Where the Psalms begin

Before you read

This is the doorway into the whole book. Before any of the songs of grief, anger or praise that follow, the Psalter opens by setting out two ways to live and two images: a tree planted by water, and chaff that the wind takes. Everything after it is read through this doorway.

Psalm 1

Six verses. Read them, then sit for a moment with the two pictures before you read them again.

Verse 1. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. Verse 2. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. Verse 3. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Verse 4. The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Verse 5. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. Verse 6. For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

Psalm 1KJV

Open in the Bible

One question

A tree is planted somewhere and stays. What is your life currently planted beside?

Nothing here is saved. It is a place to think, not a record.

To close

God, I have been blown around by a good deal lately. Plant me somewhere. Let what I take in be from you.