Issue 898 – Blessings – November 1, 2022
A reader sent this image of a willow tree in a park they took some time ago in the US. They couldn’t remember what park, but I find it peaceful.
I love seeing weeping willow trees located near a body of water.; there is something majestic and peaceful about them. With their stately trunks and long “weeping” branches, trees like that always strike me as having character.
The Psalms open with a blessing evoking a picture like this one in my mind.
Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.
Psalm 1
Charles Spurgeon writes in His Treasury of David (the most beautiful exposition of the Psalms I have ever read) — “BLESSED”—see how this Book of Psalms opens with a benediction, even as did the famous Sermon of our Lord upon the Mount! The word translated “blessed” is a very expressive one. The original word is plural, and it is a controverted matter whether it is an adjective or a substantive. Hence we may learn the multiplicity of the blessings which shall rest upon the man whom God hath justified, and the perfection and greatness of the blessedness he shall enjoy. We might read it, “Oh, the blessednesses!” and we may well regard it (as Ainsworth does) as a joyful acclamation of the gracious man’s felicity. May the like benediction rest on us!”
God’s elect are blessed. What could be more peaceful than being reconciled to the King of Glory? We know our eternal destiny and are filled with the power of the Holy Spirit to enable us to become more Christ-like.
We have the path to eternal bliss laid out before us. We might stumble along the way or experience seasons of dryness, but we will flourish.
Our character is being shaped into something that will please God. We have left the realm of the dead to eternally dwell in the land of the truly living. What a blessing.
The Psalm provides a road map. The positive affirmations show the progression to holiness, and the negative the path to destruction.
Walking, sitting, standing. Wicked, sinners, scoffers. We walk past, stopping to look and consider and then sitting. We have forsaken the path when we sit and join the scoffers and mockers.
I know that sinners, scoffers and mockers can all be redeemed and saved because I have been in each of those camps. Salvation can come to such people only by God’s grace, and many will refuse His grace.
In contrast, we see the path of the redeemed, delighting in God’s Word, meditating on it and being blessed.
Christ has blessed me. I have been forgiven my sin (and they are many), made right with God (something I could not do on my own) and had a place set aside for me in glory (not the Hell I deserve).
I am far from perfect and have much to learn. I stumble too often, but I am slower to fall and quicker to turn back than I used to. The Lord deserves all the praise and glory for that.
We all must choose: will we be like thriving trees or dry up and blow away like chaff? Will we choose life or death?
The choice is given to each of us. Choose wisely.
Be blessed
Hallelu Yah / Praise God
Kevin
Gleanings From The Word
Experience an extraordinary God in ordinary life.
Soli Deo Gloria (For the glory of God alone)
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All contents, “Gleanings From The Word” and “Experience an Extraordinary God in Ordinary Life,” are © 2001, 2022 K.F. “Kevin” Corbin Gleanings From The Word.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is from the English Standard Version (ESV).
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