Daily Reading: 9-2-16
Psalm 1 Contemporary English Version (CEV)
If I were to ask you what makes you happy, how would you answer my question? Many people think happiness is based on temporal pleasures; when everything in life is going well we can be happy. Yet, Scripture teaches that happiness is actually simply knowing and following Truth (Jesus). We were created to live in the Truth of God’s love through the Savior. It is how God made us. So, when we do not align our lives with the Truth, we may know fleeting pleasure but not biblical happiness. If we are not discovering and following the Truth with our lives, who are we following? The advice of the Liar.
The word blessed is translated “happy or to be envied.” In our passage today, the Psalmist laid out the Way to Happiness or blessing; the way to success in everything we do.
Psalm 1 The Way to Happiness
1
God blesses those people
who refuse evil advice
and won’t follow sinners
or join in sneering at God.
2
Instead, the Law of the Lord
makes them happy,
and they think about it
day and night.
3
They are like trees
growing beside a stream,
trees that produce
fruit in season
and always have leaves.
Those people succeed
in everything they do.
4
That isn’t true of those
who are evil,
because they are like straw
blown by the wind.
5
Sinners won’t have an excuse
on the day of judgment,
and they won’t have a place
with the people of God.
6
The Lord protects everyone
who follows him,
but the wicked follow a road
that leads to ruin.
Prayer: Lord, I choose to build my life on the foundation of Truth found in your Word and not on the lies of the enemy that try to destroy me. Thank you for the Truth of your love for me, desire for relationship, and how you created me to live. Thank you for revealing the way to true happiness and blessing. In Jesus’ name. Amen.