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The newsletter will follow a sequence this year you can watch for: 1) a reflection on a Psalm, 2) expanded thoughts on a book I’m reading, 3) a spiritual formation essay, and 4) a story, anecdote, or life update. On fifth Fridays, when they occur, I’ll write about pop culture: music, movies, sports, etc. Containers help me know where to put things, and where you, the reader, can find them. Now, to this week’s reflection.
Among all the books of the Bible, I have read Psalms most.
This fact surprise me.
Of the one hundred and fifty psalms recorded in this book, I have returned to Psalm 1 most, which says:
Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
and who meditates on his law day and night.
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers.Not so the wicked!
They are like chaff
that the wind blows away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.
Labeled in some Bible translations as “The Two Ways,” the writer neatly divides between the righteous and wicked, the former tending to God’s commands and drawing upon God as the source of life, bearing fruit, while the latter withers, shriveling until the day of judgment, when God’s great gust will lay them level. God’s eye is upon the righteous person as they move along; the wicked recede down the path to darkness.
Ellen Charry, commenting on the Psalms, writes “Psalm 1 is generally understood to have been intentionally placed—perhaps intentionally written—at the head of the Psalter to frame what follows theologically…[depicting] Israel as divided against itself.”1 That’s a helpful reminder. Some may think the psalmist’s split of the righteous and the wicked presumes a neat division between those inside the household of God and those outside. Not so.
God’s sights are instead set on the people of God. Some heed God’s ways. Some do not. Charry writes, “As a frame for the Psalter, Ps. 1 is exquisitely ambiguous, offering comfort and encouragement with one hand and challenge and threat with the other. Psalm 1 is a warning label.”
That’s one way to read it. But I don’t see it that way. I read Psalm 1 as an invitation and a description of and to the blessed life.
Psalm 1 begins with a declaration of blessedness. When many social media posts are punctuated #blessed, we don’t think much of this word. But the writer leaves no doubt. The blessed person is announced and described and is meant to be the focus of our attention. In motion or at rest, they are free of wicked companions, do not lounge with sinners, or recline among those who mock. Instead, they delight and meditate in and on the things of God, something that can be done while walking, standing, or sitting. God is more than a sufficient companion, and God’s commands do far more than sustain. They saturate, and satisfy.
The central metaphor for the blessed person is also its most remarkable: the planted tree placed near a perpetual stream, resourced abundantly for fruit bearing and found always in full leaf. This person, like this tree, “prospers.” When we see a tree in full leaf bearing fruit, the eye is drawn. We know there is life there, a life that can sustain and then reproduce. Fruit is seed-bearing. When we see a person prospering, likewise.
There is much talk of the wicked, and of wickedness, in this short psalm, but it is so the blessed person can be perceived more plainly by way of contrast. Want to spot the blessed person? They are not that. A contrast differs from a challenge or threat.2
The blessed person, and the path they travel, is seen more clearly when distinguished from wickedness, everything blessedness is not. This psalm is a beckoning to a way of walking and a way of seeing plainly what life with God is like, not only so you are enabled to walk the path oneself, but so you can see more clearly who is already upon that path, and where that path is leading. To your surprise, you might discover you are already on it. But if not, look for those who are. If you are wise, join their company, and progress toward their same horizon.
As a Christian person, I am of the deep conviction that the most blessed person, the person who most evidently walked the path of righteousness, was Jesus of Nazareth. And when you walk his path and join his company, things like delighting and meditating on God and God’s commands are done gladly, the living water of the Spirit sustains your soul, your life brings forth fruit, you evidence righteousness, and your way is watched over, under the care and protection of a loving eye and strong arm, now, and forever. Jesus, I believe, not only invites, instructs, and inspires you to walk his way. His is the company you keep, and yours is the company he keeps. And he will lead you home.
Book Notes
Same books are “in progress:” Ron Chernow’s Washington, David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest, and Wendell Berry’s This Day: Collected & New Sabbath Poems. I began reading Kristen Page’s The Wonders of Creation: Learning Stewardship from Narnia and Middle Earth. And I started Plato’s Symposium!
I finished reading Quentin Tarantino’s Cinema Speculation. Tarantino takes the reader on a wild ride through his favorite films from the 1970s. All the obvious content warnings apply, and the non-obvious ones, too.
Sights and Sounds
This last week I watched Lucky Number Slevin (2006) and Mission: Impossible (1996).
These movies were viewed in an effort to relax and put something on while winding down at the end of a day.
Lucky Number Slevin is a neo-noir action thriller, a winding revenge tale featuring misdirection from the jump. In misdirection stories, filled as they are with twists and turns the writer attempts to resolve at the end, the viewer must take it on faith that everything you see will fall into place when the big reveal occurs at the end; that all confusion will dissipate and every connection will make sense.
This film reminded me of The Usual Suspects, but I place it on a lower tier. Josh Hartnett, Bruce Willis, Lucy Lui, Morgan Freeman, and Ben Kingsley play their parts well. Slevin is one of those movies I can’t recall having heard of and then seventeen years after release it appears on a streaming service I’m subscribed to and I say, “Why not?” When the credits rolled, I hit the home button, swiped up, and thought, “I was entertained.”
I was fifteen when Mission: Impossible released in 1996. While I remember the buzz when the movie debuted, I’m not sure I saw this movie until now, nearly twenty seven years later. I just never got into the franchise, and it took me years to warm to Tom Cruise (I enjoy the guy on screen now). An upside to the streaming age is that you can catch up on anything. That’s a downside, too.
An eclectic, weird mix came together for my January Tunes.
Last Words
On the blog: an illustration of the spiritual life taken from tree rings and a quote on lament in the psalter.
Before I go, standard copy.
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Be well this week. Bless others.
Best,
BAS
P.S. - Something has gone terribly wrong in the Spider-Verse.
Ellen Charry, Psalms 1 - 50: Sighs and Songs of Israel (Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible), p. 1.
This psalm’s mention of the wicked person could also be read as a warning. But I do not think a threat nor challenge is here presented to the wicked person, as Charry posits.