The Lord Is My Strength: Praying the Psalms Day by Day

Kampmann (Getting to Know Jesus), founder of Midpoint Trade Books, aims to help readers develop, or maintain, a daily practice of meditation and prayer in this lively but uneven offering. Each entry features an evocative psalm; a color-saturated image of wilderness areas, wildlife, or a religiously significant destinations (such as Israel’s Holy Land and Spain’s Camino de Santiago) that complements the selection; and a brief devotion of 50 or fewer words written by Kampmann. Unfortunately, the insightful meditations are overshadowed by an unfocused collection of prayers, Bible verses, random thoughts (“The wars of the last century were built on assumptions of technological invention and scientific genius, resulting in more killing, not less”), and personal experiences. Some devotions read more like minilectures on arbitrary topics, among them atheism, the godlessness of Silicon Valley, and characters from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. While the book of Psalms combines both praise and lament, Kampmann focuses mostly on the latter, repeatedly warning readers to lead a more godly life or suffer dire consequences. As a result, Kampmann’s overall negative spin on even positive verses may leave readers feeling more admonished than encouraged. Unfortunately, the eye-catching photography and chosen passages of poetic inspiration from the psalms fail to save Kampmann’s hodgepodge of musings. [em](Nov.) [/em]