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Psalm 1:1
The
following is a Bible study posted on our Bible Study Group.
Happy Thursday, everyone, and welcome to our new study
of selected Psalms. I'm going to start in Psalm 1, since it's my favorite one.
:-) I'm planning to take this Psalm slowly, and hopefully these Bible
studies won't be so long that way. Since we're going slow, you'll have
time to memorize the Psalm if you do one verse a week. I always recommend
writing out the verse on 3"x5" card or small slip of paper and hanging
it over your kitchen sink. In no time at all, you'll know it by
heart!
Okay, let's take a look at Psalm 1:1...
Blessed is the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the
ungodly,
Nor stands in the
path of sinners,
Nor sits in the
seat of the scornful... (NKJV)
I absolutely love this Psalm, probably because it has had such an impact on my
own life. I tell this story in my book
that's coming out this summer, but I'll fill you in early. :-)
Back in the fall of 1995, when I was pregnant with my first baby, I began to
panic when I realized how little I knew about babies! Yikes! I had
babysat a little during high school, but those children were toddlers or older.
I had only held a newborn once in my life, and that had been the spring before,
at a ladies' Bible study, when one of the women brought her two-week-old son.
Since everyone knew I was expecting, they all passed the baby to me to hold.
It was fun, but I felt so awkward, and all I could do was make him cry.
The mom kindly let my bungle my way through for 20 minutes or so, and even then,
I could feel the muscles in my arms for two days! What was I going to do
when I had my OWN baby?!
We moved to a small town that summer, a retirement town in Florida. Every
Friday morning I attended a craft class at our church so that I could fellowship
with other women. But these women were so much OLDER than me! They freely
gave me lots of parenting advice, whether I wanted it or not. Usually I didn't
want it, but I'd smile politely. Inside I was thinking, "Don't they
know how old-fashioned they are? Don't they realize how crazy they
sound?"
To help ends meet, I worked a part-time job in a nearby city. After work
in the afternoon, I had time to stop by a nice library. Almost daily I
would visit the parenting section and devour the advice given. (Yes,
Danielle, I told you I was a bookworm!) I realized that most of the books
were written by non-Christian authors, but I also reasoned that I had been a
Christian long enough to tell if their advice was biblical or not.
Well, I was wrong! Little Arik was born in November, and the few months
following were the hardest of my life. My husband and I argued over
parenting methods, and since he was working a middle-of-the-night shift and
sleeping much of the day, I figured I could do what I wanted without his
knowing. My mom lived nearby, but I felt funny sharing my opinions with
her. And there was no way I was going to talk about my problems with those
old women at church!
I wasn't "blessed." I can't look up "blessed" in my
Strong's Concordance this week (remember, my bookshelves are in a state of chaos
as my husband redesigns that room...), but according to http://bible.crosswalk.com,
"blessed" simply means "happy". (http://bible.crosswalk.com/Dictionaries/KingJamesDictionary/)
I certainly wasn't happy!
Near the end of January 1996, I met a godly woman in a chat room on CompuServe.
She didn't preach at me or try to change me. She simply let me talk, then
encouraged me to read Psalm 1. I hadn't been doing too much Bible reading
(blaming it on the newborn taking up too much of my time?), but I felt like God
was talking directly to me in verse one.
Matthew Henry has this to say in his Bible commentary: "This is a
psalm of instruction concerning good and evil, setting before us life and death,
the blessing and the curse, that we may take the right way which leads to
happiness and avoid that which will certainly end in our misery and ruin."
http://bible.crosswalk.com/Commentaries/MatthewHenryComplete/mhc-com.cgi?book=ps&chapter=001
This kind woman also recommended a book to me, which I promptly bought and read.
I immediately noticed a difference in this book. It didn't talk about
evolution. It wasn't full of psychology. It wasn't just a collection
of mother's experiences. It was firmly based upon the Word of God.
And it rescued our family!
I remember the day as clearly as if it were yesterday. I was sitting in my
living room in the afternoon. It was sunny. And I couldn't get the
words of Psalm 1:1 out of my head.
You see, I had started out by just getting simple counsel from the ungodly. Oh,
their advice wasn't always so bad. But I never bothered to check the
source, to see if their own lives acknowledged the one, true God. It was a
small step in a very bad direction.
Then I started to stand with them, to stick up for them in front of others. I
started quoting Scripture verses that would make me feel better, even if taken
out of context. My core philosophies of life began to change, but I wasn't
even aware of it.
By the time Arik was born, I was sitting with the scornful. I made fun of
anyone who was "old-fashioned" enough to follow biblical advice.
I was a committed Christian on the outside, but I was an atheist in practice.
I was rebellious.
And God didn't bless.
You know, I later found out that those wise women at craft class were right. I
suspect they knew I was headed down the wrong path, and they were blunt enough
to try to help me. But my mind was not open to God, even though I would
never have admitted it.
The Lord is gracious, isn't He? Next week we'll talk about God's solution
to the world's wisdom, and I'll share how my online friend guided me along right
paths.
I'm sorry for being so long, especially after I said I'd be short! But I'm
hoping that there is a woman out there who will take the words of this Psalm to
heart and allow God to bless her, maybe simply because I shared some of my
story.
If you would
like to participate in our current study, click
here to join.
Next - Psalm
1:2
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