“This is the God who makes his people sing in thanksgiving, contrition, petition, lament, and reflection. Taken together, these psalms indicate the kind of relationship that God wants his people to have with him. It is deeply authentic, not the kind of religion characterized by mumbo jumbo, merely formal religious duties, self-importance, and religious arrogance, all of it carefully masking a stinking hypocrisy. The intensity of the psalms conspires to underscore that God cannot be deceived by religious rituals. He wants his image-bearers to enjoy a real relationship with him, the true and living God.”  —D. A. Carson