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Psalm 1, Part 2 – Happiness Through Meditation
8/21/22
We began last time to look at this psalm, the theme of which is happiness thru
meditation.
To many people both elements of the theme are a surprise.
They
thought God didn’t care about people being happy, that God was the sort who
looked around trying to catch folks being happy so he could put a stop to it.
The
fact of the matter is that God speaks to us much about the way to happiness,
urges us on to it, sets it out as our goal, shows us the way, and supplies us every
needed grace for the journey.
But then, God surprises us again when he suggests
to us in the first psalm that the key to happiness is found not in money, not in
family, not in pleasures, not in self-esteem, but in meditating on and in God’s law,
God’s word revealed in Scripture.
This seems so unlikely to us, so unreal, but here
it is in plain print in the first of all God’s wonderful psalms.
Let’s read it again as we continue our ponderings 1-6 How blessed is the man who
does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit
in the seat of scoffers!
2But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he
meditates day and night.
3He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he
does, he prospers.
4The wicked are not so, But they are like chaff which the wind
drives away.
5Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in
the assembly of the righteous.
6For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, But
the way of the wicked will perish.
The psalmist begins by telling us what a man in search of blessedness, or
happiness must avoid.
There is the counsel of the wicked, the path of sinners, the
seat of the scoffers.
These are where you will find the lies of the world which we
saw last time form the most formidable obstacles to our happiness.
We think we
lack happiness because we lack health, lack money, lack friends, when in fact, our
unhappiness is rooted in the lies of the world which we have believed.
Stinkin
thinkin is the problem, and the solution suggested in our text is proper thinking,
truthful perspectives, a thought life developed thru one’s meditation on Scripture.
Some time ago I cut out an article from a newspaper.
It was an astonishing article
with a surprising title.
Some of you can read it.
It says, “Teen-Age Brains Work
Differently.”
I read the article’s assertions that teenagers process data in different
1
ways than adults, something any parent of a teen already recognized.
If your child
is becoming a teenager, you need to come to grips with the special needs of this
age group.
For example, travel is complicated when involving teenagers.
I quote
from Dave Barry’s Travel Guide, under the section, Traveling with teenagers.
“Traveling with teenagers is somewhat more difficult than traveling with humans.”
It’s very important for you to be sensitive to the fact that, during this difficult
transition from child to adult, your teenagers are undergoing intense emotional
stresses that cause them, for solid psychological reasons, to regard you as the
biggest geek ever to roam the planet.
Also, teenagers are bored.
By everything.
Show a teenager an actual volcanic
eruption, in progress, featuring giant billowing clouds of smoke, hot rocks, raining
from the sky, lava flows destroying entire villages and the teenager, eyebrows
arched with sarcasm, will look at you and say, “Gee, this is swell” then return to the
car and tune into his iPhone.
Which brings me back to my point.
Thought life.
Beth
and I are walking in the Spring when we come upon a gaggle of three high
schoolers waiting for the school bus.
The three are standing with their backs to
each other and all of them are looking at phones.
I see this and consider how the
prevalence of our electronic noisemakers are affecting society.
You don’t have to
talk anymore or even listen to the same music; we all can have our own personal
concert at all times.
One of the results of the electronic media, in all of its expressions, is that we
seldom have time or take time to just think.
Some of you avoid quiet like the
plague.
And we do so to our own peril.
God says, that the happy guys and girls are
meditating, mentally chewing on the law of God consistently.
Joshua 1 is a great
verse on meditation.
God appears to Joshua at the beginning of his leadership over
the children of Israel and says Joshua 1:8 This book of the law shall not depart from
your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful
to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way
prosperous, and then you will have success.
Now, I do think that means we need some quiet, meditative moments in our day.
But I don’t suggest that is the only way to meditate.
One of the other great
Scriptures on meditation is found in Deuteronomy 6:6 These words, which I am
commanding you today, shall be on your heart.
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