Book: Psalms – David and his blues

Psalms are one of the jewels of ancient Hebrew poetry. They expres very diverse emotions, from the highest of joy to the deepest depression. There is a very strong artistic side to them and there’s no doubt that they made a lasting impression on listeners back in the day. 

The subtitle „David and his blues“ suggests that the praises, complaints, hopes, sorrows, pleas, joys and words of wisdom are vivid and timeless. Every human experiences high peaks and dark valleys. Although many psalms are tied to concrete situations that happened thousands of years ago, they have the ability to speak to any human in any generation.

Daniel Raus worked on the poetic rewriting of all 150 psalms for several years. Right now the paraphrase only exists in Czech. It was published by Porta libri at the end of 2015. The illustrations were done by artist Miro Pogran, a Slovak painter living in the Czech Republic. The contrast between the shining face and the mystical forest is an expression of the atmosphere between the lines.

Other books of Biblical poetry:
Job – Man judges God
Proverbs – Visdom and her feast
Eclesiastes – Solomon’s holy grail
Song of Songs – Fifty shades of love

All of the  Biblical poetry books in the poetic rewriting by Daniel Raus were also recorded as audiobooks with leading Czech actors under the direction of Lukáš Hlavica and with music by Hubert Bittman. In Czech, they were published by energeia o.p.s.

 

  Illustrations