One of the
books of the Bible I return to with joy on a regular basis is the Psalms.
Here we find
an openness and an honesty. Here is the human condition revealed, the highs and
the lows. Here we see a man after God’s own heart struggling with the same
thoughts and passions we struggle with each and every day.
The Psalms
guide us on our walk, giving us the road map, letting us know how to enter into
and maintain our relationship with God, what one commentator called “His
covenant instruction.”1,2.
Psalm 1 is
the entry into the book of Psalms. It is the gateway. And from the very
beginning there is a clear choice. Wickedness or God’s blessing.
To be
blessed this man must already be walking in the way of the Lord. To be blessed
is to enjoy God’s favour. This blessed man, sets an example, someone we should
look to and model ourselves after.
But what is
the alternative? Those who refuse to live in relationship with the Lord are
lost in a gale of wickedness, of sin and scoffing. It’s interesting to note the
progression of movement here, from walking to standing to sitting. To
understand this fully, consider the word “not.” The Blessed man has refused the
influence of the wicked, where they walk, he does not walk, he is not listening
to their words, or ideas, or theories, he is not buying into their worldview, he
does not share their ideologies. Rather he is looking to the Word of God.
The Blessed
man is not standing around talking with those who sin, how he chooses to live
is based on the teachings he finds in the Bible.3 He is looking to
godliness rather than godlessness.4
The blessed
man is listening to the council of the Lord: He is meditating on it, day and
night. The council that he finds in the Law, the very same council we will find
in the pages of our Bibles. This meditating is a close and careful reading, a
prayerful reading, a seeking of God in the pages of the Book He has given us
for just that purpose: Finding Him!
Yet, when
this Psalm was written the blessed man would only have had the words of Moses,
and we are so much more blessed in that we have the whole Word of God in and
through which the person of Christ is woven.
At the end
of the Psalm we are assured that walking with God means we are very much part
of the promised redemption.
What an amazing
thing to have in our hands, and even more to be able to read and consider, and
meditate on and pray through. Nothing more than a gateway to the presence of
Jesus Himself.
Amen.
1. 1. The whole Bible is an instruction
manual, the do’s and the don’ts. Psalms is a great way to get into reading God’s
Word. As a matter of fact, that’s exactly what Psalm 1 tells us we need to do: “…meditate
on it day and night.”
2. 2. Quote from the Global Bible Study
Notes, Olive Tree.
3. 3. What is being referred to here as the
Word is most likely to be the words of Moses, the Pentateuch.
4. 4. Williams, Donald M. Psalms 1-72. (The Preachers Commentary, Vol
13); e-sword.