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Singing Psalm 1 you choose your path

Path to the Ocean

“O greatly blessed is the man who walketh not astray…” ~ Psalm 1:1


More important than choosing your vocational path or your relational path, singing Psalm 1 you get to choose your path for your life. You consider where you won’t walk, stand, or sit, where you get your counsel, where you place your delight, who and what it is that you listen to and meditate upon, and with what frequency.  You get to choose your path for the direction of your life after considering well what each choice entails.


In movies like “Groundhog Day" and “Sliding Doors” you can experience alternate realities and in the end make a choice based on whether you desire the outcome of following one path over another. In real life, although there is no alternate reality, singing Psalm 1 gives you a life preview based on choosing to follow God’s ways or not, choosing to accept his grace and mercy in Christ or not, choosing to believe you are his or not, and choosing to believe that he cares for you and is working all things together for the good of those who love him or not. 


Laid out clearly before you as you sing Psalm 1 are descriptors to help you to choose your path, to live one way and not another, motivators to walk down one path and steer clear of the other. Psalm 1 sets the stage for the psalms that follow and also for how to approach all of God’s word. How kind of our Creator to give us a clear choice replete with consequences and an open book that helps you choose your path with confidence.


Singing Psalm 1, you get to simulate how your life would play out based on an overarching choice that informs your approach to life. You get to discern between truth and lies. You get to learn right from wrong. You get to distinguish between pride and humility, human wisdom and divine wisdom, between trusting men or trusting God, between friendship with the world or friendship with God.


“Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?” ~ James 4:4


Singing Psalm 1 helps you persevere by giving you a different measuring stick than the one that the world uses. When you are learning from Jesus how to be gentle and humble in heart, serving the Lord in your church and community, and aware of what protections are in place, you can be sure that God is moving you to choose your path wisely. You are blessed and prospering by God‘s assessment as it is clearly described in Psalm 1.


Whether you are in movement as you walk on your way to a destination, staying put as you sit with others, or planning your course based on projections of where you’d like to be by the end of it, singing Psalm 1 blesses you with grace to choose your path well.


Singing Psalm 1 you choose your path on which to walk


“That man is blessed who does not walk

    As wicked men advise,

Nor stand where sinners meet, nor sit

    Where scorners pose as wise.” ~ Psalm 1:1


How can you tell if the crowd you are invited to run, walk, or sit with is influenced by leaders who are wicked or upright? What are the criteria you use to make that judgment?


Are you considering a religious system to follow that urges you to pray to Mary and other “saints” rather than to the only one triune God, the Father, God, the Son who is Jesus, and God, the Holy Spirit alone?


Are you persuaded by a secular group who boldly attempts to redefine how God created people and what he defines as marriage?


If those who are leading you have not been sent by God, they are false prophets leading you trust a lie. Singing Psalm 1 and meditating on God’s law day and night (as much as you can) will help you recognize them and guard your heart and your steps against such influences.


And Jeremiah, the prophet said to the prophet Hananiah, “Listen, Hananiah, the LORD has not sent you, and you have made this people trust a lie. Therefore, thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I will remove you from the face of the earth. This year you shall die, because you have uttered rebellion against the Lord.’”

    In that same year, in the seventh month, the prophet Hananiah died. ~ Jeremiah 28:15-17


What draws you to the group that you are a part of? Is it just a matter of being accepted by the group? Does being accepted into the group require that you walk astray from God’s ways to follow sinful ways? Or are you attempting to mix opposing worldviews that combine truth with lies? Like oil and water don’t mix, fresh water and salt water don’t mix, truth and lies don’t mix. If you are getting advice from a group that believes that humans are independent and create their own lives based on their own dreams, there is no way to blend that with God’s truth that humans are dependent upon him and are to live based on his ways that are found in his word.


“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

“You shall have no other gods before me.” ~ Exodus 20:2-3


What does it mean to sit in the scorner’s chair? What would it look like for you to refuse to sit in it? Can you detect when someone is pretending to be wise?


The Rabshakeh for Sennacherib the Assyrian king is one example.


Thus says the king: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you out of my hand. Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD by saying, The LORD will surely deliver us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’ ~ 2 Kings 18:29-30


The Lord heard Hezekiah’s prayer to him about these things. God defended his people and handily defeated Sennacherib, the king of Assyria along with his vast army. Sennacherib was subsequently struck down by his own sons with the sword.


Consider the further examples of Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites and what resulted from their threats.


“And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God.” ~ Nehemiah 6:16


Whether you are being threatened or merely swept up by the suggestiveness of the culture to live for self and follow lies, you are vulnerable to being whipped around to and fro. The scornful who tout themselves as wise will be shown up as the imposters that they are. Rather cling to the Lord to be firmly planted in truth.


“And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” ~ Ephesians 4:11-16


Singing Psalm 1 you get to assess how those who walk each path ultimately fare in life before you choose your path on which to walk. If you trust Jesus, you’ll prosper well. If you trust human wisdom, you’ll be like the chaff which is driven to and fro by the wind.


Singing Psalm 1 you choose your path on which to delight


“Instead he is the one who makes

    The LORD’s law his delight,

And in that law he meditates

    By day and in the night.” ~ Psalm 1:2


Singing Psalm 1 you get to choose one of two ways to live by being aware and in tune with yourself, others, and the circumstances and systems you find yourself in. Are they safe and friendly for all? Are they based on prejudice and exclusion? Is the measuring stick being used based on what someone looks like or how his character plays out? Is the culture one that is willing to warn the idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, and be patient with everyone? God gave us his word to delight in. He shows us there how he directs his people, his church, on a path on which to take delight which leads us to act in helpful ways out of a heart of love.


Asking right questions often comes after asking a lot of wrong ones. “How can I be happy?” is a question that is right within God’s parameters but usually first gets asked within the feelings realm outside God’s parameters which is wrong. Many people don’t start out knowing God’s parameters and so you go wrong by default until your Creator shepherds you from going astray. Singing Psalm 1 helps you choose your path based on feeling safe enough to ask enough wrong questions until you drill down deep enough to be on your way to asking the right ones. When you’re in the process of learning God’s ways you are at the same time learning to leave the outcomes to him. So what looks like a failure midstream might be anything but failure in God’s economy and timing. The Lord often has us fail on the way to teaching us what success looks like. You can be confident regardless of the results when you are carefully following Jesus in your walk as you act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God. You learn this from each small story of the lives of those recorded within the epic story of God’s word which is the larger simulator for which singing Psalm 1 only whets your appetite. It introduces the psalter which fully develops the idea of what life looks like when we trust and depend on God and what it looks like when we don’t.


Singing Psalm 1 you can play an open book simulation in your mind of what it would be like to choose between two life outcomes. You get a preview of life before you choose your path, before you commit your choice to reality. What would it be like if I walk down this path as opposed to this other path? You get to smell each meal waiting for you at the end of each path before you choose the one that you will taste and either feast upon or regurgitate. 


“But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” ~ Hebrews 5:14


Singing Psalm 1 you get to assess with what you can compare those who are blessed before you choose your path. They are like a tree that grows by the waterside which in its season yields its fruit and you see its green leaves thriving no matter what else is going on around them. The Lord is their vine. They are branches connected to and drawing nourishment from him. You can taste and see that the Lord is good, delight yourself in him, and choose your path to please him.


When being tempted by the devil to meet his own needs rather than wait for his father to attend to them, Jesus shows us what to do when we are tempted to be self-reliant. He goes to what is written about what it really is that makes us live and who it is that sustains us.


But he answered, “It is written,


“‘Man shall not live by bread alone,

but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” ~ Matthew 4:4


You pause to consider rather than act on autopilot or merely follow along with what the local crowd is doing. Singing Psalm 1 can slow you down enough to be self-aware and discerning about the people and circumstances you are facing whether they are laced with accusations or acceptance. You choose your path by who you make your delight. Who will you aim to please? Will you choose your path trusting in God or in man?


    Thus says the LORD:

    “Cursed is the man who trusts in man

        and makes flesh his strength,

        whose heart turns away from the LORD. 

    He is like a shrub in the desert,

        and shall not see any good come.

    He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,

        in an uninhabited salt land.


    “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,

        whose trust is the LORD. 

    He is like a tree planted by water,

        that sends out its roots by the stream,

    and does not fear when heat comes,

        for its leaves remain green,

    and is not anxious in the year of drought,

        for it does not cease to bear fruit.”


    The heart is deceitful above all things,

        and desperately sick;

        who can understand it? 

    “I the LORD search the heart

        and test the mind,

    to give every man according to his ways,

        according to the fruit of his deeds.” ~ Jeremiah 17:5-10


You might think that there is a third way where you can not follow God and yet not be wicked. This is a mirage. A lie from the devil. God shows you what you are worth by giving you a choice between good and evil and giving you the mind of Christ to choose what is good. There is no third option. Don’t believe lies or that you are the only one facing this choice. Jesus tells of the wide and narrow roads, the wise and foolish builders. Jesus, the good shepherd, draws his own to himself. The only way to be cleansed from sin and be blessed is by trusting Jesus. When he shed his blood, he paid the penalty for the sins of his people, his straying sheep, to bring them back into his fold to joyfully follow his ways.


“He’s like a deeply planted tree

    Beside a water stream,

Which in its season bears its fruit,

    Whose leaves stay fresh and green.” ~ Psalm 1:3a


Singing Psalm 1 you choose your path with the end in mind


“In all he does, he will succeed.

    The wicked are not so,

But they are like the scattered chaff

    Swept by the winds that blow.” ~ Psalm 1:3b-4


By his great power and outstretched arm, God created the earth with people and animals, and he gives it to whomever it seems right to him. God called Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king, his servant. Because our Creator is sitting on his throne, everything is going his way, and he loves us, we ought to find enjoyment in our relationships, work, and food. We do this amid difficulties where we help carry each other’s burdens, share what we have, rejoice with those who rejoice, and mourn with those who mourn regardless of who is in government leadership at the moment. Whoever it is, it’s from the Lord.


Will you seek short-term pleasure or pause long enough to learn how to pursue everlasting pleasure? God’s word brings to light the people of character and integrity who have gone before you alongside those who acted without faith in addition to those who began one way and ended another, whether by repentance or by backsliding. Look at the choices each one has made and the outcome of their way of life. Who were they trusting? Who were they not trusting? You can choose your path well by imitating those who lived by faith, those who trusted their Creator. 


“The wicked therefore will not stand

    When time of judgment comes,

Nor will the sinners stand among

    Assembled righteous ones.” ~ Psalm 1:5


Singing Psalm 1 you get to assess how you will be judged. If you choose to oppose your Creator, you simply will not stand in God’s judgment. The wicked won’t appear in the assembly of the just. The wheat and the tares will be separated and eternally divided. What determines whether a group of people are righteous or wicked since all are sinners and no one can stand on their own merit? Here is the one criterion. One group chooses to trust Jesus and the other rejects him. Those who God counts as righteous trust God to help and save them. Those who God counts as wicked don’t trust God but trust in themselves, other people, or in their accomplishments, possessions, and reputation. The problem is, none of that helps or saves. God’s heart is to help and save which is why he deems it as wicked for anyone to trust in those who deceive and pose as wise or to trust in anything that cannot stand the test of time.


“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,

but the righteous shall live by his faith.” ~ Habakkuk 2:4


“…but my righteous one shall live by faith,

    and if he shrinks back,

my soul has no pleasure in him.” ~ Hebrews 10:38


Singing Psalm 1 you get to recognize the ways of those who trust God and those who don’t before you choose your path. The godly are affectionately known by God whereas the ways of the wicked will be overthrown. In light of the atrocities that occur in this fallen world, it feels at times that it would have been better to not have been born so as to never have had to hear about or see the abuse, murders, oppression, and twisted justifications for evil that are unendingly reported. Ecclesiastes captures this sentiment, and Job and Jeremiah felt that way in addition to Solomon. It is cause for gladness and joy to know that God’s outstretched arm will reach from the past to the future undoing every wrong and making it right. If you begin with the end in mind, you will choose your path wisely. Even if you are presently in great pain, the knowledge that your Creator knows you affectionately imparts within you an affection for him and a joy that drives you through the darkness of suffering toward the light of life.


But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. ~ 2 Corinthians 12:9


The calendar and the clock can feel like enemy beasts with whom you must contend each day, awakening into battle with dread.


-or-


Time and seasons act as fences containing the gifts which you are free to unwrap and enjoy within the pleasant, safe, designated boundaries in which God has placed you to live according to his ways until he calls you home.


Picture chaff. It blows away and is gone. When you reject Jesus, this is you.


Picture concrete. It’s fixed, and yet when it cracks, portions of it crumbles into dust. When the wind catches it, it’s broken to pieces and full of holes. When you dig in your heels and are slow to repent, this is you. Or you are one who has been oppressed by others and are broken like cracked concrete in great distress and sorrow.


“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” ~ John 16:33


Picture a live tree whose roots have a perpetual water source. It grows into something beautiful, lasting, and true. When you trust Jesus and embrace his gift of repentance, this is you.


“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” ~ Romans 6:23


As the Lord enables you to choose your path well, who knows whether he will also enable you to be an agent of his forgiveness?


“My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.” ~ James 5:19-20


Do you find it hard to trust the Lord? Earnestly seek him in his word with all your heart. Ask your Creator to help you to love him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and to lead you in the way everlasting. He will not refuse you.


When the Israelites came to the Red Sea, they did not see a clear path on which to walk and some sat in the scorner’s chair and grumbled against God and his servant, Moses. When God opened the Red Sea, he made it easy for them to choose their path forward. He used fire as their rear guard and caused the water of the sea to close in on and destroy his and their enemies. Look for sightings, listen for openings that your Creator presents for you to choose your path. Trust his protection to close in on those who oppose him in his plan to save you.


And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. ~ Isaiah 30:20-21


“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” ~ Jeremiah 31:33-34


“For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” ~ John 5:22-24


“Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” ~ 1 Peter 1:8-9


Singing Psalm 1 brings you face-to-face with your inevitable death and the judgment. Let them be your teachers that help you choose your path to come to Jesus. Learn to die to self as you live and gratefully receive his gifts. You choose your path with the end in mind to enjoy every opportunity to give from all that he gives you between now and when you die. And when you die, you get to live with him forever experiencing unimaginable, irresistible pleasure that will never end.


“The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.” ~ Ecclesiastes 12:13-14


“Because the LORD the righteous loves;

    The path they walk He knows.

The wicked walk a different path,

    That to destruction goes.” ~ Psalm 1:6



May 30, 2022 - October 11, 2024

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