A Walk Through Psalm 107 – Part 2

The problem I have with series is where to cut each one off.  There is so much to see in this Psalm and it lends itself to demonstration of how observation can unpack some of the riches that God has given us in His Word.

Yesterday I showed you how I use structural markers and literary relationships to increase the quantity of observations.  The reason we can do this is because when the Holy Spirit inspired the writers of the Old and New Testaments they used language.  While that is obvious to express thought in language requires vocabulary, grammar, and structure.  Those elements are intentionally used by both the human and ultimate author for the purpose of communicating about who God is and what He is doing.  The point is that all of the elements in the text are intentionally placed so that we can learn much from observing them.

One of the things I always look for is repetition.  In the scripture it is like the teacher at the front of the class stomping their foot to tell you something is going to be on the test.  It is emphasis.  In part 2 of the walk through I highlighted some of the repetition in Psalm 107.

The first thing I noticed was “lovingkindness,” six times the Psalmist refers to God’s lovingkindness.  Then I noted that verses 8, 15, 21, and 31 were identical.  Also verses 6, 13, 19, and 28 are identical but for the changing of one word in 28.  There is more but the last one I will point out is the thread of thanksgiving in verses 1, 2, 8, 21, and 31, the construction “Let them give…” is also repeated in 43 with some significant changes.  That is one of the things for which I look as well, differences in things that are repeated.

Do you see the patterns that are emerging?

Tomorrow I will spell out what I am seeing in the structure and repetition.

Posts in this series:

• Intro
• Part 1 (Has the Grammatical Structure and Literary Relations downloads)

A Walk Through Psalm 107 – Part 1

Ok let’s get started.  Yesterday I told you that I was going to show you how I work through a passage.  If you have not read Psalm 107 please do so now – jot down some notes about what you see.

Preamble
Now what I am going to share with you may seem a bit academic, some of it is fairly technical and admittedly not easy – this will feel a lot like work in the beginning as you attempt to use it.  It did for me as well.  Let assure you though, I do not even think about this anymore, I just do it.  In the example I will show you later in the post I have written out my observations next to the verses of the Psalm.  It took me about 30 minutes to type them out, but as I was reading the Psalm those thoughts were immediate because I know for what I am looking and have been looking like this for some time now.

Some Background Data
The first thing I look for in any passage I am reading is the literary structure the author has used to share his thoughts.  The text is riddled with clues that reveal that structure, markers if you will, like the road signs on the interstate that tell you where you are and how far you are from where you are going.  “Therefore,” is one of those markers.  You may have heard that when you read a “therefore” in the text you have to look and see what it is there for.  Why, because that word communicates that what follows is a result of what came before.  But that is not the only word that marks structure for us.  Here is a list, if not exhaustive, of some more words that may serve as markers as you read and what they mean in many contexts.  Here is a list defining some of the literary relationships the markers indicate.  Print them out and use them as you read through the Psalm.

How I Use This Stuff
The first thing I do when reading a passage – and I emphasize I almost do this unconsciously now – is to identify the structural markers.  Here is part one of the walk through for Psalm 107.  You can see that I highlighted the structural markers in yellow.  If you look at the list of words that you downloaded earlier you will see most of the highlighted words on that list.  The ones that are highlighted that are not on the list are there to draw my attention to either an implied marker or else something that over the years I have learned is a marker that is not on Traina’s original list.

To the right of each verse I responded to what the text says.  I observed how the structure framed the message of the Psalm and made some other notes.  I used the terms on the Literary Relations sheet so you could see how the sheets interact.  I only did the first 10 verses so you can try the rest on your own.

What’s Next
We are not done.  Tomorrow I will show you the next things I saw and how they help me see what is going on in the text.

This may seem over complicated but really after you work through the awkwardness of looking for the terms and understanding the literary relations, it really becomes second nature and unlocks amazing richness in the text.

Try it.  Any effort you expend will be well rewarded.

A Walk Through Psalm 107

This morning I spent an extended time in Psalm 107, it was devotional but I used the Bible Study skills I share in the workshops – I do that without really thinking about it now.  There was a lot in that Psalm that I had not seen before and what I saw was extremely encouraging.  For the next few days I thought I would walk you through what I did.  That will do a couple of things.

First, it will give you a taste of what I do with men in the workshops.

Second, it will demonstrate how these tools can help you observe more in both your devotions and your Bible study.

I did all this in my Bible program so I have to transfer what I did into another file that I can walk you through.  I am out of time today so we will start this journey together tomorrow.  It will probably take several days to complete; I pray that it will be helpful for you.  You may want to share with people you know what we are about to do, I thinks this would be a good way to introduce them to this blog…

See you tomorrow.  In the meantime read Psalm 107 and make as many observations as you can…  Remember that observations ask the question what does this say, not what does this mean…