FIRST QUARTER 2024
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #1
JANUARY 6, 2024
“HOW TO READ THE PSALMS”

 

As we enter a new year, we enter a new Sabbath School quarter. As we ask the question, “How [do we] read the Psalms?”, we will find that the answer for this question, as well as how to live in the new year, are identical. And our memory verse tells us where to focus.

“And (Jesus) said unto them, ‘these are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me’” (Luke 24:44, KJV, all emphases supplied throughout).

As we study the Psalms this quarter, and as we enter a new year, may we be looking for Christ, and looking at Christ, in all we study and think and do. In pointing our compass at Jesus, we will never miss the mark or be led off the Christian pathway.

A. T. Jones and E. J. Waggoner saw this vital reality of seeing “Christ in the Psalms.” Notice the quotes below as samples of many others from their writings:

“In all points it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren, and He is our brother in the nearest blood relationship. We are now to study another phase of this great subject: First in the Psalms--Christ in the Psalms--that we may see how entirely the Psalms mean Christ and that the One Whose experience is recorded there is Christ.

 

“It is impossible to touch the whole 150 Psalms in detail in one lesson or in a dozen lessons; yet in a sense we can touch the whole 150 by so touching a few as to show the one great secret of the whole number and that secret is Christ. Then when we read these Psalms, we know that we are reading of Jesus Christ and of God's dealings with Him--He too being ourselves all the time, . . . all our guilt and our sins being laid upon Him and He feeling the guilt and the condemnation of it in all things as ourselves. —A.T. Jones, General Conference Bulletin, February 22, 1895, p. 299.

 

“The Psalms as a whole are the words of Christ. . . . . Christ in the flesh, as Man, has all the experiences of mankind, so that no one can have suffered anything or passed through any sort of trial that Christ has not endured; nay, more, that Christ does not at that very moment share. When we read the Bible, but especially the Psalms, with this in mind, we find in them unsearchable riches of comfort.” —E. J. Waggoner, Present Truth UK, September 9, 1897, p. 562.

 

And Ellen White has repeatedly reminded us to put Christ and Him crucified at the center of all our study of Scripture. Notice the synergy between Ellen White and Jones and Waggoner:

“There is one great central truth to be kept ever before the mind in the searching of the Scriptures:—Christ and Him crucified. Every other truth is invested with influence and power corresponding to its relation to this theme. . .” —Ellen G. White, 1888 Materials, p. 806.

 

I want to insert here a strong endorsement for our study this quarter into the Psalms. I would encourage all our readers to read Pastor Jerry Finneman’s book, “Christ in the Psalms.” It’s a book full of tremendous insights for seeing Christ in the Psalms.

Pastor Finneman rightly calls the Psalms “the diary of Christ.” We are given insights into Christ’s mind in the Psalms. We see Christ in His humanity – His thoughts and His feelings. Nowhere else in Scripture do we have the depth of insight into “the mind of Christ,” which we are encouraged in Philippians 5:6 to have as our mind. Pastor Finneman’s book is full of singular insights on this topic, and I would strongly encourage you to read or reread this wonderful book which is available at our website.

While our lesson does spend one week later in the quarter (#9) looking at Christ in the Psalms, I would encourage us to study to see Christ in every Psalm, and every topic, as our first and foremost focus.

The lesson does an excellent job reminding us to remember the historical context for each of the Psalms. It also informs us of the various types of Hebrew poetry and grammar and figures of speech, all of which will assist us in our study this quarter.

This is the third time we have studied the Psalms in the Sabbath School quarterly during my lifetime if my memory serves me correctly. Interestingly, when we studied the Psalms in about 1980, the title of the lesson was appropriately, “Songs of Our Experience.” The title made the important point that the Psalms are in fact prayers and songs of our common human experiences. The author of the lesson that quarter had requested a title of “Let Me Tell You About My God,” and she actually titled her supplementary book with the title she had requested.

In this dichotomy we see the two important facets we need to see in the Psalms. Firstly, the Psalms tell us about our God, particularly in the person of Jesus Christ. Secondly, the Psalms are also the Psalms/Songs of our individual and corporate experiences. It’s no wonder that the Psalms is the Old Testament book most often quoted in the New Testament and most often quoted book by Jesus.

From this we can ask ourselves, which means more to us, that our experience is mirrored in the lives of David, Korah, Asaph, and Moses, or that God in Christ understands our human experience by personal experience? I would much rather know that God knows my experience than that others in history have had my experience. It’s nice to know that others have struggled as I struggle, that they felt discouragement, that they felt tempted to want revenge, and that they suffered as I do.

But how much more significant it is that the resurrected Christ, currently ministering in the heavenly sanctuary on my behalf, understands BY EXPERIENCE, the frailties and temptations of my daily life and experience! David is dead. Asaph is dead. Jesus is alive and working for my salvation – and He knows my experience. Because the “songs of my experience” are the “songs of His experience!”

I would encourage us as we enter this new study in the Psalms, and as we enter this new year, to see Christ Jesus in the Psalms. Let’s commit to reading all 150 Psalms this quarter with that purpose in mind, and I know our time will be richly repaid.

 

~Bob Hunsaker