The title above is a combination of the words of the first psalm and a life changing experience happening at Palm Beach Lakes. That psalm sets the tone for all of the rest of the psalms and describes the man God sees as being blessed. David said, “And in His law he meditates day and night.” Do you want to have all the blessings God can give to you? Hear these words—he meditates in the law of the Lord.
Because of this, the emphasis for the month of January is to encourage every member to spend the month reading a daily psalm and thinking about what it says and how it applies to life. (The reason we have chosen a twenty-eight day period is to give uniformity to each month’s emphasis, and February has fewer days.) The design of the program is not to speed read through many chapters, but to slowly read and reflect on each word God uses. Meditating on His words brings blessings, and it changes every person who does it.
Let me give some suggestions which might help you as we spend this month reading the Bible together.
Make the reading of the psalm a priority. Every person’s life is different. Some may choose to start each day while others may choose to end the day reading the Bible. You might decide to read the psalm together as a family and talk about how it applies to your lives. Because God says that what we think determines who we are (Prov. 23:7), we must set aside time to spend thinking about what really matters.
Read the passage slowly. Make sure that you understand the meaning of every word in each psalm. Look at each word. Is it singular or plural? What is God saying? What other words could God have used to teach the same lesson? Ask yourself why He chose to use a particular word. After you have read the passage slowly, read it again. One of the things I have done some days is to let my computer/smartphone read the passage to me. I have listened to some of them five times, and almost every time I see a new truth.
Take phrases from a psalm and think about how it helps you. This is what meditation is. It is very simple: God speaks. We listen. We listen carefully. Then, those words which help us most at this point in our lives can be taken and thought about often every day. Think about that phrase. Perhaps, share it with someone else. Then, determine that you will let His words become your words.
There are many other suggestions which could be given, but I wanted this week to share with you how blessed I have been as I have read and then thought about what God says about my life. I wanted to encourage you to be part of this effort. It has changed me, and I believe it will change you!