Daily Devotion – February 8, 2022 – Dr. Pat Taylor Ellison
Psalm 1
1:1 Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers;
1:2 but their delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law they meditate day and night.
1:3 They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper.
1:4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
1:5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
1:6 for the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
Psalm 1. The very first of many. This psalm describes the people who delight in the law of the Lord as well as the wicked, who apparently give advice and scoff at the Lord.
The people who cling with delight to the law of the Lord, who think day and night about how God wants his believers to live, will be happy, be nurtured, be watched over, and prosper (bear fruit).
The people who scoff (a word that means to laugh smugly at people and things we feel are beneath us) will have a different future. The psalmist doesn’t say “They will suffer vengeance!†or “God will burn them with unquenchable fire!†Instead, the psalmist says these scoffers who give wicked advice will be like the husks that blow away in the wind once the grain is stored. That’s it. They will just be gone.
So we are not to take advice from people who scoff at God, who think themselves wiser than God. But how can we know which people scoff at the law of the Lord and which people delight in it? When an individual wants to make such a spiritual discernment, generally she needs to talk to a lot of different people with various points of view, and she must pray over what she learns. Such listening and prayer takes time and energy and the patience to move slowly and be teachable. Whan a community wants to make such a spiritual discernment, generally they need to gather a lot of people with various points of view, and then they must pray for excellent, deep, and difficult conversation that they can pondered. Such listening and prayer takes time and energy and the patience to move slowly and be teachable.
How open are people to learn from one another? How willing are we to be open to the possibility that there can be many accounts for the same experience, and that we won’t know the truth of something until we listen to all of them? I pray for patience, slowness, and openness. I pray to be teachable. I pray that God will teach us, that we will delight in God’s law and meditate over it, open to God’s leading. Why? Because I want to be among those who delight in God’s Word, not the ones who scoff. I want to be paying attention to how God is wanting me to bear fruit and prosper in the world that God loves.
Gracious God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for giving us your law and your Word to delight in and meditate on. Help our congregation and its surrounding community listen to one another. Give us patience and time to discern how you are calling us to join in your mission to the world you love. Amen.
