Psalm 1

I thought we could use a bit more Bible in our lives - at least, I know I could.  So, I am going to be working my way through Psalms and I hope you'll join me.
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I am glad to be starting here,  Psalm 1 is one of my favorite passages and I come back to it often.

¹ Blessed is the one
   who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
   or sit in the company of mockers, 


This verse is clear about who is blessed.  I think, as Christians, we are very careful not to walk with the wicked, but perhaps we are not so careful about where or with whom we stand or sit.  It is one thing to stand or sit in one place and say, "I cannot help what is around me.", but a very different thing to move ourselves out of those places.  2 Timothy 2:22 tells us, "Flee evil desires of youth, but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart".  Obviously, there is more to it than being in one place!  We are to FOLLOW the good.  I don't know about you, but I don't think I can follow anything by standing or sitting.
 
² but whose delight is in the law of the LORD,
   and who meditates on His law day and night. 

Delight!  I love that word.  What do you delight in - what do you take pleasure in?  If I were to ask you to quickly jot down five things that delight you, would the law of the Lord make the list?  My guess is probably not.  I'll be honest, that isn't an answer that would come to me.  That's when I look at the second part of this verse, "...and who meditates on His law day and night."  That's the problem right there.  Perhaps my delight would be in the law of the Lord if I were meditating on it day and night.  
 
³ 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. 

That person - the one who delight's in the law of the Lord and meditates on it day and night - grows, produces, lives.  When I feel "withered", could it be because I have stopped taking in the water, the abundant blessings of my Lord?
 
 ⁴ Not so the wicked!
   They are like chaff
   that the wind blows away. 

Chaff isn't something we really know about these days.  The analogy may be lost on some of us in modern times.  Chaff is the light, papery husk of cereal grains such as wheat, rice and barley.  (That's rice chaff in the photo to the left.)  In those days, the chaff was threshed from the grain on the "threshing floor" and then workers would light a fire to one side of the grain and then fan from the other side.  The chaff, being light, would blow into the fire while the heavier grain was left on the floor, cleaned and ready to be gathered up.  (Matthew 3:12 references this process again, referring to how the Lord will judge and separate, burning the chaff in "unquenchable fire.")  The lines are drawn very clearly here.  Think back to that tree planted by the water, yielding fruit, not withering and compare it to this dry, dusty husk picked up into the air by a breeze and whisked into the fire, destroyed.  Lush, green and clean next to dirty, withered castoff.  
 
⁵ Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
   nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. 

Again, it is made clear that the wicked are doomed.  They are not blessed, there are not fed by the streams of water, they are cast into the fire!
 
 ⁶ For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous,
   but the way of the wicked leads to destruction. 

Are you letting the Lord watch over your path?  Are you letting Him lead you or have you chosen your own way?  You can be sure that any way that isn't God's way, is the way of chaff, the way of the wicked, the sinners and the mockers - the way of destruction.