We’ve been spending the summer studying the Book of Psalms together, trying to mine this rich vein for every bit of ore it can give us. This vast collection of poems has so much to teach us about glorifying God and enjoying him forever – if we know how to look.
As Pastor Don Ward set up the passage on Sunday, he made an important observation. The Psalms are, in fact, poems – and that has everything to do with how we read them! You’ll quickly get confused if you try to apply a psalm like you would one of the New Testament epistles. They don’t work like that. That’s not just true of poetry. It’s true of most of the Bible.
So, this week I thought I’d take a moment and say a word about some of the different ways we can apply what the Bible says to our own lives.
1. Instructions – This one is the most obvious. Sometimes the Bible just tells you outright what you’re supposed to do with its teaching. For example, Exodus 20:15 says, “You shall not steal.” How should you apply that? Well, don’t take something that isn’t yours is a good start! When the Bible gives us explicit instructions, we apply them through obedience.
2. Examples – You may have noticed though that most of the Bible isn’t explicit instructions. The Bible is filled with stories, recounting the history of God’s faithfulness to his people. What should we do with those? Some of those stories give us examples to follow by holding up examples of faithfulness. Now, nobody but Jesus is ever perfectly faithful, but that doesn’t mean we can’t learn something from our fellow works-in-progress. When he saw Ruth gleaning in his fields, Boaz responded with generosity above and beyond what the law required (Ruth 2). His actions illustrate what the Bible says elsewhere: God loves a cheerful giver (2 Cor 9:6-7).
3. Warnings – But unfortunately God’s people aren’t always faithful and the Bible tells us those stories too. These passages serve as a warning to us and encourage us to run quickly in the other direction. Sometimes the most effective way to teach us that sin leads to ruin is by showing us how it has led to ruin in the lives of people who went before us. In Acts 2, Ananias and Sapphira were struck down for lying to the Holy Spirit. Their sin serves to warn us: God doesn’t want his people to simply appear spiritual. He wants us to pursue genuine faithfulness.
4. Implications – Great swaths of the Bible aren’t about people at all. They’re about God. After all, it’s his book! The main purpose of the Bible is to tell us who God is and what he’s done for us. That knowledge has implications for how we live our lives. One example comes from James 1:17: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” This is a statement about God, but do you see the implications for your life? If every gift comes from ultimately God, then it means our gratitude should turn toward him. Additionally, if God doesn’t change, then that means we can believe whatever he says. We can trust God because he isn’t fickle.
God speaks to us through the whole Bible. Sometimes we just have to know how to listen. Hopefully these four categories help you wring every last drop out of your reading this week