This week’s Song To Live By is Psalm 1

Tom writes:

“Blessed” is a word that carries a lot of cargo. It’s loaded up with the richest instances and promises from Israel’s history. Blessed was what Adam and Eve were as they strolled in paradise; well-stocked, well-capable, well-satisfied in the cool of the day. Blessed was what Abraham was as his flocks multiplied and his worn-out wife miraculously gave birth to a son. Blessed was what Moses prophesied on the mountain (in Deuteronomy 28); for a life in the city and in the country under an open heaven with the storehouse of God’s bounty raining down in every season. It’s a vision of the good life, of human beings fully alive, fully actualised, fully content. I want that kind of life. Don’t you? The psalms urge you to want that kind of life; they assure you that it is possible.

The purpose of Psalm One is to remind you that the “blessed” life is one received from God in obedience to his word, not earned or acquired through smarts and tricks; it is a gift of grace and not a prize. The blessed woman is one who has perceived that God holds all prosperity, all peace, all joy and that he pours it out on people who persevere in loving his precepts. And so she delights in the law. She doesn’t chase riches or reputation or results. Her obsession is obedience. Her desires are simply to do what her God has commanded. She plants herself by the river of his word, and trusts that the river will cause her to bear fruit.

In our day, that is a very strange song. The anthem of our age is all about active achievement of the good life. It urges you to see your best life, then go get it. Self-actualise. Perspire now and prioritise now in order to pursue the prize of material comfort. Heap up heady moments and magnificent memories. In this view, blessing isn’t a river that flows to us from God through his word, but is a territory that I take through courage and a bit of luck.

So, this psalm asks you a question. Which song are you living by? What route are you following to the life of your dreams? The wicked, the sinners, the mockers, serenade you with steps to quick riches, with man-made methods for mental wellness, with ways you can achieve what you want for yourself. That tune is all about you finding things that make you feel fantastic… but, as we so often find out, those feelings have a habit of vanishing in the haze of the evening, like chaff blown away by the wind. The song of the scriptures is that a robust, rich, verdant life of fruitfulness and delight is found through taking your focus off your dreams, through shifting your attention even away from yourself, and then submitting your soul to the sweep of the scriptures, spending time meditating on the the law of the Lord.

A prayer

Our God, thank you for the extravagance of your goodness and for the full extent of your generosity. I ask that you would cause me to distrust the way of the wicked and to trust your song over my life. Please cause me to love the scriptures, to meditate on them more fully and to plant the tree of my life in obedience to your words.