Delighting in God's Word: A Lesson from Psalm 1, Part I

"Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish." Psalm 1

Roadblocks to Inductive Study

In an age where more translations of the Bible and more Bible study helps are available than at any other time in history, how do we explain the fact that most Christians struggle intensely to read the Bible? Although recent data shows that Bible reading has climbed to 50% among Millennials and Gen Z, other studies show that as many as one-third of Christians never open their Bibles at all. Concluding that people just don't want to read the Bible isn't necessarily true, for I could quote any number of people I know and love who have told me recently that they don't study the Bible as much as they should. Inside that admission is an expression of longing for that intimacy with the Lord that alone makes life bearable. Certainly not all, but many people do want to read their Bibles, especially as times grow worse and worse and as listening to world news makes us feel as if we are sitting in a canoe headed for Niagara Falls. People do want to know what's going on. Concluding that people are just too busy--despite wanting to read the Bible--doesn't truly account for lack of Bible reading, either, because we are all experts at finding time to do the things we really want to do.

The most obvious reason more Christians don't read their Bibles could be the widespread misgiving that reading the Bible is too hard. After all, why are there so many books out there to show us how if we can do this on our own? But has this glut of materials made it any easier? In taking away our confidence, hasn't it also caused confusion, giving us the sensation that we must maneuver our way through an intricate maze before ever opening God's Word? When too much is the same as not enough, most people aren't going to bother. But besides the paradox of choice, many people are also facing the doublethink that something that is now supposed to be easy isn't that important. Our minds are complex mysteries, and when the challenge is removed, so is the thrill of the hunt.

We actually need somebody to tell us that studying the Bible is supposed to be hard. We also need somebody to tell us that all these "helps" might not really help that much. Some might not even help at all. Why is that? First of all, not even the finest Bible study helps are inspired by the Holy Spirit. And many of them risk frustrating the role of the Holy Spirit in guiding us into all truth. This is not because any Scripture is of private interpretation but because big-name celebrities all too often tell us what to think rather than teaching us how to conduct inductive Bible study. Take, for example, the ubiquitous but massively expensive "study Bible."

When we realize that the concept of the study Bible began with C. I. Scofield--whose notes, copied from John Nelson Darby's dispensationalism, were amplified by a mixed panel of secular sources--we recognize that from the outset, the "study Bible" was designed with a very specific agenda: to legitimize an otherwise unmistakable doctrinal bias by putting manmade commentary right next to Scripture. So much for not adding to God's Word. But this layout made Darby's dispensationalism feel inevitable rather than erroneous. Doctrinal bias was mistaken for truth, for readers could not tell where truth ended and opinion began.

Time has told that Scofield's study Bible "solution" to the first 1800 years of church history's "failure" to "rightly divide" the word of truth became instead the problem: people read the Bible piecemeal, and dispensationalists haven't been able to put Humpty Dumpty back together with honest hermeneutics. People study the notes and not the Bible! The popular "solution" to Biblical illiteracy today is still the problem: the proximity of commentary and sacred text gives bias the illusion of truth: it equates interpretation with inspiration and opinion with objectivity. But this is contradictory. Think about it: if a panel of godly, trained scholars from various Biblically sound denominations is called upon to write a new translation of God's Word such as the ESV without bias, why would they put denominational bias back into God's Word in the study notes? But if we think this is not happening today, just do the math: compare study Bible with study Bible and see what you find.

The Mandate for Inductive Study

Not only does a great deal of modern commentary obfuscate the plain sense of the text; this disparity between plain sense and celebrity interpretation serves a consumer purpose: it makes us think study Bibles are indispensable because we would never have arrived at all these "findings" on our own. In reality, these "findings" perpetuate the first-century schisms: "I am of Paul; I am of Apollos." Can't anybody simply be "of Jesus Christ"? We must be reminded that the Holy Spirit promised to lead us into all truth, even as we recognize that truth is not necessarily what church celebrities are seeking. We absolutely must return to our own personal inductive Bible study. And, without in any way setting aside the role of truly honest and gifted pastors and teachers, we must remember the Apostle Paul's challenge to all believers to desire the gift of prophecy, which is the gift of understanding and teaching God's Word. This is our responsibility as members of the body of Christ.

All of this leaves us with two facts: studying the Bible is hard, and studying the Bible is supposed to be hard. Shortcuts don't help; instead, they live up to their reputation by getting us lost, for there is no shortcut in the long run. When the Bible itself was finally placed in the hands of the common people--thanks to those heroic translators who risked their lives to uncover the truth--the Bible itself was considered the greatest help to spiritual life that anyone could imagine. And this all-but-forgotten fact must be coupled with the wonderful truth that the Lord Himself has taught us a way to read His Word.

A Roadmap for Inductive Study

When Jesus said to the Pharisees--a group of "spiritual gurus" hardened by the many layers of their own commentary and tradition--"Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me" (John 5:39), He gave us a roadmap with three simple directions in this single sentence: a method, a scope, and a focus.

The method is simple: search. And here is where we must be clear: although search necessitates ownership, it doesn't require independence. We replace secondary sources with primary sources that guide rather than disguise true study: a reliable translation rather than a paraphrase; a concordance or a chain reference Bible such as the Thompson Chain; a scholarly Bible dictionary; and access to Hebrew and Greek lexicons. Many of these tools can be found online and require no expense whatsoever. Once we get swept up in this rhythm--as supported by a journal, an oasis, and our favorite writing tools--Bible study is no longer either a guilty omission or a dreaded ritual; it is a discovery in which even the smallest stone turned opens up entire goldmines of new thinking. Embrace the search!

The scope is also simple: the Scriptures. Even though as few as five percent of all Christians have read the Bible from cover to cover even once in their lives, we must still search the Scriptures in their entirety. The dispensationalism that would lead us to perceive the Old Testament as irrelevant today is here refuted by Jesus. Jesus here sanctifies all of God's Word, for the Old Testament is all His hearers had at that moment, and the New was being spoken before them. Neither can we dichotomize the words of Jesus with anything else in the New Testament, as has also become popular among some false teachers today. Proverbs rightly claims that "every word of God is pure" (Proverbs 30:5), and Paul tells Timothy that all Scripture is God-breathed (II Timothy 3:16). Embrace the scope!

The focus is clearly Jesus Himself, Who began "at Moses" when He expounded the Scriptures to His dejected disciples that first Easter evening as they wandered along the Emmaus Road. Here again, we confront dispensationalism to see that there is no "division" across the millennia: God's Word has ever and always pointed to Jesus. And when we look for Jesus, our productive struggle will find the Pearl of great price every time. This glorious destination proves the control of our productive struggle: if what we have "found" doesn't add up to Jesus, we better keep digging. Jesus tells the Pharisees that the Scriptures testify not about "Me" but of "Me." Every word is His. And it is to this truth about Jesus that the Holy Spirit will witness, for "He shall teach you all things" (John 14:26). And, as the Lord Himself guides the one who seeks Him in His Word, He teaches us just as He taught His disciples on earth: inductively.

A Sequence for Critical Reading

Setting aside products for process requires not only using the roadmap Jesus gives us: it requires learning to read that map. The map, of course, is the text itself, which is truth itself. "Buy the truth, and sell it not," Proverbs 23:23 commands. How do we do that? By reading, yes, but how? Just as anyone in the classroom can become a stronger reader by applying reading strategies, so we ourselves can approach God's Word armed with several simple but very effective reading strategies. Below is a list which was published in the Elements of Literature series from which I have taught for many years. It really isn't anything new; our brains know to do this when we give them a chance--when we really search the Scriptures and take time to meditate on God's Word as Psalm 1 tells us to do:

• Determining the main idea

• Rereading

• Reading for detail

• Questioning the text

• Making inferences

• Making connections

• Using chronology

• Determining cause and effect

• Making predictions

• Comparing and contrasting

• Making generalizations

• Summarizing

• Evaluating

These strategies follow a natural order but are also recursive, spiraling and looping endlessly. They represent a process that remains incomplete without following each step. Because of this, the process requires not only unique discipline and vision; it requires time. What would happen if we tithed our time like I hope we do our income? When we know that we have an appointment every morning with the King and that He wants to speak to us--to little you and to little me--directly from His Holy Word, we believe that it is indeed possible to open our Bible and to understand what it is saying.

A Reward for Delighting

But let's be honest: strategies unsanctified by a listening ear and an obedient heart will only make us smarter, not more godly. When we take time to be with Jesus, we must read not merely to know but to obey: to walk "not" in all the ways of our rapidly deteriorating world--in the counsel of the ungodly. As we approach God's Word like the Psalmist of Psalm 1 did, delighting in the law of the Lord and meditating in it day and night, we will not only be blessed beyond measure; everything we do will prosper. We might not even know why, but then again, we do: the "secret sauce" is secret time alone with the Lord--every single day.

As The Day approaches, this holy practice is not only possible; it is critical. Our culture has been battered about with every wind of false doctrine long enough, as influenced by spiritual wickedness in high places. The day of the Christian celebrity is over. Rather than merely watch one after another go down, let us rise up out of a grassroots movement. Let us commit to knowing God's Word by reading it and studying it for ourselves. With the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and the perspiration of a surrendered will, a disciplined mind, and a hungering heart, we will find the gold of which David spoke in Psalm 19: 10-11, "More to be desired are they [the judgments of the Lord] than gold."