Day 1
Ash Wednesday
Psalm 1 - Roots
Read Psalm 1 two times.
Psalm 1 is a comparison between those who have deep roots and those who do not. In the Ancient Near East (the area around Israel during Old Testament times) the farmers would harvest wheat and then place the wheat on a threshing floor. Then they would use special shoes to walk and jump on the wheat in order to separate the wheat kernels from the rest of the plant (the dried up portion called chaff). And then finally, on windy days they would throw up everything on the threshing floor and the wind would take the dried-up chaff and blow it away and the kernels of wheat would fall to the ground. This is how they would separate the wheat that could be used from the chaff that was worthless.
The Psalmist here in Psalm 1, uses that image of the dried-up chaff blowing away in the wind in comparison with a strong, rooted, healthy tree planted by a flowing stream, which “yields its fruit in its seasons and its leaves never wither.” The Psalmist says that those who delight in the laws of the LORD, and meditate on them day and night are like that tree, with deep roots. Storms come, wind blows, lightning strikes, but the roots hold. This is similar to Jesus’ story of building a house upon the sand or a house upon the rock at the end of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7. It is a question of our foundation. The “law of the LORD” (verse 2) is not simply the rules and commands we find in the Bible, but the Hebrew word for “law” has the sense of God’s vision for life as it was truly intended to be lived. God’s “law” is a vision of life that is whole and healthy and in harmony with who God is and what God is doing in the world.
I read this Psalm frequently, and it almost always sounds too simplistic to me. Many days, and especially when life is not going well, I feel like chaff being blown about here and there. It is often only when I look back at a particularly difficult season in life that I see the roots holding me down. In the moment it almost always feels like I’m being blown over. One of the reasons why followers of Jesus have taken these 40 days before Easter so seriously is because intentionally taking time to remember the foundation of our lives (who we are because of Christ and what He has done for us), helps us build deep roots. It’s my prayer that these next 40 days would help us delight more and more in “the law of the LORD.”
Prayer: Take some time to pray that God would genuinely open you up to receive from Him during this Lenten season. Even if you have never done anything like this before, ask God to use these Psalms to teach you more and more about Christ.
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