How to Study Wisdom Literature
You may have heard of the saying (and book title), “A proverb a day keeps the devil away.” However, Proverbs, Job, the Psalms, Ecclesiastes, and Songs of Solomon are not so simplistic.¹ They are neither prescriptions for certain daily prospering nor solely scripts to read when you don’t have the words to say or pray. These five books make up the poetic Wisdom Literature of Scripture, a mysterious collection of different authors and worldviews, written through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to shape our theology and help us worship well. There are 17 books preceding the wisdom books and 17 following them; the 5 together make up the “gooey caramel” center of the Old Testament. But how in the world should we study and even read them? Nancy Guthrie’s book God of Wisdom, as well as some other scholars and scriptures, offer us guidance.²
First, we should depend on and ask God to grant us wisdom, as we read and all the time. James 1:5 teaches us that God will generously give wisdom to him who asks. Paul prays that God would grant the Ephesians a spirit of wisdom (Eph 1:17). We hear the Psalmist ask God to “open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of your law” (Psalm 119:18), knowing that we tend to be “wise in our own eyes” (Prov 3:7). We must recognize our limitations and sin. Whether in rejoicing, confession, lamenting, or narrating, we should take prayerful time to align our minds with the truths about God and ourselves. We may think we don’t need advice in certain areas, but our eyes without the Spirit’s regeneration and sanctification will lead us to death, along the path of lady folly (Prov 7, 9). Acknowledge your need for salvation and wisdom, then ask God for both.
Second, we should read the wisdom books as Holy Spirit-inspired Scripture, not just difficult prose to skim or try to replicate in your own words, nor to leave for the scholars. Jesus explains that he said and did certain things “...that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled” (Luke 24:44). We should approach any part of Scripture humbly and methodically, perhaps using the interpretive method “COMA” (evaluating context, then moving through marking observations, meaning, and application) as Nate Cure explains in “How to Study the Psalms.”⁴
Third, we should look for Christ! Guthrie explains in her 10-week study through Wisdom Literature that Christ is as surely in Job, Psalms, Proverbs, and all wisdom books as he is in the gospels, the prophets, and every page of Scripture. Christ is, after all, the personified “wisdom of God” (1 Cor 1:30). She writes that “Psalms, along with the rest of the Bible, are supremely about God’s work of redemption through Jesus Christ.” (Guthrie 182). Yes, even in Ecclesiastes! Can we have true rest, satisfaction, and purpose? We find our yes in Christ. Jesus is the only perfect sufferer, better than Job, a perfect King and citizen, the submissive Lord over all, wiser than Solomon, and the true embodied wisdom, the lovely Lady Wisdom seen in Proverbs, can only foreshadow.
Studying Wisdom Literature with Christ in view offers hope to the distracted and unsure reader, worried she misunderstands and overlooks much. We may begin to understand what the text truly means when we look not for ourselves within it, but for Christ, whose Spirit within us is pulling us to the pages to be formed to Christ. In Christ and in reading to find him, we are freed to trust the Holy Spirit to teach us all things and guide us into proper worship. We are motivated to learn about our promised King in the odd places of prose, poetry, romance, lament, and wandering questions.
Although we may selfishly come to Wisdom Literature to gain the blessings of answers/clarity, or comfort through knowledge of results, God is kind to bless us with himself (Guthrie 92). We gain Him when we read and reflect on Wisdom Literature rightly.
¹ I only recently discovered this book exists, so this is not a recommendation, only an acknowledgement of Philip Ayers’ thoughtful title: A Proverb a Day Keeps the Devil Away.
² See Nancy Guthrie’s God of Wisdom.
³ See Max Rogland’s article “How to Read Wisdom Literature.”
⁴ See Nate Cure’s blog post “How to Study the Psalms.” The “COMA” method is similarly helpful throughout the wisdom books (and all of Scripture), not only in the Psalms.