The way I read the Bible

After looking at the Bible reading chart, I think I have realized that I am a mixture of two different ways of reading. I partly use the literary-metaphorical method and partly the reader-response method. For example, if I would read Psalm 143:8, which says, “Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I lift my soul,” this would be how I would interpret it.

Using the literary-metaphorical method, I would look deeper into each word, and find the meaning behind that. The morning may not be referring to the exact start of each day, when the sun is coming up, but more of a new start, a time of new beginnings. Each time that I have had a hard time with something (like a dark night), when the rough time ends (i.e. the morning), God’s love will show through, and help me get through that hard time, and it will help me realize the extent of God’s love.

Using the reader-response method, I will look at the verse and see what it means to me in the situations I am dealing with now in my life. If I would look at this verse five years from now, it could have a different meaning depending on what trials (or happiness) I am going through. This verse is like a prayer to me. Since I have put my trust in God, then God’s love will be revealed to me. I trust God to lead me in this life, and I will always go to God with troubles that I have. This verse offers me a lot of hope, and it means a lot to me. One night this summer as I was going to bed, I repeated this verse over and over as my prayer. I woke up the next day to my mom telling me that my grandpa had a heart attack, and he passed away later that night. I remembered that I had prayed those words the night before, and I just knew that everything would be all right, that through whatever happened, God’s love would be revealed, and I could always lift up my soul to God, and God would be there to comfort me. Using this experience, the verse meant something in that moment. But if nothing had happened that next day, then I don’t think that this verse would have as much meaning to me. I may have skimmed over it the next time I read that passage without thinking about it too much.

By reading the Bible using these different methods, I think that it gives the verses more meaning, and I can apply the words to my life, rather than just reading something that seems foreign to me.