Prayer: Lord, open our hearts to hear and delight in your word this day. In Jesus name. Amen
If I was to offer you a bottle of coke or bottle of water to drink…what would you choose?
Would you go for the appealing sweetness and supposed refresh-ness of coke…or for the actual thirst quenching, good for your body, water?
Would you choose the fake “real thing” or the real “real thing”?
Coke might look appealing with its fizziness and all that advertising – things go better with coke or open a bottle of happiness. But if you were in a desert, would it actually quench your thirst? Water on the other hand we know does quench our thirst and is good for our insides.
What about if I was to offer you a gripping novel of your favourite genre to read or a bible? What would you choose? Be honest!!
My question is…do we long for and delight in the Lord and in his word?
Psalm 1 says Blessed or happy is the one whose delight is in the law of the Lord, who meditates on it day and night. But not so the wicked who are like chaff that blows away.
Now I’m not saying you can’t drink coke (occasionally!) or read or novel…but they illustrate choices – where one choice is better for us than the other.
Psalm 1 tells us clearly – that there are two ways to live. God’s way or our way. One of the most popular songs at funerals is Frank Sinatra’s I did it my way. Is that how we want to be remembered? Where does our heart lie, what do we long for, what way do we choose and live by? One way leads to life and the other death.
Psalm 1 is like an introductory psalm to the whole book of psalms – but more than that it sums up the message of the whole of scripture. The importance of God’s word and following him. This is the only way to peace and joy and eternal life. The other way, of not choosing to follow God and believe on his word (while may bring momentary pleasure) does not bring deep peace or joy or life–it ultimately leads to destruction and death.
The choice seems like a “no brainer” doesn’t it? And yet how often do we find ourselves walking in step with the wicked, or standing in the way that sinners take or sitting in the company of mockers?
I know I do this at times and need to be reminded to walk, sit, and stand in the word of God, to follow his way, listen to his instructions, and meditate on his word to keep me strong and firmly planted in him.
The wicked, the sinners the mockers are those who are guided and controlled by their own desires, emotions, following the impulses of the mind, looking for material reward, rather than being guided by the Holy Spirit and the word of God. Or they transgress the law and miss the will of God for their life. The scoffers put down the things of God, ridiculing, rejecting or maybe just being indifferent to him.
We may not seek to be this way – but to live in this world it is very hard not to be self-oriented and materialistic, it’s easy not to stand up for the truth of God’s word and get caught up with the society’s norms which may not line up with God’s word and his way.
So how can we avoid this and choose the blessed way, the way of life rather than death?
Well, as psalm 1 says, we are to delight in the law of the Lord.
As one commentator put it we are to have a love affair with God’s word. Do we long for God and his word like the writer of psalm 42; As the deer pants for the water, so my soul longs after you.
Delight means to desire or take pleasure in or to incline towards. And the law is not about legalism – you don’t have to memorize and follow the laws of Leviticus. It’s about God’s will for us, his instructions to us, principles to live by. Most importantly it’s about getting to know him through his word. The more we know him, the better we can follow him. And the more we will grow to be like him.
The psalmist suggests we should meditate on the word day and night. Does that sound a bit much to you? Not achievable? Day and night means – do it constantly, consistently, regularly. Like gratitude, that I spoke about last week, meditation has also become a recommended secular practice for our mental health. Meditation has been a major practice in Eastern Religions such as Buddhism, but we forget that it is a Godly practice recommended in the bible!
Christian meditation is good for us, it is a practice we need to practice! To make a habit of.
We need to soak ourselves in the word…so that at different times through the day and night, you can recall the scripture you need to guide you or comfort you or give you hope. Or have the words we need to comfort others or to be able to give the reason for our faith and hope.
Last week I mentioned reading a biography of Dr Helen Roseveare, a medical missionary in the Congo in the 1950’s and 60’s. I started her second book last week and in the first chapter she writes in more detail of her experiences during the Simba uprising. As she was being pursued by terrorists who had looted her house and she knew she was about to be taken hostage, beaten, and raped she called out to God from psalm 22, “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?” Do you recall someone else reciting this psalm? Jesus on the cross called out to his Father those very words. As Helen cried out these words, she too remembered Jesus who suffered and felt abandoned. She then received the deep peace of Christ even as she was violated. She knew that Jesus was with her.
Helen knew her scripture, she had soaked herself in it and it came to mind when she needed it. She also recalled passages to bring comfort to a Nun she was later in captivity with who had also been beaten and violated.
Most psalms are songs, and like songs can be easy to memorise certain refrains. They also tell stories of God’s redemption and his faithfulness.
I encourage you to spend time meditating on the psalms, as well as other scripture so that you too will have a store house of passages to encourage you and others. When you are in awe of God’s glorious creation you may recall Psalm 19, when needing his strength, you might recall psalm 91 or 18 – the Lord is my rock, my refuge, my stronghold. When needing to repent you might recall David’s psalm 51 after he committed adultery and murder; create in me a clean heart of God and renew a right spirit within me. When you feel afraid you might recall psalm 27, the Lord is my light and salvation – whom shall I fear?
We might find reading the bible hard work at times, but I pray that you will persevere and find delight in your reading, as the psalmist says in psalm 19, that we will find God’s word more precious than gold and sweeter than honey.
In the Western world we take it for granted that we can pick up a bible to read when we like. We might even have several on our book shelves. In some countries, however bibles are as precious as gold. In my devotional during the week Nicky Gumble told a story of how he had smuggled some bibles into Russia and felt nudged by the Holy Spirit to give one to a man, this man was so excited to receive a complete bible as he pulled a worn and torn part of a bible from his pocket.
I am enjoying my bible in one year plan, and I encourage all of you to find a plan or routine of bible reading for you, time to meditate on God’s word.
What happens when we soak ourselves daily in the word? Psalm 1 says we will be like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields fruit in season and whose leaf will not wither…
Jesus is that stream and offers us living water; in John 7 he says; Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. By this he meant the Spirit.
By his word, through the Holy Spirit, Jesus will feed and water us. Living waters will flow from within us so we can bless others, so we can produce fruit. The fruit will be evidence of where we are planted. I spoke a few years ago of a passion fruit vine Michael had planted at our last house that after 3 years of care was producing a bumper crop – the year we moved house! It’s taken another 3 years and a couple of disappointments but finally this year we have some passionfruit coming to bear on our vine planted in our new house. We had to move it once, feed it, water it and this year we are rewarded with fruit!
Our fruit will be seen by our Christlike character, by using our gifts and showing the fruits of the spirit – love, joy peace, patience, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. Our fruit will also be in our witness, leading others to Christ that they may drink from his living water and experience the ‘real thing’ – the only thing that will satisfy.
If our roots are deep in him, if we drink deeply of the word and spirit then we will stand firm even in the hard times.
But we need to stay connected, we need to meditate day and night, we need to delight in the law of the Lord and not be swayed to follow the law of popular culture.
It is wonderful to see fruit ripening here at St Luke’s. I long to see lives that are filled with the joy of the Lord – delighting in him as He delights in us. Lives that love God and love others. I long to see fruit as we seek to grow his Kingdom, to see new people in this community coming to drink the living water Jesus offers.
I pray that we will all choose life over death. That no matter how appealing things of the world may seem – like this can of coke – may we not be fooled, for it is not the real thing at all, it is not a bottle of happiness. It offers only short-term delight. But Jesus offers abundant living water and eternal delight and life. Come to him and drink.
Let us meditate on the word of the Lord and be blessed and guided on our pathway.
In fact let’s meditate right now as we listen to Amy Grants sung version of psalm 119 verse 105.