Psalm 1 - 9th Jan reflection

After doing Psalm, I kind of like it very much. I will probably come back to the book of Job one day when I finish with Psalm. hehe...let's go on a journey and be inspired by Psalm! =p

Today is a reading from Psalm 1 (Answering the call of God).

Psalm 1

BOOK I : Psalms 1-41

¹ Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.

² But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.

³ He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.

⁴ Not so the wicked!
They are like chaff
that the wind blows away.

⁵ Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

⁶ For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.

A. He is SEPARATED from the World (v1)

The world can seep into a Christian's life through choices of morality and priority. Christians must make a decisive commitment to be separate from the world.

I have shared this passage during my first week of quiet time with Yee Kuan. We can take this as a reminder then. =p

"who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers."

3 key words in the varied aspects of life: who walks, who stands, who sits.

The ungodly have a totally different way of life.

To walk is a reference to the decisions which must be made all day long. We take steps all day long, making decisions about all kinds of matter. That is walking, taking a series of steps.

To stand is a picture of the commitments we make to various causes. We give ourselves to certain things, we take our stand upon certain important matters.

To sit is a picture of the settled attitude of the heart, the continuous disposition of life.

The man who has found happiness (ie. blessed):

• Does not make decisions as do the ungodly (ie. wicked).
  

• Secondly, he does not hang around the vicinity of those who live to cause trouble.
  

• Thirdly, he does not sit in the seat of the scornful (ie. those who blame everyone else for what is wrong and never blame themselves). I admit that it is easy for that kind of attitude to come to our heart. If anything goes wrong, we blame others. But the godly man is characterised by positive things. He is selfless in his motivations, obedient in his actions, he does not criticise but accepts things that comes from God.

Thinking about the scornful, for some reason, it reminds me so much of myself. If anything goes wrong, especially in cooking, it is definitely easy to blame others.

It reminds me of christmas outreach when we were preparing for chicken rice. Ee Ping kindly came to help us with the preparation. I was very busy cutting up the chicken and we were behind time. I then told Ee Ping to cook the rice. He told me his way of cooking. Though I was a bit doubtful about the amount of water he said he was going to put in, I didn't check to make sure he did it correctly. In other words, I trusted him in cooking the rice which is a simple task. But the rice cooker we used for christmas outreach is not a simple rice cooker as it was really huge. In the end, the rice turned out to be quite soggy. First thing I did was blame Eeping for putting in too much water. SW was there and he stared at me with his usual look. haha...so immediately I realised and changed. I had to cover up my criticisms immediately. 'Eeping..you put in too much water!! erm...but next time you know what to do right...hehe..put less water..' If SW didn't look at me like that, I probably go on and on ranting about the water...haha..

Well, anyway, this verse really reminds me how not to be a person who blame others but yes..I do have a fault to play cuz I should have checked the water level as I was indirectly the person overlooking the whole thing. I pray that God will help me change this habit as it is really difficult to break especially when it comes to cooking because I am very critical.

Revelation 3:20 says:

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.

It reminds me to recognise when I am too much in the world especially the third part (being scornful). This is not what God wants me to be and this verse reminds me that worldliness locks Jesus out, but He knocks on that heart, wanting to enter again. It is me who have to make the decision to let Him in and allow Him to change me. It is easy for me to make the decision commitment to be separated from the world. How many times have I made that decision to commit myself to be separated from the world, to live a godly life so that I can be the person that God wants me to be. But, as a human, I am not perfect, and I make mistakes sometimes. But it is important to recognise and change and ask Jesus for forgiveness.

B. He is SATURATED with the word. (verse 2)

Four Principles to saturation with the Word:

1. Principle of Hunger ("delight").

• Illiterates such as John Bunyan learned English in order to learn God's word. I am not an illiterate so it should be so much easier for me to learn. If you do not have the hunger, pray until God gives the hunger!

2. Principle of Reflection ("meditate")

• Reflect on the meaning of the Word and relate it to life. This reminds me of what we are trying to do in our quiet time blog for the past week. It is to read His word and try to relate it to our lives.
  

• It reminds me of CF's sharing on psalm 27 where he said that the Psalm reminds him to put his confidence in the Lord. To remember what God has done for him in the past and to hope in the Lord that he will do it again! Somehow this sharing of his touched my life and reminded me again of God's faithfulness to me!

3. Principle of Time ("day and night")

• Don't find time - we will never find it. Make time and take time!
  

• This reminds me so much of my quiet time. I tried to do quiet time in the past. Whenever I was busy, I tried to squeeze my quiet time in between my periods of busy-ness. But of course this did not work. It did not take long before I slowly forget to do my quiet time and lost my relationship with God. But now, me and Yee Kuan have a make a commitment to do our quiet time. Even though some days we do not have time to blog our quiet time maybe cuz we are sleepy or something, but as long as we did our quiet time, it is alright. Blogging takes time and we understand. I need to specially MAKE TIME to blog my quiet time. haha...I have mentioned to myself a few times that it would be so much easier to just talk..to share my quiet time verbally than to write it. But, from the past week experience of blogging, I find that it helps me a lot. We remember what each other have written and we can look back whenever we want to. So, I think this is so much more helpful than just talking. Don't wait to find time to do quiet time but MAKE TIME. Maybe cut less time for facebook. I have actually realised that I facebooked lesser than what I normally do over the past week. I get to grow closer to God rather than to facebook. haha..

4. Principle of Mastery ("the law of the Lord")

• God did not give us a booklet but a book. Thus God expects us to master the whole book. I am trying hard at the moment. I do hope to master it one day. Don't know when that day will be but someday I will finish the whole book. =p

C. He is STURDY in life (verse 3-5)

• Sturdy in four ways: He is spiritually fed: spiritually fruitful; spiritually fit; spiritually fulfilled. A man of conviction who feeds on the word, builds his life on it and lives by it. This reminds me so much of our blog title verse. Let me rewrite that again:

LET YOUR ROOTS GROW DOWN INTO HIM, AND LET YOUR LIVES BE BUILT ON HIM. THEN YOUR FAITH WILL GROW STRONG IN THE TRUTH YOU WERE TAUGHT, AND YOU WILL OVERFLOW WITH THANKFULNESS. COLOSSIANS 2:7

• I chose this verse for this blog initially cuz it reminds me of the first ever psalm I shared with Yee Kuan during the quiet time when we first started. To grow strong and sturdy by reading His word daily. It reminds me to read His word daily (spiritually fed), to gain something out of it, relate and apply it in my life so that I can live a fruitful life (spiritually fruitful and fit) and to be satisfied (spritually fulfilled). This is my opinion. Let me know if anybody has a different opinion.
  

• Whenever we need strength, draw upon the Lord for it. Learn to draw only upon the strength of God and not attempt to find some kind of encouragement from outsiders and thus to depend upon external circumstances for peace and rest. It is from God that we find peace and rest.

D. He is SECURE in the Lord (v6)

• Secure because his way is eternal and his reward is eternal - in contrast to the way of the wicked that will perish.
  

• Which will you choose: a million-dollars or a one-cent coin? In regards to earthly things, we choose the million-dollars but for eternal things, we tend to choose the one-cent coin.
  

• This reminded me of one of WL's sermon..can't remember which one...oh..I think it was roots and wings...It was about setting our eyes on what is eternal and not temporary. Fix our eyes on what is eternal but not on earthly things. I left my roots and wings in Harrogate so can't refer to it. Anyway, found the verse.

Matthew 6 on Treasures in Heaven ¹⁹"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
²⁴No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

• Things on earth will pass. But God is eternal and it is up to us to make that decision and commitment.
  

• Why is it that outwardly a person's life may be very impressive, inwardly it may be nothing but a hollow shell, empty and worthless? The answer is, 'The Lord knows the way of the righteous.' The Lord knows that path, He is watching over that man, guiding him, guarding him and keeping him.

Conclusion: the godly man is very blessed or happy - regardless of his circumstances and feelings. Like Jesus, despite negative experiences, He lived every moment doing God's will.

I yearn to be like the godly man. To be blessed and happy. To not worry about what will happen next or what my future will be. But to remind myself to take step by step each day and to walk with God daily. Ask God for direction in my life so that I will not go astray and live in the world.
I pray for that His word will continue to be a delight in my life and that I will have the discipline to continue to make time to read His word. It has indeed made a difference in my life!

To end, an inspiring story from Ray stedman:

I remember many years ago when I was first beginning my work here, we held a youth conference in the Sierra Nevada. There a young man came to me and took me aside. We stood together underneath a great Douglas fir and he said, "Pastor, I don't know what is the matter with me. I want to be a good Christian, and I try hard, but somehow I just never seem to make it. I'm always doing the wrong thing. I just can't live like a Christian."

I said to him, "Well, there may be several reasons for that, but let me ask you this, first of all: What about your private life with the Lord? How well do you know the Lord? How much do you delight in reading his word and then spending time talking to him? Because, after all, it's not the time spent in reading the word that's important, but it's the time spent in enjoying the presence of God that strengthens you."

He hung his head and said, "Well, I admit I don't do very much of that."

Just then this very phrase from the Psalms flashed into my mind, "He shall be like a tree planted by rivers of water." I stepped back and said to him, "Look at this tree we're under. What does it remind you of? What are the qualities this tree suggests to you?"

He looked at the tremendous Douglas fir, towering up into the heavens above, and said, "Well, the first thing is, it's strong."

I said, "Yes. Anything else?"

"Well," he said, "it's beautiful."

I said, "Exactly! Beauty and strength. Those are the two things you admire about this tree. And those are exactly the two things you want in your own life, aren't they? Beauty and strength?"

He said, "Right." "Well," I said, "tell me this: What makes this tree beautiful and strong? Where does it get its beauty and its strength?" He stopped for a moment and looked at the tree, then he said, "Well, from the roots, I guess."

I asked him, "Can you see the roots?" "No," he said, "You can't." Then he said, "I get it! That is the hidden part of life, but it is the secret of this tree's beauty and strength, isn't it?"

That is exactly what this Psalmist is saying. The man who is godly has learned, in the hidden inner parts of his life, to draw upon the grace and glory and strength of God. His roots run deep into rich and moist soil, and this is what makes him beautiful and strong. He is like a tree planted by rivers of water. And he is fruitful, "He brings forth fruit in its season." That is probably a reference to the fruit of the Spirit which is described for us in the New Testament. It is the character of God and that is always the same in either the Old or the New Testament: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, etc.

"His leaf does not wither." That means he is always vital, always an exciting kind of person. He is never dull, never dreary, never boring; he is an exciting, vital person because he is in touch with a vital God. Finally, all that he does prospers, i.e., he is effective. What he puts his hand to he accomplishes because he is not doing it in his own strength but in the strength of another, a hidden Other, from whose resources he is continuously drawing. That, you see, is the godly life. That is the secret of happiness. The man who learns to live that way is a happy person. It does not make any difference what his outward circumstances may be, because happiness does not consist in the abundance of things which you possess, as Jesus tells us. This man is happy because he has learned the secret of happiness.