Mike's Day 1: Psalm 1

The psalmist describes a blessed man and the wicked. The blessed man 'delights in the law of the LORD' upon which he meditates day and night, prospering, producing fruit in season. This is unlike the wicked who are 'like chaff that the wind blows away'.

So for this season of Lent I will read, and talk about, the Psalms, Psalms 1-46. I love the Psalms, but, I think, they are deceptively simple. The Psalms is a songbook, however the focus for this one is on the words, not on the tune. Compare this to contemporary worship songs, which probably focus on the melody more than words (I could be wrong, but I doubt will we carrying around collections of modern worship lyrics in a thousand years time). Plus, the words are all we have: you could set the Psalms to music, and there are helpful headings if only we understood e.g. Psalm 6 – 'according to sheminith'.

Anyway, back to Psalm 1. We begin with contrasting approaches to living in relation to God: the 'way of the righteous' and 'the way of the wicked' (v.6). The Psalm might be a poetic summary of Deuteronomy 28, calling Israel to remember the Blessings of Obedience and Curses for Disobedience, and reaffirm their commitment to walk in the way of Blessing. Meditate upon the Law, so that you are enabled to fully obey and carefully follow God's commands, and you will be counted among the righteous, and experience the Blessings of the Covenant. Conversely, ignore this (and get carried away with mockers etc.) and you will experience the Curses in Deut 28.

In Matthew 5 Jesus says something fairly similar with the wise and foolish builders, re-focused this time around himself and his teaching. This might be the Christian lens for reading Psalm 1. It is highly unlikely the Pslamist is advocating a simple minded 'meditation'/'hearing the word' which does not result in some kind of life-response, as Chrissy touched on this in terms of 'hearing the word' in her Day 1 Blog, though surely there is an argument to be made for the influence of thought patterns, vis-a-vie meditation, on state of mind and consequent behaviour.

'Refreshment' is another word that springs to mind re: Psalm 1 'like a tree planted by streams of water'. The kind of ever-green person Psalm 1 describes certainly is worth aspiring to become, someone who can weather the storms of life when (not if) they come and produce fruit in season.

Mike.