October 6
Psalm 1
1 Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
and who meditates on his law day and night.
3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers.
4 Not so the wicked!
They are like chaff
that the wind blows away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
6 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.
Here we see a simple picture of where our life will be headed. What we are able to be. But we stop here for a moment and we probably say to ourselves, or to others close to us, I don’t think I look like the blessed on spoken of in Psalm 1. I still take up my place in the wrong places. I don’t meditate on the law of God 24/7.
Then we remember that the writer of the Psalm was David. One whose flaws were shown to us in part. Not everything he did, but when we look at David in the books of Samuel and Chronicles, we see they did not leave out the places he failed. We remember that David puts an ideal before us and a place to work toward.
More so, we see that there is one who did not walk in the way of the wicked. There is one who did not sit in the seat of the mockers. One who brought the grace and forgiveness we need so that this same righteousness could be placed upon us. The gift of God’s forgiveness takes us from seeing a future of blowing like chaff and being restored to the place of being by the streams of water.
Let God take away the sin that has held us, the guilt that weighs us down. Be restored in the grace and forgiveness of God which keeps us in the life-giving waters of his Spirit.
Song – Your Grace is Enough
Prayer
Lord Jesus, like Judas, we have betrayed you; like Peter, we have denied you; and like the other disciples, we have forsaken you. Yet you remain faithful to us unto death, even death on a cross. We plead for your forgiveness and mercy. And we ask that you strengthen us so that we do not turn aside but follow you to the very end — for the final victory belongs to you. Amen.