Tips for polishing your presentation
Background
- Historical Culture context
- Find out what they know
- Fill in the gaps, add to knowledge
- Category/genre of psalm
- Poetic structure of psalm
- Purpose: what do you want them to get out of the study?
- Personal connection (prompt them to relate to the text)
- Rhetorical question
- Interesting thought
- Challenge, inspire
- Brief story
- “Write down 3 experiences…”
Lesson
- Look at structure and raise questions
- Relate to other psalms in genre as it is helpful for interpretation
- Examine OT/NT references, “what is the connection?”
- Note internal unity of psalm, “why this change in thought pattern or poetic structure?”
- How does this fit with the broad message of Scripture? (Gospel & Kingdom)
- What does this tell us about the character of God
- Share your personal struggles/questions/thought processes
- As questions throughout
- Provide illustrations from your own experiences/solicit theirs
- Engage everyone throughout Alternate modalities
- Mix application activities with instruction
- Relate to the different stages of life in the group
- Encourage higher levels of faith, moral development
- Do in class what you want them to do at home (practice) read it, pray it, meditate on it, sing it
- personalize it, write about it (journal)
Summary
- Tie into key themes of the study (How does your piece fit into the whole?)
- What have we learned?
- Finish with an open-ended question — something to ponder
- Assign a spiritual application
- Come back to your initial question or personal connection
- Reflect on the meaning of the psalm in your life
- Purpose in your heart
For more detail and explanation, please listen to the podcast.
Previous: 04 Meeting God in the Psalms
Series: How to Study Psalms
Resources: Psalms
For more: Bible Study 101
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