Psalm 1

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, 
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;

But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
And in His law he meditates day and night.

He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,

Whose leaf also shall not wither,
And whatever he does shall prosper.

The ungodly are not so,
But are like chaff which the wind drives away.

Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment,
Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

For the LORD knows the way of the righteous,
But the way of the ungodly shall perish.

The greatest privilege we have as Christians is to worship and praise God which the Psalms teach us how to do. In verse 1, it says how blessed we are we when we choose wise counsel. A life question would be, where do I take counsel from? Wicked counsel in our lives produces sin. If we listen to the ungodly counsel it could lead us astray and against the will of God. In this world today, most people do not walk in godly counsel, but in counsel from wicked people who are against God. 

When it says "man" in verse 1, it speaks of a person. The comparison here is the godly and the ungodly. When it mentions "walking" the context is "walking beside, standing with, or sitting beside". The righteous person here speaks of one who is in the world, but unaffected by the world.

In verse 2, it mentions delight being in the law of the LORD. And in His law he meditates day and night. A life question would be, what do I delight in? What is the forefront of my life? What do I take pleasure in? How do I feel about the Holy Scriptures? 

When a person has their delight in the things or the way of God they do not find enjoyment with wicked people, but finds enjoyment in the things of God, particularly the Word of God. 

When it speaks of the law of the LORD here it is referring to the Pentateuch, which are the first five books of the Old Testament. The Hebrew word for law expresses the idea of God pointing out the path for life in fellowship with Him. 

Meditates means "to mumble or to speak to oneself". Biblical meditation is focusing the mind on Scripture. 

He shall be like a tree... The tree has been firmly planted, well-watered and is valuable and productive. The righteous person is valuable and productive to God. God finds pleasure in the righteous person. 

The ungodly are like chaff... the ungodly have no stability.

The path... there are two ways to live; two choices in life to make. Only one way leads to God. Where it says the the LORD KNOWS the way of the righteous... it means the righteous person has a deep commitment and relationship with the LORD. They are walking in fellowship with God and refusing to embrace the ungodly things in life. The focus for the righteous person is pleasing God and God's focus is on the them in a personal relationship. 

Personal Reflection

Sometimes my "delight in the LORD" is faulty. Hard times come and just like anyone else it is easy to take my focus off of God and focus on the situation at hand. It is easy for a Christian to say they trust God. But how is that trust? Is it trusting God fully at all times 100%? Or is my trust like the double-minded person, here and there or for specific times only? If my delight remains on the LORD and the things of God, then when the challenges of life come, I will be grounded and be able to remain steadfast trusting Him in every single situation. My desire is to be like that tree planted and is standing firm and prospering and producing good fruit.

Today's meditation was a combination of my own personal thoughts and some Bible study along with it and using study notes to reflect. Thank you God for Your Word and for helping me to examine where my delight truly is. Amen. 

One of the books in my readings today is from Lamentations. Jeremiah was crying out to the Lord because the people would not repent and he was feeling the repercussions of it. He was pleading with God. In the midst of the darkness he was feeling he focused on God and comforted himself by remembering what God had done for him. 

Lamentations 3:20 - 26

Surely my soul remembers and is bowed down within me. 
This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. 
The LORD'S lovingkindness indeed never cease,
For His compassions never fail. 
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
"The LORD is my portion," says my soul,
"Therefore I have hope in Him."
The LORD is good to those who wait for Him,
To the person who seeks Him.
It is good that he waits silently for the salvation of the LORD.

All of us go through hard times; some severe and some fleeting. Sometimes we may feel like God is not there and His presence is void in our lives. Sometimes it feels like God is just silent and we will never hear from Him. Sometimes our own darkness and pain can cloud us spiritually and we find ourselves not wanting to pray or study His word. I am encouraged by Jeremiah here in that his focus was on the goodness of God even in the midst of the dark times he was facing. And what is worse for him was that he was right with God and the suffering he was going through was a result of the people. He did cry out in agony, yet here he is focusing on the blessings of God. I wish I had the faith Jeremiah had here. I find myself in hard times sometimes pulling away and retreating to self-pity. My desire for prayer and the Word are affected because i have allowed myself to focus on the hard time rather than trusting God fully and remaining joyful. 

Those words in this passage "surely my soul remembers"  ministered to me as a reminder that when hard times come to look back and allow my soul to remember the blessings and the times God has come through over and over. It also says because he recalled to his mind what God had already done, it brought him hope. And then such comforting words came after that.

The LORD'S lovingkindness (his mercy) NEVER cease. It never stops coming. God does run out of it. This is so comforting!

For His compassions never fail. They are new every morning. Such comfort knowing that every single day I awake to face my day... no matter what I face... God is compassionate with me. He doesn't withhold it from me. 

Great is Your faithfulness. Even when I am not faithful His is great. There are many things in my life that I am not faithful to God in. Sin clouds our minds and unless we live in a constant state of repentance we will fail Him every single day. I cannot say great is my faithfulness to Him because I am a flawed human being. Only God's faithfulness is great.

The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him.

A lot of things in life involve us just waiting on God. How many prayers do we pray that we feel goes unanswered and we give up praying about it? We are to remain faithful to Him in the waiting. God does not give up on us and neither should we give up on God in even the tiniest areas or our lives.

... to the person who seeks Him...

What exactly is involved in "seeking the LORD"? I looked this up in the Hebrew meaning. One of the meanings is to ask; specifically to worship. To seek deity in prayer and worship.

I found that very interesting because normally when you think of the word seek you think of inquiring about something or going after something. But the meaning here is more than just asking or inquiring, but it involves the method of seeking God. IN PRAYER AND WORSHIP.

When asked the question, do you pray and worship? One can say of course I do. Do you seek God? We can flippantly say of course we do. But the question for myself is: Do I truly seek Him through prayer and worship? How is my prayer life? Do I live my life worshiping God on a daily basis? If I am not, then I am not truly seeking the LORD. 

This also brings me to the thought of what do we seek? A sports fan might seek the next game diligently. It becomes their passion. Or perhaps a person will seek fame and fortune and become blinded to what is truly important. My point is we seek wholeheartedly what our heart's desire is. 

We would have much stronger and less worldly Christians if we truly sought the LORD diligently and committed doing this through diligent study of His word and prayer. 

Final heart check question for me: What am I passionate about? What am I seeking? If my answer is not the LORD then I am committing idolatry because anything above Him is just that.