Psalms: The Path

If asked "which of the Psalms is your favorite," I'm not sure that I could pin it down to just one.
Of course, Psalm 100 would be in what I would call the top three Psalms as to personal preference.  This Psalm was one that, at 90, my mother had memorized as it was quoted each Sunday during Worship at her church.
Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.

Worship the Lord with gladness;

    come before him with joyful songs.

Know that the Lord is God.

    It is he who made us, and we are his;

    we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving
    and his courts with praise;
    give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
    his faithfulness continues through all generations.

 

Then of course there is everyone's favorite, "The Shepherd Psalm."  When I was just a boy, my grandfather said he would give me a silver dollar to memorize the 23rd Psalm.  I got my dollar when I correctly quoted it, which made both of us happy, and the Psalm has remained at the top of my list of favorites.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
    He leads me beside still waters.
    He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
    for his name's sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
    I will fear no evil, for you are with me;
    your rod and your staff,
    they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me
    in the presence of my enemies;
    you anoint my head with oil;
    my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
    all the days of my life,
    and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

 

Then, the third choice is Psalm 1.  It is a wisdom psalm which focuses on God's Word, God's blessings on those who obey it and meditate on it, and God's ultimate judgment on those who rebel against it.  The psalmist, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, compares these two types of men, who they are, and the two paths of life they have chosen.

Blessed is the man
    who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
    nor stands in the path of sinners,
    nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
    and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree
    planted by streams of water
    that yields its fruit in its season,
    and its leaf does not wither.
        In all that he does, he prospers.
The wicked are not so,
    but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
    nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
             for the Lord knows the path of the righteous,
         but the path of the wicked will perish.

 

From a psalm of Worship, to a psalm of Comfort, to a psalm of Wisdom, these three psalms express much of what the 150 Psalms seek to convey.  As to Psalm 1, the man (speaking in the generic which covers all of God's creation: both man and woman) who has put his trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is "blessed." He finds his delight in study of God's Word and is secure in his faith.  Whereas the man who trusts in other gods, other men, or just in his own self, is like "chaff that the wind drives away" and even his path will perish.

 

We know from a comprehensive study of God's Word that a great responsibility lies on the shoulder of the man who has trusted in God's plan.  His path takes him to places where he encounters the wicked, the sinners and the scoffers, not to heed their ways, but rather he seeks to encourage "wicked men" to exchange their current path from death unto life.  The "Gospel" or "Good News" is what changes life and through that good word, all men find hope...hope in the future.  With Jesus, life as God intended it can be acquired by "faith" and without Jesus, the status quo of the wicked with perish.

 

For the man or woman who is blessed by God, we see very clearly the heart of God who sought them out.  It therefore becomes incumbent upon each of us to be ambassadors for Christ to seek out those who here-to-fore have rejected Him.