Have delight in the laws - Psalm 1

This morning is day 1, Psalm 1. When I first opened to the Psalm, I was thinking, "Oh man, what did I commit to? This feels challenging. Psalm 1 is 6 verses. Focus on 6 verses for 15 minutes? 150 days [Psalms] of focus like this?" Obviously, there's some natural (of sinful human nature who doesn't want to be of God) resentment and distancing of myself that was coming out right there! Ever more the reason that I needed to do this, and Psalm 1 spoke to that.

It also came to me yesterday that although 150 days of a study on one book sounds like a ridiculous amount at the start, that means 150 days, which is less than half a year. From that perspective, not bad! And if my previous pastor could easily give an entire sermon on sometimes one verse at a time and run out of time to finish, I know that everything here has so much history and unpacking that I could do. 15 min per entire Psalm then sounds like a cinch. I know that God will bless my journey. He told me in this Psalm!

What I took away most from Psalm 1 is that man is blessed for delighting in the law of the Lord, for meditating on it day and night. If so, then like a tree, man will bear fruit in season and his leaves never wither. "Whatever he does prospers" (3). I am blessed for delighting in His laws and for meditating on them constantly. This can be tough - each one of us has commands from God that are tough to follow and some easy peasy. Our sinful nature wants to refuse to follow the tough stuff. Requires a choice and effort to love God more by making a hard decision and choosing to follow...with DELIGHT!

Wow. And then...whatever he does prospers?! I think of my desires and my efforts to be an amazing wife, mother, sister, daughter, friend, helper, business owner, health coach, life changer... And to think that when I simply (ha) put my Lord first in all things (and part of that is following His laws), everything else will just fall into place... I've seen it and experienced it countless times in my life. Instances and examples. But all the time? "My leaves will not wither?" Nice. I want to be seen as righteous in God's eyes.

"For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous" (6); my destiny is in His hands. I give it to you, Lord.