Have you ever had to decide between two choices, knowing what you choose will affect the course of your life? I couldn’t decide for sure what I wanted to be when I grew up. Part of me wanted to be a hairdresser (that’s what we called it in the 80s) and part of me wanted to be a nurse. Both helped people feel better and I couldn’t decide which path I would choose.
I used to practice cutting hair on my barbies and dolls. I think you can guess that I discovered their hair didn’t grow back. But my hair did. Much to my mother’s chagrin, I started practicing on my own hair. All through Jr High and High School my school pictures reflected these various attempts. Mom would say, “just as soon as your hair starts looking good again, you cut it all off.” I told her I thought short hair was cute and fit my sassy personality, but really I kept having to cut it shorter because I couldn’t get it even. Thankfully my mom took me to get my hair cut by a professional before my senior pictures.
When I was a freshman in high school, my twin sisters and I were in an automobile incident that left one of them in a coma for a short time. While she was in the hospital, helping care for her felt like second nature to me. Even though I was only 14, I stayed at her bedside as long as I could to try and comfort her. God used this later as I was making the big decision to choose a major in college. I fell in love with nursing and felt blessed to have assurance it was God’s calling for me. This turned out to be a the right path, especially since the haircutting wasn’t going so well. Sadly, to this day, I still cut my own bangs from time to time. My stylist is too good to me as she assures me that she would be happy to trim my bangs for free if I will just come in and let her do it instead of thinking I can chop them off myself.
Blessing or Doom?
Continuing in this series of reflections from the Psalter, Psalm 1 shows two paths a man can take and the results of the choice. The one who chooses the path of Life is blessed. Those that choose the path of wickedness are doomed.
It’s okay to be happy
Derek Kidner says it seems like Psalm 1 “was specially composed as an introduction to the whole Psalter.”1 It begins with Blessed. Kidner says a better word choice is Happy1
I grew up happy. I lived in a happy home. Everyone was not happy all of the time, but my parents did their best to ensure our happiness. Somewhere along the way, it felt more spiritual to have joy instead of happiness. Now that I know what extreme sorrow feels like, I no longer think joy and happiness need to be mutually exclusive. Joy is a beautiful word and fruit of the Holy Spirit and can exist in spite of circumstances. But to think I am more spiritual if I dramatically lay down my happiness as some kind of tribute to God, is not correct.
God’s children are happy, prosperous, and enviable because God shows them favor.2,3 This first chapter of the Psalms will give us more insight into the rest of the book as we see the contrast of the blessed man with the wicked.
The Path of Blessing
After blessed, this Psalm begins in the negative, what the blessed man does not do. He does not walk, sit, or stand with the wicked sinners and scoffers (those who are the farthest from repentance). This includes their counsel, their way of life, and where they gather to relax. In other words, the blessed man departs from the wicked who refuse to live by God’s covenant in the way he thinks, behaves, and belongs.1
What the blessed man does do is to desire God’s instruction and teaching. This is a choice he makes to protect and defend what enters his mind and influences his thinking. He habitually and actively ponders and studies God’s Word not out of obligation but because he delights in it.
Hmmmm…what does God use in my life, both positive and negative, to get me to delight in His Word?
I didn’t always feel blessed
I chose the path of blessing at a fairly young age and maybe I felt like I did something to deserve it. But after Nicholas died, I didn’t feel blessed. I was struggling with anger at God and I certainly did not feel like he was blessing me. So when I would hear someone talk about how blessed they were, I would cringe and think goody for you. God may be blessing you, but my life feels more like a curse. This struggle went on for years and was closely aligned with how my grief journey was progressing.
As I learned how to be thankful amidst suffering, my heart changed. I didn’t ever think God was upset with me for pouring out my true feelings of grief and sorrow as I cried out to Him for relief day after day. What He showed me during that time was that if I would start actively looking for things in which to thank Him, He would transform my heart and mind. And then I felt blessed in a deeper way.
A tree firmly planted
What the blessed man does for the LORD will prosper as He brings him to full maturity.2 The fruit that is yielded at just the right time is not for me alone, but for others to enjoy3 in community. This fruit continues to blossom because it is free from the crippling damage of drought2 as seen by the effects of sin.
I want to be like a tree firmly planted and tended to by streams of water. This conjures up images of the Garden of Eden and makes me long for the New Heaven and New Earth to come. This theme is woven all throughout scripture and contemplating it is a steadying force. God kicked man out of the Garden but made a way for him to return.
It’s not too late
Please join me next week as I reflect on those who do not take this path, but instead chose a path of doom. The good news is, as long as you have breath, it’s not too late to change paths.
1 Blessed is the man[a] 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[b] 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. 4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; 6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. Psalm 1 ESV
Derek Kidner, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, Volume 15, Psalm 1-72: An Introduction and Commentary. London: Intervarsity Press, 1973.
Amplified Bible. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation. Scripture quotations taken from the Amplified Bible, Copyrightc 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission
