Psalm 1

We were challenged at church this week to make time during the week to spend 15 minutes reflecting on Psalm 1 and I thought I'd share some of what I got from it here.

Verse 1 - I need to be looking at the people I take advice from.  Are they people who will seek to build me and encourage me or are they people who will take me down?  Do they help me to draw closer to God or do they put barriers in the way of me drawing closer to God?

Verse 2 - 'Day and night' - all the time - he lives it - it's constant!  This challenges me because often spending time reading my bible and chatting with God feels like a chore...it shouldn't be like this...I should be including God in my everyday. He wants to be a part of all my life, not just some of it! In Ephesians 6 verse 18 it says:

"And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests."

Verse 3 - To me, this speaks of living where there is life.  The tree is planted by the river and can therefore drink of that source of water in order to grow.  I think this is the same for us.  If we are spending time reading the bible and communicating with God, we are living by the source of life.  We shouldn't be waiting for sunday preaches but spending time with God on a constant basis.  In some ways, this is a repetition of verse 2 but using a different way of getting the point across.

When I was looking at this Psalm, I read it in both the NIV and NCV and for this verse, I liked that the NCV said 'succeed' at the end of the verse rather than 'prosper'.  Prosper for me immediately makes me think of financial prosperity but this is not what the writer is saying.  Prosperity can come in many ways, emotional prosperity, spiritual prosperity, as well as financial.  When we spend time in God's word, we will prosper spiritually and we will succeed at what we do as we will be learning what pleases God and doing those things rather than following our own agendas.

Verses 4-6 - I'm not going to comment too much on these verses except to say that God is a God of justice and that his ways are perfect.  If we decide to live according to his purposes then our lives will bear fruit and God will be watching over us, guiding and protecting us.

This Psalm is particularly relevant to me at the moment as I beginning a new chapter in my life and it has encouraged me to be studying my bible and talking to God about my hopes and dreams for the future and asking Him to reveal his plans and purposes to me so that I will succeed and prosper.