Bible Readings

Reading 29: The joys of the godly

Read Psalm 1.

For this next reading, we go over to the book of Psalms, which is the book after Job. This book is a collection of poetry and songs used for personal and public worship in Israel. (Today, churches also use modern tunes to sing these psalms.) The 150 psalms in this book were written over a span of 1,000 years. Some of the psalms have no known author. Others have their writers mentioned.

These songs are timeless and describe the broad range of human emotions: sorrow and joy, anger and peace, doubt and faith, repentance and praise. The songs also give us many details about Yahweh’s character, Israel’s history, and general observations about the world. Some psalms describe personal struggles, others about Israel as a nation, and still others contain prophecies about the future of the world.

This first psalm begins the collection by linking the blessings of God to taking delight in “the law of the Lord”. The “the law of the Lord” is a Hebrew expression referring to the first five books of the Bible which were all written by Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. These books contain the origin of the universe, the early history of mankind, Israel’s history and the laws that God gave Israel. Collectively, they are known as “the law of the Lord” or “the law of Moses”. So to delight in the law of the Lord is just a way of saying to delight in the Bible, God’s Word.

What are the delights or joys or blessings that come from knowing God’s Word well? Knowing God’s Word well allows the believer to know God’s character well. It would be like getting to know a spouse or best friend well. Such a relationship produces intimacy, trust, good fellowship, peace and joy. Knowing what pleases God helps to direct how we should live and make decisions. It helps us avoid sinful behaviour (which leads to pain and suffering).

In Psalm 1, the believer who lives by to God’s Word is pictured as a tree planted by streams of water. Such a tree will not suffer from a lack of water and can continually produce fruit. The fruit is not about material wealth but about spiritual success in life. The psalm writer (or psalmist) is saying that living in obedience to God’s Word produces the kind of life that God delights in.

On the other hand, “the wicked” in this psalm refers to unbelievers because in verse 5, the wicked will be condemned at the time of God’s judgment. Unbelievers ultimately live either for themselves or with no eternal purpose in mind. Their lives are pictured as chaff (the husks of the grain that are useless) that is blown away.

Psalm 1 is an encouragement for all believers to develop their relationship with God through the study of His Word. The Bible will guide us into living lives that not only please our Creator, but deepens our intimacy with the One who made us, loves us and wants us.