Saturday, October 15, 2011

First Word # 2 : Psalm 1


Psalm 1:1–2 (ESV)
1Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
2but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.

In these familiar verses we are reminded of the blessing that God promises to those who do five things.  Three are negative and two are positive.

The first is that he promises a man will be blessed (happy and content) if he chooses not to walk in the counsel of the wicked.  So we must ask ourselves, “”when I have a difficulty or a problem to whom do I go to receive counsel?  Who do I send my child to for counsel at school?  Do they have Biblical and Godly goal in mind for my children?”

The second negative challenge is to avoid “standing in the way of sinners”.  Do I place myself continually where I am going to be influenced and taking part with those who have no desire to be honoring God with their lives or their speech?

The final negative challenge is not to sit in the seat of scoffers.  Do I avoid placing myself under the instruction and admonition of those who scoff at God and those who don’t live for him?

If I choose to spend enough time with those who are living in opposition to God that they affect my life, I will end up following them in their way.  And the end of the Psalm makes it clear that these “sinners” will not stand in the Day of Judgment, nor with the righteous, but that the “way of the ungodly will perish”

On the positive side, the first challenge is to delight in the law of God.  Can we say that we delight in God’s law?  We might say that we delight in ice cream or chocolate, but what about God’s law.  Is it a drive of our emotions and passions to be able to have time in God’s law, God’s Word?

David’s delight in the law of God brought him to the second positive challenge to have a “blessed” life.  “In His law he meditates day and night”.  When we have time for our mind to wander, to think about whatever it is that pleases us, where does it go?  Does it go to God’s Word?

For those who do, God promises great blessings in this passage.  He says we will be like a tree that never has lack of water so there can always be fruit and that our life will be prosperous, because a life guided by God’s Word will bring glory to God in everything that is done.  Our prosperity may not look like what the world and the ungodly one’s  are looking for, but the opportunity to live for God and glorify Him in our lives is worth the eternity that we will get to spend getting to know God.  For, our present life is nothing but a vapor that quickly vanishes away., according to James in Jam. 4:14  

The videdo of this can be seen at http://www.fbclittletonil.org/First%20Word.html

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