May 5 (Daily reading: Psalms 1-2, 15, 22-24, 47, 68) Psalm 1 begins with: “Blessed is the person…” The secret of blessing is living in and by the word of God: “His delight is in the Law of the LORD, and on His Law he meditates day and night” (v. 2). The psalmist also gave the path of non-blessing, of a life of misery. He described a progression of walking, standing and sitting: walking in and communicating with the way of sinners; stopping and standing on the path that leads to destruction; and sitting or settling in, becoming a participant in the lifestyle of those who disdain God. Sin is not usually a great leap into wrongdoing, but a progression that begins by refusing to “just walk on by.” Compare in your thinking Joseph and the wife of Potiphar (Gen. 39:12) to David and Bathsheba (2 Sam. 11:4).
The psalmist presented a delightful image of this life of blessing: “He will be like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season” (v. 3). This is where we want to sit, to plant ourselves: by the stream of God’s supply so that we will bear the fruit He produces!
This image is renewed in Psalm 23:2, “He lets me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters.” The green pastures are fed by the same source that provides the quiet waters: the rain that falls from above. Eternal life in Christ is living in the abundance of God’s provision (green pastures) and enjoying the peace of being in a right relationship with God and others (quiet waters), all supplied by the blessings poured out on us from above! “The heavens also dropped rain at the presence of God … You made plentiful rain fall, God; You confirmed Your inheritance when it was parched” (Ps. 68:8-9).
– Al Gary
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