The Bible OverBrew - Bible in a YearSample

Week 27. Day 1. Psalms 1-10.

Introduction to the Psalms.

The Psalms are songs and prayers of God’s people, covering the full range of human emotion and circumstance. I’m persuaded that we can approach the Psalms in two complementary ways:

• Taking them on our lips as our own prayers.
• Reading the psalms as a book, telling on overall story of the Davidic king.

Personally, I think most of the time the first approach is the most fruitful – finding words that we can pray in all situations. But as we are reading big chunks as part of this plan, the following questions will focus more on the ‘big picture’ approach. But if this feels unfamiliar (and especially if you don’t know the psalms well) please don’t overly worry about getting this big picture. Most of the time when I read the psalms I just choose one and think how it teaches me to pray – so you may wish to take that approach if you prefer.

Psalms 1-10.

Psalms to focus on: Ps 1 and 2 (even if you just skim the rest).

Psalms 1 and 2 form an introduction to the Psalter - and so we’ll spend disproportionate time on them. They will introduce key themes for the rest of the book of psalms.

Can you see any similar words/themes in the two psalms?

What is the main idea of Psalm 1?

What is the main idea of Psalm 2?

Try to give headings for the sections of Ps 2:

• v1-3
• v4-6
• v7-9
• v10-12

Together, Psalms 1 and 2 set the expetations as we read the Psalms. Psalm 1 commends the blessing of reading and meditating on God’s word (and the rest of the book of psalms in particular). Psalm 2 points us to the big story of Biblical theology: that the world is in rebellion against God, but that he is putting things right through his anointed king.

So for each psalm we read (especially ‘David’ psalms) we can ask:

• what does this teach us about the life of discipleship?
• what does this show us about the king in David’s line?

NOTE: Days 1-5 of each week contain the scripture reading for that week. Day 6 has just the 'key chapters'. If you want a briefer version of this plan that still takes you through the whole Bible, you could just read the key chapters featured on day 6. Day 7 has the podcast video where we discuss the week's reading.