How to Study the Bible, YD 2006

Young Disciple Camp

Deep Bible Study

July 2006

Our Text: Psalm 91

Our Method: To be taught of God

Before We Get to Our Text

What do these verses tell us? First, there are people that God will make to understand doctrine. These are individuals who have exercised their powers of investigation. And these are individuals who have begun searching for themselves. No longer are they like nursing infants that only receive nutrition when someone brings it to them. Those taught of God have been weaned from dependence on others and have understood the fundamentals of the Christian Faith.

Our second passage, Daniel 12:10, assures us that the wise will understand. This must be the same class as those that have been weaned from the milk. More than that, we are told that the wicked will not understand. Regardless of either the genius or the extensive researches of the Bible student, if he is yet a slave to his appetites and passions, he will not understand.

Supporting Passages: 1 Cor 3:1-2; Heb 5:12-6:3; 1 Pet 1:22-2:3; Gal 5:19-20.

Other conditions of being taught of God hinge on these same principles.

When We Are Ready to Approach Our Text

Different prophets have written about the same ideas of God. Since the different prophets had different levels of education, different vocabularies, different writing habits and abilities, they have often chosen different words to talk about the same idea.

Here are some hints about how to find parallel passages that will help us understand the one we are studying.

OK, Now the Text

Let’s practice. Read the chapter slowly two times with your pencil nearby. What do you observe? I will try to give you an idea of what I mean by sharing my observations from the first three verses.

Observations:

During the observation stage I am trying only to note truths that are actually in the text. My next step, other than asking more help from God, is to start studying some of these observations. For practice I will study with you here the first two of these observations, both of them from verse one.

Studying “The Secret Place”

God has a secret place. My first thought is to wonder if the Bible ever mentions a “secret place” anywhere else using the same words. Using my computer I do a search for “secret place” and find seven results. Three seem to be relevant, perhaps, to our verse.

Before I go on I must read the contexts of these three passages to see if they offer any idea of where God’s “secret place” is. This is a good place to notice a common mistake made in deep Bible study. In our first verse God makes the darkness of storms his “secret place.” I could mistakenly conclude, from this passage, that every time I see “secret place” I should read “darkness of storms.”

When I read the context of Ps 18:11, I learn so much. Even though I set out to study Ps 91, I end up discovering Ps 18. Young Disciples, this is how Bible study works. We are taught of God. He directs the lesson. We may not find the very answer we were seeking for, but if we are seeking, we find the very answer He was seeking to give.

Here is the passage I noted from Ps 18:

Now Meditation

When I am ready to return to my study of God’s “secret place” I observe that in Psalms 18 God is originally in His temple and when He leaves he makes the stormy darkness his “secret place.” This leads me to wonder what His secret place was before He heard the prayer. Was it the temple that He inhabited in verse 6? To ask the question is good. To answer it before you have enough data is premature. Now we go on to look at the context of the second passage, Psalm 81.

It is apparent that this was written by a different person than David. This may not be very significant. But different authors sometimes use different words for the same idea, so it might help sometimes to notice this.

Asaph leads a praise session. Is it a joyful one? Or a solemn one? This is an example of a bad question. By limiting the answers to one or the other I may eliminate the option of the true answer. The true answer appears to be: both (verse 1 and 3). I can gain something from this idea—praise can be joyful and solemn.

I also note that the Feast Days were established for God’s people when He took them from Egypt and freed them from slavery. This might be a helpful theological idea if I meet persons teaching that the Feast Days are like the Holy Sabbath, obligatory for God’s people to keep today. I make a note of this and go on because I am trying to study Psalm 91.

The passage in Psalm 81 is similar, in ways, to Psalm 18. Man cried, when in trouble. God answered from His (perhaps new) “secret place” of storm. Added to this is an allusion to a story. I don’t remember exactly what happened at the waters of Meribah, and I am afraid of missing an important thought by not knowing the story, so I go back and read it in Ex 17.

(I found it quickly by using the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, or TSK, on my computer. Cross references are often better for finding stories than concordances because names are very often spelled differently in different parts of the Bible.)

What I find there is that, after God delivered the people from Egypt, He allowed them to suffer thirst. They began to doubt He was with them (Ex 17:7) and they didn’t know God was testing them. I stop to think about this. I am still studying Psalm 91, but I am discovering many other things while I study.

Now I come to the third passage that uses “secret place”—Ezekiel 7:22. The context this time is Ezekiel 7 to 9. The secret place here is certainly the sanctuary of Jehovah. God’s people are pictured as desecrating the sanctuary and God destroys them for this activity. The passage is full of imagery and makes me want to study it. But if I am going to make much progress on Psalm 91 I will have to leave Ezekiel 7 through 9 for a while.

(But not for long. Ezekiel 9 describes the sealing of God’s people. That is part of God’s curriculum for this age. I must get back to it.)

The word “appears” helps save me from pride problems. It may be that I will find more evidence in favor of this idea as I study. And it may be that I will find evidence that the idea is quite faulty. I want to be ready to rethink my ideas when I have more evidence.

Studying “Dwelling with God”

I am ready to move to my second observation—namely that a man can dwell in God’s secret place. [I could have spent a lot more time on the first phrase—looking up cross references and other similar words to “secret place.” If this was my own study I would have done this even though I might have spent a whole day on half a verse.]

I will begin by looking at the TSK for Psalm 91:1. Here is part of it:

Now this is exciting. I find confirmation of my conclusion. Ps 27:5 and 31:20 and 52:8 and 61:4 all have similar ideas. Men can dwell in God’s secret place by dwelling in His sanctuary or tabernacle or pavilion. I can tell from other passages that dwelling in this sanctuary is a metaphor. God made Himself to be a sanctuary for those that could not travel to Jerusalem (Eze 11:16) and for those that saw Jesus (Is 8:14).

Then I remember that Jesus said of himself “destroy this temple and I will raise it up in three days.” Memory plays an important part in being taught of God. The Spirit that guides us into all truth often guides us by bringing back to memories things God has taught us previously.

OK, let’s practice. Let’s study the idea of dwelling with God. Use the tools you have learned here, whichever ones you can. Use a pencil or pen. Come back prepared to share whatever God teaches you, even if it does not seem to help answer the question, “How can I dwell in God’s temple?” Remember, we do not determine what God teaches us. He is the teacher. We study the Bible and He guides us.

And Now Sharing

When we come back to share, remember that our goal is not to prove that we are smart, but to honor God for the gift of understanding He has given us through His Spirit.

How to Study the Bible – An Outline

I. Who to Be

1. A man that is willing to do God’s will
2. A man that is wise
3. A man that is single-mindedly believing

II. What to Do to Be Taught of God

1. Earnestly pray for help in understanding—always
2. Carefully read the passage in context, perhaps repeatedly
   1. Note observations
   2. Emphasize various words
   3. Be familiarizing yourself with scripture
3. Make yourself a channel for God’s blessings
4. Use the best tools
   1. The Bible itself
   2. The Concordance (Not for etymology; Not for translation correction)
   3. The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
   4. Cross References and textual notes
   5. Brethren of experience
5. Find parallel passages
   1. By using the tools above
   2. By miracle and open-eyed reading
6. Explore contexts of parallel passages
7. Meditate
8. Find inspired commentary on the context
   1. NT on OT
   2. SOP on NT or OT
9. Take copious notes
10. Share immediately and repeatedly

III. What Not to Do

1. Use brethren of experience as a substitute for the work of digging. God will not cooperate.
2. “Strive about words”
3. Use forms of “be” uncritically as verbal equal signs
4. Treasure shock-value or oddity; or try to prove you are smart
5. Follow a man’s development of a thought uncritically
6. Reject a man’s development of a thought without giving it a hearing
7. Listen to teachers known to be causing divisions and problems by opposing the truth you have learned
8. Entertain foolish questions that require speculative answers
9. Search the Bible for evidence to support your position
   • Rather, seek for evidence regarding your position
   • Rather, take no position until the evidence is in
10. Use a two-way passage, or an obscure one, to explain a simple passage

IV. How to Conclude

1. Write logically and simply
2. Use the plain-practical clever
   • If it passes, test it with the Brethren
   • If it fails, store it for future use
3. Express your thankfulness to God for teaching you
   • Privately
   • Individually when sharing with another
   • Publicly, making efforts not to exalt self

Additional Thoughts

1. Study when you are alert
2. Start with appropriate material – incrementally challenging
3. Memorize – your arsenal for quick advancement
4. Keep the mind uncluttered by wicked and vain thoughts
5. Find a private place
6. Give yourself sufficient time
7. Remember that pay-day in research is later rather than earlier
8. Reread Stories for new meaning
9. Do your homework in your Father’s Home-School
   • Revelation 3, 7, 12-14; Daniel 7-9, 12
   • Isaiah 53, 58; Righteousness by Faith
10. Master the fundamentals early
11. Study passages rather than verses
    • Think of passages as connected
    • Recognize sections
12. Pray interactively as you read; ask God what a phrase means; ask for help; repent of evil thoughts
13. Carefully use faith-based commentaries
    • Like those from www.onlinebible.net
    • Like those from SDA Pioneers
    • Treat commentaries as friends; not as teachers
14. Know your computer program. Here are hints related to “Online Bible”:
    • I can search for unordered words or phrases
    • I can search several versions of the scripture and other books simultaneously
    • I can copy or “append” to the clipboard
    • I can toggle between showing Strong’s numbers and not, and between showing marginal readings and not. Typically, I keep marginal readings on.
    • When I want to look up a word in the lexicon, I toggle to showing Strong’s numbers and then hover over the number.
    • I can search for a Strong’s number. I can mix numbers and words in my search.
    • I can view, in one window, the texts of TSK by showing “cross references.”
    • The best commentaries, when I need to use one, appear to be “Clarke”, “Henry,” “Gill,” and “Jamieson, Fausset and Brown.” None are SDA and the closer you get to material that was once sealed, the less helpful they are.
15. Know that God uses curiosity to make assignments. When you wonder “why?” it is often because He arranged for you to wonder it by writing something out of the ordinary. (See Ex 12:26; 13:8; Josh 4:21.) Do your assignment.
16. In complex passages try this: Start with the last phrase and work backwards. If a verse said “read truth for it will help those who for the love of God are giving their lives for the benefit of others to see them saved” you would read it like this “To see people saved is the benefit that is worth dying for. The love of God motivates us to that kind of giving. Those that are motivated like that are benefited from reading truth.” Hebrews tend to write “effect, cause, cause, cause.” Englishmen tend to write “cause, cause, cause, effect.” Reading “backwards” will simplify many long sentences.
17. Use a Bible dictionary for unfamiliar words like “buckler.”

Deep Bible Study Assignments