My Journey Through Psalms

A Romantic Gesture to God

I may be a teacher, but I struggle to like poetry. Like my students I have always questioned the meaning, interpretation and use of poetry. Yeah, I know. That wheelbarrow he wrote about very well may be just a wheelbarrow. It may not have a deep symbolic significance or what have you. I teach it. Intellectually I comprehend what scholars say about poetry and verse but I struggle to like it. Probably because it is too abstract. Or maybe because people always want to tell me what it means and I disagree with them and get frustrated when I’m told that my interpretation of the abstract is wrong (which is why I like abstract paintings, but not poetry?). Over the years I’ve developed a healthy respect for poetry, and grown to like certain aspects of it, but it remains a struggle for me.

Why? It goes back to that realist thing. Which is why I believe I need to journey through Psalms again, this time with an open heart and mind looking at it from a more Romantic perspective. Because it is one thing to say you have a problem, another thing to do something to change it.

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Psalm 1

Blessed is the man [or woman]

Who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked

Or stand in the way of sinners

Or sit in the seat of mockers.

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In this journey I am seeking blessing, passion, a closer relationship with God. This is the very first instruction in this psalm. Three things not to do 1) walk with wicked (alliteration) 2) Stand with sinners (alliteration) or 3) sit in the seat of mockers (alliteration). I find the sound devices to be pleasing to the ear, but also to emphasize the actions. For every non-action, there is an opposite action we can take.

• If we are not walking with the wicked, then we should walk with the wise. This requires effort. It’s easy to find stupid people. They don’t use their brains. But to find the truly wise and to follow in their ways you have to want that, you have to seek it. God promises that if we seek this we will find it, but it does require that we look. Most often the wise in our lives are the people we don’t want to listen to: parents, mentors, people who have experienced what we are going through. Our culture tells us to be independent, but God tells us to seek wisdom and walk in the ways of the wise. Then we will be blessed.
• If we are not standing with sinners, then we stand with saints. This is hard, because it means admitting that there are people out there who are better at life than we are. And there are. I have perfectionist tendencies, so I don’t like admitting that I’m not good at something; when I stand next to someone who is better at something than I am I feel inferior and want to run away, but I should want to stand next to them and learn—especially if they are walking in God’s holy ways. It’s not to shame us, but to set an example. It’s a lesson in freedom I am still perfecting.
• If we are not sitting in the seat of mockers then we are sitting in the seat of encouragers. I tell my students every day to be nice to each other. They tell me that they are only mean to the people they like. I think to myself how sad it is that in our culture it is more natural to say something mean to your friends than it is to say something nice and encouraging. But seriously, how much better do you feel about yourself when you get a text from someone saying ‘Good morning, sunshine’ than ‘Good morning, loser’? There is power in the words we use and mockers, even in ‘good fun’ just don’t bring blessings. It wasn’t what we were designed to do and it pains me to think about how many times a snide remark I’ve made (I’m more sarcastic than I’d like to admit) could have broken someone’s spirit and I didn’t even realize it.

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But his [or her] delight is in the law of the Lord,

And on his law he [or she] meditates day and night.

He [or she] is like a tree planted by streams of water,

Which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.

Whatever he [or she] does prospers.

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Meditating is another action here. Meditating on the law day and night, but not begrudgingly, so that it becomes a delight. Or is a delight. It’s your joy to meditate on the law. It’s what you want to do. Crave to do. Can’t wait to do.

I feel that sometimes.

But not all the time.

I want to feel that all the time.

The simile—like a tree planted by streams of water—is the goal. We spend our entire lives searching for prosperity and the key is here. Delighting in the law of the Lord, day and night.

I’m always amazed at the way God uses nature in his word. Water, trees, etc. They are constant images over and over again (thus further proving my point about God being a Romantic), which goes to show that we are interconnected with his creation and as such can find rest there and in his Word.

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Not so the wicked!

They are like chaff

That the wind blows away.

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A second simile juxtaposed here with the first. Nature again—the useless matter in grain harvesting blowing away instead of being kept to be used in the cycle of life. How depressing.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,

Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous

For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,

But the way of the wicked will perish.

The promise at the end is both beautiful and haunting. It is beautiful because we see an image of God looking over his people, those who strive to do well (the actions above), but we see the wicked blowing away. Haunting because the image is a hand throwing the wicked to the air, never to be caught up in a pocket of grace again.

I thank God each day for his pockets of grace, because I don’t deserve them, but he has given them to me anyway. Lord, thank you for watching over my ways. Give me grace, peace and a desire for your law and word. I want to delight in them so that I can be this tree.

                March 20, 2016

Questions to ponder:

1. How is God’s law both delightful and powerful? Why would following it bring me blessing?
2. If sinners are spread like the useless bits of the harvest, how do I continually bring myself back to the path of the righteous?
3. How is God’s word nurturing like streams of water to the roots of my tall ever growing tree?