More and more Christians are hurting. They attend church regularly and try to live the way they feel God wants them to, but they still find themselves suffering spiritually and emotionally. Often their deepest hurts have come from other Christians. The result has been that many are afraid to admit they are having problems: after all, Christians are supposed to be joyful and happy, aren’t they? They get down on themselves and begin to wonder what is wrong spiritually. They may even question whether God has abandoned them.

Some churches ignore the Hurting Christian, but others offer programs which often result in people becoming emotionally dependent on the church, the programs, or the leaders of the church. I have discovered that there are Hurting Christians in every church, and their number is growing. The problem is: how do you minister to the Hurting Christian without making them dependent on the minister or the program?

As our family was wrestling with our own emotional battles, many passages of the Bible took on new meaning as I saw our problems addressed in a unique way in scripture. As we told others about our own struggles, we were surprised by the number of people who stepped forward with their own stories of lonely battles of the mind and soul. Many had simply been too afraid to admit that they weren’t "spiritual" enough to overcome their problems. Others felt they had to suffer in silence. And sadly, still others felt they were too unworthy for God to help them. It was then I realized that there was a real need for Bible Studies which relate to the emotional turmoil that too many of us have to face. The beautiful thing about the Bible is it contains answers to today’s problems. All you have to do is read the book of Proverbs to realize that people haven’t changed that much in the past 3000 years. The Bible was written to give us guidance, not only for our daily walk of faith, but also for all our modern emotional and spiritual dilemmas.

This study is the first in a series on the psalms. I have included six psalms which have meant a lot to me over the years. Each chapter contains personal study questions which are numbered. It is best to read the psalm and answer the numbered questions before reading my comments. You will get much more out of the study if you take the time to answer the questions at home and meditate upon the psalm before coming to the Group Study. Sprinkled among the psalms are gray boxes which contain some interesting background information and some comments by early Restoration Movement leaders that I hope you find useful. Before you begin any study of the Bible, it is always a good idea to pray for understanding.

Help for the Hurting Christian series of Bible Studies is designed to get us back to the word of God for help with our problems. As we study scripture, our emphasis will be on God and how we can be ministered to. Whether it’s distress, hopelessness, guilt, a weak faith, or suffering, we will find solutions from the Bible for our modern troubles. As we learn from God’s word, we find our spirits lifted, our anguish calmed, and our faith strengthened. My prayer is that as you go through this Bible Study, you will learn to trust in God more by learning from scripture, and that you will discover a new joy!

Small Groups
Notes for the Study Leader
How to Use This Bible Study

Each chapter goes through one psalm (or part of one psalm) verse by verse. There are two kinds of questions in bold print in the studies. The numbered ones are designed for home study. Each numbered question is based on the verse or verses immediately preceding it. Not all participants will do home study, so these questions are also good for group discussion. There are other questions that are not numbered which are designed to encourage sharing and discussion. Besides my personal remarks, I have included a large number of comments from Bible teachers down through the centuries which I found noteworthy. There are also occasional poems and comments on the Hebrew text. The gray boxes sprinkled throughout each psalm contain background material and quotes from early Restoration Movement leaders. Hopefully, you will find plenty of material for each study to help add to your own comments.

Format of a Small Group Study

Most small group studies should take an hour and a half or two hours. I personally prefer the shorter study. That way people can get home at a reasonable time, and I think it encourages more participation. Every session of my Small Group Studies contains the following six elements in this order:

1. Time of fellowship

2. Singing

3. Prayer

4. Snack and bathroom break

5. Bible Study

6. Closing

The order of some of these elements and whether you include each activity will be determined by the emphasis of the group leader and the desire of the group. Here’s a description and suggestions for each activity.

Fellowship

There needs to be a time when people can freely talk to one another and get to know each other. This can begin when people start arriving before the Bible Study "officially" starts. This will also occur during the snack break. As people get to know each other better, they will feel more relaxed, and feel more at ease about discussing their personal struggles in the group. If the group is new or shy, you can help initiate a time of sharing by asking people questions. You may remember a prayer request someone had the previous week, and ask how everything turned out. Don’t only have a conversation with one person, but be sure to include as many people as possible.

Singing

Ten to fifteen minutes of singing and worshipping is a good way to get everyone’s focus on God instead of on their own problems. If you have musicians or singers in the group, get them involved in helping with the songs. If not, then it’s up to the leader to prepare ahead of time a list of songs to sing. I like to type the words to all the songs on a sheet of paper to be handed out to each participant. This way you can go from one song to the next fluidly. You may want to start the singing with livelier numbers and then move to slower more worshipful songs. It’s fun to sing new songs, but most of the songs should be old favorites.

Prayer

One of the advantages of a small group atmosphere is the opportunity to share needs and pray for one another. Some will be very willing to share their prayer requests, others will be hesitant. After all the requests are made known, it’s good to tell everyone to feel free to pray for any of the requests they have heard, then you open the prayer. Allow others to pray, and then you close the prayer. After the group has been together for awhile, this will become easier. Another option is for you to go around the circle with each person praying.

Snack and Bathroom Break

This may seem frivolous to you, but drinks and some snack are an important part of a Small Group Study. People’s throats do get dry, but besides the practical aspect, by serving snacks you are saying, "Welcome to our study; we are doing something special because you came." Snacks add to the warm, informal atmosphere of a Small Group Study and make people feel welcome. Having a snack break facilitates conversation among people as they are standing around the snack table pouring their drink and getting their cookie.

Bible Study

This is why we meet: to learn something from the Bible. I like to have 45 minutes for actual Bible study. If you are doing a two hour study, you should try to have one hour of Bible study. The successful Small Group Study will be a time when everyone enters in, sharing their ideas and insights. Some teaching by the leader is essential, but people tend to remember better what they learn when they are involved in the teaching process. The way I do this is I ask how those in the Study answered Question # 1, or I ask what they think the verse means, or some other question to get the group’s input. Then I don’t respond to their answers with my own thoughts until all who wish have answered. Only then do I reveal what I have learned from the passage under discussion. Even if it’s already been said by someone else, I think it’s good for leaders to confirm the main ideas of the scripture, what it personally means to them. Although we want to encourage others to share, I believe it is essential for the leader to do some teaching. Leaders should not dominate the time, but neither should they just sit back and moderate the discussion. The leader must spend some time in preparation and be prepared to teach something.

There will be times when the group will go off onto a different subject. Sometimes this can be very helpful and instructive, but generally you need to steer the group back to the subject at hand. Although there have been times when someone asked a question, and I felt the discussion was so relevant to the group that I allowed it to take up the whole time because I felt God was ministering to the group in that area. But these times should be the exception, not the rule. If we have spent a long time in group discussion and it’s almost time to quit, I like to bring the group back to the section of the Bible under consideration and conclude with some teaching from my own study. This way the group will always leave with some new thing they can take with them that week. I don’t like to end a Bible Study without at least some teaching from scripture.

Closing

I always close in prayer. I like to have a definite closing, and I believe it is essential to end on time or very close to on time. People have obligations. They have to get to work early the next day or get their children to bed. No one likes to be rude and interrupt, but they will feel uncomfortable if they never know how late you might go. If they know you will always end on time, they will be more likely to keep coming to the Bible Study. Our Bible studies start at 7:00 and end promptly at 8:30. Of course, even though you are officially dismissed, you need to let people know they are welcome to stay and talk if they don’t need to rush off.