Read Psalm 1. 1Blessed 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; 2but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3He 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. 4The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. 5Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; 6for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
Psalm 1 introduces us to the blessed man. The blessed man is not journeying through life with the wicked, the sinners, or the mockers. Rather, he is delighting in God’s law (scripture), and he is meditating on it all the time (day and night). The blessed man listens to God, obeys God, and bears fruit for God. How? Because the blessed man is a tree planted by streams of water. He enjoys a never ending source of life and love.
By contrast the wicked man is rootless and weightless, blowing in the wind like chaff. He has nothing to ground his life to. And worse yet, he is headed toward a judgment that will leave him without hope.
The blessed man is watched over by God.
The wicked man is destroyed by God.
Here’s where we are supposed to ask, “Which man are you?” But I think we already know the answer to this question, don’t we? Psalm 1 isn’t telling us to be the blessed man. It’s telling us that there is a blessed man. There is ONE who fulfills this Psalm. One blessed man (singular) as opposed to the many wicked (plural).
Christ is the blessed man of Psalm 1. He alone never walked in step with the wicked, stood with the sinners, or sat down with the mockers. He alone delighted in everything the Father ever said. Christ alone is as fruitful as a well-watered tree.
Not you. Not me.
But in Christ we are blessed. In Christ we are his fruit. He is the vine; we are the branch. He is the stream of water; we are the deeply rooted trees growing down into the soil of his love and grace. In Christ we are his righteousness. His assembly. His prosperity. His blessing.
To live is Christ is to be blessed with all the righteousness, prosperity, and stability of Jesus himself, THE blessed man.
Prayer: Jesus, you are the blessed man, not me. Thank you for letting me share in all that is yours and for grafting me into your tree planted by the stream of living water. Amen.
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To Live is Christ 