‘For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous…’ (Psalm 1:6)
Read Psalm 1
In a previous reflection I mentioned how the Psalms have long since held a special place in the faith life of many Scots, so having finished looking at the ‘I am…’ sayings of Jesus, thought I would look at some of the Psalms, beginning here with Psalm 1.
Every day, in every walk of life, in our work lives and our personal lives we all make many choices about how we behave, often perhaps without even realising we are doing so at the time. Some of these will of course be the more mundane choices we will make every day, like what clothes we might wear and what food we will eat. But there will also be other more significant choices, the outcome of which might impact greatly on our lives and although they may be many and varied, ultimately many will come down to making the right choice or the wrong one.
In our first Psalm the Psalmist seems to be saying that this is very much the case and the consequences of the choice made are set out very clearly. In Biblical times there was a very firm belief that if you were good and righteous God would bless you whereas if you were evil and wicked God would curse you. However, it wasn’t always that straightforward and we see in other Psalms how the Psalmist wrestles with the notion that many who are wicked also seem to prosper. And even for us today, how often do we find ourselves paraphrasing the Apostle Paul – how all too often we fail to do the good things we know we should be doing and end up doing the things we know we shouldn’t and don’t want to do. So where then does that leave us in terms of this Psalm.
The first Psalm teaches us that our life is essentially a journey and as we continue on that journey we can either choose to walk with God or otherwise, However, as we continue on that journey God will not judge us by our individual incidents, our individual mistakes that we make, because He knows that despite our best intentions we will make mistakes. Rather what God really requires of us is that our heart belongs to Him and that as best we can we try to walk with Him every day – and if we do that and leave the rest up to the Grace of God, we will receive His blessings.
Lord, help us as best we can to walk with You every day and to share Your blessings with all we meet on that journey. In Jesus name. Amen.
Question Of The Day: Who were the three sons of Noah?