Live long and prosper

DEVOTION

PSALMS

LIVE LONG AND PROSPER

Ps 1:2-3

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, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.

NIV

We just saw three attitudes or behaviors that should not be a part of our life. Now we have a couple of things that should not only be a part of our life, but are should be the central theme of our life. We are to delight in the law of the LORD. The Hebrew word translated delight carries the meaning of take pleasure, to desire, to place value on. We know that whatever we place value on would be considered our treasure, and wherever our treasure is there also is our heart. So it would make perfect sense that we should place the highest value on the law of the LORD. This is not the old Mosaic Law the Israelites were given. This is the Royal Law of the new covenant. This is the very word of God itself. The Word, the Holy Scriptures are his law for our lives. They dictate our attitudes and behavior. His word is written on our heart and therefore should be the dominate force in our life. So we delight, we take joy and comfort in his law. Being the central theme of our lives then we should always be thinking about his word. This would be what the psalmist says as meditates day and night. Surely we cannot spend our whole twenty-four hours sitting in meditation. But we can always be aware of the Lord in our lives. We can always be in union with the Spirit who guides us and teaches us all truth. How we live, how we behave, what we say, how we react or response in situations or to people should all be guided by the central theme in our lives, the law of the LORD. There is a result of this type of living. God tells us that we are like a tree planted by the streams of water. Jesus is the stream of living water. We will always bear fruit in season and our leaf will never wither. This is what is considered to prosper. Our lives will prosper, we will be full of the Spirit, we will be full of fruit, which we have to see as the fruit of the Spirit. Our lives will be full of him, his fruit, and full of leafs, always green. To wither indicates shrinking and falling off, going into either a death spiral, or hibernation as trees do in the winter. We are not to hibernate, to sit and do nothing, allowing the life giving flow of God to leave our branches, then we would no longer be bearing fruit. The whole purpose of our bearing all this fruit in the first place, is so people might come to us and pick it off. They are the ones who can enjoy the sweet taste of our love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness and yes, even our self-control. Let us always be aware of the Spirit working in our lives, keeping our roots deeply planted in the stream of living water so that we can live long and prosper.