Daniel P Warner

OT Books of Poetry

The Search for Wisdom

Burning Bush Blogs

Equipping Men with Biblical Knowledge and Leadership Skills

Category: Personal Study

Thread: New to the Bible – Bible Structure

Post Topic: OT Books of Poetry

Post in Thread: #4

Previous: OT Books of History

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Scripture: Job through Song of Solomon;

Psalm 63:1

Proverbs 2:6

Key Verses:
You, God, are my God,
    earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,
    my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land
    where there is no water.

Psalm 63:1

For the Lord gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

Proverbs 2:6

Note on this post

This post fits within a continuing series meant for readers who are less familiar with Scripture. Unlike most Burning Bush blogs, this series is designed to explore the organizational structure of the Bible more than a particular topic. The same introductory overview is included in each post in case someone jumps into the middle of the series.

Books of the Bible – Overview

Imagine two bookshelves – one with 39 books, and one with 27 books. The shelves have dividers between groups of books. Each group belongs to its own genre. There’s a group of historical fiction, a group of thrillers, a group of how-to books, biographies, etc.

Now imagine that the top shelf is the Old Testament and the bottom shelf is the New Testament. The genres, or categories, of each testament, is what we’re going to discuss. This post will deal with the Old Testament.

OT Books of Poetry

The books of poetry are in the center of the Bible, following the books of history. There are numerous themes running through these passages. This post will describe each of the books of poetry, but will focus on two major themes of these books:

  • Drawing closer to God
  • The value and source of wisdom

Observations

  • Job is a book written in mostly dialog format that is sub-categorized as one of the wisdom books. This is a difficult book dealing with questions asked of and by a righteous man who suffers a terrible string of personal tragedies.
  • Psalms is mostly a lyrical book, full of hymns and poems concerning our relationship with God.
  • Proverbs is just what the name implies. Another wisdom book, it is full of truths that lead us to the source of wisdom: our God. Some of the truths are just common sense, yet they still make us sit up and take notice.
  • Ecclesiastes is described this way by T.D. Alexander: Ecclesiastes highlights the disillusionment we feel when we observe the lack of moral order in the world; since the wicked appear to prosper and the righteous seem to suffer, what advantage does a righteous person have over the wicked? 
  • Song of Solomon is the other lyrical book. In contrast to Psalms, which deals with our relationship to God, Song of Solomon details the relationship between two lovers.

Interpretation

Setting and Authors

  • Job is one of the older books in the Bible, written about an ancient man devoted to God. Job probably lived around the time of Abraham. The author is unknown. It doesn’t appear to be Job himself by the way it is written. The story may have been handed down orally and finally recorded by someone like Moses or Solomon.
  • Psalms was written by numerous authors from Moses to David to Solomon to little-known choir directors in Jerusalem. The setting for most of them would have been the Holy Land. David wrote the largest portion of the Psalms.
  • Proverbs, Song of Solomon, and Ecclesiastes were written by David’s son Solomon, during a time of peace and prosperity in Israel.
  • Ecclesiastes was written later in Solomon’s life, after he’d learned many of life’s hard lessons.

Genre – Various forms of poetic prose.

Takeaways

  • The Bible doesn’t shy away from difficult topics (see Job and Ecclesiastes).
    • We may not always get a satisfactory answer. Job eventually was restored, but could never replace lost loved ones. Ecclesiastes bemoans the lack of fairness in our world.
    • We are allowed to ask God the hard questions. We can find comfort in Him, as Job and Solomon did.
  • The wisest man in history, Solomon, did not always act wisely. Wisdom is more valuable than the most precious of gems, but like riches, can be squandered.
  • God desires for us to ask for wisdom. He will give it to us. And we will draw closer to Him in the asking.
  • What is wisdom? Read Job 28, but especially Job 28:28. (spoiler – it is the fear of the Lord).

Correlation

  • James 4:8 – Come near to God, and he will come near to you.
  • I Kings 3:5-14 – Solomon asks God for wisdom, and the Lord is pleased with his request (verse 10).
  • I Kings 4:29-32 – Solomon is granted wisdom like the sands of the seashore, and his fame spreads around the world.

Application

Generic Applications
  • We can and should ask God for wisdom. He can and will give it generously.
  • Talking to God about all our emotions can draw us closer to Him.
Personalize it
  • Am I struggling to understand why God allowed something to happen? Can I express that frustration to Him?
  • What areas of my life are lacking in wisdom? And where I am wise, do I make use of this precious gift?

Bible study methodology adapted from Searching the Scriptures with permission from Tyndale House:

Swindoll, Charles, Searching the Scriptures. Tyndale House Publishers, 2016.