This introduction serves as an invitation to join in an on-going journey of discovery. You will not need to buy tickets nor make travel plans. All that's required is your Bible and a quiet place to read and meditate. Together we'll explore the Book of Psalms, Israel’s hymnal and longest collection of poetry.
For many Christians, the Book of Psalms is a place to which we turn when we want to offer God a song of praise or find ourselves in need of comfort or consolation. While we may know a few of the psalms quite well, many of the lesser known passages are hardly ever read or studied by most believers, much to our spiritual loss.
Several years ago, a desire to make sense of Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the Bible, led me to spend an entire summer working my way through its 176 verses in the original Hebrew. Over the next several years, I applied that approach to a study of the entire Book of Psalms. The results form the basis of This Year the Psalms, 365 studies designed to enable serious Bible students to complete a devotional study of the Psalms in a year’s time.
Each study follows an identical format. In the TRANSLATION, I offer my own rendering of the Hebrew text in contemporary English. In the OBSERVATIONS segment, I highlight key repetitions, synonyms, figures of speech, and grammatical features that point us to the meaning of each passage. I then provide an OUTLINE and an IDEA STATEMENT that capture the essence of each passage. Every study concludes with an APPLICATION in which I share how each passage has impacted me personally. Since I have served as a worship leader for many years, I have included a number of hymns and worship songs. My prayer is that you will find these blogs helpful and informative and, above all, a stimulus to your own study of God’s Word.
BIOGRAPHY - Jim Kutnow was raised in a Christian home and was led to saving faith in Christ through the preaching ministry of Billy Graham. He holds a degree in European History from Princeton University (1970) and two degrees from Dallas Theological Seminary: a Master of Theology (1974) and a Doctor of Ministry (1996). He served on the faculty of Dallas Theological Seminary for six years (1976-82). He left Dallas to serve as Senior Pastor at The Blue Church in suburban Philadelphia (1982-1999) and then at Milan Bible Church in Milan, Italy (2000-2015). He and his wife, Lynda, now live in Kansas City where they together serve at Crossworld. Their family includes three children and five grandchildren. To his dear wife, Lynda, Jim dedicates this study in the Psalms.