We don't seem to have a category for book reviews, but I'm going to recommend this title anyway.

Church musicians spend an inordinate amount of time with the psalms and I occasionally forget that there's a meaning beyond getting my singers to get the words right, not sound like the storm-trooper chorus, and pay attention to the pointing.

I find this book a delight. Psalms takes you inside some of the subtle points of Hebrew poetry and helps you understand the context of both the poet and the later Jewish community when the psalter was compiled. At the same time, Dom Schaefer is writing for the individual who prays these psalms - as part of the office or, for many of us, perhaps in their use in the liturgy.

It's arranged by psalm, so you can just look up the one you're interested in. He also explains how the psalms relate to each other within the psalter arrangement. Don't be surprised if you squander the evening with the book.

Not too scholarly, just intelligent. If it seems pricey for an individual purchase, get someone to give it to you for your birthday.