Focus Scripture:

“But blessed are those who trust in the LORD and have made the LORD their hope and confidence.” —Jeremiah 17:7

What themes did you discover in yesterday’s passage of Psalm 119?

Now search for the meaning of the words “Aleph” and “Gimel” online. What did you discover?

What do you find if you look up every heading for Psalm 119?

Today we will use that information to learn about the Bible as literature and how this helps us learn its context to understand the message better. Although it was originally oral, the Holy Spirit guided people to write down the stories and teaching for other generations to study.
Watch this simple video explaining how the “canon” (meaning standard) came about: How the Biblical Canon was Formed

The sections of the Hebrew Tanakh are called in English

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,

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, and

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. We follow a Protestant collection from the Tanakh for the Old Testament and like a library, our Bibles group the books by subject, not date written or chronological events in some cases. The Protestant collection sometimes groups the Old Testament books further into Law (Genesis-Deuteronomy), History (Joshua-Esther), Poetry (Job-Song of Songs), Prophets (Isaiah-Malachi).
Which Old Testament category does Psalms fit in?

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In fact, Psalm 119 is written as an acrostic poem of the Hebrew alphabet. That helps makes sense of the repetition, doesn’t it? How does knowing Psalms is poetry (often put to music as songs) change how you would receive the message of Psalms versus the story of Esther?

The New Testament books are grouped into

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, Acts (early church history), Paul’s letters to churches, other letters/writings, and Apocalyptic writing.
Although written by about 40 authors over 1600 years, the Bible holds the common thread of pointing to

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(Luke 24:27). Because many of the books are arranged by subject, reading the Bible from cover to cover can make it difficult to connect the material from the books and their storyline which is why we will use a chronological plan when we start next week. This way, you should see more clearly how the messages of the prophets were relevant to the situation of their original audience and also view the accounts of Jesus through the varied lenses of the gospel writers. The message of Scripture, especially the Old Testament, is accessible and calling us to enter in.

Another helpful literary tool is an interlinear Bible. This shows the English word next to the original language word of a verse as seen in the screenshot below of Psalm 119:97 from the blueletterbible.org:

Simply type in the verse and click on the reference to the left of the verse to get to this screen. The Hebrew verse is at the top and each word or phrase is listed below (note that Hebrew sentences are read from right to left). Here you can click on the Strong’s number to find the definition of the Hebrew word used in this verse. Below is a screenshot of the lexicon for “your law” H8451 tôrâ:

This shows how English translations can use different words to describe the same Hebrew word. As you listen to or read Scripture, feel free to note key words or phrases and look them up to understand them better.
encounter the story of the Bible. In the meantime, use these new insights as you engage with another portion of Psalm 119.

Bible Engagement

Tier 1: Psalm 119:49-72
Tier 2: Psalm 119:49-88
Tier 3: Psalm 119:49-96

What did you learn about God’s nature in this passage?

How about human nature in this passage?

List themes you notice in this passage.

Record new insights about God’s word you discovered in this passage of Psalm 119.

Application

1. Take time to praise God for His message of new life in Christ through all of Scripture by various inspired authors and genres.
2. If you haven’t read the Old Testament chronologically before, what are some qualities of God, people, and themes you expect to see as you go through the Old Testament?