Biblical Interpretation

My Sunday School class is currently going through the Psalms. It has been a very rewarding study. A discussion from this past Sunday's discussion sparked a question in my mind.

First, you must understand that I attend a reformed Baptist church. Among other things, this means that the entirety of Scripture is seen as one unified story that culminates in the person and work of Jesus Christ. "What is wrong with that?" one may ask. Nothing is terribly wrong with that view. It must simply be recognized that not all Christians have that exact view. Many Christians see the Scripture as the unfolding of God's plan for mankind to bring Him glory. In other words, not everyone views the Old Testament in exactly the same way. Reformed Baptists would tend to read the Old Testament and look for things that point to Jesus Christ. While there are definite passages that do this; those of the Reformed stripe would tend to do this to the Nth degree. (Of course, this is a gross simplification for purposes of space.)

Anyway, we were studying Psalm 16 this past Sunday and we were asked how that psalm applied to Christ (or if it did apply to Christ). One of my fellow classmates asked an interesting question. He asked if David -- who wrote that psalm-- would have "seen" Christ in the words he was writing. His point was that Psalm 16, like any other OT passage, had a real and imminently applicable meaning to those who originally received it. It was commented on in class that during the Middle Ages it was common to view Scripture as having several dimensions of meaning: Literal, Spiritual, Mystical, etc. The downfall there was to not know which "meaning" was accurate. My classmate wondered if by seeking to "read between the lines" to find references to Christ if we could fall into a similar trap. He reminded us to start by simply reading the Bible as it is written and not to be too quick to find "deep" meanings in the text.

This is one reason why I truly enjoy this class. There is a spirit of openness and a freedom to challenge each other. Needless to say, the discussion was very interesting for the remainder of the class.