Psalm 1 - Blessed is the one

For generations, Christian people have read and sung the psalms. Jesus knew and loved the Psalms and He often quoted from them. There’s a depth, a rawness, a realness, about the words that we find in this book. 

The Psalms show us what it looks like to live in this world as a person of faith. The Psalms engage not with the world as we would like it to be, but with the world as it is.

Today we begin our journey through the book of Psalms, a book that opens in ch 1 vs 1 with the word ‘blessed’. It’s a word that Jesus used Himself, in what is sometimes called ‘The Sermon on the Mount’ (Matthew vs 3-12). Being ‘blessed’ is a word that is to do with being happy, happy not because of what is going on around us, but happy because of who we belong to. 

We live in a world where there are so many voices around us, so many voices that can shape us and fill our minds. In the midst of this sea of influence and information the blessed person is pictured as someone who is finding delight not in human words but in God’s word.

Like a stream planted by streams of water this person has an inner life to them, that in some ways is not determined by the ‘season’ in which they live. 

Not every road, not every choice, leads to this life. Psalm 1 is a Psalm of contrasts. There is a way of living, a way of choosing that can be blown away with frightening ease.  

Pause for a minute. Imagine yourself starting out on the path that leads into the next number of weeks and months. Do you picture yourself alone? Or do you picture yourself with the LORD watching over you (vs6)? May you be blessed at this time.