February 10, 2021 -- Psalm 1:1-2 -- Walking in Blessedness
/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;
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
Psalm 1:1-2 English Standard Version
The Psalms are the prayer-book of the Bible. Each psalm is packed with Spirit-fueled insight so that the believer can grow in his prayerful-walk with the Living God. Today is the launch of a new series, a study-devotional of the Book of Psalms.
Psalm 1 stands as the introduction to the whole and what the Spirit teaches the believer is important to help you understand the rest of the book. There is one way of faithfulness, drenching one’s life in truth, which is obedience to law of the LORD. Obedience to the Living God is the evidence, the fruit, of a life dedicated to the Father in heaven—Who is the source of every good gift. Every other path, every other life-style that touts itself as truth without delight in the Law of God is, in fact, a lie forged in hell to chain people in the way of disobedience and death which ultimately leads to eternity in hell.
Jesus lived out such delightful obedience to the Father in heaven. In fact, He is the only, perfectly and fully obedient One Who ever lived. In His obedience believers are credited with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. In His Person He took on our sins and our sins were fully punished so that all who believe in Jesus have had their sins removed and His obedience to the Father is credited to us! The Spirit of the Living God fills believers with the ever-increasing desire for obedience to the way of God. These laws give expression to and practical form to thankful living.
Walking in the way of Jesus Christ is living in Spirit-directed compliance to the Word of God, a pathway filled with challenges. Like the Master Jesus, believers face scoffers and mockers, bad worldly counsel and persecution. Even so, the believer has experienced the fact that any other pathway, all other religions and all other advice which is merely from the world, is the road which leads to death. Therefore the blessed man, the blessed woman, the blessed child fix their eyes on Jesus. Such blessed persons walk in submission to the authority of the God of all Power Who is the Source of Every Blessing. In so walking they count all things as loss and dung except this: ever more fully and deeply knowing Jesus Christ and by the Spirit’s power walking in His way all for the glory of the Father in heaven.
Who is like You, O God our Father? There is none like You in neither in the outer reaches of the cosmos, nor on the earth, nor under the earth! You are merciful in the salvation You have shown and radiantly continue to show us in Jesus Christ. You are the Way-Maker, through Jesus Christ, bringing lost and ruined sinners to the place where salvation is richly poured out. Who is like You, Faithful Father, giving believers the Spirit of God, the same Spirit Who raised Jesus from the dead, so that believers can walk in obedience to the Word of God and find delight in submission to You, no matter the slings and the arrows of the rebellious people, rulers and peers of our times. Strengthen our conformity to Your will and Your way so that beauty of Jesus Christ shines out from us, re-convincing us daily of our devotion to Him and convicting the people around us, of His splendour and Terrible Sovereignty. Amen.
https://youtu.be/zOpt_bulJxY