Calvin views the Psalms as the canonical manual of piety. In the preface to his five-volume commentary on the Psalms—his largest exposition of any Bible book—Calvin writes: “There is no other book in which we are more perfectly taught the right manner of praising God, or in which we are more powerfully stirred up to the performance of this exercise of piety.” Calvin’s preoccupation with the Psalter was motivated by his belief that the Psalms teach and inspire genuine piety the following ways:...
