Sunday-School Success Part 7

Aside from this, the psalms are especially fit for ill.u.s.trative quotations, and the children may be inspired to gather them eagerly.

a.s.sign to each scholar a verse for ill.u.s.tration from some other part of the Bible, in some such way as this:

"_The Lord is my shepherd._"

"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd layeth down his life for the sheep" (John 10:11).

"_I shall not want._"

"Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matt. 7:32, 33).

"_He maketh me to lie down in green pastures._"

"Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28).

"_He leadeth me beside the still waters._"

"Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water, springing up unto eternal life" (John 4:14).

"_He restoreth my soul._"

"I am the resurrection and the life" (John 11:25).

"_He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake._"

"I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6).

"_Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil._"

"Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die" (John 11:26).

"_For thou art with me._"

"Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" (Matt.

28:20).

"_Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me._"

"I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth" (John 14:16, 17).

"_Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies._"

"I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall not hunger"

(John 6:35).

"_Thou anointest my head with oil._"

"Grace and peace ... from Jesus the anointed, ... who has made us to be kings and priests unto his G.o.d and Father" (Rev. 1:4-6).

"_My cup runneth over._"

"The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a partic.i.p.ation in the blood of Christ?" (1 Cor. 10:16.)

"_Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life._"

"These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be fulfilled" (John 15:11).

"_And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever._"

"In my Father's house are many abiding-places.... I go to prepare a place for you" (John 14:2).

In preparing for this exercise the children will learn how to use the Bible index and the concordance.

Watch the paragraphs of the Revised Version. They make useful indications of the pa.s.sage from one thought to the other.

The psalms lend themselves well to the useful exercises of a.n.a.lysis, condensation, and paraphrase. Get your scholars to write out for you, one, a brief tabular statement of the contents of the psalm; another, the thought of the psalm in words of his own; a third, the substance of the psalm, with all superfluous words and repet.i.tions omitted.

It is a capital plan to underscore in your Bibles, and get your scholars in the course of the lesson to underscore in theirs, the key-sentences of the psalm. In the First Psalm, for instance, you have in bold relief the main thought of the six verses if you underscore "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the wicked. Whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The wicked are not so." There is your outline.

Do not rest satisfied until, for your scholars and for you, the psalm you are studying is a unit, and stands out in your minds with clear-cut individuality. It is especially necessary to get through with the entire text when your lesson is in the Psalms. It is not like a series of disconnected proverbs: it is a picture; and your understanding of it will lack some essential part until you have all the verses.

Indeed, I would go over each psalm with the cla.s.s at least five times, rapidly: first, to remove stumbling-blocks of strange customs and expressions; second, to grasp the general thought; third, to get its application to David's life; fourth, to get its lesson for our lives; fifth, a verse-by-verse study for all possible side-lights and instruction.

Observe the parallel expressions. Use only the Revised Version, which correctly prints the psalms as poetry. Read them rhythmically; chant them; intone them; get the impression of songs. Come to feel the beauty and meaning of the frequent refrains.

Go on a tour of discovery, seeking for the n.o.ble metrical translations of these psalms found in our hymn-books and religious anthologies. For Psalm 19 read Addison's magnificent hymn, "The s.p.a.cious firmament on high"; for Psalm 103, H. F. Lyte's "Praise, my soul, the King of heaven," or Isaac Watts' "My soul, repeat His praise"; for Psalm 72, James Montgomery's "Hail to the Lord's Anointed, great David's greater Son!" or Isaac Watts' "Jesus shall reign where'er the sun does his successive journeys run"; for Psalm 84, H. F. Lyte's "Pleasant are Thy courts above," or Isaac Watts' "Lord of the worlds above"; for Psalm 23, Addison's "The Lord my pasture shall prepare," or others more familiar; and for other psalms the same writers, with Wesley, John Newton, Scott, and many more. Your scholars will be interested in searching for these, and bringing them in.

Suppose we were studying an English hymn-book. What would we ask first about each hymn? We would ask what sentiment it was capable of inspiring. The same question is to be asked about these inspired hymns; and throughout each of them we are to trace not so much a train of thought as a train of feeling.

The psalms are subjective, and for that reason are particularly hard, some of them, for children to appreciate. We must interpret them all the more thoroughly by objective ill.u.s.trations. Here the ordinary problem is reversed. In our ordinary lessons the example from real life is given, and from it the teacher must draw spiritual lessons.

Here the spiritual meditation is given, to be applied to real life.

Notwithstanding this, the psalms are eminently pictorial, and especially adapted to ill.u.s.tration. See how many pictures are suggested by the following words from the most famous of the psalms: "shepherd," "want," "lie down," "green pastures," "leadeth," "still waters," "guideth," "paths," "valley of the shadow," "rod and staff,"

"a table prepared," "enemies," "anointed," "cup runneth over." All such pictures should be gathered, and used to make the lesson vivid to the picture-loving little ones.

There is especial need in teaching the psalms to explain how the force of imagery varies with varying conditions of climate and modes of life; how much more, for instance, was meant to David than to us by such symbols as "a rock," "shadow," "sun," "s.h.i.+eld," "water-courses"!

Children are fond of metaphors, but they make comical blunders with them, and deal, unless we are careful, all too literally with such pa.s.sages as "a table in the presence of mine enemies," "the wicked are like the chaff," "the congregation of the righteous," "break them with a rod of iron." If the teacher is in doubt just how far to carry these metaphors, I know no better example of the wise and beautiful use of them than Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress." The reading of that book will make a capital preparation for the teaching of the psalms.

Few lessons in the seven years' course will be so admirable as these for committing to memory. If you want to inspire your cla.s.s to better work in that line, now is your time.

Note that the psalms are all optimistic. Sound their key-note of peace and joy.

Here, if anywhere in the Bible, spiritual teaching is needed. An essential part of the preparation for teaching the psalms is devout prayer.

Chapter XVII