Page 58 - Living light - The Psalms

Monday August 5 - Follow the right path
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... Psalm 1:1
The words that jump out at me when I read this verse are ‘walk’, ‘stand’ and ‘sit’. There are those who actively go along with wrongdoing, even initiate it. There are those who go along with the crowd. And there are those who do nothing, but by their presence in bad company imply their approval of what is going on. It’s very easy to find yourself ‘sitting’ with sinners – e.g. listening to gossip, not challenging bad behaviour and words – even if you’re not doing it yourself.
In contrast, the one who is blessed – the one who lives in the fullness of God’s promised coming kingdom – walks, stands, and sits apart from evil. He or she is not found pulling in the opposite direction to God’s love.
But also, as I read this passage, I’m reminded of a man who did sit and eat with sinners and, instead of being polluted by their behaviour, transformed them by his love. Jesus, the fullest expression of God’s blessing, came to save those very people that this psalm warns us against.
For a Christian, this opening verse provides us with a big challenge. We are not called to isolate ourselves from the world that God loves. Can we be like Jesus and bring God’s peace and blessing to places that are torn by wickedness, without being pulled in?
Heavenly Lord, thank you that Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. Please help me to be Christ’s light in the darkness. Amen.
Tuesday August 6 - Delighting in God’s law
...but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his
law day and night. Psalm 1:2
When we moved into our vicarage many years ago, there was a trellis around the front door and a rather attractive climbing rose bush. Unfortunately, during one winter storm the trellis was blown clean off. The rose bush remained but it no longer climbed around the door. It just grew wild.
A trellis is a lovely image of how God’s word can shape and give direction to our lives. I enjoy reading all sorts of books, including thrillers, but these don’t shape the way that I live (probably just as well!). On the other hand when I read Scripture, I read it with the purpose of finding out what God is saying to me and how I might think and act differently as a result.
It is this intentional engagement with the Bible that the psalmist calls ‘meditating’. It is not reading for information; it is reading for transformation! Where I minister, in Sheffield, Christians are asked to commit themselves to a personal ‘rule of life’. This is a way of building a trellis of prayer, scripture reading and love for neighbour into our daily lives so that we may be blessed and be a blessing to others.
A rule of life may sound quite legalistic, but for the psalmist this is both duty and delight. Meditating on God’s word gives him a joy that can’t be found elsewhere. May we too find that delight in Scripture!
Gracious Father, may I be delighted by your word today. Amen.
PRAYER FOR TODAY
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PRAYER FOR TODAY