Psalm 1
All of today’s readings are similar in that they make the stark comparison between trusting and follow the Lord God Almighty, or trusting and following mere mortals.
All our readings show that living a faithful, trusting life in Christ, God the Son, attracts blessings, and living a life trusting and hoping in fleshly mortal strength attracts what Jesus calls ‘Woe’ (Luke 6:24-25), and Jeremiah more bluntly, ‘Curses’ (Jer 17:5).
If we are blessed, we are fulfilled in some way, and live a fortunate life, knowing in a very present sense that God is with us personally, helping us, and that he loves us very much and is always faithful.
This is the blessed life and everyone wants this, I think. Happiness and a fortunate life by being fulfilled in some way.
Aristotle, the philosopher, about 2400 hundred years ago, said that the pursuit of happiness is the only thing that human beings do for the sake of itself, and that every decision we make in life is made in the light of our pursuit of fulfilment.
And, of course, the endeavour of pursuing this fullness of life is at the heart of what it means to be a Christian.
Jesus said in John’s Gospel that, “I have come so that you may have life in all its fullness”. God wants us to know what a true filling of fullness-of-life is.
That’s why he gave his son Jesus into the world, so that our sins could be washed clean by his blood and so that we could have eternal access to God the Father.
Psalm 1 shows a way to pursue this fulfilment that lasts eternally – this blessedness.
“Blessed is the one who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly: nor followed the way of sinners, nor taken their seat amongst the scornful. But their delight is in the law of the Lord: and on that law will they ponder day and night.”
It’s so simple that it’s easy for us to by-pass it. I have read this Psalm many times, yet the Psalms are the truly frail human story of faith and speak afresh to our own human stories always.
The blessed life begins by not ‘walking in the counsel of the ungodly.’ That is, don’t walk in the advice of people who know nothing of God and have put their trust in mere mortals. Their advice, their counsel, is corrupted.
They will say things about people and groups of people that are simply untrue. This ungodly counsel creates division and pushes people into extreme positions on everything from vegetables to the very sanctity of life.
Jesus said we are to be in the world. Fully immersed in the world for his sake. But we are not to be of the world. We are not to be creatures of this world with its base elemental desires.
We are not to walk in the counsel of the ungodly but in the gentle and servant life of the Good Shepherd Jesus.
The blessing of a full life is to understand ever more deeply that the happiness we think we are pursuing through our life choices is only a dim shadow of the real happiness – what we know as joy – that is found in a relationship with God in Christ Jesus.
This joy is the great river running through our soul and life and that’s why in verse 3, the Psalmist describes it like this:.
“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.”
Those who pursue true happiness through the pursuit of God are like trees with deep roots and the wind and the storms of life will not uproot them.
The blessed life is being rooted in God, deeply connected to God, and finding that you are fruiting!
The blessed life is a relationship, as intense as God will let you bear it. Not like an earthly relationship with someone who may leave us, or eventually die.
But a deeply-connected relationship with the Eternal God who will hold us tightly in his embrace both now and forever.
And it is this embracing of us by God that we are truly fulfilled.
“Blessed is the one…whose delight is in the law of the Lord and who meditates on his law, day and night.”
So how to delight in the Lord and meditate on his law day and night? Well, we can’t stay up all night reading the Bible. We’ve got to get some sleep; we’ve got jobs to do and families to look after. So I don’t think it means that.
I think there’s something else here about making spiritual disciplines so much a part of our everyday life that even when we are not actively engaged with them, we are still in their presence and those disciplines are still influencing the way we live our day.
The spiritual disciplines of prayer and bible reading change our lives powerfully and daily. Here is the thing; if we are disciplined in prayer and bible reading, even when we are not praying or reading the bible, we will have a sense of the presence of God with us.
Conscious immersion in God through prayer and bible reading will transform us on a sub-conscious level.
It’s as this blessed life becomes a deeper reality for us we find the very peace of God, symbolised by the tree planted beside the river, always watered and anchored.
This the opposite of a faith portrayed as a system of ‘Do’s’ and ‘Don’ts’ as if we need to grit our teeth and do the best we can to live obedient lives and never let God or others down.
The blessed life is not that, but an ever-increasingly deep relationship with God in the person of Jesus. Just like the roots of a tree going ever deeper into the nourishing soil.
And as we learn to focus on that connection, that relationship, that deep-rootedness, we see that God is forming us and using us all for his very good purposes, and we may not have been aware of it.
Jesus said, “I have come so that you might have life in all its fullness... a peace the world cannot give you”. This is wonderful news for all the world, and this is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let me pray ...