lethargic_man | Psalms commentary

I previously posted this in

weirdjews3_14 but didn't get get much response, so am crossposting it too here.

Every Shabbos I go to shul and they read a portion from the Torah service—and (except when I'm leyning, being gabbai or standing sgan) I totally ignore what's being read, and read the English and commentary instead. For many years that meant the Hertz or Cohen Soncino chumashim, until I got really rather familiar with in particular the former of these. Then I encountered the Etz Chayim chumash, and read that when I could get hold of it for two or three years.

Last year as Simchas Torah came round, I took down the copy of The Living Torah I'd been given as a cheder prize, and never done more than dipped into; and have this last year been reading it, one sedra at a time, cover to cover.

This year it occurred to me I might do something radical, and (shock! horror!) read something other than the weekly Torah portion, as (a) there's plenty else I'm not so knowledgeable on, and (b) it would mean I could come back to the Torah fresh next year. I thought it might be an idea to read a commentary on the Book of Psalms,^* as we read so many of them in the service, and I scarcely know more about them than what's in the text itself. So I thought of the Soncino edition, as, if it's anything like the Cohen chumash, it'll be a trustworthy redaction of traditional Jewish commentaries (i.e. not suffering (or not anywhere near so blatantly) from the, ah, blinkeredness of the commentary in the Artscroll siddur).

But I thought I'd post my idea here before I bought the book blind, in case anyone has any recommendations of other Psalms commentaries.

* I also thought of reading the copy of The Book of Our Heritage I was given by my Barmitzvah teacher cover to cover, but I can do that in parallel.