"Psalms for the Simple" Part 1 of 150

That title probably scares you as much as it scares me. "part 1 of 150?" is he serious!?
Yes I am.
I've been reading through the Bible cover to cover, something I'm trying to do fairly regularly in my own personal study of God's word. And guess where I just turned to? Yep! Psalms.
I have titled this series "Psalms for the Simple" because it is part of my goal as a pastor and worship leader to show people that you don't need to have a prestigious degree or know greek to read and benefit from God's word! One of the things that makes me most sad is that some people leave church thinking, "man i'm glad he knows what he's talking about because I have no idea how he got that out of that passage." When biblical lines start getting shady, when pastors preach heady and intellectually above the congregation, a person is drawn away more than drawn to wanting to study it casually on their own. That is a shame.
So to do my part, being a simple brain, as I usually say, I'm going to blog my way through the Psalms and give you simple and personal insight. There is a place for intellectualism, a good place, but the sake of this study is going to be on finding joy in reading God's word and benefiting from what he has given us, knowing how it has been preserved over thousands of years.
Here we go:

Psalm 1 (go ahead read it!):

First thing I gather from this Psalm, even right from the first sentence, is the main theme of the whole thing: There is no blessing in wickedness.
Blessing comes from obedience and delighting "in the Law of the Lord." "Meditating on it day and night" (verse 2)
This is describing a person who actually WANTS to play by the rules. Now, hear me out, never once will you hear me say that salvation in Jesus Christ is by obeying all the rules. Salvation in Jesus Christ is ONLY by grace THROUGH faith. But there is also a phrase that is biblical and I like it a lot: "Choose to sin, Choose to suffer." See, there is consequence to sin, ALWAYS. Whether it is immediate or many years from the offense. There is always consequence to sin and it isn't pretty. It is messy, it hurts, it's SIN! Blessed is the man who "delights in the Law of the Lord." This man recognizes consequence to sin and thinks to himself, "hmm.. instead of doing something that is offensive to God and will inevitably hurt me, I'm going to purposefully do what is right, even when it doesn't seem favorable to me at the time." That is meditating on the Law of the Lord.
Blessed man in this passage is described like a tree by streams of water. If I were a tree, I wouldn't want to be in a desert right? The BEST place to be is by a constant and never worrying-about-it flow of water! The connection is drawn in this Psalm to delighting and meditating on the Law of the Lord, God's Word, and streams of water. Jump forward to the New Testament, when Jesus is talking to the woman at the well and he refers to "living water." God's word is like a stream of living water in us, constantly shaping and growing us into the image of Christ. Why is that? Because Christ is the Word made flesh (John 1:1). All this to say, when we are living a life like the blessed man in this Psalm, our focus is on pleasing the Lord, avoiding sin, with the result that we are bearing fruit and prospering (cf Gal. 5 & 6).

The rest of the Psalm finishes with how the wicked man is for a moment; ultimately has no real purpose because he will be driven away like chaff blown away from wheat. The wicked man suffers, "he will not stand in judgement." (verse 5) That doesn't mean that he won't be judged, it means that he won't get through judgment. He will never stand in the congregation of the righteous and ultimately perishes. Wow, the line is very clear here: Blessing for the righteous and the wicked will perish.

Prayer:
God, you are, as you say you are the one who truly knows the way of the righteous (vs 6). You know our hearts, the good and the bad. Forgive us Lord for the sin in our lives that cause us not to bless you, but defile you. You are the God who blesses the righteous. Protect us from a life of wickedness and guide us in your truth, in your Word. Lord give us motivation and strength, as we are human, to delight and meditate on your law. Help us not to follow it with an ill-conceived notion that we have to, but instead follow it because we want to.  Only you can give us, as fallen as we are, the power to please you. Give us strength and give us endurance to pursue righteousness. Thank you for your mercy.  In Jesus name we thank you and praise you. Amen