Day 1: Psalm 1

There isn’t a book of the Bible that has been referred to more, studied more, or written into Hallmark cards more than the Psalms.

This is true especially in times of trouble. Much of the Psalms are written by King David, and much of them have trouble as a backdrop. Some of these Psalms are written during a seventy-year period when the nation of Israel was in exile in the unfamiliar place of Babylon. For that very reason, I turn to the Psalms when I am in an unfamiliar place. I imagine you feel that way right now. Life consistently handed the Israelites a season of “we’ve never done this before.” I imagine you feel that way right now. We’ve never done a pandemic. You’ve never taught homeschool. You’ve never worked from home. You’ve never had to stand six feet away from your grandkids. For that very reason, I invite you into the Psalms. They are streams of life flowing to a weary soul. The Psalms begin with an image of a kind of person we are to be. Notice Psalm 1:1-3,

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, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. 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.

We are to be the kind of people who draw our soul’s contentment and our spiritual food from the scriptures, in the same way a tree draws water from its roots. God’s goal for you is not just moral transformation or spiritual transformation. Rather it is transformation of your whole self, that you would grow into a strong tree of righteousness and goodness. The prophet Isaiah says that when God finds us, He turns us into “oaks of righteousness.”

Becoming the kind of person who is better, not bitter, stronger, not withered by storms is only possible when we have taken the Psalmist’s invitation.

Pastor Jared