Maybe you noticed the jackhammer outside during that first hymn this morning?! There’s a big building project going on across the street, and we had an understanding with the city that it would be quiet this morning.

So during the hymn, I ran outside with my microphone on and everything and talked to the foreman- who was great about stopping the noise. He said “What time are your services?” And when I told him, he said “Maybe I should come!” I think the fear came into his eyes right then when I said “Yes! Let’s go, right now!”

It was fun. And it seems like it would be really appropriate if we would stop right now and pray for the work crew that has been on the job last night and this morning- will you pray with me?

Let’s say you asked me for a book recommendation. It happens. And I would probably look around my office, and notice the stack of books closest to the door, and grab this book off the top and say “Well, I just finished a novel called So Brave, Young and Handsome.” I tried to tell our kids that this was my biography, but they didn’t buy it at all. It’s a good book, maybe a B+. And let’s say you wanted to know what it was like, so I said:

“Well, it has 287 pages, about 100,000 words, is organized into 73 very short chapters in four different sections, has 8 main identifiable characters, is the second book written by Leif Enger (who wrote Peace Like a River), was written in 2008 and published by Atlantic Monthly Press. It’s a good book, you should read it.” I don’t think you would be drooling over my recommendation.

BUT- if I told you that here was a book that made me start wondering where my commitments were rooted, question why I sometimes get the urge to get in the car and just drive for hours and hours, made me laugh out loud, and cause me to long to love my wife and children more than I do…and is said “it’s a good book, you should read it.” You might find that helpful. Even intriguing.

So this morning, in real life, I’m recommending you read this book called The Psalms, a title which means “Song.” There are many things I could tell you about the Psalms- clearly they seem to be a collection of collections that at some point centuries before Christ were put together, with some overlap and repetition.

Or I could tell you Psalms has 150 separate poems, songs, snatches of liturgy. You might think of it as an anthology.

I could tell you that the book of Psalms defies organization. Various scholars have tried to diagram it, and they say things like: what we have in the book of Psalms can be broken down into prayers of individuals (including complaints and lament), praises from individuals, prayers of a community (including complaints and lament), praises of a community, expressions of confidence in the Lord, hymns of praise, hymns celebrating the reign of God, songs of Zion, royal psalms, processional ones, liturgies, and wisdom psalms… whew. That sure makes things simpler!

Or I could point out that the Psalms are broken down into five “books,” which are labeled in your pew Bible- so “Book I”= Psalms 1-41, etc. And it is interesting to think that perhaps these five books were meant to correspond in some way to the five books of the Torah, the Law of the Old Testament, the first five books of scripture.

You might also be interested in knowing that the Psalms are the most quoted Old Testament book in the New Testament. So Jesus and the early church found great value in what is in here. In addition, you might like the idea that a tremendous number of the Psalms have been put to music in hymns and songs. Our hymnal uses 92/150 Psalms, and many more are used in our praise songs.

And it does at least bear mentioning that in these 150 Psalms, the small titles (or superscriptions) that many but not all have (116/150) were added long after the Psalms began to be used. Many of the Psalm titles (73) bear King David’s name, and as Israel’s early poet laureate and songwriter extraordinaire he is regarded as their source.

But even then it’s unclear linguistically if they are about David, to David, by David or for David. And there are other people who receive attention in the titles of psalms- the sons of Korah, Asaph the musician, a few individuals, some little known and some unknown. And then there are 11 other Psalms which say they are for the “director of music,” and we all know how shady those people are… Gary!

I suspect I could tell you all this and lots and lots more that I have learned and studied, and you would say “Dan, we’re going to be in this book for how long? Why are we reading this again?”

Well, how about this: what if I told you that when you read this book, you receive a bird’s eye picture of honest faith- that here we learn real conversation that real live people are having with God? The word we use for that is “prayer.”

The scriptures are full of God’s Word relayed to people, and we (rightfully) listen for that each week. But in the Psalms we finally hear the response, the answering of people to God.

Martin Luther marveled that the psalm writer could combine all the praise and thanks AND such sorrowful, pitiful words of sadness or anger. Luther was amazed that the Psalm writers “ speak these words TO God and WITH God…this…is the best thing of all.”

In the Psalms, Israel gives its full voice, including anger and frustration and complaining, and turns it all somehow into prayer- which Eugene Peterson says is “our most human response.” So many times things happen in life, and we shout out “God where are you, you’re not showing up!” Or we are filled with a gratitude that insists we thank someone, and we just thank God. It is something built into our core as humans. We pray. We just do.

THAT is what is going on in the Psalms. We hear this conversation going on with God. And in fact, we are drawn right into the middle of it. Honest faith is simply getting things on the table with God. Reading Psalms isn’t about acquiring knowledge, but about coming face to face in relationship with God. Honest faith. I don’t think the Psalms are for religious people. Just real ones.

This morning we will start with Psalm 1, and next week Psalm 2 before we branch off. Psalms 1 & 2 together form an introduction to the whole book (in fact, some scholars think they were once one psalm). Psalm 1 is actually not a prayer psalm as much as it is a wisdom psalm. It provides a foundation for our prayers, and reminds us of what we are shooting for- a life pleasing to God. Every time we read another psalm, of angst or joy or triumph or failure, we go back to Psalm 1 as grounding- “this is the people we want to be, this is the way we want to walk.”

Reading: Psalm 1

I hate that the pew Bible says “happy.” Now, at our house, we often say “hate is a very strong emotion.” So, I repeat: I hate that it starts with “happy!” It almost killed me to read it that way. Oh, technically it’s fine as a translation. But for us, “happy” means simply an emotion.

I was at Starbucks the other day, and a mom we knew came in and started talking (in a very loud voice) about how much college costs these days, and that led her into where her child was in a private high school, and that led her into talking (in a very loud voice) about exactly how much they paid for school- I was sinking further and further into my chair- and she wrapped it up with “But it’s all about the kids being happy, right?”

Actually, I respectfully disagree. I’m tired of hearing happy, a feeling, be the sole object in life. I think there’s more. Much more. So I’m throwing out “happy” and putting in what many translations use: “blessed.” “How BLESSED are those who do not follow the way of the wicked…etc.”

Blessed means much more. To be “blessed” means “God’s favor rests on you.” All sorts of possibilities are opened beyond feelings or material things. Blessed = “God takes pleasure in you.” Delight, even. Or I love how The Message says it: “How well God must like you!” Lovely.

So the first word of verse 1 is “blessed,” and then we move to “unblessed.” This is how this Psalm works, back and forth. So we start with “blessed,” and now the rest of verse 1 says: Here’s 3 ways you could live that are NOT blessed:

• following the advice of the wicked… some translations use “walk in…”
• taking the path that sinners tread…some translations use “stand in…”
• sitting in the seat of scoffers… “sit in.”

Walk in way of wicked, stand in path of sinners, sit in seat of scoffers. It gives you the sense, doesn’t it, of someone in these situations slowing down, walk-stand-sit, bogging down more and more until the life in them just stops. Walk. Stand. Sit. The patient is alive, but there are no signs of life. It’s ground to a halt.

I started thinking about what doing the opposite would sound like- what would someone “blessed” do? Well,

• “take advice from Godly people,” which would entail both being around people who fit that description as well as being willing to take advice. I was reminded this week of how nice it is to have prayerful, thoughtful people around you- I had a decision to make I wasn’t sure about, and I asked our pastoral staff for feedback, and by the time I had listened to them it seemed much clearer.
• “journey on right paths,” not the ones sinners are insisting on. Often times the right path is the one least traveled, isn’t it? The crowds or the media usually haven’t thought to take good counsel, and they just go wherever they feel like.
• “sitting with folks who look for God,” not the skeptics, critics, doubters.

Isn’t it interesting how much of this involves being with other people? Not wicked, choosing to sin, scoffer-people, but instead people who won’t call true things false, or false things true?

One of my men’s groups read a marvelous little short story this week, The Saint and the Magician by Romulus Linney (Image Magazine). It includes a fictional look at Saint Peter in the early days of the church. Linney imagines Peter as a very old man, simple and a bit of an embarrassment to the church. He’s sent to Rome to defend the Christians and Jesus in front of Caesar by matching wits with Simon the Magician.

Each of them get a shot at impressing Caesar. Simon the Magician goes first and makes a long speech with all sorts of wild accusations and half-truths and doubt producing thoughts. But they have little effect on Peter, due to this one lovely characteristic he had acquired: “Saint Peter no longer thought about things he knew weren’t true.” I love that.

I think I’d like to be more like that. Not so bogged down by things that weren’t true or having to spend time on the defensive, but simply thinking about what is true, and hanging around people who encourage me to walk that way.

Now, I don’t know what you thought when the Psalmist then says the blessed person is the one whose delight is in “the law of the Lord,” but for me that can sound like a negative. We’ve spent years, haven’t we, trying not to be legalistic? We don’t want to live by rules.

But the Law, the Torah of Israel, was one of the early and main ways that God communicated, spoke, dealt with his people, beginning with the giving of the law through Moses. Loving the law, the scriptures, wasn’t majoring in the minors, it was loving God, it was allowing God’s word to so shape one’s life that they were bent towards Him so that their delight is in the law of the Lord. It’s not a bunch of do’s and don’ts, but relationship.

Every once in a while, I get in a conversation with folks who want to know whether some particular action or decision is “sin.” Like, help me label this. “I want to do it, but I won’t if it’s sin.” You may not have known it was in my job description to label such things! Usually I think it is the wrong question. It’s not about avoiding sin as much as about how to please God. Not just “what can’t I do,” but how do I want to live, who do I want to be? “On his law they meditate day and night.” The scriptures are a way of being with God, of praying with God, of reflecting on our lives so that we might be like a tree near a stream.

I’m always struck, driving across eastern Washington. You can drive for miles and see nothing but desert, or rolling farmland, not a tree or even a big bush anywhere. And then, usually when you see a small town, suddenly there is a serpentine cluster of trees, and just inevitably you know there is a stream there. And there always is. Trees thrive by being near water. People thrive by being near God. The scripture is a way to do that. It’s how we were made. It’s what brings delight.

We meditate on the scriptures, we sit with them not so that we can master a subject, but so that in getting to know God through God’s word the desire of our heart will be to please God, to delight Him. One translation of verse 2, is “and IN (not “on”) his law they will muse by day and night.” Sitting in that stream, immersed in it, soaking up not just the knowledge about God but knowing God. Trees by water prosper.

You might say, “Sure, sounds nice Dan, this reflecting, meditating, talking to God, knowing God better. But I have no time as it is, how do I fit it into my life?” I’ve come to this conclusion- You can’t. You have to fit your life into it. You have to shape your life around your faith, not vice versa.

All this detail about the blessed person: like a tree, planted by streams of water, yielding their fruit in its season, leaves that aren’t withering, prospering in all things.

What’s it say about the wicked? Pretty much one word: Chaff. They’re chaff. Period. That’s it. Grain harvested, dried, thrown up in the air, the valuable grain comes back down, the husk, the waste, the chaff is simply blown away by the wind. Chaff? Gone. Barely worth noting. Don’t’ be a chaff person.

Eugene Peterson says a “tree person has roots deep in God’s ways...A chaff person won’t be entangled in such earthy permanence. “Too limiting,” they might say.”

Chaff? Those who walk, stand and sit in evil? Ultimately it and they collapse. We may not even get to see it in a situation, or in a lifetime. But it will happen. At the end of the day evil doesn’t win. The wicked won’t stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. And the way it’s written here, it’s less about a punishment from God- and more that it is just a natural outflow of choosing to live those ways. Evil? Wicked? Chaff.

So. This first Psalm is a word of wisdom, and it is uncomfortably direct. It’s to you. To me. It says simply, who do you want to be? Which way are you going to walk? The way that doesn’t last, or the way that does? Are you going to build, as Jesus said, on sand or on rock? Are you going to go the way of religious codes, or the way of conversation with the living God? Which way? At every point, these Psalms will push us back to God and make us ask the question: “Are you going to follow Jesus, the one who said “I am the Way,the truth and the life?” Or not?

Let us pray.