Psalm 1

Last night, I wrote about finding Praise Habit by David Crowder. This is a book that I have already read. However, lately, I have found my daily Bible reading to be increasingly difficult. I struggle to maintain any type of focus. In his book, Crowder takes various Psalms and reflects on them in the in the tradition of Lectio Divina. I'm hoping over the next few weeks to also reflect on the Psalms that he has chosen and may share some of these reflections.

Psalm 1 (MSG)
How well God must like you—
you don't hang out at Sin Saloon,
you don't slink along Dead-End Road,
you don't go to Smart-Mouth College.

Instead you thrill to God's Word,
you chew on Scripture day and night.
You're a tree replanted in Eden,
bearing fresh fruit every month,
Never dropping a leaf,
always in blossom.

You're not at all like the wicked,
who are mere windblown dust—
Without defense in court,
unfit company for innocent people.

God charts the road you take.
The road they take is Skid Row.

Two phrases from this Psalm really stood out in my mind.

The first, "You're a tree replanted in Eden."

Reading this, I was reminded of post by Trent about this tree named, Rudy. If you click on the link, you'll see that Rudy is getting pretty big. Eventually, he'll need a new home. What would it be like if that new home were Eden and Rudy had the opportunity to drink of never ending streams of living water? What if Rudy could breathe in air free of pollution? What if Rudy could take root in rich soil filled with nutrients? What if Rudy could bask in the radiance of the sun and simply praise God and produce bountiful crops of "whirly-birds"?

The second, "who are mere windblown dust."

An image came to mind that is in stark contrast to the above image. One winter, I was on the way to Rensselear to a basketball game. Needing to release a 24 oz coffee, I stopped at gas station. Upon getting out, I was taken aback by my surroundings. This area is particularly flat and wide open. For miles around me, all I could see was snow covered with this dirty brown film. The winds had turned up dust from the farm fields and covered the clean white snow with grime. In fact, while dashing up to the gas station, my face was pelleted by these grains of sand.

Psalm 1 clearly delineates between the righteous and the wicked. I'm thankful for this God who offers an alternative to the barren wasteland.

Out.

(Stay tuned for some crazy pictures.)