Faith & Hope - God's word in the Bible can change your life

Psalm 1 talks about the life-bringing joy that God’s Word — in whatever translation — holds for those who delight in it. It also warns that rejecting God’s Word leads to death and ruin. How will we respond to the life God offers?

There is a blessedness — a happiness that comes from being right where God wants you — that comes when we reject godlessness, when we refuse to follow after those who have scorned God’s ways (Psalm 1:1). “Blessed” carries with it the idea of being well off, where those who understand rightly would look and say, “Wow, that’s the good life!” And this good life comes to those who delight in the law of the Lord, those who keep chewing over what God says and who genuinely enjoy Him (v. 2). It isn’t a mere resignation to follow the rules or just an understanding of how the universe works, but a whole-hearted joy in what brings God joy. This kind of person will flourish like a deeply-rooted, well-watered tree (v. 3). Dr. Russell Fuller of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, commented on this verse that in the Middle East, trees are ugly little bushes, unless they are planted near water — then they grow and are fruitful. When we find joy in how God says to live, that joy grows and multiplies, and we will know life instead of death.

But there is also a warning here. Those who insist on living at cross-purposes to what God says — the scoffers and mockers who have their own plans — won’t survive. They’ll be blown away like loose straw in a windstorm, and when they come into God’s presence, it will be for judgment instead of welcome (v. 4-5). Ultimately, the difference is not just who knows God, but whom God knows and acknowledges. Those who have walked in God’s ways are recognized and rewarded, but those who lived their own way, perish. No hope, no last moment change at the sight of judgment, only sudden and eternal death. Choose wisely: listen to God through His Word, and find life and joy.

But Scripture doesn’t stop there.

Psalm 1 and 2 go together as an introduction to the Psalms, and together they paint a picture of a wise King, declared to be God’s Son who rules over nations, no matter how they shake their fists at Him. The rest of the psalms show us this faithful King, often rejected, often attacked by the wicked, yet continually trusting the God He calls Father, constantly living by the words of God that we see in Psalm 1. In Proverbs, we see that wisdom itself is personified — that wisdom speaks, calls, warns (Prov. 1:20-33, 8:1-9:6). And in the New Testament, these two streams of thought join: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God … and the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1, 14). The word David delighted in took on flesh and bone, walked the earth, spoke with an audible voice.

In other words, Psalm 1 isn’t just a kind of public service announcement telling us, “You really ought to read your Bible once in a while.” Every word in this written Word is breathed out by the Holy Spirit and brings life and delight to those who receive it and live by it. But even more, the Word Himself has come, has perfectly delighted in the law of the Lord, has meditated on and lived by every command. And yet, He was crushed, broken, driven away like chaff; He perished as though a sinner for the sake of those of us who have stood as sinners and sat as scoffers, but who now have been brought to see Jesus as the Lord He is. Will you delight in this living, walking Word, or shrug Him off and go on mocking? It’s a question of life and death.