Continuing Education for Ministers--Preaching the Psalms by Steven J. Lawson

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Because continuing education is a part of what a minister ought to do, I have been attempting to put up some resources that have been useful for me. In the fall of 2012, I attended the Expositors Conference that was hosted by Steven Lawson in Mobile, Alabama. At that conference a very nice “grab-bag” of books were given to those who attended. I think the cost was $75 but just what was in the bag alone was worth more than what the registration fee was. A number of Christian book publishers were represented that had focused their publishing on matters of preaching and other resources to help preachers. The commentaries and the books on preaching were incredibly priced. One of the books that I bought was “Preaching the Psalms: Unlocking the Unsearchable Riches of David’s Treasury.” I had little idea that this book was going to be as good as it was.


It had a challenge it: preach through the Psalms! At first that may seem to be an overwhelming task to do but with the right instructions, a disciplined preacher can work his way through the Psalms in such a way that will be encouraging and helpful to those make a commitment to do it. Of the various helpful things about this book, one of these is the classification of the various kinds of psalms. Once you gather in what kind of psalm you are reading this adds to the majesty of the Word. The different types of psalms are: individual and community lament, individual and community thanksgiving, general praise, descriptive praise, enthronement, pilgrimage, royal, imprecatory, wisdom, and didactic. As Lawson groups all of these psalms together, he tells you what is what.

In addition to this, Lawson also has a very fine chapter that is about the resources necessary to preach through the Psalms.  To the diligent seeker, many of these commentaries can be found on Amazon at a used price that is significantly cheaper than a new book and you will be pleasantly surprised when they arrive to find they are for the most part practically new. 

But here is the resource that makes this book go over the top.  Lawson taught this at a seminary level and to the man who is diligent, you literally can “take” this class.  I set aside some time weekly to treat these videos as if I were attending a class.  Also you will find that throughout the videos that periodically he drops assignments that I used to turn into sermons. 

Here is the link for the entire series.  I cannot embed the video in the blog because the Youtube channel owner has disabled the ability to do so.  If you do take the challenge to do this and you have notes in an electronic format, I would love to have them also.   My e-mail:  philipharrelson@gmail.com.

Thanks for reading. . .

More to come. . . 

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