Many Christians fear their emotions. They worry their emotions will control them and make them do or say something they will regret. In his excellent and highly readable book The Emotions of God, David Lamb reminds us that emotions can be ‘normal, natural, even divine.’ After all, he shows us, God has a rich emotional life himself. Those who read this book will grow not only in their understanding of God but also of themselves.

‘Well obviously God doesn’t have feelings. That would make him unpredictable and irrational. The Bible’s just making allowance for our way of seeing things when it describes him that way.’ Once again David Lamb shows how wrong we can be about the Bible (and God) and how much more interesting the Bible is than we thought (and how much more interesting God is).

We need this book because so many today are afraid or uncomfortable with God’s emotions that stand up and shout at us. All over the place. Theologians have concocted an unemotional (impassible) God, but that God is not the God of the Bible. David Lamb has patiently examined seven emotions of God, and he has done so in the context of ancient and modern discussions of feelings. What we discover is that our discomfort is not God’s: our God is an emotional God, and those divine emotions can become our instructors for our feelings. A must-read.

The Emotions of God is a deep dive into our Creator’s heart and makes the case that emotions are both human and divine. It echoes the call to image our Creator by owning our own emotions and stewarding them in ways that reflect his heart for the world. Definitely the kind of wisdom we all need in these emotionally turbulent times.

Old Testament professor David Lamb discusses the intriguing topic of God’s emotions as described in Scripture: God’s hatred, wrath, jealousy, sorrow, joy, compassion, and love. This very readable book includes personal anecdotes, theological reflection, and exegetical insight based on the original language used in Scripture to refer to God’s emotions. The application of God’s emotions to the people of God exemplifies the pastoral side of biblical studies, and this from someone who does it so well.

As we read in the Scriptures, God has emotions such as anger, hatred, and jealousy, and it is difficult to understand these coming from a loving God. In The Emotions of God, we get great insight from David Lamb, who is not just a super smart scholar but one who truly understands everyday life with average people. So this is a really accessible and practical guide to the very big questions about God’s emotions. We are created in God’s image, and this affects how we gain understanding of ourselves as emotional human beings.

I finished this book with tears in my eyes, since David Lamb’s closing words echo the love of my own heart for the Scriptures that show us the love of God’s heart—and all the other emotions there. Indeed, if knowing God better is the goal of attentive Bible study, then this book achieved that goal for this reader. And if a sense of humor counts as an emotion, then Lamb’s cheerful sprinkling of his own surely reflects something of God’s own playfulness, while helping us to take seriously, for the good of our souls, the range and depth of divine emotion so richly expressed in God’s Word.

I laughed, cried, and worshiped my way through The Emotions of God. With a deft sense of humor and touching personal stories, David Lamb invites us to engage deeply with the biblical portrait of God as an emotional being. For those who struggle with the idea that God could experience hatred, wrath, and jealousy, this book will reveal how even those more negative emotions express the depth of God’s love. And it will draw readers to worship God holistically—with mind, heart, and soul—embracing the emotions that God has given us as people created in his image.