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. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.
Psalm 1 v.1-2
Yesterday we saw what we need to AVOID to know true happiness and today we focus on what we need to EMBRACE for the same blessing – true happiness. We need to embrace ‘delight in the law of the LORD’!
I was speaking to a someone the other day about a mutual friend and where he was on his spiritual journey and the observation was made that ‘he loved and soaked himself in the Word’. That is surely what the Psalmist is driving at here when he says ‘on his law he meditates day and night’
That standard is in some respects both helpful and unhelpful for it could be misunderstood as an example of the old saying that ‘He is too heavenly minded to be of any earthly use’ and a standard too high to be attained by ordinary men and women. Clearly we have very full and busy lives to live and we cannot spend all our time meditating on God’s law but are we giving priority in those busy lives to doing just that? Setting aside time in every day where are focus is on that and that alone. It is absolutely key to being blessed. It is absolutely key to being able to deal with the demands that every day places before us. If we are parents it is absolutely key to bringing up our children in the way that we should go and it is absolutely in line with God’s instruction to his people on the cusp of entering the promised land in Deuteronomy 6.4-9. ‘These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them as you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up’.
We can only do that when we have meditated God’s law deep into our inmost beings. I am reminded of Pastor Richard Wurmbrand, imprisoned for fourteen years in Romania then under communist rule. For three of those years he was in solitary confinement during which he kept himself sane by sleeping during the day and at night preparing and preaching to himself a sermon. He had no Bible, but was able to do this because since becoming a believer just ten years before, he had ‘meditated’ deeply on God’s Word memorising it so that it became part of his very being.
There are many things that will conspire to prevent us from this vital part of our daily lives but the time carved out of a busy schedule to meditate (think deeply about) God’s word will never be regretted.
The following CSSM Chorus is a simple but profound prayer to pray as we follow the Psalmist’s way to true happiness.
Make the book live to me O Lord
Show me yourself within your word.
Show me myself and show me my Saviour
And make the book live to me.