The beginning of a journey through the Psalms

Day one: Psalm 1

I have been fascinated with this Psalm for some time but of course, it took on new meaning when we did a Camp last summer with the theme "Between the Trees." I want to be "like a tree planted by streams of water." I want my roots to go down deep. I want the Giver of Life to sustain me, to watch over me, to produce fruit in me.

But today I am especially drawn to verse 2 perhaps because it epitomizes this journey that I and some of my good friends have begun together. I want to "delight" in the "law of the Lord." I want to soak it up. I want for it to shape me, transform me.

One Sunday morning last year I preached a sermon out of this very psalm. I said then and I still believe that the idea of the "law" here is about more than just a list of rules written on some stone tablets and handed to Moses. It goes beyond the 693 laws that scholars have counted within the fabric of the Old Testament. Try as I may I have a hard time imagining someone truly delighting in rules alone. I can make a case for it intellectually. I could do some wordplay that might make it sound like it is a very noble and mature thing to delight in rules. But at the end of the day that simply is not my experience, nor is it the experience of anyone that I know. Perhaps everyone that I know is just immature. Or perhaps they are normal. Rules just don't fire us up. I wonder if God delights in rules?

Maybe the word "law" in this Psalm encompasses more than just the rules (though it probably includes the rules as well). In the ancient world, the Jews often referred to the first five books of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) as the "law." If you have ever spent much time in the Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy you know that there is A LOT more in there than just a list of laws. There are all kinds of stories and promises and poems that capture our imagination and that wrestle with the how and why's of our very existence. You learn a lot about who God is when you read the first five books of the Bible. You learn a lot about what God cares about as well as what he doesn't care for. You learn a lot about who we are and what we are doing here. And in promises made to Noah and Abraham and Moses and others you catch a glimpse of God's dream for this planet and for the course of human history played out upon it.

I wonder if that is a better way of thinking about the "law" in Psalm 1. The dream of God. What would this world be like if everyone lived by the "law" of the Lord? What if no one put any other gods above Yahweh? What if there was no murder? What if no one ever stole from someone else? What if no one coveted? What if no one lied? I'm not sure that there is anyone on this planet that dreams of a world with more murderers or thieves or liars. And what if the dreams that God expressed through Abraham were realized. What if the people of God truly became a blessing to all the nations? Imagine it. No more war. No more fear of some one taking what you have. No more pawning over what some one else has. No more greed, or envy, or abuse, or neglect. No more idols. No more violence. No more loneliness. Sounds a bit like heaven actually.

Now that is a "law" that I can delight in! That is something worth meditating on day and night. What if things on this tiny speck in the universe truly played out as God dreamed they would...what if His kingdom truly came if His will were done on earth "as it is in heaven?" It's worth imagining. It's worth striving for. No wonder the Psalmist calls someone who meditates on that day and night a person who is "blessed."

So may we be among the blessed. As we work our way through Psalms may we make the "law of the Lord" and God's dream for our world our delight. And may we meditate on it day and night.

The journey is underway!