Bible Study

*Just for your thoughts*

Psalms*

Bible Lesson 3*

Meditation Passage: Psalm 1:1–2*

These two verses can be viewed from both a positive side and a Negative Side.*

Positive Side – A Positive*
Perspective
Verse 2 tells us what we should follow and practice.
Negative Side – A Negative* Perspective
Verse 1 tells us what we should not follow or practice.
We can look at verse 1 from a negative perspective. It tells us that a child of God should not follow three things:
*We should not walk in *the counsel of* the *wicked* .*
*We should not stand in the way of sinners.*

We should not sit in the company of mockers.*
Adam and Eve fell into the great sin of disobedience when Eve listened to the counsel given by Satan through the serpent, ate the forbidden fruit herself, and also gave it to Adam, and he ate it. As a result, the generations that followed also came under the consequences of sin.
“We should not stand in the way of sinners” means that we should not accept the ways of sinners, follow those ways, and live in them.
Lot is a good example of this.
When Jesus was taken for trial, Peter was sitting among the enemies. Because of the situation, fear, and pressure, he denied Jesus three times.
Listening to counsel that is not pleasing to God, wanting to remain in a place that is not pleasing to God, and identifying ourselves with worldly ways that are contrary to God's ways and spending our time in them are actions that are not pleasing to God.
Verse 2 – A Positive Perspective*

The expression “the Law of the Lord” is used in English translations.
Here, the word "law" does not have only the narrow meaning of rules and regulations. It also carries the meaning* *of God's teaching, instruction, and guidance.*

There is one thing: knowing God's commandments and teachings, meditating on them, and living* according to them.
There is another thing: considering God's commandments merely as legal requirements and living* *under them as compulsory laws.*
It is also different to consider the teachings of the New Testament merely as laws and to live under them as though we are enslaved to them.
For example:
Thinking that we must read one chapter of the Bible every morning;
Thinking that we must attend worship every Sunday;
Thinking that we must give tithes;
Thinking that we must necessarily follow Old Testament festivals and practices that are no longer applicable to the present age.
If a believer thinks that he will not be accepted by God unless he performs these things, then he is treating those practices as compulsory laws.
At the same time, understanding and knowing the teachings of the New Testament, meditating on them, and living according to their true purpose is something different.
A person who understands the teachings of the New Testament and lives according to their true purpose lives in the freedom that is found in Christ. His obedience to God is not merely motivated by the fear of the law; rather, he obeys God willingly and wholeheartedly because he loves God.
Therefore, we should not treat the teachings of the New Testament merely as rules and regulations and follow them only as external obligations.
Obedience to God's commandments should not be merely a duty. It should be wholehearted obedience that comes from our love for God.
In the same way, our Bible reading and meditation should not be merely compulsory habits. They should come from our desire for and delight in the Word of God.
As Psalm 1:2 says, we should live a life in which we delight in God's teaching and meditate on it day and night.
Therefore, may the Lord give us grace so that our Bible reading and meditation will not be merely acts of discipline or obligation, but actions that we willingly choose because of our delight in the Word of God.
In the Lord’s work,