September 5, 2025 | Daniel L. Segraves, Ph.D.

Since July 1, 2018, I’ve been working on the second volume of my commentary on the Book of Psalms. The first volume, titled The Messiah in the Psalms: Discovering Christ in Unexpected Places, was released in 2007. It covered Psalms 1-72, which comprise Books One and Two of the Psalter.

What took me so long to finish the second volume? Well, I put my work on Psalms on the back burner for a while to write another book titled The Holy Spirit: A Commentary, which in 314 pages explores nearly every reference to the Holy Spirit from Genesis 1:2 through Revelation 22:17. This book was published in 2020.

I contributed a chapter to Oneness Pentecostalism: Race, Gender, and Culture, a book published by The Pennsylvania State University Press in 2023. This book was edited by Lloyd D. Barba, Andrea Shan Johnson, and Daniel Ramirez. My chapter is titled “Andrew D. Urshan: An Eastern Voice in Early Oneness Pentecostalism.”

I also wrote a chapter titled “James and First Century Jewish Christology,” which is scheduled to be published in an early high Christology project together with research by other contributors. Jeffrey Brickle, Ph.D., is the editor of this pending volume.

I’m not immediately certain how many articles I have written since July 1, 2018, for the Pentecostal Herald and Pentecostal Life, along with lesson material for God’s Word for Life. In quite another dimension of ministry, I taught a professional development session for interested members of the general board of the United Pentecostal Church International at the request of Dr. Brent Coltharp, president of Urshan University and Urshan Graduate School of Theology.

There was also the course I taught to students of the French Bible Institute at the invitation of missionary John Nowacki. This required a flight to Paris together with my wife, Susan. An event that occurred during this trip inspired me to write the book The Holy Spirit. I have explained that in another post.

So I have probably provided a sufficient explanation of why volume two of The Messiah in the Psalms: Discovering Christ in Unexpected Places has taken so long to arrive. I would like to make some comments about the new book.

The second volume of my work on Psalms covers the section of the Psalms known as Books Three and Four. Book 3 comprises Psalms 73 through 89, and Book 4 comprises Psalms 90 through 106. There are at least eighteen references to these psalms by those who wrote the New Testament. Numbers of these references are understood by the New Testament to be specifically about the Messiah.

Significantly, the Aramaic word Memra (i.e., “Word”) appears fifty times in these psalms. In at least fifteen cases, the Targums use Memra as a surrogate for the Hebrew Yahweh, which is usually rendered LORD in English translations. This is given considerable examination in view of the use of Logos (i.e., Word) in John 1:1.

I am scheduled to be available for a book signing on Thursday night of the upcoming eightieth general conference of the UPCI in the Pentecostal Publishing House booth at 9:15 p.m.

I look forward to meeting many of you there!

By the way, I have already begun work on volume three, which will explore the messianic significance of Psalms 107 through 150.

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