Bible

34 Psalms In 34 Days: Psalm 1

At Laurel Canyon, we’re dedicating the next 34 days (starting today) to reading and meditating upon 34 different psalms.   My goal here is to provide some tidbit food-for-thought on each coinciding day.   Why not join us on the journey?   You can download our reading calendar here.

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

“His delight is in the law of the LORD.” Delight.   A vivid, emotional word.   It’s defined as “a high degree of pleasure or enjoyment; joy; rapture; something that gives great pleasure.”

Don’t we naturally meditate on our sources of delight?   If we take a “high degree of pleasure” from watching basketball, we anxiously look forward to game time.   If we find great joy in our spouse, we seem to instinctively yearn just to be in their presence.   If what we feel on the the first tee of a golf course could accurately be described as “rapture,” the next possibility to tee off consistently fills our daydreams.   If shopping gives us great pleasure, then we will actively seek out such opportunities.   We all understand what it means to delight in people, possessions, and possibilities.

But the LORD alone is the source of truly enduring delight.   The hours devoted to a televised sporting event quickly pass.   Even the closest of our human relationships cannot atone for our mistakes.   The best round of golf on the finest course in the world ultimately boils down to chasing a little white ball into a hole in the ground.   Today’s fashion demand is tomorrow’s gift to Goodwill.

But the LORD lives on.   His wisdom endures.   His promises stand.   His faithfulness is from everlasting to everlasting.

Which means that if I dilute my soul with the cheap trinkets of this world to the point that my singularly greatest delight is not in the law of the LORD, I’ve missed it all.   I’ve neglected the only enduring oasis in the universe for the ever-shifting sands that will never satisfy.

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