Let the Psalms give you rest for your soul and peace for your mind as you explore their truths more deeply using Ray Pritchard's guide. This 7-day plan will help you explore the Psalms anew with a focused look at specific verses.

How to Get Started Right

He is like a tree planted

by streams of water,

which yields its fruit in season

and whose leaf does not wither.

Whatever he does prospers.

Psalm 1:3

Would you like to be blessed by God every day?

Psalm 1 tells us how blessing happens, so let’s pay attention to God’s recipe for success. As we study this psalm, we discover that blessedness relates to the way we live and the choices we make. It depends on the kind of people we are. From God’s point of view, there are only two ways to live because there are two kinds of people in the world and only two kinds. There are the righteous, and then there are the wicked. Everyone in the world falls into those two categories. There is no “in-between” category. Psalm 1 shows us how the righteous live and why they are blessed. It also shows us the result of both ways of life.

Psalm 1 surprises many people because it begins not with the positive but with a negative. The blessing begins with what the righteous person does not do.

He does not walk in the counsel of the wicked.

He does not stand in the way of sinners.

He does not sit in the seat of mockers.

Blessings come not only from what we do, but also from what we don’t do. Blessed people avoid certain things. And they avoid certain people and certain situations. They don’t hang out just anywhere and they don’t quickly buy into every line of thinking. They are very careful not to join themselves to the company of those who do not love the Lord.

Now we come to the positive side of the ledger. Having refused to walk in the way of evildoers, we instead focus on knowing God’s Word. We do this because the best way to float rubbish out is to pour water in. You can’t eliminate the garbage in your life simply by mental effort. You must replace the negative with something positive. The psalmist tells us the godly person “delights” in the law of the Lord. That means he loves the Word of God, the Holy Scriptures, the Bible. The word delight means to take great pleasure in. It has the idea of a consuming passion that controls your life.

Everyone “delights” in something. Some people delight in food. Others delight in a job or a hobby or a career. Some delight in a particular friendship. Many people delight in money, or the things money can buy. And many delight in evil pleasures and wrong desires. Mark this well. Your delight determines your direction.

The happiest people in the world are those whose lives are built on the Word of God. We can state that more forcefully. The only truly happy people in the world are those who follow the prescription of Psalm 1. Others may be happy in a temporary or worldly sense, but they do not know the joy and deep satisfaction that comes from living with God's approval. That is reserved for the true children of God.

A blessing awaits those who build their lives upon this ancient book. May that blessing be ours so that we, having been blessed, may be a blessing to others in the year to come.

Lord Jesus, in these momentous days, when the world shakes beneath our feet, help us to be people of the Word, delighting in what You have given us. Amen.

1. What are some ways we are tempted to “walk in the way of the wicked”?

2. What does it mean to say that your “delight determines your direction”?

3. How can you enter into the blessing promised in Psalm 1?