Right before a launch I like to do extra reading and research on the new verse/design that we have coming out. Next Tuesday, Oct 20th, our Psalm 1:1-3 design comes out. I’ve loved this verse for the last couple years, especially verse 3. The imagery of a tree planted by streams of water is serene and beautiful and I want my life to be beautiful before the Lord. I want to be the tree that drives it’s roots down so deep into it’s life source, my Jesus, that I’m forever connected. I am strong, stable and healthy. I’m abiding and when my time comes I will bear fruit for Him. Whole bushels full in fact.
One reading I came across was in the She Reads Truth Bible. I wanted to share it with you here. I pray it is a blessing to you as it was for me. It’s a simple read but a great read for us as we grow in Christ.
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Planted
I love the imagery of the tree in Psalm 1.
I want to be that tree, strong and rooted in my faith, bearing fruit. But when I read this psalm I can’t help but notice how I fall short.
I don’t always meditate on God’s Word day and night. I don’t always take delight in it. And I have chosen the way of the wicked too many times to count. When it comes down to it, my behavior and heart more closely resemble the chaff than the tree (v4) - a flimsy weed tossed here and there, following my selfish desires, loving God’s Word one day and disregarding it the next.
But isn’t this what Scripture does? It not only teaches us how to walk with the Lord, but it also highlights our inevitable failure to do so. Psalm 1 does not merely call us to the fruitful behavior of avoiding sin’s path and delighting in the Lord’s law. It points to the One who did those things on our behalf.
Jesus did not know sin (2 Co 5:21). There was no deceit in Him (1 Pt 2:22). He was tempted in every way yet resisted every time (Heb 4:15). Jesus fully embodies the “tree planted beside flowing streams that bears its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither” He exemplified it each day He walked this earth in human flesh, and He exemplifies it even now as He sits at the Father’s right hand in heaven. Knowing we could not walk perfectly, Jesus paved the way to redemption for us.
We don’t have to read Psalm 1 and feel shame about falling short. Because of Jesus, we can read Psalm 1 and worship our Savior whose death and resurrection represent the grace that allows us to walk with our Lord, even when our walks are not perfect. Even when our paths are crooked and detours are long. That is a part of the journey.
As we pursue Christ, our roots deepen and strengthen. By grace through faith, we begin to desire God and His Word in a deep and real way until one day we look up and notice how our branches, by no power of our own, are bearing fruit that brings glory to our God and to our Savior.
May we seek to be planted in His righteousness and perfection alone, looking to His Word and resting in His presence, that we might grow in his likeness.
“So then, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, being rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and overflowing with gratitude.” - Colossians 2:6-7
