Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

Therefore the wicked will 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 wicked will perish.

Psalm 1

I love the book of Psalms, and as we started the new year, I began meditating on Psalm 1. These six verses are filled with so many words of wisdom, I wanted to share just a couple of things here.

The first word of this psalm is “blessed.” I think we can come to that word with a lot of preconceived notions about what it means to be blessed. As Christians, our biggest blessing is that we have been made right with God. Beyond that, how do we access our blessing? Verses 1-2 tell us it is in living by God’s Word and refusing to listen to those who reject God and His Word.

When we “delight…in the law of the Lord,” we are not begrudgingly following the instructions laid out in His Word, but submitting ourselves to them willingly. For example, I love chocolate. Chocolate is a delight to me. No one has to force me to eat it. If there is a piece of chocolate in front of me, I will willingly consume it. In the same way, when we delight in God’s Word, no one has to force us to read and obey it. We do it because we love it.

Part of delighting in God’s law includes meditating on it. Biblical meditation is an active pondering. It is not emptying your mind as some Eastern religions practice, but filling your mind with God’s words – thinking about them, applying them, and praying them back to God. The psalm only says we have to do this two times: “day and night.” So that abut covers it! Everything we do in life should be done under the counsel of His Word. To please God in our everyday lives we live lives of obedience, and we can only obey His Word if we know what it says. I hope it is a goal of yours this year to spend more time getting guidance from the Word than anywhere else, because the best counsel always comes from God’s Word.

Verse 3 tells us the result of being immersed in the Word of God. “He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.” This verse paints a picture of being stable and fruitful. This is possible because the tree is abiding in its life source, the stream of water. Jesus said in John 15 “Abide in me” (v. 4), and we know from John 1 that He is the Word (v. 1). Later in John 15 Jesus says, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide n His love” (v. 10). We abide in our life source by knowing and obeying Jesus as revealed in God’s Word.

To help with this, I have created a little Scripture Meditation sheet, which you can download below. My hope is that it will help you as you ponder God’s Word and apply it to your life. Happy meditating!