Meditate Day and Night

5-12-24

Hoonah-Hadley

Psalm 1

Call to Worship 1 John 5:9-13

Daily Verse Psalm 1:2

Psalms 1 and 2 are the gateway into the sanctuary of the Psalms. We could be so bold to proclaim that the six verses in Psalm 1 sum up the entirety of the bible but such a notion maybe as foolish as the thought that we might drain the ocean of it’s contents by filling our morning coffee mug one day at a time for our entire lives. In fact, the bible may be likened to the ocean for most of us, a little overwhelming, intimidating, beyond reach, even downright fearful. We can sit on the porch and look at it, maybe travel to the beach and be serenated by its call and soft caress. Some will wade in a little way and be touched by its splendor for a moment and then retreat to the confines of the known. When the tropical warm waters stir a tempest along the equator and the warning signal blares, folks in mass flee inland while the road to its treasure sees few travelers, surf boards strapped to the roofs heading into its authority with reckless abandon.  Even the seasoned fishermen may find himself in peril should he ignore the signs of the impending doom.  You know you’d be a poorer man if you never drank from its riches, indeed you may be a dead man should you mismanage the wave of a lifetime on your surfboard. But should you take your cup and drink from it daily, you’d learn a little each day of its treasures and start to take on in your character the blessings it offers. Make a determination today to open God’s word, cut the chords of safe harbor, explore the vastness of His kingdom, taste and see that He is good.

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If indeed we launch out into the deep and cast our nets over the right side of the boat, we might find a woman of Samaria come to draw water at Jacob’s well and finding a wearied Savior there.  In John 4:14 Jesus says to the woman, “But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give them will never thirst. But the water that I shall give them will become in them a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” This is the epitome of Psalm 1 and the blessings that come to the one that delights in the law of the Lord. Alice Williams, “Believe and receive, doubt and do without.” Wearied from a long night of fishing and still have an empty net, come to the river of living water, and cast a line there. We come to the bible to meet Jesus. We come to the bible to find comfort in our affliction. We come to the bible when we hunger and thirst for righteousness. We come to the bible to find the truth. We come to the bible from a noisy world that we might have peace. We come to the bible in the midst of a hopeless world to find hope. We come to the bible in our sinful fallen nature begging for mercy and finding it there. We come to the bible when all is lost to find a Savior that will leave the 99 to find us. We come to the bible discouraged and thirsty to return with a cup overflowing.  We come to the bible restless until we find rest in Him. We come to the bible in a world with too many choices and no solutions to all that aisles us to meet the great Physician. We come to the bible with more doubt than our nets can hold and hear these words, “whoever believes in Him shall not perish.”  We come to the bible to catch 2 Peter 1:19 hook, line, and sinker. “And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the Morning Star rises in your hearts.”

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The bible never leaves us hungry. Hungering, but never hungry. It feeds us, prepares a table before us, “The Lord Jesus, on the night of His arrest, took bread, and after giving thanks to God, he broke it, and gave it to His disciples, saying: ‘Take, eat. This is My body, given for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.’”  (1 Cor. 11:23-24) The bible will not leave us hungry, but it will bless “those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.”  (Matt. 5:6) When we meditate on scripture, when we come to the bible, we find Jesus there cooking breakfast early in the morning along the shore of our oceans of wandering, doubt and fear. In fact, He so fills our nets we are unable to haul them aboard. Years ago, fishing in southeastern Alaska where Port Fredrick meets Icy Straight the first Halibut I pulled in was 140 lbs. At the helm of the vessel was Captain Paul Comolli, he shared some wisdom, “They don’t like to come out of the water.” Indeed, it takes 3 grown men to pull a fish like that into the boat. But the moral of that story is that it is not I, but “He”.  How does a guy from Hadley Pennsylvania end up fishing the abundant waters of southeastern Alaska with a seasoned skipper at the controls? “He!” Matthew 4:19 “Then He said to them, ‘Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.’” Meditate day and night. Come to the water early, come when you are weary, come when you hunger, come and be comforted, come to the water and drink, come to the well and ask, come to the Author and knock, come to the King and it will be opened to you for “He” is the finisher of your faith. “And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.’” (Matt. 28:18) There is no higher calling, no greater cause, than to get in the boat with the Son of God, and go to the other side.

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There are fish to be caught while meditating day and night, enough to feed us eternally. There is a great likelihood the author of Psalm 1 was fishing in the abundant waters of Joshua 1:8 “This book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”  We never return empty when meditating on God’s word. Spending time in God’s word temporarily satisfies the soul but leaves us longing for more. Over the doorframe of these 150 Psalms, we find one word etched there, “Blessed”. This not just “happy” but a tastier, fuller portion of God’s favor and grace. As we are given to name our boats, we find in Psalm 1, it’s not what we take with us, but what we leave behind that blesses us. “Blessed is the one who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful.” Meditating on God’s word blesses us as Watchman Nee testifies by where we sit, walk and stand, but it also blesses us by where we don’t sit, walk or stand. There are fish you don’t want to pull into your boat, some that may make you sick, some that may even kill you. Should you hook one of these, cut the line and find a new fishing hole. Verse 2: “But his delight is in the law of the Lord…” You can trust that if God calls you to meditate on His word, “it will not return to Him void, but it will accomplish what He pleases, it will prosper in the thing for which He sent it.” (Isaiah 55:11) To “delight” is to have a genuine desire for.  Herein is God’s promise, you Meditate Day and Night on His word, have a genuine desire for, hunger and thirst for, cast your net over the right side, you can name your boat “Blessed”. 

Amen.