iIntroducing Psalms

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YOUTHWORKS BIBLE STUDY SERIES

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First published January 2004. Reprinted 2008. Anglican Youthworks PO Box A287, Sydney South NSW 1235 Tel: 61 2 8268 3344 www.youthworks.net

Copyright © Anglican Youthworks 2004

This book is copyright. Apart from fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Inquiries should be addressed to the publishers.

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.

ISBN 978-1-876960-88-9 Written by Graham Stanton Edited by Julie Moser Designed by www.firingminds.com

iiiIntroducing Psalms

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Introducing the Psalms

Human beings love to sing! We sing when we’re happy, we sing when we’re sad; we sing when we’re with other people and we sing when we’re on our own (admit it, everyone sings in the shower don’t they?). Some people sing well, other people sing not so well, but whenever we do sing we mostly sing about things that are important to us.

God’s people have always been into singing and the book of Psalms is filled with songs, or at least the words to songs. With 150 poems, Psalms is the longest book in the Bible, and if you can think of a human emotion you’ll probably be able to find it expressed somewhere in the psalms.

But its not just another book of poetry. As with every other book of the Bible, the Psalms are about God and his relationship with human beings like us. A lot of the psalms are prayers that people have said to God.

The five psalms that we will be looking at in these studies are all about how God’s people respond to the world they live in – especially in those times when things just don’t seem to be going right.

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God’s people have always been into singing and the

book of Psalms is filled with songs.

1Psalms Praying through good times and bad

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: : S H A R E

What is your favourite song? What is a song that encourages you in some way?

: : R E A D P S A L M 1

Psalm 1 tells us what every wise person in the Bible understands – that righteous people (those who know God) prosper and wicked people (those who ignore God) don’t. This psalm teaches us what sort of life God says is good and wants to encourage us to choose the good life instead of the bad.

Verses 1 and 2 describe the sort of person who gets a stamp of approval from God. What is this person like?

What are the results of living this kind of life? (verse 3)

Verse 4 describes the opposite kind of life. What is this person like?

Living the Good Life 1PSALM 1

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What are the results of living this kind of life? (verse 5)

Draw a picture to show the two kinds of lives described in Psalm 1.

What does verse 6 say is the basic difference between these two ways to live?

3Psalms Praying through good times and bad

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Which one of the two kinds of people do you think you are?

Jesus is the only person who lived the ‘good life’ perfectly. How does Jesus help us be the kind of person God wants us to be? (See 1 Peter 3:18 and Romans 6:8–12)

: : A P P L Y

What helps you stay strong as a Christian? What things make it difficult for you to stay strong?

In what ways are you are tempted to do the things that verse 1 warns us against?

How does a Christian person follow the instruction in verse 2?

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What can you do to encourage each other to live the good life? Give specific examples (think about how you should live at school, at home, with your friends etc).

Give examples of where you have seen God keep the promises he makes to his people in verses 3 and 6.

: : N O T E S