A Special Episode about Jim's Transparent Translation of the Psalms (Ep. 188)

Samuel Emadi (0:04)

Welcome to Episode 188 of Bible Talk. This episode of Bible Talk is brought to you by 9Marks and Southern Seminary.

Southern Seminary exists to train, educate, and equip gospel ministers for a lifetime of more faithful service. 9Marks is this to help pastors build healthy local churches. Is that right, Alex?

Alex Duke (0:22)

Yep, that's right.

Samuel Emadi (0:23)

All right, for more information, or if you want to give to Bible Talk, go to 9marks.org/talk.

Alex Duke (0:32)

Harder than it looks.

Samuel Emadi (0:32)

Oh man, this is really tough.

Alex Duke (0:34)

You forgot the Southern Seminary URL.

Samuel Emadi (0:37)

Oh, Southern Seminary has URL? That's not in the notes you sent me.

Alex Duke (0:41)

Well, you said.

Samuel Emadi (0:42)

Go to sbts.edu to learn more about Southern Seminary.

Alex Duke (0:48)

Sam, why are you doing this?

Samuel Emadi (0:49)

Well, we're doing a special episode today, Episode 188 We're going to talk about Jim's new book, The Book of Psalms, A Transparent Translation for Daily Meditation.

Jim Hamilton (0:58)

I didn't write the Psalms.

Samuel Emadi (0:59)

Yeah, that's true. But you did this translation.

Jim Hamilton (1:01)

Yeah.

Samuel Emadi (1:01)

So here we go.

Alex Duke (1:02)

What a blessing. Here it is.

Jim Hamilton (1:04)

It's a beautiful book.

Alex Duke (1:05)

Jim, when did this come out?

Jim Hamilton (1:07)

I think it was really September 1st of this year, 2026

Alex Duke (1:10)

And when I was prepping for this, I thought I was reading a commentary. And then I must not have been paying close attention.

I wasn't paying close attention to what this was. I was like, oh, this is going to be a great commentary. And then I opened it and I was like, oh, that's not what this is.

Jim Hamilton (1:25)

It's just a translation of the Psalms.

Alex Duke (1:27)

Not just. Well, never say just.

Jim Hamilton (1:29)

Well, it is a translation of the Psalter.

Samuel Emadi (1:32)

That's what it is.

Alex Duke (1:32)

Okay.

Samuel Emadi (1:33)

A Transparent Translation.

Alex Duke (1:33)

I want to hear, but Sam, you're leading this, so I'm sorry.

Samuel Emadi (1:36)

Yeah, so here's what I want to do.

I'm super excited to talk about your book and your translation of the Psalms, Jim. I have read your commentary. I love that commentary so much. You know, you have colonized my brain.

Alex Duke (1:51)

Oh, praise God.

Samuel Emadi (1:54)

And how I think about biblical theology.

Jim Hamilton (1:55)

The only thing left is the millennium, right?

Samuel Emadi (1:57)

You'll get me. You'll get me.

And how I think about biblical theology and how I think about hermeneutics. But I want to say, especially with the Psalms, this is one area in which when I was a student and first started to hear you lecture on the Psalms, I had some degree of skepticism and suspicion about what you were saying.

Jim Hamilton (2:17)

Praise God for critical thinkers that are not just, tell me whatever and I'll believe it.

Alex Duke (2:22)

I mean, he did just say you colonized his mind. But then...

Jim Hamilton (2:25)

But I had to conquer it.

Samuel Emadi (2:27)

Yeah, and you did conquer it by the force of your arguments and the kind of evidence that you put forward for presenting the Psalms in the way that you do as this beautiful piece of this collection of poems that has been intentionally arranged so as to tell a story.

Alex Duke (2:46)

And that is a way... Was that the part you were sceptical about?

Samuel Emadi (2:48)

The intentional arrangement? Yes, I was sceptical of that. And that that arrangement would communicate some kind of narrative within it. And so, you know, just the exegetical data that you presented and kind of the careful work that you did won me over to where now I think, you know, your influence on me, particularly in the Psalms, is great.

Jim Hamilton (3:10)

You know, I don't think I can take sole credit for this. Because I remember, when Sam was in the PhD program, he did a review of Robert Cole's book, Do you remember this?

Samuel Emadi (3:19)

Psalms 1 and 2 It's a great book.

Jim Hamilton (3:21)

I love this memory. Sam said in class, he said, I think this is the first book, first academic book that I've ever read that had me fist pumping in response to what the guy was saying.

Samuel Emadi (3:31)

It was a fabulous book. Yeah, it's really good.

So here's what I want to do. I just want to start generally, and then we'll move more specific. So you've written a commentary on Revelation. You've written a book on Daniel. You've written a book on John. Yes. You've written a commentary on Song of Songs.