Reviews

Marjorie Gray’s compressed, muscular language consistently startles into insight. Intriguingly fresh, yet biblical, names for God and thoughtfully modernized images challenge the reader to enter these ancient poems as living, ever renewing texts. Gray’s achievement here is remarkable and rare on both a literary and devotional level. So psalm lovers will surely want Mulled Psalms on their shelves as a resource for study, prayer, and worship. But this is also a winsome volume for readers who have not yet fallen into the psalms, who have wondered what all the fuss is about.

—Debra Rienstra, author of So Much More

'"Mull' means ponder, reflect, contemplate. Here's a life-giving invitation to the Bible's 'prayer book'--to meditate on all the stuff of life's experiences: your lures and longings, your angst and anger, your hopes and hungers. Marjorie Gray has not done all the mulling for you, but draws you to your own pondering and psalming. Such honest-to-God praying will surely make a difference in your relationships."

- Kent Ira Groff, author of Honest to God Prayer

"Marjorie Gray's To the Nth Degree: Genesis through Revelation is a creatively crafted, full-scripture, poetic journey offering fresh insights into the holiest of all books. You'll come away from its pages with a renewed perspective of God's Word."

- Neil Carmichael, author of His Peace for Your Life.

Gray has constructed a poetic work focused on each of the books of the Holy Bible. Her collection begins with an introductory “Ode to Scripture,” concentrating on and celebrating an overall view of the Bible’s message and purpose—“All Scripture is God-breathed”—followed by a tribute to Genesis, in which nothing became something, and God is named as the Originator, Supervisor, Provider, and Judge of His creation.

Moving through the Old Testament, Gray extols the strengths of Moses, the leadership of Joshua, and the noble character of Ruth. For the book of Proverbs, she pays homage to “Lady Wisdom,” retells the story of Jonah and the whale as lively drama, and extracts sage advice and prophecy from such lesser known authors as Zephaniah, Haggai, and Malachi.

Moving to the New Testament, Gray shares advice from those who offered accounts of the life of Jesus, illustrating how his words were heard and his deeds reported throughout the earthly station where he chose to appear. Her volume concludes in Revelation, reminding readers of God’s “unending beginning,” the gift that Jesus came to renew and sustain.

Gray, who has composed other works in the same vein as this offering, is a self-described homemaker, poem-maker and peacemaker. Her writing reveals her as a talented wordsmith, and a faithful, serious student and follower of the essential messages contained in the Holy Bible. She clearly identifies with some of its personages whose contributions and life journeys comprise it, sweetly declaring, for example, that “Still a girl at heart, I get starry-eyed over Esther.” Gray’s creations are designed to be read and discussed among spiritually minded people like herself, who will derive from them a sense of the ways ancient spiritual lore can affect and bless humankind in these new and different days.

- Barbara Bamberger Scott, US Review of Books