August 2012
There is a depth of meaning in these words of Psalm 1 that does not come from the Psalm-a-day approach I have often taken. That approach, by the way, is usually less than satisfactory since I have a terrible memory. Only reading a Psalm once as a short devotional does not allow much to sink into my soul and almost nothing to be exposed and changed.
Psalm 1 is a great place to begin in the Psalms. It is short and provides a reason to keep reading. (Perhaps even to Psalm 2!) When I think of meditating on the Word, this was not the Word that the Psalmist had at his disposal. When I consider meditation on the Word it is of Psalms or Proverbs or John or Romans. The psalmist thought of Leviticus or Deuteronomy or Exodus or Numbers. What was it the Psalmist saw in the days and nights of meditation? It was his delight not his duty. Somehow my image of the literate religious person of 1000 BCE (or some similar distant time) does not include someone sitting up late into the night meditating with excitement and anticipation on the law of the Lord. What did the psalmist see that I only rarely glimpse? What caused him to compare the lot of the student of the law to a tree planted by streams, bearing fruit, growing strong with leaves that don't wither?
I somehow think of being righteous as being good, or the negative - as not being wicked or sinners or mockers. But there is something to being righteous that is far beyond being good or not being bad. Developing the psalmist's understanding of righteousness is probably key to meditation on the Word.
Perhaps tomorrow I will try to sort out the various ideas on the righteous and the wicked. For tonight I will simply accept. Being planted by the streams, growing deep roots, and bearing fruit sounds a bit better than becoming chaf, blown away by the wind.
