Psalm 16 Series

This week begins my series on Psalm 16.

Twice a week I’ll share a verse and what I’m learning about it.

I’ll also tag my Psalm 16 page. It contains all the posts I’ve written for Psalm 16.

I hope you will follow along with me.

 

A few things to know about Psalm 16:

Written by King David around 1000 B.C., it is a Praise Psalm.

David focuses on his commitment to God and states he knows he needs God and that turning from Him creates sorrows.

He goes on to say he knows God has blessed him with a good life and that it is God that determines our lot in life.

David concludes with praise for God because he knows God will protect and take care of him for all of his life.

 

Psalm 16 is also called a miktam of David.

No one knows what the word miktam actually means.

Only six Psalms are labeled this way: Psalms 16, 56, 57, 58, 59, and 60.

 

Psalm 16 is also called a Messianic* psalm because it contains prophecy about the coming Savior.

In verse 10 it references Jesus as the Holy One and states He will not see decay.

 

If you are new to reading Scripture or just starting to dive deep, this is a good psalm to start with.

I hope you will read Psalm 16 and then come back and share with me what you are learning.

 

I’d love to hear your feedback.

Please feel free to comment or email me.

Karen

 

 

*Messianic – describing or relating to a Messiah. In Christianity, it refers specifically to Jesus Christ See John 4:25-26.

 

To see all the posts I’ve shared in this series, please visit my Psalm 16 page.

 

To learn more about what a Psalm is, please visit my post ,What is the Book of Psalms?

 

 

 

Category: God, Lesson Outline, Old Testament, Scripture Study | LEAVE A COMMENT

Index Cards

When I first started trying to memorize Scripture I used index cards.

The great thing about these cards is you can write the verse you want to learn on a card and carry it around with you so you can look at it throughout the day.

You can also tape a copy of it to the bathroom mirror, the edge of your computer monitor, or some other handy place where you will see it.

The more you read it and look at it the more familiar it will be.

This makes it easier to learn and memorize.

 

 

You might also want to date the cards, jot down on the back of the card anything you come across in your reading or as you go about your day that speaks to you about the verse or shows the verse to be true.

You can also write down prayers about the verse – prayers to better live out the verse, for wisdom to obey it, and/or whatever else is appropriate for that verse.

 

Once you are familiar with the verse and ready to move on to the next verse, you can file it and save it for later.

After a while, you can pull out the cards and read them in the order you wrote them.

You might be surprised to see the story they tell and how they show that God was with you all along, guiding you in that season.

 

If you are trying to memorize Scripture I hope you will try index cards and see if they work for you!

 

 

Want to know more about how to pray Bible verses? Check out my post, Praying Scripture

 

 

 

Category: God, Journaling, Life, Scripture Study, Uncategorized | LEAVE A COMMENT

What Is the Book of Psalms?

The book of Psalms is a collection of 150 poems found in the Old Testament of the Bible.

They were written to be used as songs and prayers for praising and worshipping God.

Authors include King David, King Solomon, Asaph, the sons of Korah, and at least four others.

 

There are several kinds of Psalms.

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Category: God, Old Testament, Scripture Study, Teaching | LEAVE A COMMENT

What are the Epistles?

The Epistles are a group of letters written to Christians during the early years of the church.

Written by Paul, Peter, James, John, and Jude, they total twenty one books in the New Testament.

Some are named after the people in the town they were sent to.

These include Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, and 2 Thessalonians..

Some are named after the person or people they were sent to.

These include 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, and Hebrews.

The rest were named after the person who wrote them.

These include James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, and Jude.

The author of each Epistle is known except for Hebrews.

No one knows for sure who wrote Hebrews.

 

Most of the Epistles were written to specific churches or people.

Some discussed the specific struggle that particular congregation or person was dealing with as a result of outside situations.

Some addressed conflict within a congregation.

Some offered encouragement within the face of religious persecution and injustice.

Others dealt with false doctrine and the importance of following Jesus’ teaching, not man’s.

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Category: God, Lesson Outline, New Testament, Scripture Study | LEAVE A COMMENT

SOAP Method

I am in an online Bible Study.

One of the things we do is called the SOAP method of study.

At first I didn’t think it would be that helpful, but over time I began to see how much I can learn from it.

 

Here’s how it works:

Grab some paper and a pen.

Choose your verse or passage.

S – Scripture. Write out your chosen Scripture. Copy it straight from the Bible.

O – Observation. What do you see? What information or facts are there? What can you pick out of the verse?

A – Application. How can you apply what you observed.? What should you do or stop doing?

P – Prayer. Write out a prayer asking God to help you apply what you are learning.

 

That’s all it takes.

At face value it seems so simple but if you will take your time and really pay attention to what you are reading you will begin to see deeper truths.

 

Don’t worry if you don’t see them at first.

Just keep going.

The more you do it, the easier it is to see things in the passage.

With time you will begin to better understand the Bible and gain a deeper understanding of His Word.

 

Let me know how it goes.

I’d love to hear how it’s working for you.

 

Happy SOAPing!

 

 

For more on studying Scripture, please visit my page, How to Study the Bible

 

 

 

Category: God, Journaling, Lesson Outline, Scripture Study | LEAVE A COMMENT

Don’t Look Back

There’s a story in Genesis 18-19 that tells about the fall of Sodom and Gomorrah.

God sent angels to the two towns to destroy them because of their great wickedness.

Just before destroying the cities, the angels sent Lot, his wife, and two daughters out of the area, telling them to flee to safety and not to look back.

Unfortunately, Lot’s wife does look back and is turned into a pillar of salt. (Genesis 29:16)

Why?

Because she didn’t just look back, she looked back with longing.

Instead of looking to the rescue from destruction God was providing her, she looked back at the old life she was losing with desire to keep it.

She didn’t want to let go of the old life she was leaving behind.

 

I wonder how many of us have done that?

Maybe we left behind a job we loved, a friendship that was not healthy for us.

Maybe we’ve had to let go of a bad habit/pet sin we enjoyed.

Maybe we’ve had to leave a ministry we enjoyed participating in or a church we valued.

Maybe we’ve even had to let go of a romantic partner.

 

Whatever it is, God called us away but we are struggling with the loss.

If He’s called us away, He’s calling us to let go, walk away, and move on.

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Category: God, Old Testament, People in the Bible, Scripture Study | LEAVE A COMMENT

Psalm 63:6

I often wake up at least twice a night.

I used to either get up, get a drink of water, and walk through the house wondering why I was awake, or else lie there and grumble to myself about being awake when all I wanted to do was sleep.

Then I came across Psalm 63:6:

On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night. (NIV)

I realized instead of being in a foul mood about being awake I could talk to the Lord about things on my mind, or pray about/review Scripture or sermons I’d recently heard..

As I began to do this, my attitude began to change.

I began to look forward to waking up in the middle of the night and having these quiet moments with the Lord.

My sleep began to improve.

i began to wake up more rested than before.

Best of all, I wake up with my mind more focused on the Lord than it has ever been.

 

What I thought was a problem and inconvenience turned into one of the sweetest and best parts of not just my day but my faith walk.

I still have times when I wake up grumpy because I’m awake in the middle of the night, but the moment I look to God and begin talking to Him, the bad mood leaves and peace washes over me.

I relax and feel so much better.

 

If you wake up in the middle of the night I hope you will try this and see how much it can improve your mood, your faith walk, and even your life.

Let me know how it goes.

 

My eyes stay open through the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promises .Psalm 119:148 (NIV)

 

I previously wrote a longer version of this post. You can find it here: Praying In the Night.

I wrote today’s post discussing it again because it is an important topic and it is good to occasionally have reminders.

 

 

Category: God, Life, Prayer, Scripture Study | LEAVE A COMMENT

Memorizing Scripture

We live in a society where Scripture (the Bible) is easily accessible.

There are several websites that have the entire Bible available to read and search.

Stores everywhere sell copies.

There are tons of Bible Study books, commentaries, and devotionals available.

We even have apps for our phone.

 

If it is so accessible, then why is it so important to memorize Scripture?

There are several reasons.

 

The Bible tells us to.

Psalm 119:11 says, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”

To hide something in our heart means to learn it in the deepest part of us so that it becomes part of who we are.

More than facts, it is deep knowledge on the most intimate level.

When we have Scripture in us, it shapes how and what we think and do.

If it is in us, the Holy Spirit can remind us of it when we need it, like when we are witnessing to someone or when we are dealing with a situation.

This helps us know what we should and shouldn’t do as we walk through our day so that we can live a life honoring to God.

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Category: God, Life, Obedience, Scripture Study | LEAVE A COMMENT

Galatians 3:3

In Galatians 3, Paul is explaining to the Christians in Galatia that it’s not about following the law that makes us free.

Some Jewish converts to Christianity in Antioch were telling the Gentile Christians the men had to be circumcised if they wanted to be true Christians. They were trying to make it a condition of salvation.

They were teaching this because under the law of the Old Testament, God told all Jewish men to be circumcised.

Paul was explaining that it was no longer necessary to live according to the law.

Once Christ came the Old Testament law was fulfilled by His life, death, burial, and resurrection. Therefore it no longer applied.

Then Paul brought the point home when he asked the question:

 

Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? Galatians 3:3 NIV

 

In other words, you know it’s grace that saves you by having faith in Christ and what He did for you at Calvary. Why are you now trying to use your works and your actions to make it happen?

The truth is we can’t.

Salvation is only given to us by us having faith in Jesus, not by anything else we do.

No matter what we do, we can never be “good enough” to earn our way in to Heaven.

It doesn’t work that way.

 

As I was reading this verse I thought about how we as humans often try to make things happen, not just concerning salvation but also in our lives and the lives of others.

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Category: Faith, Galatians, Scripture Study, Teaching, Trust | LEAVE A COMMENT

Idols

There are a lot of talent shows on t.v. these days.

Some even encourage you to try out and see if you’re the next Idol.

 

Did you get that?

Idol.

 

Throughout the Bible, God has shown His displeasure with idols in very clear ways.

In Exodus 20:3-6 God specifically says we are not to have any type of idol. We are not to make one in any shape. We are not to bow down to anything or to worship anything other than Him.

He goes on to tell us He is a jealous God and that He will severely punish those who make these choices.

 

God then shows He means this in Exodus 32.

In that passage we read about how angry God was the people had made a golden calf while they were waiting for Moses to return from visiting Mt. Sinai.

He responded by sending a plague on them as punishment (verse 35).

 

The subject of idols is also covered in the New Testament.

The book of 1 John closes with this warning –

Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.

 

in 1 Corinthians 10:14, Paul specifically tells us to flee from idolatry*.

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Category: God, Life, Obedience, Scripture Study | LEAVE A COMMENT