A LONG OBEDIENCE IN THE SAME DIRECTION (+PDF of study session questions)

My Women's Bible Study group at church recently decided to study the Psalms of Ascent with the aid of Eugene Peterson's wonderful book, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction.

Eugene Peterson wrote this book, published in 1980, to counter society's obsession with the "quick fix" and instant gratification. He focused the book on the Psalms of Ascent (Psalms 120-134) which are sometimes called the Pilgrim Psalms. These psalms were sung by pilgrims as they traveled from their hometowns to Jerusalem several times a year to attend the annual festivals. Since Jerusalem is situated on a hill, these pilgrims sang the song as they ascended the hill moving toward the holy city. Thinking of Christians today as pilgrims, Peterson, "with prophetic and pastoral wisdom, shows how the psalms teach us to grow in worship, service, joy, work, humility, community, and blessing" (Publisher).

After publishing A Long Obedience in the Same Direction Peterson embarked on a larger project -- to translate all the Psalms into idiomatic North American language. Peterson said in his 20th anniversary preface to this book, "I knew that following Jesus could never develop into a 'long obedience' without a deepening life of prayer and that the Psalms had always been the primary means by which Christians learned to pray everything they lived, and live everything they prayed over the long haul" (6). That project, which morphed beyond the psalms to the whole Bible, became known as "The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language" ("The Message", so short) translation of the Bible. It is a translation I use quite often or alongside other, more traditional translations when I am studying scripture.

Peterson died in 2018 but his son, Leif, wrote a commemorative preface including part of his eulogy for his father in this edition, published in 2021. In the eulogy Leif included a poem he wrote for his Dad which is titled "The Message." It concludes with these lines:

Because for fifty years you've 

been telling me the secret. For fifty

years you've stealed into my room

at night and whispered in softly to my

sleeping head. It is the same message

over and over and you don't vary in one bit.

God loves you.

He's on your side.

He's coming for you.

He's relentless.

This message along made me want to read the book. I wanted to learn more about this relentless God! 

When I read A Long Obedience in the Same Direction last summer I was convinced that it would make a terrific study for our women's group at church. When we finished another study in late January I pitched the idea of using this study and focusing on the Psalms of Ascent at the Bible portion of it. The only problem, there were no discussion questions. Or more correctly, there are discussion questions which were written before Peterson had even published his translation of the Bible and don't cover all fifteen of the psalms. No problem, I said, I'll write the questions for our discussion. So that is what I did. I had no idea how detailed a project that would become but ultimately it was a rewarding project for me and the feedback I got from the group was positive. 

The book is divided into sixteen chapters all on a theme related to each psalm. The theme for Psalm 120 is Discipleship, Psalm 121 is Repentance and so forth. Each week one woman would take the leadership role and guide the discussion and work through the questions. At the end of hour-long session that same person would close the session in a prayer loosely based on the week's theme or the psalm.

I enjoyed and got a lot out of reading the book for myself but studying the book alongside other women really enhanced my understanding and deepened my experience with the material. 

If you would like to study A Long Obedience in the Same Direction with your Bible study group and don't want to write your own questions, you can help yourself to mine. I've saved them as a Pdf and have been assured you don't have to have an account with Adobe Acrobat to open the document so you can print them out. Just click the link below. If, by chance, that link doesn't work for you, you can email me (click email link of the side bar) and request a WORD version of the questions. Be sure to use the title of the book in the SUBJECT line so I don't delete the request thinking it is spam.

A Long Obedience in the Same Direction PDF

Sample page of discussion questions:

(Here's the file "A Long Obedience in the Same Direction.pdf" for your review.
https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:US:e93f62ed-ecc7-440a-b414-392ff03d6c93)

-Anne