Lighthouse scribes

I suffer from stage fright. It doesn’t matter that I’ve been put on the stage since I was little. So, you can imagine what it was like when I was assigned to lead a group Bible study in my University fellowship only weeks after I joined the team. After hours of group and personal study of Psalms 1, the forty to forty-five-minute session at the fellowship meeting soon passed. I remembered saying, ‘God, I joined the bible study team to learn, not to be a teacher.’ In my defence, the announcement to join was for people who just wanted to study the word of God with others and not to recruit teachers. Yet, when I think about it, it’s an example of how Proverbs 16:3 plays out in my life many times. The verse says, ‘Roll your works upon the Lord [commit and trust them wholly to Him; He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and] so shall your plans be established and succeed.’

I have since found Psalms 1 to be one of my favourite chapters of the Bible (or maybe my favourite).

Esher means blessed or happy. It refers to the state of the heart of a person who chooses God’s ways. Jeremiah said, ‘Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart…’, you see, God’s word delights those who choose it, it gives life to them. We understand (v2) that there’s no magic involved, just a way of life of desiring to know what the Bible says, and making a habit of meditating on it day and night.

So, it’s not surprising that a person like this will not do certain things. There’s a counsel he will not take, an association he will not be found in, a group he will not derive pleasure from (v1). He is discerning and naturally adapts to a way of life that is guided by the word. He doesn’t follow popular opinion even in Church but examines what he’s taught carefully, holding on to only what is good (1 Thessalonians 5:21-22).

And he will be like a tree firmly planted (and fed) by streams of water, which yields its fruits in its season; its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers (and comes to maturity).

Talk about a life marked by robustness and stability, in its very own source of life. Lives that bear Spirit fruit, because they are abiding where they should be. These are the lives that God uses to bring forth good on the earth. They may have winter seasons, but they don’t lose their essence, because they are abiding in their source (v3).

As kids, we would go to the Sawmill to fill sacks with wood shavings for my mum’s poultry farm. They were often piled up in heaps; a mix of sawdust and shavings. I remember we would race to climb for the fun of it, and as we climbed our feet would sink into it, losing the height just as we were gaining it. It was obvious that the heaps had no substance or depth. They looked so tall, but could hardly hold our weights. As verse 4 describes what the wicked are like, it’s also a reminder to us that a Christian has no reason to be afraid of wicked people; if the Bible says that they are like the chaff (worthless, dead, and without substance), then that’s it, and we should believe it.

We must not forget the eternal implication of verse 5, that the wicked and sinners, will have no place in heaven. This should encourage us to continue to pray for the salvation of their souls. We are quick to view the wicked as people who are against us, but if we go back to verses 1 and 2, we will see that the categories of people listed were people who lived against God’s righteous ways. The difference between the blessed man and the wicked/sinful man is that while one has chosen a godly path, the other hasn’t. We were once like those people; ungodly, wicked, and sinful, but the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost and He wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

God’s word makes us Holy and Happy. The book of Psalms opens with a beautiful charge to choose LIFE; here and for eternity. A reminder that when we choose the ways of God, we are choosing to be blessed and happy.

P.S

So, I have often wondered what scriptural meditation looked like in the Old Testament I found this resource interesting Biblical Meditation – C.S. Lewis Institute (cslewisinstitute.org)

P.P.S

Don’t forget to share the gospel with someone. Pray for the salvation of someone or people even if you don’t know them. Pray for missionaries.

Love

Osi