Life Breaking In

Life Breaking In

Happy are those

   who do not follow the advice of the wicked,

or take the path that sinners tread,

   or sit in the seat of scoffers;

but their delight is in the law of the Lord,

   and on his law they meditate day and night.

They are like trees

   planted by streams of water,

which yield their fruit in its season,

   and their leaves do not wither.

In all that they do, they prosper.

The wicked are not so,

   but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgement,

   nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;

for the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,

   but the way of the wicked will perish.

Psalm 1:1-6

What do I discover in Psalm 1? It begins: ‘blessed is the one.’ Psalm 1, then, is a message of wisdom for anyone who is searching for happiness. Not only wisdom, but hope: blessing, or happiness, can be found, and therefore may be pursued. I want to be happy. This is a psalm for me.

That this message is found in the psalter offers the insight that I am much more than a rational, disconnected, individual mind. It is a liturgical resource, a book of songs for the gathered congregation as much as for the pilgrim on retreat, which tells me that we are shaped together, collectively, not merely by my own, personal commitments. As Eugene Peterson writes, ‘The primary use of prayer, according to the psalms, is not for expressing ourselves, but in becoming ourselves, and we cannot do that alone.’

That the psalter are songs also tells us that happiness is more than a state of mind. Singing engages the emotions, and indeed the whole body. And these songs of the psalter are poetry. Poetry slows me down. It’s no wonder that the writer of Psalm 1 invites us to ‘meditate…day and night.’ The process by which God reorients our deformed loves is gradual and immersive.

What, then, does the psalmist declare to be the source of blessedness, of happiness? It is the ‘law of the Lord’ - God’s torah.

This comes as a surprise to those of us shaped by our post-Enlightenment traditions, in which external moral norms are, by definition, repressive. Truth claims are controlling acts of power. 

In contrast, the psalmist declares that the law of the Lord is God’s gift of life itself, and offers a bigger vision of our relation to law. Attending to torah is about walking a better path. As psalms scholar Andrew Shead writes, ‘…in Psalm 1:2, delighting in God’s torah—his instruction—is not just about law keeping. The path image suggests a whole lot of things. It suggests lifestyle. It suggests direction. It suggests safety. It suggests destination and purpose. It suggests knowledge, and, of course, it suggests a journey.’

And this journey is a journey with God into the just future he has purposed. In this future, the wicked are impermanent, husks without substance, swept away by the wind.

We see just how good this future must be when God’s own Son takes on human flesh - the meaty stuff of this world, of earthiness of creation. God has committed himself to the good of what he has made.

Of course, in contrast, this means that delighting in torah is the kind of journey that is lived and experienced by never moving. The blessed, the happy, the righteous one is the one fixed firmly beside the river, never wandering from its gift of life. Growth is not moving on, but moving up – and, of course, putting roots ever deeper down.

In the desert, white gums only grow where there is water. They stand side-by-side where life is breaking through into the world. If the righteous is a tree planted by streams of water, bearing fruit – sharing life – then surely the gathering of the righteous is like a small orchard in the oxbow bend of a clear, swift-running stream.

It is only as the life of the Lord flows into us that it can flow through us. Let justice flow.

Rev Mike Paget is the senior minister of St Barnabas Anglican Church, Broadway, an inner city Sydney church with a mission to students, professionals, internationals and inner city families. He’s also the Anglican chaplain to two of Australia’s largest universities, a public speaker and evangelist. Mike is the happy husband of Fiona and father of four young children.

This devotional is part of a series of daily email devotionals for Advent 2024 reflecting on the life-giving, thirst quenching justice of Jesus we long to see flow across these lands. A justice overflowing with love and compassion, bringing forth hope, healing, nourishment and flourishing for all.

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