A Long Obedience in the Same Direction Bible Study

By Eugene H. Peterson, Dale Larsen and Sandy Larsen

We are surrounded by a society that idealizes quick results and stimulating experiences. The Christian life, however, calls us to be not tourists but pilgrims—disciples committed to a long journey of faith.
These six studies, based on Eugene Peterson's bestselling A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, provide an accessible guide for growing in perseverance. Find encouragement in the Psalms to press on with qualities such as hope, repentance, patience, and joy.
As companions to the IVP Signature Collection, IVP Signature Bible Studies help individuals and groups explore and apply biblical truths found in classic books. Each session features quotations from A Long Obedience in the Same Direction matched with Scripture passages, reflection questions, and application ideas that will equip readers to connect the text to their own lives. A leader's guide and list of suggested resources are also included.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IVP Bible Studies
• Release date: May 11, 2021
• ISBN: 9780830850730

Eugene H. Peterson

Eugene H. Peterson (1932–2018) was a longtime pastor and professor of spiritual theology at Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia. His many acclaimed books include Tell It Slant, The Jesus Way, Eat This Book, and the contemporary translation of the Bible titled The Message.

Book preview

Cover: Eugene H. Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction (Bible Study)IllustrationIllustration

Contents

Getting the Most Out of

A Long Obedience in the Same Direction Bible Study

Introduction

Tourists and Pilgrims

Session One

Repentance

Psalm 120

Session Two

Help

Psalm 124

Hazardous Work

Session Three

Joy

Psalm 126

Session Four

Patience

Psalm 129

Session Five

Hope

Psalm 130

Session Six

Faith

Psalm 132

Leading a Small Group

Suggested Resources

Notes

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

MORE TITLES FROM INTERVARSITY PRESS

Getting the Most Out of

KNOWING CHRIST is where faith begins. From there we are shaped through the essentials of discipleship: Bible study, prayer, Christian community, worship, and much more. We learn to grow in Christlike character, pursue justice, and share our faith with others. We persevere through doubts and gain wisdom for daily life. These are the topics woven into the IVP Signature Bible Studies. Working through this series will help you practice the essentials by exploring biblical truths found in classic books.

How It’s Put Together

Each session includes an opening quotation and suggested reading from the book A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, a session goal to help guide your study, reflection questions to stir your thoughts on the topic, the text of the Bible passage, questions for exploring the passage, response questions to help you apply what you’ve learned, and a closing suggestion for prayer.

The workbook format is ideal for personal study and also allows group members to prepare in advance for discussions and record discussion notes. The responses you write here can form a permanent record of your thoughts and spiritual progress.

Throughout the guide are study-note sidebars that may be useful for group leaders or individuals. These notes do not give the answers, but they do provide additional background information on certain questions and can challenge participants to think deeper or differently about the content.

What Kind of Guide Is This?

The studies are not designed to merely tell you what one person thinks. Instead, through inductive study, they will help you discover for yourself what Scripture is saying. Each study deals with a particular passage—rather than jumping around the Bible—so that you can really delve into the biblical author’s meaning in that context.

The studies ask three different kinds of questions about the Bible passage:

Observation questions help you to understand the content of the passage by asking about the basic facts: who, what, when, where, and how.

Interpretation questions delve into the meaning of the passage.

Application questions help you discover implications for growing in Christ in your own life.

These three keys unlock the treasures of the biblical writings and help you live them out.

This is a thought-provoking guide. Each question assumes a variety of answers. Many questions

Reviews for A Long Obedience in the Same Direction Bible Study

[pgchuis · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Perhaps inevitably I found some chapters of this book more helpful and comprehensible than others. However, Peterson's anecdotes are always real and down to earth, and an extra star for his quoting from my favourite author, Anthony Trollope.

[stephenbarkley · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Seventeen publishers rejected this manuscript.Peterson recalls being informed that "there was no 'niche' in the market, ... that it was irrelevant to the concerns of contemporary North Americans" (202). Who wants to purchase a book on Spiritual Growth with the words "long" and "obedience" in the title, anyway?Fortunately, InterVarsity Press took a risk and published a book that spoke honestly about Spiritual Growth. Life with God is not a sprint—it's a decade-long path of obedience. Whether or not the message is popular is irrelevant: it's true.This book is a meditation on the 15 Songs of Ascent (Psalms 120-134). Even at the beginning of his career, Peterson had a knack for taking ancient scripture with all its obscurity (Kedar? Meshech?) and making it deeply understandable and personal. As a pastor, I'm amazed at his skill. The modern applications he explores are so obvious in hindsight—but it takes someone like Peterson to point them out in the first place.I don't recommend many devotional works. I'm probably too cynical, but I find that most of Christendom's best-sellers are little more than pop-psychology with a Christian veneer. This is not the case with Peterson. A Long Obedience in the Same Direction runs counter to the spirit of our age even as it aligns with God's paths.I suspect this is one of those books that will be reprinted in perpetuity for the life of the church.

[lothiriel2003 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book is a treasure! Peterson uses the psalms of ascent to frame his discussion of living the Christian life and learning to live like Christ. Chapters explore topics such as hope, perseverance, community, joy, etc. I will read this one again and again!

[wilsonknut · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is one of the best books about Christian faith I have read. Peterson draws his title from Friedrich Nietzsche, a most unlikely place. "The essential thing 'in heaven and earth' is... that there should be long obedience in the same direction; there thereby results, and has always resulted in the long run, something which has made life worth living." Peterson's premise is that today's marketing/tourist mindset has changed religion and how people practice it. He examines Psalms 120-134, the Songs of Ascent, and how they pertain to the "long obedience in the same direction" of Christianity. Some quotes:"There is a great market for religious experience in our world; there is little enthusiasm for the patient acquisition of virtue, little inclination to sign up for a long apprenticeship in what earlier generations of Christians called holiness.""...I am quite sure that for a pastor in Western culture at the dawn of the twenty-first century, the aspect of the world that makes the work of leading Christians in the way of faith most difficult is what Gore Vidal has analyzed as 'today's passion for the immediate and the casual.' Everyone is in a hurry. The persons whom I lead in worship... want shortcuts. They want me to help them fill out the form that will get them instant credit (in eternity). They are impatient for results." On joy- "We try to get it through entertainment. We pay someone to make jokes, tell stories, perform dramatic actions, sing songs. We buy the vitality of another's imagination to divert and enliven our own poor lives. The enormous entertainment industry in America is a sign of the depletion of joy in our culture. Society is a bored, gluttonous king employing a court jester to divert it after an overindulgent meal. But that kind of joy never penetrates our lives... When we run out of money, the joy trickles away.""Western culture takes up where Babel left off and deifies human effort as such. The machine is the symbol of this way of life which attempts to control and manage... Machines become more important than the people who use them. We care more for our possessions with which we hope to make our way in the world than with our thoughts and dreams which tell us who we are in the world."

[marthahuntley · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is the third time I've read A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, and it has the same kind of staying power - as does its author, Eugene Peterson - as it talks about. The book is not exactly a Bible study; it is more a scriptural meditation, which Peterson excels at and has done all his pastoral life. Reading it will teach one to read scripture prayerfully and carefully, with response all important. In 2000, the 20th anniversary edition was released with a little updating and Bible passages from Peterson's The Message instead of the RSV. The book is of historic interest, because it was in writing it that Peterson was led to embark on his paraphrase of the Bible which came out as The Message. It was also the first of about 30 more books of scriptural meditation/discipleship. I've read about 10 of his other books and they are magnificent. If you are a follower of Christ, and haven't read any Eugene Peterson yet, please do so!!!!