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915. Bible Study: Psalm 1 (Blessings for Seekers of God) · Faith by annm2705

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  Today we are starting a new book and I think this book is going
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  to be very different from the prior episodes and I expect that
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  many of these are going to be very short because of the
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  content that we'll cover. I intend to cover 1 Psalm per
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  day and just talk about that. Read through the Study Bible and
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  whatever comes to mind, but because the Psalms are very
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  different from the other books that we've been reading, it will
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  probably be shorter podcast. So first of all, I want to read
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  through what the Study Bible says about the book of Psalms as
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  the introduction and then we'll get into it.
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  So why read this book? The Psalms in this book can help
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  you give voice to your feelings. Expressing emotions can be
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  frustrating, especially if you're also trying to maintain
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  spiritual balance. Is it OK to sometimes be up and
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  sometimes down? Is it acceptable to shout for
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  joy when God gets you out of a jam?
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  And what can you say when you feel abandoned by God?
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  Whatever you feel, joy or sorrow, peace or anguish, you'll
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  find your feelings reflected somewhere in the words of
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  Psalms. Who wrote this book?
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  David, Israel's most celebrated king, is connected to 73 of the
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  Psalms, either as a writer or a recipient.
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  Asaph, the sons of Korra, Solomon, Heman, Ethan Moses, and
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  unknown authors wrote Psalms as well.
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  Why was it written? Some psalms were intended to be
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  used for solid, solitary singing or meditation.
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  Others were intended for group singing, including those for
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  soldiers to sing while marching to battle.
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  As their value for spiritual encouragement became apparent,
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  the psalms were collected as guides for worship, prayer, and
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  instruction about God. What to look for in Psalms The
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  psalms are poetry, not doctrinal essays.
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  The psalmist frequently were interested in how something felt
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  more than what it meant. Think about psalms as entries in
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  a diary. They reflect people's most
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  intimate encounters with God. Watch for figures of speech,
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  exaggerations, and repetitions. Poetic language requires that
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  you read with your heart as well as your mind.
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  So I. One of the first questions in
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  this study Bible is how should we understand biblical poetry?
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  With its highly symbolic language and frequent use of
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  metaphors, biblical poetry can sometimes be difficult to
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  understand. Learning a few basics, however,
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  can help. One important characteristic of
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  ancient Hebrew poetry is parallelism.
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  Verses are lines expressing the same thought in parallel
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  structure. For example, in Psalm one verse
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  one we read that the blessed man doesn't walk in step with the
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  wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the
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  company of mockers. The idea of associating the
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  godless people is expressed with different verbs but in the same
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  grammatical structure. The impact of some other poetic
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  devices is lost with the translation from ancient Hebrew
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  into modern English. The the use of acrostics, for
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  example, is discussed in Why is there a Hebrew character and
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  word at the start of each section?
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  And that's further on in the book we'll read that the poetry
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  of Psalms focuses largely on human feelings, revealing a
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  range of emotions experienced by sincere but sinful people who
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  struggle to follow God and understand his place in their
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  lives. For this reason, the Psalms can
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  be quite varied. Some are uplifting, others
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  depressing, but all are real. Why?
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  Because the writers of Psalms bared their souls to God as well
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  as to their readers. Though we can learn a great deal
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  from biblical poetry, its primary purses purpose is not so
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  much to teach us as to reach us. Something I didn't realize until
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  reading more scripture is that some of these psalms, which it
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  doesn't say in this summary from the study Bible, but some of
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  these psalms were actually prophetic.
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  And for example, here's one that comes to mind and I don't know
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  what Psalm it is, but there are a couple times.
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  First of all, when Jesus is on the cross and he speaks to the
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  Father, it, he is it, it says, my God, my God, why have you
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  forsaken me? He is actually quoting Scripture
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  and it's what David said in the book of Psalms.
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  And so in a sense, what David was expressing, there's another
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  Psalm and I don't remember which one it is, but David like almost
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  like puts himself in the place of Christ when he like, it's
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  almost like, I don't know if it's David that wrote it or
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  Asaph because Asaph was a seer, not a singer, but a seer, a
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  prophetic person who saw things in the future.
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  And he he wrote some of the Psalms also.
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  And and I don't, I should have looked this up before doing this
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  podcast, but I'm just saying this is in there.
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  You can look at it. We will get to it eventually.
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  But he he described the scene at Christ crucifixion.
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  He described that his legs were not broken.
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  He described that the blood and water poured out of him.
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  He described how people divided up his belongings, his clothes
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  beneath the cross. All of these things were
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  described, you know, hundreds if not thousands of years.
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  I'd have to look at the the time frame between a probably
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  hundreds of years before Christ died on the cross.
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  But these things were expressed through David and David like saw
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  these things or Asaph, I'm not sure who said it.
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  I think it was David though. But he saw these things in a
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  poetic sense. But I mean, I wonder if it was
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  just a vision of God that he expect expressed through a song
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  or a Psalm. And but it was something that
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  somehow came to him and so he expressed it that way.
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  And you also have to think about when Saul, the first king of
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  Israel, was when God's spirit left him, when God took away his
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  spirit from Saul because he was disobedient to God, and then he
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  allowed God allowed a spirit to torment him.
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  But when David would come in and he would play the leer, the
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  tormenting spirit would cease. So there was something about
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  praise music that would get the enemy to retreat to some degree.
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  So it's very interesting. There's some things that we will
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  see and maybe as we read these things, there will be more to
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  come through. I read through the book of
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  Psalms once before and maybe like sporadically at different
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  times, just opening the Bible to read something.
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  But this will be interesting to go through starting, you know, I
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  mean, it's been several years now, so going through very
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  slowly with each of these Psalms.
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  So it'll be interesting to see what we discover.
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  And I don't have anything in my mindset ahead of time, but just
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  I guess let's start with a prayer.
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  Dear Lord, please be with us as we read through this book of
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  psalms, as we start and begin every day with our reading a
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  Psalm and meditating on it. What does it mean to the
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  original author of the Psalm and how does it apply to our lives?
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  Is there anything we can learn or take away from this?
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  We ask this to be revealed by the Holy Spirit to give us an
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  understanding. We ask this through Jesus
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  Christ. Amen.
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  OK, so Psalm one, it says, blessed is the one who does not
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  walk in step with the wicked, or stand in the way that sinners
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  take, or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in
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  the law of the Lord, and who meditates on His law day and
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  night. That person is like a tree
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  planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in
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  season, and whose leaf does not wither.
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  Whatever they do prospers. Not so the wicked.
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  They are like chaff the that the wind blows away.
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  Therefore the wicked will not stand in judgment, nor sinners
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  in the assembly of the righteous.
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  For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous.
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  But the way of the wicked leads to destruction, and that ends
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  Psalm 1. So I'll read what the study
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  Bible has to say about these things, and I have a few little
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  comments about it too. So what does it mean to be
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  blessed? To be blessed is to be happy or
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  full of joy. It is much more than a feeling,
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  however. It is a joyous position
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  resulting from a right relationship with God.
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  Should we meditate on God's law? When we meditate by wrapping our
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  hearts and minds around God's revelation of Himself in His
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  Word or the Law, we find spiritual stability, depth of
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  character, and divine blessing. Does following God bring
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  success? The Psalm offers a principle,
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  not a guarantee of success. The ancient Hebrews did not
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  limit their definition of success to the purely financial
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  aspect of life. They valued other factors as
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  well, including a positive reputation and community respect
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  for the righteous. Success is not measured in the
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  accumulation of wealth, but in the experience of God's blessing
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  on their words and deeds. What is chaff?
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  After wheat is harvested, the chaff are the stems, the leaves,
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  the husk, and dust is separated from the grain in a process
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  called winnowing. Chaff is carried away by the
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  lightest wind, and its removal brings about cleansing by
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  removing the unwanted seed coverings and debris from the
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  grain. In this verse, the worst
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  worthless chap symbolizes the wicked who will be separated
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  from the righteous at judgment. And that's all of the commentary
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  for this Psalm 1. So getting to maybe, what does
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  this say for us? Like how can we apply it to our
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  lives? Well, it's saying that the one
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  who is that blessed is the one. It's kind of like who doesn't
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  associate with the wicked. So who who does not walk in
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  step, who's not running alongside those who are living
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  wickedly or, you know, doing evil things or stand in the way
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  that sinners take or sit in the company of mock in the company
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  of mockers. So those who, you know, refute
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  God or mock God and it says, but those but those who delight in
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  the law of the Lord and who meditate on his law day and
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  night, we do see this as David. David was called.
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  We'll probably see it in certain parts in the Bible where it says
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  David was a man after God's own heart.
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  And I remember the early times of reading the Psalms and
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  reading David's Psalms where he's like, I love your law and I
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  meditated on it all the time. And I remember in my early days
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  reading that and thinking, wow, I could never see myself saying
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  that. But it's, it's interesting how
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  things do change. I mean, I'm going back probably
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  into, you know, 2019-2020 reading some of this actually
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  20/19 was when I first read the Bible from front to back and,
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  and I could not even imagine being, you know, like picture
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  yourself being saying what David said.
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  Could you picture yourself saying that?
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  Could you picture you saying to God, I love your law and I
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  meditate on it day and night. I mean, I couldn't see myself
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  doing that, but yet now today I'm, you know, in the word every
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  day, mostly, you know, skip a day here or there.
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  But I do meditate on these things and I do like when I say
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  meditate, I study these things and I, I wonder like to know God
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  more and to understand the truth and and to have it guide my
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  life. Like that was the decision I
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  made when I decided to get baptized in 2021 was that I was
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  no longer going to be a quote Christian, that I called myself
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  a Christian but didn't live like what the Bible says.
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  I didn't want to be a hypocrite anymore.
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  And my intention was to truly live the way God tells us to
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  live. And that's what my baptism
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  represented to me. And it is like a death to self,
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  like a death to your natural way of, you know, living.
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  I mean, we all are born into sin.
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  We all are sinners and, and so we have that.
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  There's that time frame when not a time frame, but there is that
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  mile marker when you decide, OK, I've lived this way.
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  I acknowledge that I've lived against God in rebellion to God
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  for so many years. Or you know, some people do this
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  earlier in life. And then and then you make that
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  decision. Like what has that accomplished?
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  What have I accomplished by doing that?
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  And you know, is this, is this all that there is?
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  Is this the meaning of life? Is this what I'm supposed to be
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  doing? And and then you just that time
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  when you're in your life, that happens at different stages in
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  somebody's life where you just start wondering things about God
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  and maybe you're seeking God more.
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  And this is saying that you're blessed when you start seeking
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  God. Blessed are those who you know,
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  if you are delighting in the law of the Lord and you're
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  meditating on his law day and night, you're seeking, you're
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  seeking God. And and there's a blessing that
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  comes with that when you really want to know God and you really
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  consider what it says, not just to read the read the Psalm and
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  check it off and say, OK, I've done my duty for the day.
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  Now I'm good. It's not that it's really like,
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  what does this really say? What does it mean to me?
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  And it says that that person who's who's reflecting on the
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  word of God and meditating on it, that person is like a tree
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  planted by streams of water, which yields fruit in its
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  season. Now a person yielding fruit is
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  symbolic of fruit of the Spirit. So when the Spirit, the Holy
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  Spirit resides in us, there's Lovejoy, peace, patience,
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  kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control.
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  I don't know if I perseverance, I don't know if I hit all of
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  them. There's nine of them and and
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  that starts to come out in a person's life and the more
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  you're in God's word, the more those the fruit of the spirit.
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  I mean the Jesus has the water right?
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  Jesus told the woman at the well, he is the water of life or
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  he gives the water that he gives, she will never be thirsty
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  again. And she said to Jesus, Lord, I
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  want that kind of water where I never have to be thirsty again.
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  And he's like, that's the water that I give.
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  And so the water, it even talks in the Book of Revelation about
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  how there is this water flowing from the temple.
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  And Jesus is he's the bread of life.
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  He's the water of life. So like water, water sustains us
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  just like bread sustains us. And that all takes us back to
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  Jesus. So when we are in the word and
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  when we Start learning more and more about about Jesus, about
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  God, it is like streams of water, like it's filling us.
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  It's just, you know, the, the water of life is coming into our
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  life and it'll yield fruit. It'll yield fruit of the Spirit
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  when we have the Holy Spirit, when we are willingly saying,
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  OK, God, I want to live by your law.
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  I'm not going to fight your law anymore.
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  I'm just going to submit to it and say, OK, you are God.
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  And yes, I need to listen to what you say and when.
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  Listen, not just listen, but act out what you say, live how you
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  say because these are all good things.
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  They are there for our good. When we, the more we read, we
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  understand these aren't things to hurt us.
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  They are things to help us and to make us more like, like God's
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  image, like how he created it, how he wanted us to be.
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  So there's a transformation of our life and we become more of a
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  reflection of God the more we submit to the Holy Spirit and
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  live according to God's word. Now, the other thing that that
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  does when we live according to God's word is it's showing God,
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  I love you, I respect you, and so therefore I'm going to obey
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  you. And Jesus said, if you love me,
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  obey my commands. So there's, there's a lot.
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  It's that relationship with God. When we start becoming obedient
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  to God, that's when we start having a relationship with him,
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  when we are respecting him and we are not trampling on his
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  word. We are respecting his word and
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  living it out. And then it just says, you know,
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  like the the wicked, they're going to be blown away and
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  they're not going to be in the presence in the assembly of the
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  righteous and that the Lord watches over the ways of the
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  righteous. So when we have that
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  relationship, God is a loving father to us and he does look
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  out for us. He does protect us.
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  He hears us. God hears the prayers of the
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  righteous. There's so many benefits to the
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  relationship with God and that he can guide us on the right
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  path and keep us on the right path.
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  When we allow him to guide us, a lot of times we're resistant to
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  him and we push him away. And he can't do that.
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  He can't guide us if we push him away because he gives us free
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  will. And so with if we use our free
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  will to push back on him, he's not going to force himself on
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  us. And he lets us have.
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  In fact, sometimes he turns people over when they keep
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  pushing him away over and over and over again.
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  And he sees this pattern and thank God he didn't do that to
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  me. Like when he saw my rebellion
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  over these many years that he didn't say, OK, I'm just going
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  to turn you over to that. You're, you're, you know,
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  you've, you've made your decision.
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  Thankfully he didn't because you know, he would have mercy.
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  And and that is where gratitude comes in, when you're like,
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  thank God he didn't turn me over to that because then I would be
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  separated from him forever. So these are just things that
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  come to mind as I read Scripture.
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  And that's about all I have to say about Psalm 1.
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  So we will conclude. And if you felt this was
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  beneficial, please share it with someone else.
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  If you're not subscribed, please subscribe.
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  These are going to be shorter podcasts than they used to be, I
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  think. And although I tend to talk a
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  lot. So anyway, I hope you have a
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  blessed day and I hope that this hits home to you.