Reading the Bible Slowly

In January I finally read a particular book that's been on my shelf for years. The author is Eugene Peterson. The book is A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. Overall the book is an expositional study of the Psalms of Ascent (Psalm 120-134). And if you were to examine my copy of the book you would see many notations of helpful points in each chapter. But what I want to share with you in my next few blogs is the Epilogue where Peterson challenges us to consider the way we read Scripture.

If we are serious about following Jesus and living out the gift of His life in detail in our bodies and circumstances, we must swim against the whitewater River We [a reference to our self focus] and familiarize ourselves with the world in which Jesus and his gift of life are revealed to us. We do it by reading our Scriptures slowly, imaginatively, prayerfully and obediently. Each adverb is important.

Slowly. The Bible provides the revelation of a world that has primarily to do with God. It is a huge world, far larger than what we inhabit on our own. We live in sin-cramped conditions, mostly conscious of ourselves – our feelings and frustrations, our desires and ideas, our achievements and discoveries, our failures and hurts. The Bible is deep and wide with God’s love and grace, brimming over with surprises of mercy and mystery, peppered with alarming exposes of sin and bulletins of judgment. This is an immense world, and it takes time to adjust to the majesty – we’re not used to anything on this scale. We’ve grown up on the streets and back alleys of Lilliput – it takes a while for our eyes to adjust. If we move into the Scriptures too fast or move through them too fast, we’ll miss most of what is here.

Next week we will consider Peterson's challenge to read the Bible imaginatively.