Psalm 1 plunges right in with some insights into what it means to be godly, stable and fruitful in life; with some keys to knowing joy and blessing in all seasons of our lives. One of these keys, vs 2, is that we delight in the Word/Law of God and meditate on it regularly.
I've probably mentioned already in this blog that I was impacted by a Hebrew word study carried out by one of my youth ministry students in Africa. Looking closely at Psalm 37: 4 - "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart"- she wanted to know what it actually means to take delight in the Lord. She discovered that the Hebrew word in that verse is ʿānaḡ, and she was puzzled to discover that it means, "to be soft and pliable." As she meditated on this understanding, it slowly dawned on her that "to delight in God" wasn't something to do with warm, fuzzy feelings; rather it was about being pliable, teachable and cooperative in His hands. When we cooperate with God in that way, our desires will grow closer to His desires and that's when we'll realise that the desires of our heart are being fulfilled.
So today, when I read that godly people delight in the Word of God, I wondered if I would discover something similar. Instead, I found out that the Hebrew verb used in Psalm 1:2 is ḥēp̄eṣ - meaning to long for something or to take pleasure in it. Every believer needs to reach a point in their life where they read God's Word from delight and not from duty. That's when these blessings of Psalm 1 kick in: being stable and fruitful, being like that deeply rooted tree planted on the riverbank.
Another promise in vs 3 is that, "their leaves will not wither." That's an interesting promise to consider at a time when my physical body is getting older and weaker. (Yesterday, the doctor gave me a very painful injection into my foot, an attempt to manage the pain and discomfort I'm experiencing from having a neuroma on the sole of my foot and finding it difficult to walk.) This is also a time when the poinsettia plant I was given for Christmas seems to be withering a little more every day and gradually coming to the end of its lifespan. I keep asking myself whether I should continue watering and caring for it or whether I should just throw it out. What does it mean, spiritually and emotionally speaking, to be someone who is not withering in hard times or in old age?
The verb in verse 3 is nāḇēl, so I looked it up in the Hebrew dictionary and, just as you'd expect, it means to fade, to droop, to wither and fail. But I was surprised to discover that it also means to be foolish... or to regard something as foolish and treat it with contempt - like when we say in English that we give someone a "withering look."
It's a sobering thought to realise that, "not withering" in the original Hebrew, staying fruitful in every season of life, is linked with not being foolish and not despising God's Word. If we can continue right to the end of our lives believing that God knows best and delighting in His Word, the promise is that we will be stable and fruitful, we will prosper in what we do, and we won't wither. What a promise to hold on to!
