Before diving into Psalm 119,
I want to give you some basic Bible study tips.
Tip 1 – Start and finish your Bible Study time with Prayer
- Ask God to help you understand what you are about to study.
James 1:5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
Tip 2 – 5 W’s and 1 H
- Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How
- Understanding these 5 basic questions will help get a basic understanding of a verse/chapter/book in the Bible
Tip 3 – Watch for when words repeat
- for example the word “Believe” (to think to be true to be persuaded of, place a confidence in) appears 85 times in the book of John. The primary purpose of the book of John is “believe.”
John 20:31 – But these are written, that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.
Tip 4 – Look for Keywords: “Therefore”, “But”, “Wherefore”, “And”
- If you see them ask why are they there.
- Therefore/Wherefore connect the prior verses with the ones that follow
- But – often shows a contrast “not this” but “that”
- And – connects two similar thoughts
Tip 5 – Use verses that are easy to understand to interpret the difficult ones
- remember the Bible does not contradict itself. We just need to dig a little deeper to find the correct meaning.
Tip 6 – When reading do not just pull out one verse – read a few verses before and after
- FYI, the chapter and verse numbers were added hundreds of years after the Bible was completed. (Actually around 100AD)
Tip 7 – Write down your questions and keep studying/reading
- often if you will discover the answer in the following verses
- if you don’t then ask someone to help you, a godly friend, Sunday School teacher, or your Pastor.
Okay, enough of the “teacher mode.”
(sorry old habits are hard to break 😉)
Here are a few interesting facts about Psalm 119
- it mentions God’s Word in 171 of its 176 verses
- it describes the Godly man’s love for the Word of God
- Divided into 22 sections of 8 verses each
- In the Original Hebrew each section is identified by a letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
- Each verse in that section of 8 verses begins with the same letter.
- “Tradition,” says that King David used Psalm 119 to teach his son Solomon the Hebrew alphabet and the “alphabet of the spiritual life”
- This Psalm helps tune our hearts to love God and His Word!
Aleph: The blessing of, and longing for, obedience to the divine law.
I hope you will join me next time as we explore the first 8 verses of Psalm 119.
