Thomas Johnson has come to a crossroads in his career as a minister. The congregation at his church in a small Ohio town is in a bit of an uproar over Reverend Johnson's rumored relationship with a female member of his flock. He doesn't believe that he has done anything wrong but when he receives a phone call that provides him with a pretext to get out of town for a while he takes advantage of that opportunity to get away from it all.
The phone call alerts him to a troubling matter relating to his father. His dad, Israel Jones, is a formerly famous recording artist now long past his prime. But his father refuses to retire and fade quietly into memory. He has stayed out on the road playing gigs wherever he can obtain a booking. And recently he has begun to attract a somewhat bizarre entourage of new fans, a group of young people who are engaging in acts of self-mutilation during his concerts.
Reverend Thom has been estranged from his father. Any reluctance he might have felt about reconnecting with him has to be set aside after he gets that phone call informing him that his dad's concerts were attracting these strange new followers. His desire to get away from his duties as a pastor also serve to make the prospect of seeing his dad again a bit more palatable.
"The Psalms of Israel Jones" is the story of how a father and son try to heal their troubled past relationship. In this novel Ed Davis poses this timeless question: how can we love someone enough to finally forgive them?
