Tag Archives: way of the wicked

Aug
07
2012

Meditating on the Law

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In Psalm 1, the psalmist tells us to meditate on the “law” (the torah) day and night. Dale Ralph Davis likens that message to chewing on a text. There is a breadth to the Bible that must be explored — the themes, the focus (Jesus), the story from beginning to end. Yet there is also a depth to each passage that must be pursued. You must go over passages again and again, thinking about the context, the argument (if one), what is revealed about God, and what is revealed about men and women.

I have found the discipline of memorizing passages of Scripture to be the way that works best for me to “chew” on a passage. The daily act of repeating a set of verses allows new images and insights to come to mind. It causes me to see different ways the verses apply to me.

A verse that has held my attention of late is Psalm 5:8:

Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness because of my enemies; make your way straight before me.

 At first, I concentrated on the odd way in which David asks for leading — “because of my enemies”. What did David mean? Why would he want leading because of them? David’s enemies were many at times (Psalm 3:1-2), and the path of righteousness can be marked by those who are trying to pull you away from the Lord. David asked for the Lord’s leading at a time when his enemies were strong. The next line “make your way straight” shows David wanting the Lord to lay out the right way clearly in front of him. A “straight way” was the way of the Lord, a way not marked by the counsel of the wicked (Psalm 1:1).

Over the last few weeks, I have prayed that same prayer. My own enemies are just as powerful as David’s. Satan is still lurking about seeking to destroy. My own sin nature fights with the spirit. Death is waiting for me, although its sting is gone. I too need the Lord to make my way straight before me, to keep my eye fixed on the light (Matthew 6:22-23). This psalm has become my psalm.

May
19
2012

Two Ways

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Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount spoke quite starkly about two ways (Matthew 7:13-14). The two ways ended in either destruction or life. In working through Psalm 1, I was struck by the contrast of the righteous and the wicked, of the outcome associated with those two ways. I wonder if Jesus had this Psalm in mind as he spoke to his disciples.

The Lord knows the way of the righteous. The one on that way will meditate on the law, the torah of the Lord. The “torah” used here is the teaching of the Lord. It encompasses instruction and doctrine, and may well include the prayers and praises included in the psalms. The law is the delight of those on the way of the righteous.

The way of the righteous avoids the counsel of the wicked, the way of sinners, and the seat of scoffers. Dale Ralph Davis makes the point that this really represents the “totality of evil”. The righteous want no part of their thinking (counsel), or behaving (way), or belonging (seat). The righteous man or woman “resists the vacuum-cleaner power-moves” that evil uses.

May we all stay on the way of the righteous, for the Lord knows it well.

 

May
06
2012

Psalm 1

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[1] Blessed is the man

who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,

nor stands in the way of sinners,

nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

[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

that yields its fruit in its season,

and its leaf does not wither.

In all that he does, he prospers.

[4] The wicked are not so,

but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

[5] Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,

nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;

[6] for the LORD knows the way of the righteous,

but the way of the wicked will perish.