Antithesis

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oday begins the first full work week of the new year. While everyone else considers their New Year’s resolutions the week after Christmas, I have maintained a long-standing tradition of being late. So my thoughts about the prior year and considerations about what I should work toward in the new year tend to come to mind sometime in January.

Psalm 1

1. Blessed 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;
2. but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.
3. He 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.
4. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
5. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
6. for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

This year is no different, except that these thoughts hit a little bit sooner this year than they have in the past.

On the way into work this morning I was reading my bible. (I ride on a commuter van, so I wasn’t reading and driving at the same time.) This year I have decided to follow the Crossway plan to read through the bible in one year. It splits the daily reading into four different parts. One of this morning’s passages was Psalm 1, which you may read in the box at the upper right of this post. It’s just a short psalm, but a very good one to consider as the year begins.

As I head into this year, do I want to be blessed? The two verses of this psalm tell me some characteristics of a blessed man: he does not listen to wicked counsel, or hang out with sinners and scoffers, but he delights in God’s law and meditates on it. And what does the blessing of this type of life look like? he is like a tree planted by the streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and doesn’t wither. In everything this man does, he prospers. What does the person who does not have this blessed life look like? he’s different than the blessed man: he’s compared to the chaff that the wind blows away and he will not stand when Judgment Day comes, but he will perish.

It kinda seems like a no-brainer to me. So why do I have to make a change. Why haven’t I been doing this all along?