When you read an incredibly long book, there's bound to be some parts that you may think are kinda boring. The Bible is an incredibly long book so why should it be any different? Some people have trouble getting through all of the laws and bureaucracy in Deuteronomy. (See Chapter 21 verses 1-9 to learn how atone for an unsolved murder.) Other people have trouble with all the letters in the New Testament. (It's like a never-ending church sermon!) Perhaps you don't like the detailed family trees in Genesis, Matthew, Luke, and many other places. (Ooooh! Kenan begat Mahalalel. Now that clears everything up.) For me, it's Psalms. Now don't get me wrong. I like poetry, but about 30 chapters in, I'm starting to wonder how many I have left. 120 more?!? Are you serious? David, put that harp down and go start a war or something!
How do you get through the boring stuff? For me, the most important thing is to figure out the context of what I'm reading. Why is it in the Bible in the first place? For example, Psalms is a essentially a collection of songs from temple worship spanning almost 1000 years. That would be like talking the lyrics from 3 of your favorite songs and putting them in a book. Now ask your Dad for the lyrics to his 3 favorite songs and add them to the book. Now get Gramps' play list. Keep gathering lyrics from the past 40 generations of your family tree. Slap all those lyrics into your book and have at it. Some of the parts are going to be good, but you're going to get some painful stuff such as Slim Whitman's “When I'm Calling You”. (For added punishment listen to it. It was used to kill aliens!) The text, when taken solely at face value, may get boring. Now instead of just reading the lyrics, ask Grandpa why he likes that song so much. Perhaps he remembers it as the first song he dance with your grandmother. Unfortunately for him, halfway through, he stepped on her brand new shoes and she slapped him and stormed out. He had to buy her flowers for three weeks before she would get back together with him. Every time he's heard that song since then, he asks her to dance just to see her get mad. Now Slim's serenade has emotional backing to give it some staying power. Okay, maybe this metaphor is a little bit of a stretch when compared to Psalms, but you should get where I'm going. Context adds to the meaning.
Try reading David's psalms with the stories from his life. Psalms 86 is David's cry for help while he is being attacked by his enemies. Perhaps David wrote this Psalm when Sheba son of Bicri rebelled against him. While there's no indication as to when David actually wrote it, for me even a generalized context helps to understand the psalm when you see the perils that David actually faced. This is just one of the ways to help you get through the boring stuff in the Bible.
If you figured out today's picture on your own regardless of the fact that there is absolutely no explanation of it in this post:
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