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Across the Pastor’s Desk by Don Rose

Many will read or hear or sing Psalm 1 as a part of their worship experience this week. This first psalm in a collection of 150 invites the individual experiencing it to be saturated in and immersed in God’s word. Rather than follow the ways or the wisdom of the world, the child of God is to be steeped in what the psalmist describes as the law or Torah of the Lord. It is the word of the Lord that is to guide and uplift the believer and in that word will be found delight, and happiness and sustenance for the journey of life.

As true and important as this is, many find themselves distracted from the message of the psalm by a limited understanding of the word to which the psalmist invites. For  all too many believers, the law or Torah of God has come to be understood simply as the Ten Commandments. Though many might make the effort to live by these commandments, it is quickly realized that such an effort is impossible and leads only to despair.

For the psalmist, the use of law or Torah in this psalm was much more expansive than limited in scope. Here the reference is to all that had been received from God by which instruction was given to understand the will and way of God. Thus, in addition to commandments, there would have been powerful stories of deliverance, of God’s provision and of God’s gracious activity in the life of God’s people.

For Christians, the words of the psalm would call believers to be steeped in the message of the Savior as that was the ultimate witness to the path to which God would call God’s people to follow. The psalm calls the people of God in every aspect of their lives to be led and directed by the will and purpose of God, which is shaped by love and forgiveness and a desire for the redemption of a fallen creation. It invites a path that moves in a different direction than the accepted paths of this world. 

The way of the world, the way of the wicked, can be deceptively inviting. It may offer immediate satisfaction of wants and desires. However, the psalmist clearly understands that what that way has to offer will never provide the delights that God has in store for God’s people.

With this greater understanding, all of God’s children can join the psalmist in singing the praises of God’s word and receive that happiness and delight that living in that word provides. 

Don Rose is pastor at Mansfield and United Lutheran Churches.