<div>God wants friends, not minions. God wants honest conversation partners. We misunderstand the kind of friendship God wants with us if we think we should always be singing praises to him. How can we sing praises when we are in bondage to addiction? or mourning the loss of a parent? or devastated by the doctor’s report of terminal illness? We can’t. That’s why the psalms represents the full range of human emotion and faith. The Psalter was the essential prayer book of the early church and Athanasius one of the church’s most prominent pastors. Ben Wayman introduces contemporary Christians to this ancient, classic guide for praying the Psalms ? the earliest we possess. Readers are invited to pray along with Athanasius and make the words their own.</div>