THROUGH THE BIBLE RESOURCE PAGE
Introduction by Pastor Bissol
We have started a series of messages we are calling Through the Bible Study Series. Can we exhaust the Bible? Can I do it justice in explaining it? We read this statement: Isaiah 28:10 says, "For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: " I can a share a little of what the Lord has shown me but there are so many others that the Lord has given more knowledge to share. I am putting some of these other helps and resources on this page. We have gone through the Books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus Numbers and Deuteronomy... Joshua, Judges and 1st and 2nd Samuel, I & II Kings and I & II Chronicles verse by verse and are currently studying the book Ezra.
We are now using Sermon Audio to broadcast these series of studies. We have archived old audio studies at the THROUGH THE BIBLE STUDIES ARCHIVE PAGE on this website. At this link we have recordings of our Bible studies all the way back to the book of Genesis to current studies.
We also include below some visual resources we have to supplement our Bible studies. Also below is an archive of some of these Bible studies we put on Sermon Audio with video recordings. We will be adding more resources as time permits and as we progress in our study. God bless you all as we study God's precious Word together.
The Book Of Psalms
We are currently studying the book of Psalms in our through-the-Bible study. Is it not obvious that the book of Psalms is not only to be preached and studied, but it is written to be sung and set to music? Yet who does that? There are some who have retranslated the Psalms and made them metrical so they can be sung to our hymn style of singing. We do have some Scripture choruses based on select verses of the Psalms. But who just sings the Psalms verse by verse, line by line, as written in our KJV Bible and as David wrote them?
Why do people not sing the Psalms directly out of the Bible today? Is it not because they do not know how to? Yet, when preachers preach and teach through the Psalms, how can we do that without teaching people how to sing the Psalms? Are we not commanded to sing Psalms—Col. 3:16 and Eph. 5:19? Have you ever heard a Bible study on how to sing through the Psalms? Why not? Is it not obvious that the Psalms were not written in our style of music? So, unless people use the ancient form of chanting, no one that I know just sings the Psalms as written. But David was called “the sweet Psalmist of Israel.” How is chanting sweet music? God called his music sweet. I do not find chanting the Psalms sweet. Maybe this is why singing the Psalms as written in Scripture has faded away from church use. Our goal is to find a sweet way to sing the biblical text of the Psalms. So, in this study, we are not only preaching the Psalms, but exploring possible ways that David and the Israelites sang the Psalms.
Each week, we give the meaning of the Psalms, and we practice singing the Psalms straight through without paraphrasing, repeating words, changing words, making them fit our form of music, or forcing our style of meter or rhyme on them. If we, as Bible-believing Christians, believe in biblical inerrancy and preservation, then why do we accept changing the words of the Psalms to fit our music? Why do we call that singing the inspired Psalms? Should we not change our music to fit the inspired words? Sometimes we can use our style of music without changing the text; other times, we need to bend our style of music to conform to the text as written in the inspired Word of God. We are praying and asking God to show us how to sing the inspired Psalms without changing them. We are doing this study in Sunday school, Wednesday night, and Sunday night Bible studies. We are hoping to come up with a way to sing all 150 of the Psalms in the Bible.
In our through-the-Bible study in Sunday school and on Wednesday nights, we have experimented with different ways to sing the Psalms without changing the words. We started out with a modified form of “Plain Song.” This is the only way we know of that the Psalms have ever been sung in the church without changing the words. Harmony is sweet, so at least this form of chanting the Psalms should be sweeter than the way the church has been doing it for 1,700 years. We added modification after modification until we came up with a possible way the Psalms could be sung with our style of metrical music.
We are now well into halfway through the study. I took the first 41 Psalms, Book I, and collated the class notes into a book I call Unlocking the Music of David in the Psalms. Below is a link to Amazon where that book is on sale. If you are serious about obeying the command to sing the Psalms, I would strongly recommend getting the book. I do not know of any other resource like it. I also have a website, “FreeScriptureSongs.com,” that I put up just to provide audio resources to augment the book. To understand the process, you need to have the book and follow along with the audio resources. It is very time-consuming to record every example, so the website is a work in progress, but the book is complete. Lord willing, we will, at the end of this study, have a total of five volumes in this study, and all 150 Psalms will be set to music. Get this book, read it, and obey the command: “Sing Psalms....”
Colossians 3:16
"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”
Sincerely,
Pastor Frank Bissol
Why do people not sing the Psalms directly out of the Bible today? Is it not because they do not know how to? Yet, when preachers preach and teach through the Psalms, how can we do that without teaching people how to sing the Psalms? Are we not commanded to sing Psalms—Col. 3:16 and Eph. 5:19? Have you ever heard a Bible study on how to sing through the Psalms? Why not? Is it not obvious that the Psalms were not written in our style of music? So, unless people use the ancient form of chanting, no one that I know just sings the Psalms as written. But David was called “the sweet Psalmist of Israel.” How is chanting sweet music? God called his music sweet. I do not find chanting the Psalms sweet. Maybe this is why singing the Psalms as written in Scripture has faded away from church use. Our goal is to find a sweet way to sing the biblical text of the Psalms. So, in this study, we are not only preaching the Psalms, but exploring possible ways that David and the Israelites sang the Psalms.
Each week, we give the meaning of the Psalms, and we practice singing the Psalms straight through without paraphrasing, repeating words, changing words, making them fit our form of music, or forcing our style of meter or rhyme on them. If we, as Bible-believing Christians, believe in biblical inerrancy and preservation, then why do we accept changing the words of the Psalms to fit our music? Why do we call that singing the inspired Psalms? Should we not change our music to fit the inspired words? Sometimes we can use our style of music without changing the text; other times, we need to bend our style of music to conform to the text as written in the inspired Word of God. We are praying and asking God to show us how to sing the inspired Psalms without changing them. We are doing this study in Sunday school, Wednesday night, and Sunday night Bible studies. We are hoping to come up with a way to sing all 150 of the Psalms in the Bible.
In our through-the-Bible study in Sunday school and on Wednesday nights, we have experimented with different ways to sing the Psalms without changing the words. We started out with a modified form of “Plain Song.” This is the only way we know of that the Psalms have ever been sung in the church without changing the words. Harmony is sweet, so at least this form of chanting the Psalms should be sweeter than the way the church has been doing it for 1,700 years. We added modification after modification until we came up with a possible way the Psalms could be sung with our style of metrical music.
We are now well into halfway through the study. I took the first 41 Psalms, Book I, and collated the class notes into a book I call Unlocking the Music of David in the Psalms. Below is a link to Amazon where that book is on sale. If you are serious about obeying the command to sing the Psalms, I would strongly recommend getting the book. I do not know of any other resource like it. I also have a website, “FreeScriptureSongs.com,” that I put up just to provide audio resources to augment the book. To understand the process, you need to have the book and follow along with the audio resources. It is very time-consuming to record every example, so the website is a work in progress, but the book is complete. Lord willing, we will, at the end of this study, have a total of five volumes in this study, and all 150 Psalms will be set to music. Get this book, read it, and obey the command: “Sing Psalms....”
Colossians 3:16
"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”
Sincerely,
Pastor Frank Bissol
A New Resource from Pastor Frank Bissol
Unlocking the Music of David in the Psalms
Book I: Psalms 1–41
Pastor Bissol has just published the first book of his Psalm studies. He is setting all 150 Psalms, word for word, to music.
He plans to publish five books, based on the five divisions of the Psalms. Book I is now available, and he is currently working on Book II.
Visit the special companion website to hear audio samples from the Psalms and other Scripture songs Pastor Bissol has written.
RESOURCES FOR THE BOOK OF KINGS AND CHRONICLES
Educational Documentaries
As we Study the Book Of Kings And Chronicles One of the Kings that has more archeological finds of interest more so than any other king is Hezekiah. The greatest and most visited wonders of Jerusalem is Hezekiah's Tunnel. Below is a video documentary about the tunnel.
Resources for the Book Of Joshua
Video of Holy Lands, Gilgal and Camp Gilgal
RESOURCES FOR THE PENTATEUCH
Below is an interesting video about Mount Sinai's location. Some believe it is where there is a monastery called St. Catherine's Monastery, a Greek Orthodox monastery on the Sinai Peninsula. Below is a compelling documentary arguing it is instead in Saudi Arabia. This seems to line up with what Paul the Apostle said when he wrote in Galations 4:25 ... "For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem.."
Resources For The Book Of Exodus
Exodus Chapter 28 Gives the commands concerning the garments of Aaron and his sons. Here is a video that describes the making of these garments. It is good to be able to visualize this passage. I think this video will help..
REPLICA OF THE TABERNACLE IN THE WILDERNESS
There is a replica of the tabernacle in the wilderness in Israel. Here is a video someone made of his tour into at the tabernacle model. As we go through Exodus and read about the details of the building of the tabernacle this resource helps us to envision the over all vision of what it looked like. Of course this replica is not made out of real gold and brass but we can get a general idea of what it looked like. from this tour..