A JOYFUL TUNE (Psalm 1:2)

2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. (NIV)

This weekend it was “Achy Breaky Heart”. When our kids were younger it was Barney the purple dinosarus' “I love you” song. You know what I’m talking about. Those annoying tunes that get in your head, looping over and over again until you catch yourself caught in the trap of humming along. Aggravating as that can be, though, it does have its positive counterpart. The “alphabet song” lays the foundations for reading and writing. Wrinkled golden-agers still tear up to the spiritual primer, “Jesus loves me.” It’s a simple way of teaching eternal truths. Contrasting Psalm 1:1 with verse 2, the psalmist tells us how the godly should spend his days. It includes meditating on the law of the Lord, which, if we’re bluntly honest, doesn’t really sound too exciting. It dredges up the image of smoking incense, sitar music, squatting sages and chanting. Or at best, we see it as a chore, something on our “honey-do list”. We know we ought to do it and should do it. It’s good for us like a bitter medicine, but we’d really rather not have to take it. Of course, the problem is that we have the incorrect ideas both about what law means and what it is to meditate. The law as it is used here isn’t the Torah or even the Old Testament scriptures. It refers to instruction, or revelation, from God. It isn’t limited to God’s written Word, but includes his everyday communication with us. Simply put, the law is God – all that he is and all that he wants for us, his children. The Hebrew word for meditate (hagah) alludes to animal sounds or moaning. It means to murmur or mutter. It captures the way God’s word was communicated and repeated orally from generation to generation before his written word was widely available. So he who delights in the Lord has the refrain of God’s love song playing in his head all day and all night. No offense to Barney or Billy Ray, but now that’s a tune I can live with.

FOLLOWING THE LEADER (Psalm 1:1)

1 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. (NIV)

Before the birth of Nintendo DS, Playstations and satellite TV there was “follow the leader”. At the risk of sounding like my dad (an official old person), kids today have too many toys. I miss the good ole days! We use to spend hours trailing after whoever’s turn it was to be the leader. Balancing along logs. Leap-frogging over bushes. Skipping from stone to stone across a stream. Swinging like monkeys from tree branches. The game was boundless in its simplicity. The only rule was mimicking the leader and their antics. However, as the psalmist reminds us in today’s verse, it isn’t always a good idea to follow the leader. It all depends on the leader. In verse one of Psalm one, we read not a specific list of forbidden behavior but an example of a way of life to avoid. “Don’t walk.” “Don’t stand.” “Don’t sit.” Everyday actions that add up to habits, to a lifestyle. The tense of the verbs in the original Hebrew isn’t talking about a one-time instruction, but would be more properly read as “never”. Never listen to advice of those with questionable motives. Never imitate rebels. Never hang out with those who ridicule God. The Lord doesn’t have anything against following; he just wants us to know who we shouldn’t follow...and who we should. And not because if we do he’ll have to hate, crush, annihilate, or destroy us. But because he wants us to experience joy – his blessings. He wants us to be happy. Following, by definition, implies we’ll end up at the same destination as the person we’re following. God simply wants to make sure we end up with him.

FAIRY TALE ENDING (Psalm 30:11-12)

11 You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, 12 that my heart may sing to you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever. (NIV)

“Once upon a time…” Cinderella goes from wearing rags and sleeping in the hearth to being adorned in an elegant gown, complete with glass slippers, and married to royalty. Pinocchio is transformed from an unfeeling, wooden puppet into an honest-to-goodness flesh and blood boy. A warty frog is revealed to be a handsome prince and an ugly duckling matures into a beautiful swan. Fairy tales always end with –happy endings. Yet another poor casualty of youth along with Santa Claus and the Easter bunny as adulthood yanks us into the harsh truth of “the real world.” It’s beaten into us that it’s time to grow up and put such childish things behind us. Stop chasing silly dreams and outrageous fantasies. Life isn’t really like that. Prince Charming won’t show up to rescue you and there is no gold at the end of the rainbow. Yet, God’s fairy tales do come true. They aren’t fairy tales after all; mournful wailing becomes wild dancing and sackcloth garments are exchanged for robes of joy! God’s promises aren’t empty. He comes through for his loved ones and comes through in such an overwhelming way that we aren’t able to contain ourselves. Like all good stories, it ends the way it ought to: “And they lived happily ever after!”

WHO WILL PRAISE YOU? (Psalm 30:8-10)

8 To you, O LORD, I called; to the Lord I cried for mercy: 9 "What gain is there in my destruction, in my going down into the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it proclaim your faithfulness? 10 Hear, O LORD, and be merciful to me; O LORD, be my help." (NIV)

“If you take away my car privileges, you’ll have to drive me to school and band practice and I won’t be able to run errands for you.”

Can’t you just hear a grounded teenager using that argument against being punished? As if the real concern is about how it will inconvenience you and he’s only thinking about your best interests! That’s the way the words of the psalmist in verse 9 come across. Is he really concerned about God getting praised or is he trying to manipulate God into being merciful? Regardless of the motives or sincerity of the psalmist’s argument, it does reveal a remarkable truth: God needs us. Really, he does. Sure, we know we need him. We need him for forgiveness. We need him to make sure we have food, clothes, and a place to live. We need him to have meaning. We need him for hope. We need him for eternal life. We tend to define our relationship with God from our perspective, from how it affects us and what we get out of it. But do we realize God needs us? God yearns to spend time with us because he loves us. He needs someone to love. He isn’t involved in our lives out of obligation or just because he’s God and that’s what God has to do. He truly enjoys being with us, listening to us, talking, laughing, crying and hanging out with us. Just as each of us have a God-shaped hole that only God can fill, God also has a place in his heart that only each of us can fill.