Yesterday my phone “rang off the hook.” Do phones still ring? Do they have hooks? You get the idea.
My phone rang because the holidays are over and we still have tremendous needs. It’s January, and it’s hard. The calls had to do with life. Fitness gyms and counselors have the month of January in common as the busiest month of the year.
People are hurting because they instinctively know that life should give them more. We need more.
The Bible gives you more.
Here’s is something you should know and accept.
You have two choices, and that’s all you get.
Those two choices are prominently displayed in the first Psalm.
Many people believe this psalm was deliberately placed at the beginning of the psalter to help us recognize the magnitude of our two choices.
The two choices are life or death, blessing or curse, lover of God or hater of God. They seem to be so easy, but they are really hard choices.
What do you get in each one?
Choose God and you will be naturally blessed. This is not the prosperity gospel but living for God is a blessed life. I used to tell my daughters that not everything in life turns out the way you want but when you live for God you will experience the best life possible. The Psalmist made that clear.
The man who lives in relationship with God will be blessed because he didn’t choose the way of the wicked. The way of the wicked brings its own hardships. While looking appealing, the way of the wicked leads to an insubstantial life–like the refuse of the wheat which the wind blows away.
The wicked do not get to stand in the counsel of God either in this life or the one to come.
In great contrast, the godly live in security. They are like trees planted by streams of water. Their leaf doesn’t wither, and it produces good fruit.
The most wonderful thing about a life lived for God?–the Lord knows the way of the righteous. We are not alone. We live in His presence.
My life is not without hardship, but it’s also not without God. I thank Him for that.
Blessed is that person who delights in the Lord.
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