We live in a self-bound society. For all the diverse and attractive, buzzing and mysterious reality about us, few things interrupt our obsession with ourselves.

How can we counteract this preoccupation which not only fractures society but diminishes us individually? How can we begin to unself America?

The answer, writes Eugene Peterson, lies in prayer. Not prayer as many of us understand it. Not prayer as a private, selfish affair. But prayer in community, prayer that embraces all of life-work and marriage, politics and economics, war and government. earth and altar.

And where better to learn to pray than in the Psalms? The prayers recorded there show us how to shape society as well as how. to nurture our souls, Peterson takes us on a carefully guided tour of select psalms that help us to overcome self-centeredness, self assertiveness, self-righteousness, self sufficiency, self-pity, self-service, self-love.

Eugene H. Peterson is pastor of Christ Our King Presbyterian Church in Bel Air, Maryland, and adjunct professor at St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore. He is also the author of A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, Traveling Light and Run with the Horses.

"A profound and insightful reflection on the Psalms that throws light on the life of prayer." Donald G. Bloesch, author of The Struggle of Prayer