Keith N. Smith Jr.Throughout the Bible there is a theme that you might call “choosing between two ways.” It starts with the two trees in the Garden of Eden narrative: the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil produced death, while the Tree of Life was a source of...
Jill FirthHow can Gollum, hyperlinks, and product placement help us to understand why there are lament psalms at the end of the Psalter? A popular generalization about the Psalter is that it moves in a trajectory from lament to praise, and from psalms spoken...
Ashley LyonThe word selah is prominent in the Psalms, occurring 71 times (as well as 3 in Habakkuk)— but what does it mean?
Thomas ParkerThe main thesis of this article is to consider whether the inclusion of Psalm 2 within the New Testament automatically draws with it resurrection overtones and significance. Psalm 2 and proleptic speech I will tell of the decree of the Lord: He said...
Jennifer GrishamWhen God established the feasts in the Old Testament, he set milestones to remind his people about who he was and how he had rescued them (over and over). While many Christians no longer celebrate the feasts, there are still plenty of places on our...
Logos StaffHappy Thanksgiving! As the smells of turkey and stuffing waft through homes across the United States, it’s the perfect time to thank God for his kindness and faithfulness to us. “Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful...
Bible Study MagazineMany of the 150 canonical psalms have superscriptions or titles, like: “Of David,” “For the choirmaster,” and “According to the lilies.” Are these superscriptions in the psalms original? Or were they added at a later time? In this excerpt...
Since commentaries are such a helpful tool for Bible study and preaching, it makes sense to use them. It also makes sense to search for the best! Not only the best complete commentary series, either—the best commentary for each book of the Bible...
Can we learn how to pray like Jesus? We know he prayed in the wilderness and in the garden of Gethsemane. We hear snippets of his conversation with the Father in John 11 when he raised Lazarus from the dead and in Luke 23 when he hung from the cross...
Dr. Erika Moore talks about her work on the Psalms (0:10), and Dr. Mark Futato explains the meaning of “bless” in Genesis (1:45). Dive into the Psalms Explore the Psalms with a blend of exegesis and historical commentary in The Psalms as Christian...
Adam B. ShaefferThis is a time for lament. A time to stop and mourn with those who mourn, to stop and weep with those who weep. Lamentation is a well-attested biblical genre, an expression of anguish at the individual or communal level. From the prophets of Israel...
Tavis Bohlinger"I am persuaded that the Psalms are not randomly placed, but are, in fact, intentionally arranged thematically and theologically in a deliberate shape and architecture, resulting in a kind of plot and storyline."
Happy Thanksgiving! As the smells of turkey and stuffing waft through homes across the United States, it’s the perfect time to thank God for his kindness and faithfulness to us. “Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful...
"my study can be taken as a renewed call to creative and prophetic preaching and teaching from the psalms"
When we decided to curate a list of resources for every book of the Bible, one of our priorities was to choose resources that would help people comprehend the most difficult books of the Bible. All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for...
Mark WardPut yourself in the shoes of the original readers of the famous second Psalm: The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast...
If you can’t use the Bible, you don’t really understand it. It may sound backwards to speak of “using” the Bible: we don’t stand over the Bible, twisting it to our ends; the Bible stands over us and is one major means by which God uses us. That’s...
Many Christians are faithful Bible readers, but they feel stuck when it comes to Bible study. After you’ve read a Bible passage once, and then read it again, what do you do to study it? Um, read it again? And then what? Looking at a commentary or...
Shane Barnard and Shane Everett—better known as the popular worship duo Shane & Shane—have spent a lot of time in the Psalms lately. Their latest album, Psalms II, is the result of a close study of the Psalter. I sat down with the guys, and...
Ryan PembertonJohn Calvin called the Psalms “an anatomy of all the parts of the soul,” meaning there is not a single emotion in all of life that is not articulated in the book of Psalms. When Dr. Mark Futato realized the Psalms’ broad relevance to all of...
Todd BishopC.S. Lewis once said, “The most valuable thing the Psalms do for me is to express the same delight in God which made David dance.” Poetry has the unique power to evoke the vast and varied expanse of human emotion. And the Psalms have it all—from...
Rebecca Van NoordWhy was the Epistle of Barnabas removed from Bibles? And why did the Gospel of Thomas never make it into the canon? Find out in the May–June ’13 issue of Bible Study Magazine, where we address one of the most controversial topics in recent history:...
Looking for daily inspiration from devotionals that focus on a common theme for each year? The 13-volume Day by Day Collection may be exactly what you need. Produced by UK-based charity Precious Seed International, the Day by Day Collection delivers...
If you are looking for trustworthy scholarship pertaining to the Old Testament wisdom literature, you can't go wrong with the six-volume Baker Commentary on the Old Testament Wisdom and Psalms. The poetic and distinctly Hebraic nature of the Old...
Robert CampbellIs it possible to be "Green" and be Christian? How should we interpret and put into practice Genesis 1:26? God created our planet, what is our responsiblity in maintaining it? Are there places in the Bible that speak about environmental stewardship...