Day 1 of 150

The Lord has pressed upon me as long as I can remember to follow after the likes of King David in the way that God, Himself described him as, "a man after My Own heart" (1 Samual 13:14; Acts 13:22). I wish to find this characteristic in a husband because I have this desire within me, myself.

And so starting today I plan on reading one Psalm a day during my quit time with God. I am currently not in any organized study so. I will record any revelations God entrust me with. I may not post every day, but I will try to. God willing we will spend the next 150 days pursuing after God's Own heart. Will you join me?

New American Standard Bible ©

Psalms 1

1 How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
3 He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers.
4 The wicked are not so,
But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
6 For the LORD knows the way of the righteous,
But the way of the wicked will perish.

The first thing I notice is God separates the good from the bad. In my bible (NAS), it gives a theme for each book and further for each chapter of each book in God's word. For Ps 1, it describes it as "Life's two roads" (which reminds me of Robert Frost's The Road not Taken). How true for verses 1, 4-6...

But verses 2 & 3, it speaks of the blessings of following God's law. 2 of "meditating day and night" (which reminds me of this past year with Beth's challenge of Memorizing/Meditating on 24 verses God hand picked for each who took the challenge). I delight in my Lord, Who know's me so personally.

3 is about being like a tree...God uses this analogy all throughout the bible. He knows and thus wants us to understand that we are grown. In Matthew 13:1-23; Mark 4:1-20; & Luke 8:4-18, all records Jesus speaking on the Parable of the four soils. The short of it is the word is the seed and our hearts the soil. My heart has seen each of these stages, I feel, or at the very least 2.

When I was 8, I accepted God's free gift of salvation. At age 12, I was joyfully studing my bible daily on my own. By age 13, however, I wandered away. I had bought the lie Satan uses the 'world' to tell. The next 10 years of my life was the slow process of realizing that lie. Even after rededicating/resurrendering to God's sovereignty. He had to plow up all the weedy bad habits that had over taken me. My History Professor in college often said that the best fertilizer in the world seems to be blood. So Jesus took an ample supply He had stored up to saturate my dry cracked heart. Then He erected the best scarecrow ever to ward off the demonic crows, His own cross. All that has taken another 10 years.

And now, finally, He is able to replant His word in the lush prepared good soil of my heart...I would be humbly delighted for any amount of a fruitful harvest as long as God gets the glory.

Lord, Jesus thank You for Your Love as described in 1 Corinthians 13 You are all of these for You are truly Love. I am so unworthy, I've been relentlessly rebellious and yet... You knew I would be and called me anyway... before my rebellion had fully flourished... and then proved, that once You have placed someone in the palm Your hand, because they are Your child, nothing could ever, can ever, will ever remove them from Your grasp. Please don't ever stop working on me. I will never not need You. Redeemed by Jesus-amen.