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This piece targets Crenshaw's article, 'Wisdom Psalms?' (CRBS 2000) that debunks a broad array of scholarly attempts to identify canonical wisdom psalms. Convinced that Crenshaw's minimalist perception often skews his reading of the biblical text and its interpretation, Kuntz counters that the Hebrew Psalter hosts a limited number of psalms that are stylistically and thematically reminiscent of what transpires in the widely recognized trinity of wisdom books in the Hebrew canon (Proverbs, Job, Qoheleth). Despite their overlap with other genres, wisdom psalms of diverse format and length exhibit shared features that warrant our embracing them as a viable psalmic category.

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Updating the writer's previous essay in Currents, 'Engaging the Psalms: Gains and Trends in Recent Research ' (1994), this extensive essay targets the many diverse books and articles reflecting the multi-faceted research on the Psalms published during the past two decades. While necessarily selective, this survey opens with article and book-length studies focused on the Psalter in its entirety. These studies range from those primarily intended for novice readers, to intricate, in-depth scholarly commentaries. Subsequently, many publications invested in more specific topics are discussed. These address the Psalms in their ancient Near Eastern milieu, probe crucial form-critical and rhetorical-critical issues, and focus on the shaping of the Psalter, its potential as a book of theology, and its reception across the centuries.

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