Jeffrey C. Long

I looked at my buying record and discovered that I buy about an average of 3 books per month.

On my bookshelf are books on congregational growth, end times, bible commentaries, graphic novels, study bibles, hymnals, leadership, psychology. Controversial: The geocentric bible, two books on Mary the mother of Jesus from a catholic perspective. Books on Bill Clintons presidency. I just ordered a couple books on classroom management for teachers.

By far the majority would be non fiction books about religion.

I’m not alone.

The Chicago Tribune reports that “A study of book purchases from 1998 to 2000 shows that the leading genre of books purchased by men was non-fiction religion. After that came Espionage/thriller books followed by science fiction, computers, and mystery/detective books.

Women spent the most on romance books, followed by general fiction, mystery/detective, non-fiction religion, and religious fiction.

“The Story Behind What We Read,” Chicago Tribune (11-21-01); source: Ipsos Book Trends

What we read says a lot about us. It says what is important to us. What we want to learn about. What we want to entertain us. It shows who we are.

The first Psalm agrees. It says the man who puts his delight in God’s law will be blessed. If we are going to be defined by what we read, let it be the story and the teachings of the Bible that defines us.

Lets read Psalm 1.

1 Blessed is the man who doesn’t walk in the counsel of the wicked,

Nor stand in the way of sinners,

Nor sit in the seat of scoffers;

2 But his delight is in Yahweh’s law;

On his law he meditates day and night.

3 He will be like a tree planted by the streams of water,

That brings forth its fruit in its season,

Whose leaf also does not wither.

Whatever he does shall prosper.

4 The wicked are not so,

But are like the chaff which the wind drives away.

5 Therefore the wicked shall not stand in the judgment,

Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

6 For Yahweh knows the way of the righteous,

But the way of the wicked shall perish.

Throughout time, the Jews and the Church have used the Psalms as prayer. The most common way that the Psalms are used in prayer is to read 5 of them daily completing the book in 30 days. Reading through the Psalms once a month.

Eugene Peterson, in his book “Answering God” says

“If we wish to develop in the life of faith, to mature in our humanity and to glorify God with our entire heart, mind, soul and strength, the Psalms are necessary. we cannot bypass the Psalms. They are God’s gift to train us in prayer that is comprehensive and honest.

The Psalms are necessary because they are the prayer masters.”

Psalm one has the unique quality of being the first of the 150. Most writers through the centuries have believed that this psalm is the summary of the 150, written as an introduction. It is very similar to Jeremiah 17:5 leading some scholars to wonder if this Psalm is written by Jeremiah.

If we are going to use this as a prayer, what is it that we will be praying?

We will be praying that God will keep us from doing one thing and pray that He would cause us to do another. And pray that we will be blessed.

First, what we would not do.

Two years ago when I first came, I began my ministry here by preaching through the book of Ephesians. In some of my first lessons, I quoted a book on Ephesians called Sit, Walk, Stand by Watchman Nee. Pastor David Legge summarizes the book by saying “. Watchman Nee, in his famous book on the book of Ephesians, says that the Christian’s experience begins with sitting – isn’t that right? We are sitting in heavenly places in the Lord Jesus Christ, blessed with all spiritual blessings. He says that it then leads to walking: walk as children of light, walk in the calling wherewith ye are called. But it doesn’t end there, and that is why in chapter 6 we are met with not sitting, not walking, but standing. You see, you need first of all to sit before you can stand. That’s the order in the book, and that is God’s order, the order the Holy Spirit has ordained within this theological treatise of how we are to live. You’ve got to know the blessings that you have in Christ before you can fight in this battle. You’ve got to come into the realization of what Christ has done for you, and the blessings that He has bestowed on you – and then you must walk worthy of that calling before you can ever stand against the foe.”

If in Ephesians we are to sit with Christ, to walk in the calling we were called and then finally standing, the Psalmist warns against its opposite.

1 Blessed is the man who doesn’t walk in the counsel of the wicked,

Nor stand in the way of sinners,

Nor sit in the seat of scoffers;

The progression here is first to walk toward the counsel of the wicked. Then once you’ve arrived there to stand amongst them. And finally when you’ve gotten comfortable to sit with them.

For us, according to Watchman Nee, the order needs to be turned around. We sit with God and then are launched out into the world where we stand firmly for the truth of the gospel.

So the first thing we pray in this psalm is a declaration that we choose to not walk in the counsel of the wicked. “Lord, I choose to follow you and not to follow the world.” But that is not enough. We pray that God would keep us from the ungodly. He does that by strengthening our character, empowering our will, emboldening our witness and by providentially keeping us from situations in which we would be tempted.

We pray, “Dear God, keep me from walking in the counsel of the wicked. I know that what they have to say may seem wise but I know that the only wisdom to be found is from you. I don’t want to stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers. They have nothing good to say about you and so they will only distract me from you. Lord, protect me from the distractions from the world.”

So, the first thing that we pray is that God would embolden us to stay away from the counsel of the wicked. The second is that we would delight in God’s law.

verse 2 says

“But his delight is in Yahweh’s law;

On his law he meditates day and night.”

James Mays in his book “Preaching and teaching the Psalms” writes

“What is the law? In this psalm it is torah, not mere rules and legal codes. It is the instruction of God, God’s instruction about God in that God creates, elects, saves and makes covenant with us; and it is God’s revealed will in making know to God’s people in every time the meaning of God’s good pleasure.”

When we think of the law we picture the ten commandments and the levitical code found in Deuteronomy. But what is meant here is the torah: the first 5 books of the Bible. Think for a moment what they contain. The story of the creation of the universe. The destruction of the world through the flood and the subsequent promise that God would never flood the world again. The promise of God to multiply Abraham’s seed. The deliverance of Israel from the Egypt into the promised land. The establishment of Israel as a nation. And finally the gift of the law as the guide to life for this fledgling nation.

We pray “Oh God I delight in your story. Let it be my story. Fulfill your promise to abraham by multiplying the number of converts that I am able to bring to you. Deliver me from sin as you delivered Israel from the hands of Egypt.”

The second part of verse 2 says that the blessed man will meditate on the law both day and night.

The idea of meditating is an interesting one. Some consider it to be a mental exercise… a clearing of ones thoughts so that we might focus entirely on God.

J.I. Packer, theologian and author says

Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, thinking over, dwelling on, and applying to oneself the various things one knows about the works and ways and purpose and promises of God.

It is an activity of holy thought, consciously performed in the presence of God, under the eye of God, by the help of God, as a means of communication with God.

Its purpose is to clear one’s mental and spiritual vision of God, and to let his truth make its full and proper impact on one’s mind and heart.

It is a matter of talking to oneself about God and oneself.

It is, indeed, often a matter of arguing with oneself, reasoning oneself out of moods of doubt and unbelief into a clear apprehension of God’s power and grace.

J. I. Packer, Knowing God (InterVarsity Press, 1973), pp. 18-19; submitted by Bill White, Paramount, California user ratings

But Meditating on God’s law is more then that. The Old testament word that we translate into meditate has some interesting connotations.

Looking at Eugene Peterson again, we find that

“Meditate is a bodily action; it involves murmuring and mumbling words, taking in a kind of physical pleasure in making the sounds of the words, getting the feel of the meaning as the syllables are shaped by larynx and tongue and lips. Isaiah used the word “meditate” for the sounds that a lion makes over its prey (Isa. 31:4). A lion over its catch and a person over the torah act similarly. They purr and growl in pleasurable anticipation of taking in what will make them more themselves, strong, lithe, swift: “I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlargest my understanding! (Psalm 119:32)”

It is important for us to know how it is that our bodies and minds are designed to worship. Last Sunday in portland I was with a group of people in a street church whose body and mind worshiped while drawing and painting art. For me it is found in two ways. The first is through playing my instrument. When I am singing I can get easily distracted. But when I am playing the piano or keyboard, I can get lost in rapture. The other way that my body and mind are wired for worship is through study of the Word of God. It is like preparing a quilt or tuning an engine. Methodically working over individual parts, analyzing the language, listening to the Holy Spirit, consulting wise authors. Then sculpting the parts into something useful to those to whom I will preach. There is something holy in this process as we learned from 1Corinthians a few Sundays ago.

This is what the term meditate means here. Ruminating. Murmuring. Mumbling.

The Talmud tells a story about the strange conduct of an old rabbi. During the oral study of the Torah, when he came to the phrase “And God said,” he would without exception fall into an ecstatic trance. He was so overwhelmed by the mystery and miracle that God should speak that his ecstasy hindered the school’s progress.

“Lord, enrapture me in the study of your law as I meditate on it day and night. Let it enthrall me. Speak to me Lord, just as you spoke to Abraham, to Joseph, to Moses.”

And finally, our prayer is that we would be blessed.

“Blessed is the man.”

“Blessed is the woman.”

Literally this means “Happiness.” It might be well translated “Oh the happiness of the man who delights in the law of the Lord.”

But my imagination is captivated by the idea of blessing as a prophetic action. A prayer that God would bestow of good upon the recipient.

In Ge 24:60, her relatives “blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, Our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of ten thousands” (the King James Version “millions”),

The word here expresses the wish or hope for good. There are also instances where such a blessing of man by man may be taken in the prophetic sense, as when Isaac blessed Jacob (Ge 27:4, 27, ),

Isaac put himself in God’s place, and with a sense of the Divine concurrence, pronounced good upon Jacob. And so the word becomes in part a prayer for, and in part a prediction of, the good intended.

This is the meaning I have in mind when at the end of every service I pray “Lord, bless your church.” I am agreeing with God that there would be good for His church.

So here, let there be a blessing on the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked. Let there be a blessing on the woman who delights in the counsel of the law. Let there be a blessing on those of us who meditate day and night upon the Word of God.

Amen.