Psalm 1 – Eternal Blessings

I’m going to be reading through the Psalms. I’ll be making an effort to write a bit about each Psalm that I read. I’m not going to preach about the Psalms; I’m just going to comment on what I read, sharing my thoughts and feelings. Feel free to comment on what I write.

Today I read Psalm 1. It reminded me of a conversation I had not too long ago with a gentleman who didn’t feel that the Old Testament really talks much about life after death. I think the Old Testament does, in a lot of places, and Psalm 1 is one of those places.

Look at the first three verses.

¹ 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;
² but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.
³ 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. (ESV)

What does that mean? To me, it means that the person who meditates on God’s law and find his delight in it will live forever. Does it mean that the person who delights in God’s law will be rich or never get a deadly disease? I don’t think so. I think the focus is much more expansive than that. I think the idea here is eternal prosperity, not fleeting riches.

Verses 4 and 5 say the same thing to me. The wicked are like “chaff that the wind drives away.” And they will not stand in the judgment (what judgment?), and they will not be counted among the righteous, but they will perish.

This Psalm also reminds me where my focus should be; on God’s Word. Very often I delight in other things more than God’s Word: my high def T.V. for instance, or my computer, or my bike, or my wife . . . the list is long. But God’s Word is life. It is knowledge. It’s the voice of God, available to you and to me, anytime we have the will to pick it up and look at it.

What do you delight in?