This is where it gets difficult: I was disappointed. Not totally, I have to say, because there are many helpful insights scattered through the book. And the section entitled 'For your journal' with which each chapter concludes was particularly useful. It offered many pointers to draw practical application from the Scriptures studied. But overall it failed, in my view, to achieve its worthy objective. Mr. Thomas states that his aim is to provide 'a distinctively Reformed guide to spirituality'. He offers a number of characteristics of this spirituality which struck me as highly cerebral. It ignored the fact that spirituality is an expression of our relationship with God and made only the barest and impersonal mention of the Holy Spirit. I looked in vain for the passionate spirituality of a David Brainerd or a Samuel Rutherford, with their hearts set aflame with love for God. Writing a good devotional commentary is admittedly far from easy. It requires a more applied approach to exposition so that readers can use Scripture effectively to develop their walk with God, both in their 'devotions' and in daily living. The Songs of Ascent are well chosen for this purpose since they were used by people on the move as they travelled to Jerusalem on pilgrimage. Their feet were on the road as they passed through territory that was at times friendly or hostile, looking forward to fellowship with God and his people. This group of psalms develops a picture of our pilgrimage through life. Such features and the way one psalm seems to build on another were largely ignored. At times his interpretation was puzzling; rarely is it inspiring. It struck me as very 'ministerial', viewing the Christian life very much through the lens of church services. But that appears to be crucial in Mr. Thomas's thinking. He goes so far as to say this in his comment on Psalm 128: 'All blessing comes from one's relationship to God's people and to the place where he is worshipped.' Really?! That sounds a touch of pre-Reformed spirituality to me! The book has been ill-served by its editing. There are numerous printing errors which include spelling errors, incomplete words, missing words and even a wrong Bible reference. One chapter is particularly blighted, with 17 mistakes in seven pages! In another chapter we are told to expect three characteristics of spirituality and find five are listed. The best devotional commentaries I have ever come across are J.C. Ryle's 'Expository Thoughts on the Gospels'. Now if Mr. Thomas's method could be applied to Ryle's work we would really have something which would make the most of our devotional lives. David C. Potter, Reading© Evangelicals Now - March 2002 |