Recap of "How to Read the Bible" Session 4

On Wednesday November 13, 2019 we met for our fourth and final session to study "How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth." At this meeting we quickly hit the highlights on tips to best understand and apply Psalms, Proverbs, Old Testament Narratives, and the Laws.

A written recap of the main points that we discussed is provided below.

What are the Psalms?

The book of Psalms contains 150 Hebrew musical poems, prayers, and/or hymns. They were editorially organized into 5 basic books by theme.

As hymns the Psalms were originally meant to be heard and evoke an emotional response.

We didn't have time to watch a Bible Project video on the book of Psalms but I'd highly recommend spending the time to check it out in order to better appreciate the design of the book.

What Types of Psalms are There?

The Psalms come in different types and styles. Here is a listing as given in How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth.

• Laments - Expressing individual or corporate struggles or sufferings, ultimately showing a deep trust in God (e.g., 3; 22; 31; 39; 42; 57; 71; 88; 120; 139; 142)
• Thanksgiving - These express joy in circumstances, typically from past mercies (e.g., 18; 30; 32; 34; 40; 66; 92; 116; 118; 138)
• Hymns of praise - These center on praise of who God is (e.g., 8; 19; 104; 148; 66; 100; 111; 114; 149; 33; 103; 113; 117; 145-147.)
• Salvation-history - These focus on a review of the history of God’s saving works among the people of Israel, especially his deliverance from the bondage in Egypt and his creation of them as a people (e.g., 78; 105; 106; 135; 136.)
• Celebration and affirmation
• Covenant renewal liturgies, (e.g., 50; 81)
• Psalms dealing with kingship or royalty, (e.g., 2; 18; 20; 21; 45; 72; 101; 110; 144.)
• Enthronement psalms celebrate a king, (e.g., 24; 29; 47; 93; 95-99.)
• Songs of Zion about Jerusalem, (e.g., 46; 48; 76; 84; 87; 122.)
• Wisdom - These praise the merits of wisdom. (e.g., 11; 16; 23; 27; 62; 63; 91; 121; 125; 131.)
• Songs of Trust - Focus on the idea that God can be trusted and that in times of despair His goodness out to be expressed. (e.g., 11; 16; 23; 27; 62; 63; 91; 121; 125; 131.)

Understanding the Psalms

Parallelism

Hebrew poetry, like Psalms, often uses Parallelism - where the 2nd line in a text is meant to reiterate the same thing as the 1st. Translators have helped us identify this by putting a semicolon between the two lines and then not capitalizing the first letter of first word in the second line. This helps us see that the two lines are one continuous thought.

A misunderstanding of parallelism would be to see the two lines as distinct statements. For instance Psalm 19:1,

The heavens declare the glory of God;
    the skies proclaim the work of his hands. 

The couplet isn’t saying that the “heavens” do one thing and that the “skies” do something else. The two lines of the couplet are parallel in that they are making the same point.

Metaphorical Language

As poetry Psalms have lots of metaphorical language. But it is just that, metaphorical. Not literal. So we should not understand Psalms to say that God is a literal shepherd, fortress, shield, rock, etc. Appreciate the force of the metaphors and move on, don't overanalyze metaphorical language.

Never Read A Bible Verse

The repeated motto for this study to "never read a Bible verse" applies to Psalms. Each psalm has its own integrity as a literary unit. Therefore we would better understand a Psalm to read it in full and not simply isolate a verse. 

My favorite example of this is Psalm 46:10 often quoted as simply "Be still and know that I am God" along with a serene landscape image. Isolate like this we (mistakenly) understand Ps 46:10 to be a call for us to quietly meditate. But if we look at more of the Psalm we can appreciate the richer meaning of this verse.

The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;
    he utters his voice, the earth melts.
The Lord of hosts is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah
Come, behold the works of the Lord,
    how he has brought desolations on the earth.
He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
    he breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
    he burns the chariots with fire.
“Be still, and know that I am God.
    I will be exalted among the nations,
    I will be exalted in the earth!”
The Lord of hosts is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress. (Ps 46:6-11)

The Psalmist is talking about the terrifying power and majesty of God who melts the earth with his voice, brings desolations on the earth, makes wars cease, breaks the bow, shatters the spear, and burns the chariots with fire. He will be exalted above all because He. Is. God. Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. This ought to stop us in our tracks, make our jaws drop, and be in awe of who God is. Be still, and know that I am God.

How Do We Apply the Psalms?

In some sense Psalms is a bit confusing when we think of application. How do words spoken to God or about God function as a word from God to us?

Answer: In the same way that they did for Israel in the first place - as opportunities to speak to God with the help of words he inspired others to use to speak to him in times of past.

Psalms can serve as a guide to worship, demonstrating the importance of meditation on God. They also help us to see how we should and can relate honestly to God. Psalms expresses struggles, anger, joy, and praise. We can use them to guide us in doing the same.

What are Proverbs?

Proverbs are a type of wisdom literature. Other wisdom literature in the Bible would be books like Ecclesiastes and Job. Wisdom literature is all about making godly choices in your life. To live a wise life in contrast to a life of "folly".

Proverbs is all about practical attitudes and behavior in everyday life. It is all about "old-fashioned basic values."

Proverbs is highly poetic with crafted Hebrew prose. So, like Psalms, you will find parallelism. You may see them as Synonymous - reiterating a point, e.g, “Say to wisdom, “You are my sister; and call insight your intimate friend” (Prov 7:4), Antithetical - emphasizing a point by explaining the contrast or opposite, e.g., “A wise son makes a glad father; but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother.” (Prob 10:1), or Synthetic - the second line adds to the first, e.g., “One who wanders from the way of good sense; will rest in the assembly of the dead.” (Prov 21:16).

Also, of quick note, Proverbs is, of course, Hebrew poetry. So in our English translations we'll miss language-specific details like acrostics and alliteration.

Misuse of Proverbs

Not keeping in mind context and style are the two main way Proverbs can be misused.

Context. Never read a Bible verse. For example, Proverbs 29:18 is often misused by missing the context; it is described in The Most Misused Bible Verses. The KJV says "Where there is no vision, the people perish". Church leaders will misuse this to justify the point that we need to cast a vision or a plan or else we will perish. But that's not what "vision" means in this context.

There are two problems that lead to that misuse. (1) It is not the full verse or couplet and (2) it is not a good translation. The full verse in the ESV says,

Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint;
  but blessed is he who keeps the law.”

The "vision" is more about the Mosaic Law. It is saying that when people forget the Law they live unrestrained, therefore the Law helps to restrain and bless us. The context isn't about casting a vision, a plan, or a mission statement.

Style. Over and over again in Proverbs we are told to be different than a "fool". But what is a "fool"?
Is it a person with a low IQ or mental deficiency? No, the literary style is poetically calling the person who lives his life without consideration to God a fool. This is the kind of person we are to be other than.

Rules to Make Proper Use of Proverbs

One basic rule is to know that Proverbs is meant to be memorable, practical, life advice.

Therefore, grasp the basic principle that is trying to be communicated and move on. Don't overanalyze Proverbs for precision, they are just meant to communicate basic life advice.

A proverb like "look before you leap" is gets a point across in a memorable way. But it is not very precise and exhaustive. We shouldn't press it for precision like asking 'Well where and how far do I look?', 'How big of a leap must I be taking before I look?', 'Exactly how early should I be looking before I leap?'. Proverbs is like this.

Also note that Proverbs are generalized principles, not legal guarantees. So, for example, Proverbs 16:3, “Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.” is not a guarantee that if you dedicate your plans to God that they won’t fail. Nor is Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it” is a promise that if you raise your child as a Christian that they will remain Christian their entire life.

What are Old Testament Narratives?

Over 40% of the OT is narrative. This would include Genesis, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel, Kings, etc. The fundamental concept to keep in mind regarding OT narratives is,

OT Narratives are purposeful stories retelling historical events of the past intended to give meaning and direction for a given people in the present (now our past).

This means that OT narratives are descriptive and not necessarily prescriptive. When we read about activities of OT characters we should not necessarily take that to be an example of what we should do. Otherwise we'll mistakenly think that we are OK to commit adultery like David or put God to the test like Gideon.

No, OT narratives are simply describing what did happen. The authors would have expected their Jewish audience to know the rightness or wrongness of actions in the stories. The stories weren't told to explicitly teach moral codes.

And so the way to best read and appreciate OT narratives is to see the narrative as a whole and God is the ultimately intended to be the hero of each story.
recognize that

Therefore we should be careful to not miss the broader story because we are overly focused on specific words, or are trying to make the story into an allegory about something else, or because we are trying to derive a moral principle from the story. It is most important to let the full narrative be heard before try to apply it.

Similarly we would do well to keep context in mind and be sure to (say it with me now!) never read a Bible verse so as to not derive an inappropriate conclusion from a verse. For example Exodus 14:14 sounds like a great verse to justify me letting go of a struggle to let God handle it.

 "The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent." (Ex 14:14)

But this verse is not a detailed command about what I should do in a particular circumstance, nor is it a Proverb about general life advice. It is for the Israelites as they were backed up against the Red Sea with the Egyptian army coming at them. So to apply this to my life as a justification to 'let go and let God' would be a mishandling of this verse given the fuller context.

What are the Laws?

The Laws are those 600+ specific commandments almost exclusively found in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. These are part of the old covenant. We are part of the new covenant.

Therefore, these laws are not God's command to us but they are still God's word for us.

We watched a short video of Greg Koukl's response to a question about how the OT laws apply to Christians. I'd highly recommend listening to his comments.

The authors give a set of 'Dos and Don'ts of Laws' that I think are worth listing. So here they are:

• Do see the OT law as God’s fully inspired word for you. // Don’t see the OT law as God’s direct command to you.
• Do see the OT law as the basis for the old covenant, and therefore for Israel’s history. // Don’t see the OT law as binding on Christians in the new covenant except where specifically renewed.
• Do see God’s justice, love, and high standards revealed in the OT law. // Don’t forget to see that God’s mercy is made equal to the severity of the standards.
• Do see the OT law as a paradigm - providing examples for the full range of expected behavior. // Don’t see the OT law as complete. It is not technically comprehensive.
• Do remember that the essence of the law is repeated in the Prophets and renewed in the NT. // Don’t expect the OT law to be cited frequently by the Prophets or the NT. Legal citation was first introduced only in the Roman era, long after the OT was complete.
• Do see the OT law as a generous gift to Israel, bringing much blessing when obeyed. // Don’t see the OT law as a grouping of arbitrary, annoying regulations limiting people’s freedom.

Stuff We Didn't Get To

We didn't have time to talk about the Prophets or Revelation. So here are my one-liner takeaways for each.

Prophets - They speak for God often as reminders of Mosaic covenant.

Revelation - This was meant as a written letter chock full of imagery and OT echoes.

Conclusion

We really only hit the high points in this study. So I would certainly recommend everyone to grab a copy of How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth to get a fuller treatment of everything we covered in these few weeks.

Thank you to everyone who helped me organize and design this study. And thanks for Mt. Zion UMC for letting me offer this study. I hope it sets a fire in our church to grow deep in our study of God's word to handle it with great care as we know more of God and grow closer to Him.

And a big thank you to everyone who came out to each meeting. I pray that this has been worthwhile. I thoroughly appreciate the participation and all the kind words of encouragement that were given.

Lastly, I'll be cleaning up my notes and then will make that available for folks to download and read through if they'd like. So stay tuned for that. Thanks!