Delight In The Law Of The Lord

1 Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked,

    or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers.

2 But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night.

Psalm 1:1-2 (NLT)

 

I am blogging again after a long break. One night, while my wife was preparing dinner, I was in the room with my son, I just picked up my NLT Bible for no reason and started to read it. For unknown reasons, I was drawn to Psalm 1. As I read it, thoughts came to my mind which I am going to share with you now.

 

Verse 1 is quite clear. Verse 2 is the one I want to elaborate. The magic word here is “delight”. The Lord wants us to delight in his law. We are supposed to be so delightful that we end up meditating on it day and night.

 

The question here is, how to get into the state of being delightful? Can it be achieved through threats and blackmails? Supposed I am to tell you the God commands you to take delight in his laws and if you don’t you are going to face the wrath of his judgement. Will you be able to obey? In other words, can you be threatened into being delightful?

 

The same goes for things like joy and love. No one can be threatened in being joyful and loving.

 

This is the part where incompetent preachers miss it. In their minds, you have to obey everything God says or face his judgement. They can never imagine that the threats can never result in a true relationship with God.

 

God’s desire is to have a true relationship with us. He wants us to spend time with him, study his words and live holy lives but not through threats nor blackmails. He wants us to do all these stuff because we want to do them, not because we force ourselves to do them in order to avoid going to hell. I suspect this truth is too profound for any theologians to understand.

 

The next question is how to achieve them? Is it possible to get people to live godly lives without resorting to blackmails? The answer is “yes” if you do it God’s way. Godly lives can only come from inside out, meaning our hearts must be transformed first before we get into the outward behaviour. This means the correct impression of God.

 

This is the transformation that happened to me. In my first church, I was given the impression that God is a very judgemental, evil and perverse person. He is obsessed with sins. His interest in me was limited to whether I give money to the church and whether I go for missions. This is a very oppressive God. Do you think I will ever take delight in his laws?

 

Through his grace, my impression of him has changed. Now I see God as someone who values me more than any other stuff like sins, giving money to church or going for missions. Today, I can live life without giving any attention to sin, refuse to give a single cent to the church, refuse to go for missions and still able to stand before God as his most beloved son.  Whatever, I do or don’t do will never affect my position as the son of God.

 

Knowing this truth has set me free from the bondage of the devil. As a result, I end up taking delight in the Lord, which includes his law.

 

Next, what does, “they delight in the law of the Lord” means? To those under bondage, the word “law” always refer to the 10 Commandments. Imagine this. Can you meditate on “Do not murder”, “Do not commit adultery” etc and be happy about it? Of course not.

 

The “law of the Lord” in this verse simply refers to God’s desires and dreams for you after you have the correct impression on him.  Those desires and dreams must have been darn good in order to cause you to think about them day and night. This means that this “law of the Lord” must be the same as your deepest desire in order for you to be so obsessed with it.

 

That is all it means. A Christian life is a life of joy which comes from a true relationship with the Creator. It has nothing to do with threats nor blackmail.

 

How to live this way? This is my suggestion. Never allow yourself to do anything out of threats or blackmails. If you feel like you must make time to pray or read the Bible in order to avoid God’s judgement, then I suggest you not to do it. Do the other things you like instead. The only reason you pray or read the Bible is when you have the hunger and thirst for him. If you do them out of threats, you are wasting your own time and God’s.

 

When you read the Bible, focus on how much he loves you and care for you. If you read any words amounting to threats and blackmails, they are not for you. If you are a believer, Jesus has taken all your sins and related punishments on the Cross. All those bad things you read has no effect on you. Once you are convinced of this, you are set free.

God Wants You To Prosper In Everything You Do –6

This is the final installment on my study on Psalm 1. It is important for you to read the earlier installments in order to understand the full context in this article. If you have not read it, I suggest you refer to the articles of the same title except for the numbers at the end. You can find them under the Category of “Articles From Yeap Chee Seng”.

Here is a brief rerun on the earlier installments. We know that God wants us blessed. In order to receive his blessings we are not to follow the ways of the world and to meditate on His Word. Through this, we will be firmly planted and able to withstand any storms in life. We will prosper in everything we do. Unfortunately the wicked will not enjoy similar privileges. It is not going to very fun not being a believer. The good news is, it will only take a few seconds for the transition from being an unbeliever to become a believer. The procedures are stated in the fifth installment.

Here is the final verse:

6For the Lord knows and is fully acquainted with the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly [those living outside God’s will] shall perish (end in ruin and come to nought).
Psalm 1:6 (Amplified Bible)

The first part tells us that Lord knows and is fully acquainted with the way of the righteous. Who are the righteous? I believe I have shown that in earlier installments. Being righteous is not a result of doing the right things. That is self-righteous. As Christians, our righteousness is by grace through faith. As long as you have received Jesus into your heart, God sees you as righteous.

God knows and is fully acquainted with our way. Why? Our way is his way. His ways always lead to success and prosperity. After all, he is quite a successful and prosperous person. If we follow him, we will definitely receive the same result.

However, it is not going to be very fun to be out of his will. The verse says the way of the ungodly [those living outside God’s will] shall perish (end in ruin and come to nought). Those who chose to live outside the will of God will perish. Perish means ending in ruins and come to nought. This tells me that as long as we are living in the will of God, we will never perish. Our ending will never be in ruins.

If there is a movie on your life, this movie will end in glory. It will show you living happy ever after with success and prosperity. Do you like this ending? If you do, you will have to live in the will of God. I suggest you read the entire “God wants you to prosper in everything you do” series to get the full message from God through Psalm 1.

God Wants You To Prosper In Everything You Do -5

This is the fifth installment on my study on Psalm 1. It is important for you to read the earlier installments in order to understand the full context in this article. If you have not read it, I suggest you refer to the articles of the same title except for the numbers at the end. You can find them under the Category of “Articles From Yeap Chee Seng”.

Here is a brief rerun on the earlier installments. We know that God wants us blessed. In order to receive his blessings we are not to follow the ways of the world and to meditate on His Word. Through this, we will be firmly planted and able to withstand any storms in life. We will prosper in everything we do. Unfortunately the wicked will not enjoy similar privileges.

Verse 5 elaborates more on their destiny.

5Therefore the wicked [those disobedient and living without God] shall not stand [justified] in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous [those who are upright and in right standing with God].
Psalm 1:5 (Amplified Bible)

The first part of the above verse gives us the definition of the wicked, which is those disobedient and living without God. If you happen to belong to the above definitions then I suggest you repent. Repentance means turning around. Turn from your religious and worldly views toward the views of God as written in the Bible.

The wicked will not be justified in the judgement and the sinners in the congregation of the righteous. What judgement is this? Obviously it is the judgement of sins. This judgement is not going to be fun but don’t let that worries you. All of us are going to face this judgement unless someone else has taken this judgement for us. Through Jesus’s death at the Cross, we are made righteous in the eyes of God.

16 For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile.
17 This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”
Romans 1:16-17 (NLT)

So it is clear that wherever we see the phase “judgement for the wicked” or “sinners”, it is not applicable for you if you are a christian. However, if you are not one, I suggest you be one. The price for your salvation had been paid. All you have to do is receive. Here is what you need to do:

9 If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.
11 As the Scriptures tell us, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.”
12 Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on him.
13 For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Romans 10:9-13 (NLT)

According to the Bible, all you have to do is to confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. The whole process will only take a few seconds of your time but the result will last for eternity. The moment you have done the above, you are now a christian. In the eyes of God, you are righteous. At the last part of Psalm 1:5 (Amplified Bible) a righteous person is defined as those who are upright and in right standing with God.

You will be entitled to all the blessings of prosperity from God. However, God will not force you to be prosperous. If you are not interested in the prosperity from God, God will respect your decision. However if you are interested to acquire all the blessings God wants you to have, you will have to develop your faith. You can start by looking for a church that preaches faith, read and listen to faith messages from the Bible and other faith source like this blog.

It only takes a few seconds to start.

God Wants You To Prosper In Everything You Do -4

This is the forth installment on my study on Psalm 1. It is important for you to read the earlier installments in order to understand the full context in this article. If you have not read it, I suggest you refer to the articles of the same title except for the numbers at the end. You can find them under the Category of “Articles From Yeap Chee Seng”.

Here is a brief rerun on the earlier installments. We know that God wants us blessed. In order to receive his blessings we are not to follow the ways of the world and to meditate on His Word. Through this, we will be firmly planted and able to withstand any storms in life. We will prosper in everything we do.

Verse 4 tells us what happens to those who do the exact opposite.

4Not so the wicked [those disobedient and living without God are not so]. But they are like the chaff [worthless, dead, without substance] which the wind drives away.
Psalm 1:4 (Amplified Bible)

Please note that the term “wicked” here does not necessary mean those who are really evil like terrorists, murderers, rapists and thieves. According to the Amplified Bible, it refers to those disobedient and living without God. So, what will happen if you choose to reject God and disobey what he told you to do from Psalm 1:1-3? You will be like the chaff. According to the Amplified Bible, it means being worthless, dead, without substance, which the wind drives away.

What does that supposed to mean? Let us check the meanings of each term with the dictionary. I am using Dictionary.com.

worthless
–adjective
without worth; of no use, importance, or value; good-for-nothing: a worthless person; a worthless contract.

It refers to something or someone of no use, no importance and no value. Why is that so? God is the source of our value and power. We are designed to work with God’s words in our hearts. Once we have decided to reject him, we are rejecting the wealth of power that is in us. Without him we are nothing but empty shells.

Dead
adverb –adjective
1. no longer living; deprived of life: dead people; dead flowers; dead animals.

There are 42 definitions for this term in the dictionary. I will just list the first one without making this article look like a dictionary. Being dead means no longer alive. The wicked people may be breathing but they are dead in the inside. Those who are dead inside are incapable of enjoying life. Even if they have the best money can offer, they will not be happy because they have no life. This is a terrible way to live. A godly person eating a dry bread is happier that the wicked eating the most expensive dish in the world.

Substance
5. the actual matter of a thing, as opposed to the appearance or shadow; reality.

There are 14 definitions for this term in the dictionary but the fifth term seems to be the most suitable for our context. The wicked have no substance. They have nothing inside. After all, what do you expect for those who have rejected God? They have rejected the only power source that can bring permanent prosperity to them. The only thing they have is what they can see outside of them. Once the external stuff is gone, the person is doomed. There is nothing inside them can help them to bounce back and restore their former glory.

The last part of the verse tells us the wind drives away the wicked. Without the link to God’s power, the wicked are helpless to the wind of change. They are never stable. They don’t know what to believe. What was truth yesterday become obsolete and false today. There is no anchor to their souls.

Thank God, we believers have the Word Of God as the anchor of our souls. He is our immovable rock. No matter what happens to the world today, no matter what happens to the war against terrorism, no matter what happens to the oil prices, no matter what the religious people says, we choose to believe only in the Word Of God. Through him we can do all things. Nothing is impossible to us as long as we believe in Jesus. He can do exceedingly and abundantly above what we can ask and think of.

20 Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.
21 Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.
Ephesians 3:20-21(NLT)

God Wants You To Prosper In Everything You Do -3

This is the third installment on my study on Psalm 1. It is important for you to read the earlier installments in order to understand the full context in this article. If you have not read it, I suggest you refer to the articles of the same title except for the numbers at the end. You can find them under the Category of “Articles From Yeap Chee Seng”.

Here is a brief rerun on the earlier installments. We know that God wants us blessed. In order to receive his blessings we are not to follow the ways of the world and to meditate on His Word. Verse 3 tells us the result of meditating on His Word.

3And he shall be like a tree firmly planted [and tended] by the streams of water, ready to bring forth its fruit in its season; its leaf also shall not fade or wither; and everything he does shall prosper [and come to maturity].
Psalm 1:3 (Amplified Bible)

The first 2 words that got my attention are “firmly planted”. Meditating on his Word will cause us to be firmly planted. Why do we need to be firmly planted? I believe God wants us to be planted firmly in order to withstand the storms in life. There are storms out there, not from God but from the devil. The devil created storms in our lives to throw us off course. Any christian who has determined to get serious with God is a potential threat to the Kingdom Of Darkness. Satan will do his best to get us to stop believing in the Word Of God. He does not mind us being religious but he is strongly against us to be in faith because through faith we can overcome and defeat him.

In his battle plan, Satan will create negative circumstances to convince us that the promise of God is not true. When you believe Jesus took all your disease at the Cross, Satan will give you some disease. When you believe Jesus died poor at the Cross, to make you rich, Satan will create a financial crisis for you. In doing so, Satan is hoping that the circumstances he has created will convince you to stop believing in what God says. An unbelieving believer is an easy prey for Satan.

He may even send people to persecute you. Persecution of christians has never ended. I believe the most persecuted christian today is Kenneth Copeland. I have just completed a search on the name “Kenneth Copeland” at Google and guess what I have found? Within the first page of search result, there are a few legitimate Kenneth Copeland links. The rest are from his enemies written to spread slanders and lies about him. Who are these slanderers and liars anyway? The religious people who are offended by the truth that he preached.

Their activities in slandering and spreading evil on the man who preaches the Word of God tells me 2 things:
1. Satan must be very terrified with Kenneth Copeland’s ministry for him to send so many of his followers to do his evil works.
2. The religious people who have been spreading lies and slander on this man of God are doing the works of Satan.

This phenomenon tells us that the moment we have decided to follow Jesus, we are technically at war. Satan and his cohorts will be fighting against us. He will use negative circumstances and religious people to pressure us to give up. However, that does not mean they are going to succeed. Why?

Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
1 John 4:4(KJV)

Our God is greater than all of them, the devils and the religious people put together. We are destined to win. Did Kenneth Copeland give up? No, he continues to obey God by preaching the truth. In fact he got richer and more prosperous. The persecution from Satan cannot stop the man from receiving his prosperity from God.

If you have decided to be committed to the truth of God life will not be without challenge. However that is not all. God will not allow you to be helpless under their attacks. Let us look at the verse again.

3And he shall be like a tree firmly planted [and tended] by the streams of water, ready to bring forth its fruit in its season; its leaf also shall not fade or wither; and everything he does shall prosper [and come to maturity].
Psalm 1:3 (Amplified Bible)

You will be like a tree tended by streams of water. Water brings refreshments. Streams of water refer to endless supply of refreshments. God will refresh you continuously. If you are feeling tired, discouraged and stressed, go to God and he will provide streams of water to refresh you. When you continuously receive the streams of water from God, the following will happen, “ready to bring forth its fruit in its season; its leaf also shall not fade or wither; and everything he does shall prosper [and come to maturity].”

You will bring forth fruits. Fruits represent positive results. Take a look at Kenneth Copeland Ministries. The persecution from Satan could not stop this ministry from prospering and bringing the Gospel Of Jesus Christ to the world. Millions of people have been impacted and blessed by it. Just imagine, what will happen if Kenneth Copeland had given up? Millions of souls would have perished. Not only that this ministry had given birth to many other ministries that are doing the same work today. The ministry that I am a partner of, Jerry Savelle Ministries International comes from Kenneth Copeland Ministries. I call this multiplying effect.

As long as you don’t give up, you will see your fruits in season. The next line tells us, its leaf also shall not fade or wither. This means we will not be defeated. I don’t care how hard the enemies are working to bring us down. I don’t care how determined they are. I don’t care how many lies they can spread. As long as I am planted with streams of water from God, I am ready to bring forth its fruit in its season. My leaf also shall not fade or wither.

Finally, everything he does shall prosper [and come to maturity]. Prosperity is not an option. It is not a product of chance. Prosperity is our destiny if we don’t give up. Look at the people who are determined to obey God despite the persecution they received. They are prosperous. People like Kenneth Copeland, Jerry Savelle, Ceflo Dollar, Benny Hinn an Oral Roberts (just to name a few) are all prosperous. How do they get so rich? They obeyed and trusted in God despite the persecution they received.

In conclusion, obeying God comes with a price. You will become an enemy of Satan. You will be persecuted. Evil people will spread lies and slanders about you. However, if you don’t give up, your reward will be great even on this world. You will live a life of prosperity.

God wants You To Prosper In Everything You Do -2

This is the second installment on my study on Psalm 1, which was started yesterday. If you have not read it, I suggest you refer to the article entitled, “God wants you to prosper in everything you do –1” under the Category of “Articles From Yeap Chee Seng”. Let us do a recap on the contents in the first installment.

In Psalm 1:1, we can see that God started with the word “blessed”. The Amplified Bible explains it as happy, fortunate, prosperous and enviable. The subsequent part tells us what not to do in order to be blessed. These are, not relying on the counsel of the ungodly, not being in the paths of sinners and not hanging out with the scornful and mockers. If you don’t remember or have never read it, I suggest you read it again.

So far, we were told the meaning of being blessed and what not to do in order to be blessed. Psalm 1:2 tells us what to do.

2But his delight and desire are in the law of the Lord, and on His law (the precepts, the instructions, the teachings of God) he habitually meditates (ponders and studies) by day and by night.
Psalm 1:2 (Amplified Bible)

So we need to delight and desire in the law of the Lord. This law refers to the entire teachings of the Lord, which is the Bible. Please note that at the time this verse was first written, the Bible as we know it today did not exist. What they had then were the first few books of the Bible. In other words, they only had a fraction of what we have today. I find this very encouraging because if those people in the past can be blessed from just a small fraction of the Bible, how much more will we be blessed today, considering the fact that we have the entire Bible. So, if they can live in prosperity just by meditating on their scriptures, then we the christians of today must be living in exceeding prosperity if we meditate on our Bible, which is far superior than theirs.

It is clear that, God gives us his precepts, instructions and teachings in the form of the Bible in order to make us prosperous. God wants us to be rich in every area of our lives. If God does not want us to be rich, he would never have given us the Bible. If you are wondering today whether it is the will of God for you to be rich, just check your bags, drawers, bookshelves or any place in your house. Can you find a Bible? If you can, then you can be sure that God wants you rich. If you can’t, just get one. You can even download it for free from the internet. The Bible is the clearest proof that God wants every believer to be rich.

I would like to bring to your attention to the words “delight” and “desire”. Reading the Bible without the delight and desire will not result in blessings. This is what the religious people are doing. Sometimes, you may wonder, these religious people read the Bible and some can even memorise them better than us yet they are against direct Bible teachings like prosperity, health and protection. Why is that so? I believe the answer lies in the absence of delight and desire in the Word.

They read the Bible as a religious requirement. Their religion tells them they must read the Bible. So they forced themselves to read the Bible as though it is a suffering they have to endure as the followers of the True Religion. When they read the words in the Bible, they interpret them based on the religious doctrines that were implanted in them by their religious teachers and not on the actual meaning of the Bible.

Let me give you an example. Consider the following verse.

19 A righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all;
Psalm 34:19 (NIV)

The above verse can be broken down into 2 parts:

Part 1: A righteous man may have many troubles
Part 2: but the LORD delivers him from them all

People who are under the bondage of religion can only see Part 1. For some reasons, they cannot see Part 2. If you point out Part 2 to them, they will probably invent some alternative meanings for it. In other words, in their mind Part 1 is literal and means what it says but Part 2 is not literal and has other meanings despite the fact that they are both from the same verse. This is what I experienced when I was in a religious church.

Are you under the bondage of religion? Here is a test. Answer this question:

Does the Bible say a righteous man may have many troubles?

If your answer is “yes” then you are religious because you can only see the first part in Psalm 34:19. A spiritual and discerning christian will answer “no”. The Bible never says a righteous man may have many troubles. The Bible says a righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all. Spiritual and discerning christians read the Bible in its proper context.

Let us continue with Psalm 1:2. Having the Bible in front of us and be happy about it, is not enough to make us prosperous. According to the subsequent part of the verse we have to he habitually meditates (ponders and studies) by day and by night. We have to meditate on it. When the Bible says “meditate”, it is different from the meditation in the Eastern religions, sit there, do nothing and clear your mind.

Meditate in the Bible means to ponder and study. We are to do it as often as we can day and night. Why is that so? Obviously the Word is the source of the prosperity God wants us to have. So if you really want all the blessings God wants you to have, you will have to renew your mind. Study and ponder the words of God as often as you can so that your mind will be filled with the thoughts of God. God is a very positive person and he has perfect faith. As you fill your minds with his thoughts, you will be like him. You will think positive thoughts and have strong faith. Once your faith is strong, you are in position to receive everything you ask God for in prayers.

24Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
Mark 11:24(NIV)

Unlike religion, God will not force you to do it. If you think you don’t mind living without the blessings of God, then you don’t have to read the Bible. However, if you want to get hold of all the blessings God want you to have, you will have to do what he says.

God Wants You To Prosper In Everything You Do -1

1BLESSED (HAPPY, fortunate, prosperous, and enviable) is the man who walks and lives not in the counsel of the ungodly [following their advice, their plans and purposes], nor stands [submissive and inactive] in the path where sinners walk, nor sits down [to relax and rest] where the scornful [and the mockers] gather.
Psalm 1:1 (Amplified Bible)

Book of Psalms is great book. It is filled with messages of hope, joy, peace, prosperity and all the good stuff you can think of. It is extremely positive. It is impossible for anyone to read Psalm in its proper context and be negative.

I like the way it starts. The entire 150 chapters book start with the word, “blessed”. The Amplified Bible has expounded the meaning “blessed” as happy, fortunate, prosperous and enviable. So, in God’s view, anyone being blessed will experience outward manifestations as stated above. When I was in my previous religious church, I heard the word “bless” very often but no one told me what it means. So, in my view at that time, saying “God bless you” is just being polite. It is as meaningless as “hi” or “hello”. Thank God, he has delivered me from the bondage of religion and revealed his truth to me.

Now I know that being blessed means to be happy, fortunate, prosperous and enviable. Let us go through each of the definitions to understand what is in store for us.

Here is what I found in Cambridge Learner’s Dictionary:

happy (PLEASED)
adjective
feeling, showing or causing pleasure or satisfaction:

This means God blessed us to give us pleasure or satisfaction. The religious people consider God and pleasure to be mutually exclusive. To the religious mind, we have to give up pleasure if we are really serious about serving and obeying God. However, God has a different view. He wants to give us pleasure. Spending time with God, meditate on his Word, confess his will and obeying him will give us pleasure.

fortunate
adjective APPROVING
lucky:
[+ to infinitive] You’re very fortunate to have found such a lovely house.
He was fortunate in his choice of assistant.
[+ that] It was fortunate that they had left in plenty of time.
NOTE: The opposite is unfortunate.

You are considered fortunate when good things happen to you. This means the blessing of God will always result in good things happening in your life. If you are a christian and you did not know about this before, I suggest you to start searching the Bible on how to be blessed. You may start with this blog because I have been collecting and writing articles on how to be blessed.

prosperous
adjective
successful, usually by earning a lot of money:

I love this term. According to Cambridge Learner’s Dictionary, to be prosperous is to be successful usually by earning a lot of money. You can try to search the whole Bible and you can never find God rewards his people by making them poor. God’s will for his people has always been prosperity. It is the will of God for all his people to be rich in every area of our lives. Being rich include having a lot of money. The “Vow Of Poverty” was invented by religion, not God. God does not believe in it. So, if you believe you are blessed, get ready to have a lot of money in your bank.

enviable
adjective
If someone is in an enviable situation, you wish you were also in that situation:

This means others will wish they were like you. This tells us that when God blesses us, his blessings will be very obvious. So, obvious that those around us can see them and will be envious. They will probably approach you and ask, “I can see all kinds of blessings in your life. Please tell me, how do you get them?” Then, you will have the opportunity to tell the about the God who loves you and desires to bless you in all things. People will flock to you eagerly to listen to your gospel because they can see the blessings in your life. You don’t have to go around knocking every door to beg people to go to church.

I am ending the definition for blessings here and more to the rest of the verse. Please note that his explanation is by no means exhaustive. Let us go through Verse 1 again.

1BLESSED (HAPPY, fortunate, prosperous, and enviable) is the man who walks and lives not in the counsel of the ungodly [following their advice, their plans and purposes], nor stands [submissive and inactive] in the path where sinners walk, nor sits down [to relax and rest] where the scornful [and the mockers] gather.
Psalm 1:1(Amplified Bible)

The subsequent part of this verse tells us the conditions that will cause the blessings of God to manifest in our lives. Let me simplify them. There are basically 3 points to note.

1. who walks and lives not in the counsel of the ungodly [following their advice, their plans and purposes]
2. nor stands [submissive and inactive] in the path where sinners walk
3. nor sits down [to relax and rest] where the scornful [and the mockers] gather.

Point 1 speaks on not relying on the counsel, advice, plans and the purpose of the ungodly. Please note that being ungodly does not have to be really evil like being a terrorist. It simply refers to those who do not know God of the Bible and do not follow God’s way to attain prosperity. Why not? Any way to attain success and prosperity that is other than what God has prescribed in the Bible is not the best. They can cause more harms instead. I believe only God can bring true and complete prosperity to those who are willing to receive them. There may be other ways out there but they are inferior to God’s way. The prosperity they produce will either be incomplete or come with negative side effects or both. Therefore, the right way to prosper is to use God’s way.

Point 2 speaks of not being in the paths of sinners. This should be quite obvious. If you are in their path, you are more likely to be drawn into it. You will then walk their path and share in their results. Please be reminded that God never promise prosperity to sinners. The path of sinners leads to poverty, not prosperity. So, if you don’t want to be poor, don’t walk in the path of sinners.

Point 3 speaks of not hanging out with the scornful and mockers. If you do, you may end up behaving like them. The scornful and mockers do not live by faith. They live according to the situations around them. When the situation is bad, they complain about how bad it is. However, when the situation turns good, they will still look for bad things to moan about. So, hanging around them will only cause you to think negative and when you do so, you have forfeited yourself the blessings God wants you to have.

This is all for today. There are more insights in the subsequent verses in the same psalm, which I will write on in the next installment.