Psalm 1:1–3
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
One of the implications of God’s existence and fatherly concern for us is that He will tell us things we need to know in order for us to succeed. Indeed, one of the woes we hear in a world that has not embraced the Restoration of the gospel is the lament that God no longer speaks—with the terrible follow-on thought that He must therefore no longer care. Well, He does care, and He has from the beginning. He does speak, and this counsel, including revelation in the present day, becomes for us His law.
His laws—in the scriptures they are appropriately termed “commandments”—are linked to the verities that have come down through eternity. They are the rules for righteous living that have always existed and that He has always taught. As a first step in avoiding heartache and sidestepping as many difficulties as possible, it is incumbent upon us to “delight . . . in the law of the Lord” and think about His commandments always, “meditate day and night” upon them. We cannot do what we have not learned, and we cannot obey what we have not been taught. The teachings of God’s prophets, living and dead, which outline and underscore the laws of God, are our rod of iron to which we must hold resolutely as we make our way through the mists of darkness in this life.23
Not all trials and tribulations we face come as a result of breaking the commandments, but some of them do. Obviously, there are some problems we probably cannot avoid; although we try to be obedient to the principles of the gospel, still some challenges come. But undoubtedly in each of our lives there are problems we could have avoided by greater understanding of God’s declarations and more faithfulness in adhering to that counsel. We must see these divine directions as among our greatest gifts and not a burdensome set of restrictions designed to rob us of spontaneity and freedom. No, the laws of the Lord lead to “the way, the truth, and the life.”24 The fact of the matter is, we have the potential in mortality to be lost much of the time. We need to be shown how to come out safely. That is the function of the law of the Lord, the protective counsel of the commandments from those who know the way and He who is the Way.
And lest it be overlooked, note the painful observation with which this first psalm begins. It is intended to be something of a backdrop against which all the psalms that follow are considered. It is the reminder that in the quest for a peaceful and productive life, we shouldn’t be so foolish as to choose trouble. Life is difficult enough without our adding stupidity to our list of mistakes. How frustrating it must be to God when, wanting to help us and knowing full well the dangers along the way, He sees us willingly, willfully choose to walk in the counsel of the ungodly, stand in the way of sinners, and sit in the seat of the scornful. Even when we give the ungodly, the sinner, and the scorner wide berth, there will still be problems for us to face, so how foolish then—frankly “foolish” doesn’t seem quite strong enough—to walk toward trouble, to stand right in the midst of troublemakers, to sit with those who would rob us of our faith and our efforts to be obedient. We ought, like Joseph in Egypt, to flee, to simply turn and run from such temptation and trouble.25
We are asking a lot of God when we consciously break His commandments, then cry unto Him about our troubles and ask His deliverance from that which we could have done more to avoid in the first place. As noted, that is not the case with all of our challenges, but we are rather painfully left without much excuse regarding those challenges we face that we could have avoided by delighting in the law of the Lord and remembering the commandments day and night. Thank heaven—literally—that God will help us even when we are our own worst enemy, but we ought to try harder not to make His job any more difficult than it already is. Meditate on His laws. Strive to keep His commandments. Avoid all the problems you can. Try to be true. Then we can justifiably ask Him to take care of the rest. Then the leaves on our own little tree of life will not wither, and the fruit we so much want to harvest will be bountiful in every season.
Notes