Day 1: The Orphan Bookend
Psalm 1
Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers,
but whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law day and night.
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers.
Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.
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 leads to destruction.
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And at the same time, why the book is so very important to our faith.
So, yea, that must’ve been an exciting time!
The poem opens with the word “blessed.”
Why does it never seem like, at the end of the day, that I did enough, especially when I fall into bed exhausted?
Friend, if you were to tell me that all you did today was take of your sick child and make meals that weren’t appreciated and clean up messes and clutter and you didn’t even have the time or the energy to brush your own hair...
I would say, WAY TO GO!
You have done the ultimate in self sacrifice; you have unconditionally loved your family and given of yourself. You have pleased your Heavenly Father and He looks down upon you and smiles.
But…those words don’t apply to me. Why?
Or maybe the words that I speak to remind you don’t sink into your heart either. You hear them and can nod and smile, but they don’t sink in. I don’t know.
But even though I block them from my own heart and maybe you do too, I know that those words are TRUTH. Hear them, my friend.
GOD LOVES YOU. YOUR WORK IS VALUED IN HIS EYES, AND HE WILL SUSTAIN YOU.
You may not feel like the tree with fruit and beautiful leaves with cool crisp running water and all that you do prospers, but THAT, my friend, is how God sees you. There isn’t always fruit; it says “fruit in season.” God is seasoning your fruit. But it does say that all she does prospers. The one who delights in the LORD drinks of the stream and all that she does prospers.
It does not say that she sees it. But God does.
I know this, but all too often I do not drink of that stream, of that life giving, sustaining water. Do I think I can do it myself? Do I think I know better? Do I not care? Am I so exhausted that, although I know what I need to do, I cannot bring myself to do just one more thing in a day?
There is a lesson in this Psalm for you and me, and the end says it clearly. Are you the fruitful tree drinking of the sustaining water? Or are you the chaff blown in the breeze?
The Lord watches over the path of the righteous.
When life is hard. When being parent and spouse and sibling and friend is draining…when you are thirsting for love, for acknowledgment, for your worth…drink of the water and KNOW it will sustain you as your fruit grows and in God’s eyes, all that you do prospers.
To drink of the water and be blessed: stop sinning! Read God’s Word! Live God’s Word!!!
HExoxo