I am just starting to read Walter Brueggemann's The Message of the Psalms published by Augsberg and not to be confused with similar title published by IVP in the 'Bible Speaks Today' series (not that there is anything wrong with that series, it's just aimed at a different audience I guess).  Anyway he notes that both traditional devotional and contemporary critical readings have strengths and weaknesses and offers what he calls a 'post critical' approach drawing on both strands.

In the introduction when he has noted some of the limitations of a purely devotional reading he goes on to say...

'My criticism, uncompromised as it is, is never the less restrained, because the Psalms permit the faithful to enter at what ever level they are able - in ways primitive or sophisticated, limited or comprehensive, candid or guarded.  The faithful of all "sorts and conditions," with varying skills and sensitivities, here find "the bread of life" as abiding nourishment.  Any critical scholarship must respect that gift that is given and received in this literature, even if we do not understand the manifold ways in which that communication occurs.'

Page 16

I think Brueggemann here manages to express something with which I constantly wrestle both in personal devotional reading and in preaching, and not restrictied to the Psalms.  Sometimes I find the published devotional material really naff because it is either blatantly wrong or it has the naivety that Brueggemann also struggles with.  Yet often at almost the same time I am working out how to gently nudge the thinking of my congregation forward whilst still respecting their starting point.  I can no more unlearn what I have learned about critical scholarship than I can turn back the clock, nor would I wish to, yet the insights bring their own challenges.  I think it is too facile  to say that either naive Bible reading or critical theological thinking are means to growth, rather it is some kind of 'both/and' balance which needs to be constantly worked at.  Brueggeman seems to manage something quite special in appealing to people of assorted theological and academic hues and in these words I find encouragement to continue my own engagement with this 'debate.'