Bible Study 2017 - LPNI

June, 2017

OPENING:  There are words that stay with us.  The first, simple words that started your relationship—the last words your father said as you drove away—the words of a song that come to you as soon as the music begins.  You’ve repeated and relived those words countless times and they will never grow old.  You would be glad to tell someone the story that makes those words so important.

While all of the Bible contains words to be remembered, perhaps the Psalms are the easiest for us to retain. They are usually brief and even one verse can stand by itself. They are part of the most important days of our lives. You remember your grandmother’s funeral service whenever you hear Psalm 23. And they tell us the words we hope to hear from God but which we could never invent on our own.

Our three part study will take on three aspects of the Psalms as those words we can’t forget.  We will look at the way the Psalms speak in a distinctive way of reinforcing the message.  Then we’ll ask for God to give us exactly the words we want to say to him and the words we want to hear from him. Finally, we will turn to Psalm 23 and ask, “What more do you want?”

Let’s start with words that we repeat.What words do you have to repeat, either to yourself or to others, over and over again?  Does it work well to say the same exact words over and over, or do you try to change them a bit each time?

STUDY:  READ PSALM 1 AND PSALM 27
One of the hallmarks of Hebrew poetry such as the Psalms is the love of repetition and contrast.  Say the same thing twice or three times, but make it a bit different each time. Say something and then say it again by giving its extreme opposite.  This love of repetition and contrast is found throughout the Psalms but we will see it in Psalms 1 and 27 as examples.

First, there is repetition. Look at Psalm 1:1, surely an important verse as it begins the 150 Psalms to follow. It states simply that the man who has nothing to do with sinners is blessed. We could simply say that. But the Psalmist says it with beautiful repetition.  “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers.”  We see three different, related words to describe the evil ones:  wicked, sinners, scoffers.  But most interesting are the three verbs used.  Discuss it this way:

When your mother told you to have nothing to do with the wrong people, what would have made her most upset:  seeing you walking with the wrong people, standing in one place with them, or sitting down, perhaps at a meal, with them?

My guess is that seeing you walk with, or even through a group of, the wrong people would be upsetting to Mom. But watching you stop and linger with them, that’s even worse. And if she saw you sitting down with the very ones she warned you about, sharing lunch, that would be too much for Mom.  So we have a similar progression here.

Now look at the rest of Psalm 1 for other repetitions in vv. 2, 3, and 5.  How do they succeed in saying the same thing but with a forward step each time?

Turning to Psalm 27, we see even more repetition within single verses and with pairs of verses.  Look for the direct repetition in single verses such as vv. 3, 4, 5, and 6.  How do these verses individually speak of a distinct point but amplify it with the second line?  For example, in v. 4, we find out the one thing that is sought but we then are given the actions that go with it. We want to live in the Lord’s house—location—and we want to gaze on his beauty and inquire of him—our actions that go with the location.

How is the ending of Psalm 27: 14 an especially significant place for repetition with the theme of waiting?  What is it about waiting that requires that we be told twice or more to wait?

Now let’s see contrast.  With contrast, the Psalms reinforce the point that was just made, just as repetition does. But contrast does the reinforcing by showing a consequence for an action or the failure to act.  For example, your parents told you over and over what to do—repetition—and then in the next sentence, they also told you what would happen if you failed to follow these directions—Do this…, or else….  As you remember these directions, which was more effective:  the repeating of instruction or the warning of the consequence of failure?

Psalm 27:1 is a great combination of both repetition and contrast.  Read this verse and see how the Psalmist puts himself in between the two extremes, God and his enemies. How do we have both repetition and contrast in this one verse?  See how we have a similar pattern in v. 3.

How is this contrast between our trust and our enemies something different and much more reassuring than a simple:  “Do this….or else….?”

Contrasts come not only within single verses but also between two or more verses. Return to Psalm 1 and the contrast of the righteous and the wicked.  Notice that the righteous person is like a tree, v. 3, with a perfect place next to the stream and so it bears fruit in season without fail.  We expect that the wicked will be the contrast.

If the righteous are like a fruitful tree rooted by the stream, what would you expect would describe the wicked?

I suspect we would next see a dead tree, or at least a tree with no fruit.  That is the simple opposite of fruitful trees. But if we imagine the wicked to be only a fruitless tree, perhaps we would give them more time, invest hope in the future fruit, and work around it.
But what is the image of v. 4?  Chaff is the outer husk of the grain which is removed by threshing. Even rubbing grain with your hand will remove that outer husk.  In modern farming, chaff is removed in the combine as it marches through the grain field. Chaff is then blown out the back of the combine along with the large parts of the grain stalk. The chaff is carried off by the wind, utterly useless.  The farmer might gather up in some way the remaining straw or stalk, but the chaff is too light to stay in a row and too useless to care about.

How is this a most striking contrast then between the fruitful, well-rooted tree of the righteous and the wind-blown useless chaff of the wicked?

APPLY:  God speaks to us with repetition and contrast.  Read many of the Psalms in the upcoming days and notice these two qualities at work.  Ask yourself three questions as you read.

When the Psalmist repeats himself, what is telling me that is so important that it needs repeating?

What is new in the second line, the repetition that I would not have seen before?

When the Psalmist creates a contrast, what does the second, opposite line show that I would not have seen otherwise?

Blessings to you as you read the Psalms and hear the repeated words of God and his willingness to make his message clear in these two ways.

UNIT TWO:  GIVE ME THE RIGHT WORDS

OPENING:  It would be so helpful if someone gave you the words to say, wouldn’t it?  You have to make the right impression on someone—a job interview, for example.  Wouldn’t it be great if there were a script that guaranteed success?  You would have to mean the words, of course, but that’s not the issue. You mean well already. You just don’t know what to say.

Let’s start with those times when you need the right words:  When would it be helpful to have exactly the right words to say?

Do you more often need the right words when things are going well or going badly?  Do you need words to help you say, “I love you.” or to say, “I’m sorry?”

In the Psalms, we have the right words to say.  And, we have the right words to hear, the words we need but could never invent.  God says both of these for us and hands us the whole of the Psalms for us to use.  In this part of our study, we’ll see how Psalms 51 and 103 provide us the very words for our needed conversation with God.

STUDY:  READ PSALM 51 AND PSALM 103
Did you choose the “I’m sorry” option in the discussion above?  If so, I bet you’re not alone.  We would like someone to give us the words to apologize.  Notice how many Valentine’s Day cards are apologies, especially for husbands to say to their wives.  “I know I don’t say it as often as I should, and I forget all that you do, but …..”

Valentine’s Day cards are one thing but confessing our sins to God is another level.  How are we going to sum up all that we have done?  What words could we say that won’t simply anger God all the more?  Here is where we need someone to tell us the words to say.

David is the perfect person to do this for us.  Here is a man after God’s own heart and yet a man who is completely undone by his adultery and murder through the affair with Bathsheba.  How could he fall so far?  His words certainly take in also any fall that we have experienced.

How does Psalm 51:3-5 make it clear that David is confessing more than a mistake, more than just a bad day?

Why is there no mention of Bathsheba or Uriah in these words of confession?

These are words for us each to say, words that put no blame on anyone else. There is no hint of explanation or excuse.  But now, as we noted in our first study, the Hebrew love of contrast comes next as David goes from confession to the hope of a new life.

Read Psalm 51:7-12.  First, what wonderful examples of repetition do you see?  Why might these words of forgiveness and hope be a natural time for repetition?

Since David confessed a life-long sinfulness that reached to the core of his being, vv. 3-5, how is there a matching and even greater hope in vv. 7-12?

These wonderful words of hope are our words to God and we’re thankful to have them.  But if a card is merely sent and read, that’s not enough.  We need words of forgiveness.  So we have them with Psalm 103.  Here we have the words of God’s own promise of forgiveness

Read Psalm 103 and note especially the promises of forgiveness. If David’s sin lies deeply within his being, beginning with his very moment of conception, Psalm 53, then how is there a matching expansiveness to God’s forgiveness? See the images of age and youth in vv. 3-5.
Notice the physical dimensions to forgiveness in vv. 11-12.  If our sin lies deeply within us, why is forgiveness shown to have this separation of east/west and heaven to earth?

But our worry might involve also time and especially the frightening future.  How does v. 10 take care of our worries about the future being darkened by our sins?

In the end, we need a timeless image of forgiveness, one closer than the distant heavens and a place beyond our horizons.  Why might v. 13 be the best reassurance of forgiveness?

APPLY:  What a relief it would be to have exactly the words to say, either in a relationship, a job interview, or in our prayers.  Turn to the Psalms for those words that express your confession and then be reassured by God’s own promises of forgiveness.

Look to Psalm 51 to fill in the ending of these sentences: Lord, I am so far from right. It’s not just mistakes and it’s not someone else’s fault. I did all this and it’s been going on for so long….

Then move on to the cry for forgiveness, again using the words of Psalm 51 to finish this thought:  But Lord, I can’t stay like this.  Can’t we start over?  Can’t I be different than I am now, more than I’ve been?  Lord, here is what I need and want……

Finally, hear the promises of God with his own words in Psalm 103.  Finish this sentence with the words of forgiveness from Psalm 103:  Lord, with you, there’s forgiveness so complete I can hardly imagine it. But you promise that when you forgive, you….

UNIT THREE:  WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT?

OPENING:  How does someone say, “What more do you want?”  Think of the waiter at the restaurant.  How does he ask, “What more do you want?” How does your grandmother ask it?  She has made everything imaginable already, but is willing to bring out one more dessert if needed.  If you want something more, she probably has it ready.

Is this a question that is said briskly? Is it said with an implied answer of, “Nothing, nothing at all. It’s all perfect.”  In that case, you don’t really want to hear the question at all.

In our study today of Psalm 23, this will be our theme.  God asks us, “What more do you want?”  He gives us a foundation as the Good Shepherd and we might imagine that is all.  Who could ask for more?  But he has far more in mind and this small Psalm captures the four stages of his care. We might bring each stage on by our simple question, “What more do you want?”

STUDY:  READ PSALM 23

In Psalm 23, we begin with the expected essentials of life. A shepherd is caring for his flock and providing the green pasture and still water that we might consider our daily bread.  What a great picture of God that he wishes to be known as the One who provides for his people. We might see this also in the Gospels where all four Gospels record the miracle of the feeding of the 5000.  This is the only miracle recorded in all the Gospels and it is likely repeated to emphasize the care of God and his love of providing for us.


Who do you know lives to feed others and care for their physical needs?

Why is this care so meaningful for them—a joy and not a burden?

How is this like the care God has for us in Psalm 23:1-2?

When have you especially yearned for green pastures and still waters in life?


What more could we want?  We have daily bread and the other necessities of life, delivered in the relationship with a good Shepherd. But imagine him asking us, “What more do you want?” He means it—what more do you need?  Well, there is one other thing.

We need our souls restored.  Read verse 3 again.  After we are feed and housed, physically provided for, there are still our souls.  They are aching and sore, cast down with regret and fearful of the future.  If you ask us, Lord, we would say, “Could you heal my soul, renew my heart?”

Of course, his answer is “Yes.”  Notice that it is both restoration and guidance and that he does this not for our sake alone.

How is the forgiveness that we see in Psalm 51 and Psalm 103 a good foundation for this restoration of our souls?

When we are forgiven and know that he doesn’t treat us according to our sins, Psalm 103, how are we then ready to follow in new paths of righteousness?

It’s a lot to ask—the restoration of our souls. But how is it possible to be restored, given that God does this for the sake of his namesake, for the sake of his Son?

That covers our bodies and souls.  What more do you want?  We can’t ask this but God does. What more is there for which we can ask?  Life is taken care of, but then there is death. Lord, you’ve fed us and restored us. But we can see the chasm of death.  What can you do with that?

Verses 4 and 5 are his answer.  God cannot simply feed us and even heal our hearts, only to lose us to death. What a short, sad shepherding that would be.  So he gives us hope with these two verses. We notice that death is rightly understood as the shadow and valley that it is. We see it as a dark end, a final cliff.  But the Psalm says that it is more shadow than substance, and a valley which is the middle ground between two high places.

How is it possible to see death as a shadow—frightening but not in itself a wall or a cliff but only the dark unknown between life and life eternal?

We stand here on one side of the valley, high upon this life.  Death is the valley we face, but since it is a valley, what is then on the other side of death, equal or even greater than this life?

We are glad to have these perspectives on death, a shadowy valley.  But it gets better with v. 5. God doesn’t merely send us off into the shadow with a reassuring word, “You’ll be fine.”  He says, “I’m going with you.”  What a gift that we could never ask for!

How is it unthinkable that God would ever enter into death and truly experience it?

And yet, how is Good Friday the wonderful proof that God has walked with us already, not as untouched observer, but knowing the full experience of death?

So what more do you want?  We already have all the care we need, our souls restored, and the promise of his walking with us through death’s shadow to the other side of the valley and the life that is waiting there.  And yet, God would ask us, one more time, “What more do you want?”

We are naturally curious about what the far side of the valley will be like. It’s not so much a request as just wondering.  So we could ask, “When we get past the valley of the shadow, what’s it like on that far, high hill?”  And God says, “Let me tell you.”

We end with v. 6 and the promise of goodness, mercy, and dwelling with God. After all the abundance possible in heaven, why are these qualities the key more than unimaginable quantities of heavenly goods?

APPLY:  So what more do you want?  After this fourth step, if God were to ask us, “What more do you want?” I trust we would immediately say, “Nothing!  We’re good.  Thank you!”

We likely focus most often on the green pastures and still waters.  What benefits come from remembering that most of the Psalm is about more than our food and physical needs?

Blessings to you as you are one of the lambs the Shepherd cares for.  Blessings on you as you dare to remember his promises and hear him ask, “What more do you want?”