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Psalm 1 1 Happy are they who have not walked in the counsel of the wicked, 2 Their delight is in the law of the Lord, 3 They are like trees planted by streams of water, 4 It is not so with the wicked; 5 Therefore the wicked shall not stand upright when judgment comes, 6 For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, |
Like trees planted by streams of water
One of the questions I like to explore with parishioners: Where are you being nourished? A variation: What are the things that feed you, specifically, what are the things that feed your spirit?
Sometimes people have a ready answer, expressing gratitude for sources of life that they have tapped into. Many recognize that such nourishment is a gift. There are those who confess that they are not being fed at all, and they are feeling depleted. They will sometimes confess that they have looked to the church for spiritual nourishment and they’re not finding it. I hear people speak about busy schedules that have taken control of their lives and block streams of life. I’m wondering as you read this on this Monday morning where you are being fed, where you find sources of life.
Psalm 1, the first in the psalter, printed above and heard in churches yesterday, serves as a kind of overture to the rest of the psalms. There are 150 of them. They cover the range of spiritual experience. That full range may be captured in this first psalm which talks about two ways of being. The psalm suggests a choice between being like a tree planted by a stream or being like chaff that the wind blows away. On the one hand, an experience of vitality and growth. On the other, lifelessness and inertia resulting in a failure to tap into the source of life. Which way of being reflects the way you’re feeling this Monday morning?
The psalm prompts us to think about where we look for nourishment, for the source of life. On the one hand, it is a grace, a gift to tap into sources of life. A tree does not necessarily have much say about where it has set down roots. If in the course of our spiritual journey, we have found any sustaining sources of life, we are simply called to say thanks and not try to take credit for any growth and vitality.
At the same time, the psalm seems to suggest that we have agency as far as where we draw source of life. I was reading on Saturday the story of St. Paul visiting Athens (Acts 17), talking to people who had not yet been introduced to the Christian faith. Paul begins by simply listening to what was going on in that city, religiously speaking. In the words of one of my teachers, Dwight Zscheile, Paul was seeing what God was up to in the neighborhood.
As he speaks to the Athenians, he notes that though the gospel was news to them, they already had a sense of God’s presence. He quotes their own poets saying that God is the one in which they live and move and have their being. He says that God is not far from any of them. That suggests to me that the source of life is always available. The question then becomes: Are we paying attention to it? Or are we looking for life in all the wrong places?
I realize that in my writing and preaching, I really only have a few ideas. I hope I don’t repeat excessively. One that is most important (and bears repeating) is the wisdom from desert father Abba Poemem. He said: Do not give you heart to that which does not satisfy your heart.
This Monday morning, give your heart to that stream of living water that provides nourishment. If you’re not sure how to go about that, tap into these words from the Gospel of John: On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’ (John 7:37-38)
–Jay Sidebotham
