Examine It - Part 1

To truly examine a piece of Scripture, one is going to need some resources and tools.  As Erin mentioned in her post, one can "use commentaries, dictionaries, concordances and more".  Online is one of the greatest resources we have in this day and age for combing through scripture and its meaning (keeping in mind there are many false teachers out there posting things as well so make sure you're using a doctrinally sound website for your research - we've posted some links that may help) .  Below we have an example of examining Scripture by looking specifically at Psalm 119.  This can be a good start for those who have decided to join us by memorizing this portion of the Word.

Psalm 119 Example
by Dick Emberley

First things first, start with the big picture. Before you start looking at the little tiny details, the leaves and what not, you have to see the forest. A lot of time you have commentaries that like to be devotional and just jump into the details and they lose something because they miss the big picture. So starting at the most simple level, you are starting at what the Bible is all about. Essentially it is God’s revelation of himself to man. It is God giving to us something that we could not have learned on our own by just observing his creation. So whenever you approach the bible to get something out of it that is profitable, you have to start with, the first and foremost, it is about God. God revealing himself to man and God revealing to his highest creation, man, why he was created and what his place is in God’s plan. When we look at the Word of God, what is revealed to us about God and about ourselves, it also takes us back in our understanding to John 1, “In the beginning was the Word”, the message, the revelation about God. What we can know about God, we start with that, “and the word became flesh and dwelt among us.” So when we are reading about God, we are in essence, from Genesis to Revelation, reading about what can be revealed of God, Jesus Christ, what we can see and understand. What can be revealed about God, or know about God, in the practical sense, made known to us so that we can be like him, so that we can know how we should behave., why we were created.

Leaving that level of big picture, the fact that the Bible is God’s revelation of himself to man, a revelation that man could not have understood any other way, a revelation that man needs to understand so that he can understand how he is supposed to live, we then start looking at the individual books and narrowing to Psalms.
The book of Psalms is a song book. It is a book of poems that were put to music. We don’t have the music today but that certainly would be interesting if we did. I am sure it would shock many individuals, looking at Psalm 150 making a loud noise with all sorts of instruments to the Lord! Poetry in music, music is a language of the soul. It is a language that communicates feeling and emotion. So we come to the psalms, God’s songbook, God’s revelation of Himself, and it deals with most closely with us as an emotional and feeling creature. It is a book that helps us put our emotional house in order. It is going to teach us how to control our emotions, how to discipline our feelings, what we should feel, why we should feel that way. In essence, as David the Psalmist played music to calm the ailing King Saul, it is the emotional medicine, the emotional prescription for the ailing human heart. The book of Psalms is going to deal in a very practical way with the emotional wrestlings of practical human life. It is going to give us a vivid picture of what real life is like from an emotional point of view. Therefore, it is going to be a very honest and practical book by its very nature. In this day and age we have individuals with so called emotional problems. The answer to those besides the answer that is found in medicine for those who have organic problems, the answer to that from the spiritual standpoint is going to be found in the book of Psalms. There is going to be an awful lot in the book that is going to deal with how to cure our emotional ills, how to emotionally respond to the trials and tribulations and difficulties of living in a sin cursed world in the way that God wants us to live here.