Helping ordinary people learn to study the Bible
April 4 Devotional – Psalm 4April 4 Devotional – Psalm 4
Posted by Grace Fellowship Church of State College on Saturday, April 4, 2020
Or watch video here.
Psalm 4: Will God answer?
April 3 Devotional – Psalm 3April 3 Devotional – Psalm 3
Posted by Grace Fellowship Church of State College on Friday, April 3, 2020
Or watch video here.
Psalm 3: Is there salvation in God?
April 2 Devotional – Psalm 2April 2 Devotional – Psalm 2
Posted by Grace Fellowship Church of State College on Thursday, April 2, 2020
Or watch video here.
Psalm 2: Blessing on those who trust God’s King
After the governor of the commonwealth in which I reside issued a stay-at-home order for my county, I began a series of 10-minute daily devotionals in the Psalms for the people in my church. Each morning, those who are available log in to the web conference and hear me speak briefly about a psalm’s structure, train of thought, main point, connection to Christ, and application to the current situation. Then we pray together and go about our day.
I’ve greatly benefitted from this daily study of a psalm, so I’d like to share the fruit of it with you. Perhaps these videos will encourage you in whatever you’re facing through this unusual season. Maybe they’ll strengthen your faith in the Lord Jesus who wrote and spoke the Psalms. Maybe they’ll give you examples of how OIA Bible study methods can be quite straightforward and personal. I’ll begin posting them here daily, and we’ll see how far the Lord allows us to go into the book.
Last week, I wrote an overview of the Book of Psalms, which provides foundational information that I’ll frequently tap into as I explain each psalm. Now here is my devotional on Psalm 1.
April 1, 2020 Devotional – Psalm 1
April 1 Devotional – Psalm 1Posted by Grace Fellowship Church of State College on Wednesday, April 1, 2020
For reference:
Psalm 1—Blessing on those who delight in God’s law
Note: After the first few videos, my sound equipment and screen sharing software will improve.
Michael Kruger explains one of the most important reasons we can trust the Bible, a reason that often doesn’t come up in discussion about the Bible. That reason we can trust the Bible is simply because Jesus trusted the Bible.
Now, of course, Christians don’t overlook Jesus generally. He is central to about everything Christians think and do. But, strangely, he is not often the ultimate court of appeal when they are deciding what to think about the Bible. But, just a few moments of reflection suggest he should be.
Kruger explains briefly why it is not a fallacy to argue from the Bible that Jesus trusted the Bible, and he goes on to draw implications for the value of the Old Testament.
Perhaps you’ve heard that no one can do anything apart from Jesus. You may have been told this saying refers to our complete reliance upon God. Or, you may have read this phrase during leadership or evangelism training, urging your frequent communication with Jesus.
Context matters. When we learn to read the Bible in context—not just as a collection of memorable phrases—we’ll find that some familiar verses take on richer and deeper meanings.
The phrase “apart from me you can do nothing” is just a portion of John 15:5. This is part of a long conversation Jesus has with his disciples on the evening of the Last Supper, after Judas departs (John 13:30). Jesus tells them he is the vine and his father is the vinedresser (John 15:1); God takes away branches that do not bear fruit, and he prunes every fruit-bearing branch (John 15:2).
Because of their parallel nature, we need to read John 15:4 and John 15:5 together.
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:4–5)
In the immediate context, “you can do nothing” is related to “bear[ing] fruit” and “apart from me” stands opposite to “abide in me and I in him.” We cannot know Jesus’s full meaning in John 15:5 without understanding “abiding” and “bearing fruit.”
In one way, the metaphor of the vine and branches makes clear the meaning of “abide.” Branches draw nourishment and life from the vine; without that connection, they die.
Abiding in Jesus is not an extra level of discipleship—it is essential! He is life itself; anyone who does not abide in Jesus is thrown away like a branch from the vine and burned (John 15:6).
Abiding in Jesus is also connected to both Jesus’s words and his love. If anyone abides in Jesus, his words abide in them, and their prayers will be answered (John 15:7). Jesus tells the disciples not just to abide in him but to abide in his love (John 15:9). He then explains what this means—if the disciples keep Jesus’s commandments, they will abide in his love (John 15:10). Jesus teaches this not as a burdensome duty but so their joy will be full (John 15:11).
We should also notice the similarity between the words “abide” and “abode,” or dwelling. Unfortunately, some translations obscure this link. Jesus is going to prepare a place for his disciples in his father’s house (dwelling); he wants them to be where he is (John 14:2–3). He speaks of his connection with the father as “the father abiding in me” (John 14:10, NASB). Throughout this discourse, Jesus’s relationship with his disciples shares many features of his relationship with his father.
Any disciple that wants to bear fruit must abide in Jesus and Jesus must abide in them (John 15:5). This mutual abiding, along with the other context summarized above, points to a unity, knowledge, obedience, and love that is life-sustaining and supernatural.
As with abiding, bearing fruit goes hand-in-hand with following Jesus. Jesus says that bearing fruit is the way a person proves to be a disciple (John 15:8). In the metaphor of the vine and branches, bearing fruit is what normal, healthy branches do.
If anyone loves Jesus, they will keep his commandments (John 14:15), and thus we see a connection between bearing fruit and keeping Jesus’s commands. Jesus knows that we need help in this calling, which is why he promises to send “another helper”—the Holy Spirit (John 14:16). The Spirit abides with the disciples and will be in them (John 14:17, NASB).
We see this essential link between love, obedience, and the presence of God in John 14:23.
Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.” (John 14:23, NASB)
So bearing fruit is a Spirit-powered yet normal part of being a disciple of Jesus. And it happens as we abide in, love, and obey Jesus.
Apart from Jesus we can do nothing. When we read this verse in context we see that Jesus is not primarily warning against self-reliance nor dismissing the contributions of non-Christians. Yes, he is drawing a sharp line between those who follow him and those who do not. But this is a call to life.
Those connected to the vine are animated by the life-giving Spirit, and they are fruit-bearing by nature. Apart from the vine, there is no nutrition, no life, no fruit.
Context matters.
For more examples of why context matters, click here.
While most book overviews are written with a view toward observation (summarizing or outlining what is said), I would like to present a series of overviews with a view toward interpretation (summarizing or outlining why it is said). I will walk through not simply the contents but the argument of each book. I will not cover every book, but only those I have spent enough time in to believe I have something to say.
This post brings us to the book of Psalms.
The Book of Psalms has a straightforward and obvious structure, which, until only the last few years, I had trained myself to completely ignore. But I have come to see how fundamental this structure is to the message of the book.
Many editions of the Bible identify the structure with the headings “Book One,” “Book Two,” and so forth, up to “Book Five.” These divisions are of ancient origin and ought to be taken seriously as we study the book.
Some Jewish rabbis believed this five-book division was meant to be parallel to the five books of Moses. In this way, they held up the Psalms as being nearly as important as the law of Moses. They saw this collection of poems painting a picture of the lives and community of the people in covenant with Yahweh.
This five-book structure is reinforced within the book itself by means of doxologies at the end of each book. These statements of praise burst out and punctuate the end of the book. Sometimes, they don’t even fit directly with the poems they follow. Just look at the last verses of the last psalms in each book.
Book 1 (Ps 41:13):
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting!
Amen and Amen.
Book 2 (Ps 72:18-19):
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
who alone does wondrous things.
Blessed be his glorious name forever;
may the whole earth be filled with his glory!
Amen and Amen!
Book 3 (Ps 89:52):
Blessed be the Lord forever!
Amen and Amen.
Book 4 (Ps 106:48):
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting!
And let all the people say, “Amen!”
Praise the Lord!
Book 5 draws out its ending beyond a brief doxology. Did you notice how the doxologies quoted above all focus on blessing Yahweh, the God of Israel? Psalm 145 appears to conclude the body of Book 5 by picking up on that idea of blessing the name of Yahweh as the theme of the entire poem. Notice how it begins (Ps 145:1-3) and ends (Ps 145:21) with this idea.
That poem therefore transitions into the five-poem conclusion (Psalms 146-150), where each of the psalms begin and end with a command to praise Yahweh: “Hallelujah!”—translated as “Praise the LORD!” (Ps 146:1, 10; 147:1, 20, etc.).
The Book of Psalms is the Old Testament book most quoted in the New Testament. Psalms are directly quoted (with a formula such as “it is written”) 68 times.
Of those 68 citations, only 14 occurrences refer to the life experiences of God’s people, putting the words of the songs and prayers of the Psalms on the lips of the people themselves. And of those 14 citations, 6 are found in Romans 3:10-18, where Paul stitches together a selection of quotations involving sinful body parts into a composite picture of sinful humanity under the judgment of God’s law. So at most, we could say that there are only 8 times when the New Testament quotes the Psalms the way we usually quote the Psalms: as songs or prayers of the people of God.
So, besides those 8 times when people are singing or praying the psalms directly, and the 6 times when they describe the sinful estate of humanity, we’re left with 54 times when the Psalms are quoted and directly applied to the person or work of Jesus Christ, acting as a representative of his Father in heaven.
Sometimes, the words of the Psalms are put right on the lips of Jesus Christ. An obvious example is found when Jesus hung on the cross and cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Ps 22:1). But there are numerous less-memorable examples as well (Heb 2:11-12 quoting Ps 22:22, Rom 15:8-9 quoting Ps 18:49).
Jesus himself puts a psalm in his own mouth when he describes what he will say on the day of judgment to those who think they had done mighty works in his name: “Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness” (Matt 7:23 alluding to Ps 6:8).
So as we read the Psalms, we must first of all see the Lord Jesus in every poem. Some of the poems are about him. Others pave the way for him. And many of these poems anticipate his own experiences. When we read “I” and “me” in the Psalms, we ought not to think first of ourselves as the “I.” More often than not, we ought to think of the Lord Jesus as the “I.” Yes, we can sing and pray these poems. But above all, the New Testament tells us that Jesus sings and prays these poems as he goes about the work his Father has appointed for him to do.
In writing this, I’m not setting up a dichotomy, as though we can’t or shouldn’t sing or pray the Psalms ourselves. Of course we should! I’m only saying that the reason we sing and pray the Psalms is not because they resonate with our experience. We sing and pray the Psalms because they resonate with Jesus’ experience. And we have been so closely united to Christ through faith, and by the power of God’s Holy Spirit, that we can’t help but share his experience. We suffer with him so we may be glorified with him (Rom 8:17). God has called us to be conformed to the image of his Son (Rom 8:29).
So we sing and pray the Psalms because our Lord Jesus sings and prays the Psalms. We who believe are in him.
Psalms 1 and 2 serve as an introduction to the book, pronouncing a blessing on all who delight in God’s word (Ps 1:1-2) and take refuge in God’s king (Ps 2:12). These twin themes—God’s word and God’s king—are the guiding principles of the rest of the poems in this book.
Book 1 takes place during the reign of David (almost every poem here is attributed to him). This collection shows the king facing tremendous opposition. This collection has proportionally more laments and requests for help than later books. And at the book’s center, we find twin reflections on—you guessed it—God’s word (Ps 19) and God’s king (Ps 20).
Book 2 begins to move past David, as the first set of poems are written by other poets (Psalms 42-50). These poems get us looking beyond David for a king who will unite all nations in worship of Yahweh. The collection concludes with a poem attributed to Solomon (Psalm 72), describing the earth-wide reign of a king to come who is greater than David.
Books 3 and 4 take place during the exile in Babylon. Many of these poems lament the desolation of the promised land and the sanctuary. In this collection, the people wrestle with the fact that their king is absent and appears to have been defeated. Book 3 ends with a direct appeal to God: Have you forgotten your promises to David (Psalm 89)?
Book 4 shows a renewed servant-king who leads the people to remember God’s perfect law, even while they’re still scattered abroad. This collection ends with lessons from Israel’s history (Psalm 106) and a desire to see God one day restore his people in their land (Ps 106:4-5).
Book 5 ends on a triumphant note. The once-rejected king has now risen up in victory to celebrate Yahweh’s enduring covenant love back in the land of promise (Ps 118, 136). This book was likely compiled after the people had returned from Babylon and had rejuvenated their festivals and sacrifices. As I mentioned earlier, this collection concludes the entire Book with commands to praise the Lord (“Hallelujah!”). The book’s last word is: “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!” (Ps 150:6).
So the Book of Psalms is really the memoirs (written in advance) of God’s Messiah, the Chosen King of the Jews. His memoirs tell the story of the entire people of Israel. He lives out their story in his own life. And from where we stand, looking back, we no longer live, but Christ lives in us. We live our lives united to his. This is why the apostles looked so often to the Psalms when they wanted to explain the work of Jesus Christ. And this is why the Psalms are rightfully beloved by each generation of believers in Christ down to the present time.
For expansion on the ideas in this post, I recommend Psalms 1-41: Rejoice the Lord is King by James Johnston, the overview article on Psalms by James Hely Hutchinson in the NIV Proclamation Bible, and the Bible Project video on the Psalms. I am indebted to all three works in the shaping of my thinking for this post.
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Daniel Rowlands has a helpful piece about how to maintain both the human and divine aspects of Scripture. When we aim to read Scripture “in context,” we must keep in mind both the immediate literary/historical context of the human author and the canonical context of the divine author.
In each place there is the immediate context, but there is a broader context—the context of the entire revelation of God contained in the Bible. There are different human authors (i.e. Moses, Hosea, and Matthew), yet there is one divine author—God himself. There is an immediate context, and there is an overall biblical context—the overarching story of God’s mighty acts of redemption in Christ Jesus.
We do not have to choose between these matters in our study of Scripture. We ought to maintain both.
We just completed our 2020 Bible reading challenge. Congratulations to all who participated, even if you didn’t make it all the way through, I trust this season of voluminous Bible reading was beneficial to you.
Congratulations to our grand prize winner, Barbara J., and our second prize winner, Kevin C. And congratulations to all 38 who completed the challenge and submitted entries to the drawing. Here are some of the things people had to say about the experience:
It wasn’t as difficult as I thought it might be.
When doing a year-long read-through, I was only reading a few chapters a day and tended to forget what I read the previous day. Reading big chunks like this made it much easier to see themes, repeated terms, and to connect books to books. I found more of an emotional connection as well, which surprised me. Lamentations moved me more because I had so recently read of Jeremiah’s ministry. Reading Isaiah and the other Old Testament prophets this way was a powerful experience.
This is my third year in this reading challenge. I can’t wait until next year’s challenge. [Perhaps the fourth year will be the year of the prize for you! – PJK] I have commented in the past years that I find reading the narratives rather easy but got lost in Isaiah’s poetry. This year was different. Isaiah actually started flowing much easier for me. I also noticed that reading the Gospels (all four in nine days!) I started noticing the differences more readily. I already knew that each Gospel author shapes similar scenes for their own purpose but this year I noticed that Matthew in recording the scene with the Sadducees about the resurrection didn’t record Jesus reminding them of Moses standing at the burning bush like Mark and Luke. I think that reading the whole Bible in 90 days allows me to see the depth of its riches in ways that small bites do not.
I cried big ugly tears the day I finished, God has changed me into a Bible reader and I never thought I could be.
I didn’t think I would be able to do it … I have to admit that because this is BY FAR the quickest I have read through the Bible, I did not retain as much, but I plan on doing a 90-day plan at least once a year moving forward. It also gives me confidence that I can read the Bible aloud to my family and it not take a lifetime!
Loved it, as always. It’s a great habit on multiple levels (set the tone for the year, jump start general reading for the year, reminds of the framework of the Bible for sermon prep and general study, etc.) I will probably do this at the beginning of each year forever.
This has consistently been one of the most useful things for my faith at the beginning of each year.
It was great to see the witness of Scripture to God’s long suffering character and desire for obedience. I have been wrestling with my understanding of Spiritual gifts, and to read all the epistles quickly gave me a great sense of the emphasis of God’s will on obedience and love.
Now, of course, not everyone is bursting at the seams with enthusiasm. This is not for everyone. I appreciate the honesty I received from those who gave it a try but decided it wasn’t for them:
It was a bit too much reading at one time and I would have to constantly refocus because my mind would start to wander. But not being in any one book for very long kept things interesting.
I didn’t like it mainly because I like to stop and meditate on what I just read/listened to from scripture.
May this season of front-loaded saturation in God’s Word set a good tone for the rest of your year. Lord willing, we’ll be back to do it again in 2021.
If you have read the entire Bible within a 90-day period since November 2019, today is your last chance to enter the drawing for a new reader’s Bible. Winners will be selected tomorrow.
Thanks to the 24 who have entered so far!
