Monday, January 10, 2011

So Are the Ways of Our Lives

For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. (Psalm 1:6)

The way of the righteous and the way of the wicked are two starkly different ways. Two radically different directions that result in two sharply contrasted destinations. The way of the wicked leads somewhere that is ultimately nowhere...devastation and destruction. The psalmist uses the word perish, which is a very descriptive term. A person may die instantly and never know that they are dying. But to perish is to be aware of one's very life ebbing away. The wicked way, or the life, of the wicked will perish. To perish gives the sense of starvation or withering away. To perish is to die by deprivation. Something that is vitally needed is cut off. A wicked man with wicked ways will perish. He will not survive. The extreme contrast between the wicked and the righteous is laid out for us in the psalm...the wicked man perishes...the righteous man flourishes. This is the meaning of being blessed. Not just getting by and surviving, but thriving. The blessed man is the result from living the way of the righteous...being connected to the source of righteousness...God Himself. The psalmist says the blessed man is like a fruitful tree planted by streams of water. What is the difference between these two ways?
The Word of God. The blessed man loves it...the wicked man hates it. The blessed man engages the Word. He hears it, meditates upon it, studies it, applies it and it shows up in his manner of life. His life is not influenced by the counsel or the company of wicked men and their wicked ways. The LORD looks at the ways of a man and blesses the way of the righteous. The blessed life bears fruit. The wicked are deprived of the blessing of the Living God. The ways of the wicked will perish.
The question before us today is do we delight in the Word of God? Do we read it, study it, do it, live it? Or do we ignore it, deeming it to be irrelevant to our modern way of thinking, depriving ourselves of the blessing of God? These two ways result in the difference between living or dying...thriving or perishing. God's Word is life to the perishing...if a man will turn to it from the wicked way.

No comments: