The Foundation of Life

The poem by Robert Frost Two Roads in the Woods

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

Jeremiah 17:7–8 NIV

“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”

Life is about choices!

Life is messy!

We try our best to keep things nice and neat. Yet, we must never forget that in life things will get messy. Things do not go as planned. Sometimes as Christian we try to portray a simple, easy and mess free life. Yet, this is rarely the norm.

Psalms imitate real life.

Graciously for us the book of Psalms does not imitate a nice, neat and mess free life. Instead we see with realness and rawness true life.

The question: what path leads to true life?

As we continue our Summer of Psalms series on this the first day of Summer, Father’s Day 2020, we are confronted with the question the book will illustrate and answer for us. In fact, it is the question which all of Scripture gives an answer, both in the Old and New Testaments.

Psalm 1 is an introduction.

It gives us the themes of the book. Helps us to see what is important and reminds us of the truth which will lead to true life.

Blessed is all encompassing.

Some translations talk about the person being “happy”. We think of blessing as something God gives us, and this is true, but in the Psalmist it is more than just something God does. We can live blessed even if things are messy. Jesus talks about being blessed in Matthew 5 when he gives us what we call “The Beatitudes”.

Warning: be careful what you are immersed in.

There is a progression of immersion found in verse 1: walk, stand, sit. This is contrast to what Scripture says in Deuteronomy.

The Palms will never teach us to isolate ourselves but instead the way of wisdom will give us road signs to know when things are not heading in a wise and blessed direction.

Deuteronomy 6:4–7 NIV

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

We must be immersed in Scripture.

The law is more than just the Torah or the commands of God. The writer indicates we should all of God’s revelation and way of life. As we get back to a different way of life the temptation will be to be busy. We must be careful we do not lose our foundation of Scripture in our new sense of freedom and busyness.

We can be deeply rooted, like a tree.

As the Psalmists would later share, life is not without challenges and issues. The storms of life will come but the question will be how deep do our roots go? Jesus gives us the story of a wise and foolish builder. Both experienced a storm, but only one survives.

The faithful are fruitful.

This is the concept behind leaves never wither and fruit in season, prosperity. It is tempting to see this as just material blessings.

In the end, only one path leads to life.

The contrast between the way of Jesus and the way of the world is distinct. In the end, only one survives.

God knows intimately those who follow Him.

Though our translation, and rightly so, states “watches over” the thought behind is how God is not just watching from a distant but is personally aware and knows us. God is not distant, though at times as we have already seen it will appear so. This is the paradox of Scripture.

Choose the path of life.

As the book of Psalms opens, the choice is ours: which path will we choose today. Today can be your day of salvation.