Last Sunday we began our survey of the Psalms in a series entitled "Worship YAHWEH: thinking, knowing, feeling, and praising God." The focus on Sunday was on Psalm 1. Psalm 1 functions well as the first psalm since it lays down the foundation for how we might experience a delighted worship of God. There are two ways to live: 1) the way of the righteous, which will lead us to delighted worship of God, and 2) the way of the wicked, which will lead us to our destruction.
Ps 1:1-2 explains the two ways to live. The wicked way involves a kind of entrenched pridefulness, where your thoughts and actions show themselves to be firmly set in opposite directions from God. The happy (i.e. "blessed" - this word simply means "happy") person steers clear of this type of life and those set in this type of life. Instead, they delight in and meditate on the teaching (or "law") of the Lord. In other words, all of life is seen through the prism of God's teaching. God's word is the main syllabus and course packet for understanding and navigating through life. This word is meditated on "day and night," which means that there is no area of life that is not shaped by and influenced by God's teaching. This also means then that every moment of my life can be moments of profound happiness if I am regularly ingesting and enjoying the food of God's word.
Ps 1:3-4 illustrates the two ways to live. The righteous way of delighted worship is like being planted in a secure, stable place, being regularly nourished by water, and producing visible fruit. The wicked way, on the other hand, is like useless chaff. It doesn't matter how happy and prosperous the wicked appear to be. Eventually their lives will be shown to be utterly worthless, without any vitality or substance. It is inherently rootless, easily overwhelmed by the winds of life.
Ps 1:5-6 concludes the psalmist's thoughts on the two ways to live. All sin, no matter how it looks like, will not last among God's people. For God intimately knows the way of those who follow and delightedly worship him. These are his people. But the way of sin, the way of the wicked, will be utterly destroyed.
In the end then, we can if we want be unhappy. We do this when we choose to steer away from God and his teaching. Or, we can be happy. We do this when we choose to stay grounded in and devoted to the Lord's teaching. Sadly, the natural inclination of man is to choose the way of unhappiness, because we are naturally drawn to choosing our own ways rather than God's ways. Fortunately, we have the hope of God acting towards us in Jesus Christ. He moves towards us, planting us in the soil of gospel that then allows us to truly seek him and his teaching.
Thus, the beginning of delighted worship of God and the foundation for delighted worship of God is thankfulness - thankfulness to God for wrenching us out of death and into life in his Son. Such thankfulness opens us up to rich worship of God as we then grab hold of and shape our lives according to the teaching that unfolds all the implications of our new status in Jesus. Because of this, we can know that we will be happy tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, all the way until eternity. We can know this not because we know for sure everything will go our way (it definitely will not!) We can know this if we know that our life are firmly set in the Lord and his instruction. To know this, and to then live it out, is the key to true happiness.
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