Psalm 1
How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers.
The wicked are not so,
But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
But the way of the wicked will perish. NASB
"How blessed is the man..." Does anyone in our day and age still wish to be blessed? Does anyone still remember how to be blessed? Perhaps, if you are reading this, you are one such, who wishes to explore the ancient wisdom, to learn the path that leads to being blessed by God. If so, welcome to the journey. The purpose of the Psalms is given to us in the first Psalm: "how blessed", "delight in the law of the Lord", "meditate day and night", "yields its fruit", "The Lord knows". Let that sink in a moment. Read the Psalm again, and then let us begin.
The Declaration of Independence lays out "the pursuit of happiness" as one of the fundamental rights endowed by our Creator. Did you know that the Hebrew word used here for blessed also means happy? The writer of the Declaration undoubtably knew that the pursuit of happiness and the pursuit of blessing were one and the same thing. You can not truly be happy without the blessing of God. We have forgotten that in our time, and most pursue happiness in things that can not truly satisfy instead of pursuing blessing in the way that God prescribes.
The first step is to stop listening to the crowd. "Does not walk in the counsel of the wicked" sounds more dramatic, but that's basically what it means. Listening to the constant cry from the public square, be it by TV, music, movies or friends, will pull in the exact opposite direction of being blessed and happy. "Not listening to scoffers"- where would our press be without a full staff of vocal and eloquent scoffers? It's tempting to take the easy way and listen, but the psalmist says that in the end all of this will blow away like chaff in the wind.
The second step sounds harsh to western ears, "delight in the law of the Lord". That sounds down right un-American! My understanding of this made a great leap forward when I read a Bible teacher (though I don't recall who it was) who said that we can best understand the Old Testament by substituting "Jesus" for "law". In our New Testament understanding, Jesus fulfilled the law and became our pattern and example for living. This was the intent of the Old Testament law, but it was never able to fulfill that mission until Jesus came to fulfill all of its requirements. So start again, "his delight is in Jesus, the Messiah of the Lord". Doesn't that sound more like something that we can delight in doing?
"Like a tree..." Picture for a moment a quiet stream, with green grass, blue skies, and a majestic tree shading the bank, providing a safe and comfortable spot to sit and meditate on the wonders of creation. This begins to show us an image of what it is like to live a blessed life. If we can be firmly planted by the water, drawing our sustenance from the river of life, then we will be able to provide shelter and protection to those who look to us.
In the end, the greatest blessing is that "the Lord knows the way of the righteous". To the one who isn't seeking the blessing of God, this might not sound like a good thing. And indeed, the psalmist closes by saying that "the way of the wicked will perish". But to the one who has spent time meditating on the way of Jesus and the love of the Father, it is a very good thing to be known by the Lord, and to receive the smile of His blessing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfxT8fZi5qA
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