Get Your Roots Down
Opening Prayer
Heavenly Father, may Your holy Word nourish my mind and spirit today so that I grow more pleasing to You.
Read Psalm 1:1-6
[1] Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, [2] but whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law day and night. [3] That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither- whatever they do prospers. [4] Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. [5] Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. [6] For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction. Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. All rights reserved throughout the world. Used by permission of International Bible Society.
Reflect
Why is this person blessed, and what is the result?Heavenly and earth-bound ideas interweave freely here to present a picture of the godly life. This forms a pattern for all the psalms to follow. Servants of the true God are like well-nourished trees, planted in good soil (2,3). His people are also rooted in God’s laws. They don’t just obey them, they delight in them. This is the same as saying that they are thoroughly blessed by God. This, in turn, means that they will do well in every aspect of their lives, whether in prison or governing a household (Gen. 39:3,23). If we find it difficult to grasp how reflecting on God’s statutes might have such a result, this tells a lot about our own walk with God. The accounts in Genesis 1-11 have close echoes in this psalm. Here we have a model for anyone who wants to be either righteous or prosperous and, on the other hand, an example of how like Adam, Eve, Cain and the Canaanites the misguided people in Psalm 1 are! The contrast between the established, nurtured tree and the hopeless chaff is especially telling (4,5). The Hebrew word for “wicked” (6) is synonymous with “ungodly.” Those who have lost sight of God will perish.
Apply
Can you say that you really “delight” in God’s law? How does your “meditation” on it enrich your life?
Closing prayer
Lord, give me a greater desire to know and really love Your Word. I want to delight in it and flourish by it.
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