When Life Feels Steady 1: The Blessed Life

This podcast is brought to you by Walnut Grove Lutheran Church in Langley, D.C., in the hope that it will draw you closer to the one who loves you most.

When I was a kid, one of my favorite times in the entire year as I grew up on the farm was in the fall, because that was the time of year when we would harvest our crops.

We would spend weeks getting all of our equipment ready.

And then as the time approached for the crop to be harvested, my dad would set up the combines, the machines that would thrash the grain.

And this is a very important thing that he was doing.

In a way, our entire farming season depended on it.

He would adjust the speed of the combine cylinders.

He would adjust the distance between the concave and the cylinder.

He would adjust the fan speed.

What happens is the concave threshes the grain, and then this fan blows air to separate the wheat from the chaff as it goes over the sieves.

I know this is probably not making any sense to any of you, but just humor this prairie farm boy for a moment.

He would adjust the sieves, and then what he would do is he'd check everything once the combine was going.

He'd be looking in the tank to make sure there is wheat going in there and not chaff.

He would check behind the combine as the dust and the chaff would swirl around him.

He would check the grain as it came out of the combine, and he would check it again as it laid on the ground.

And the whole idea was to make sure that the combines were functioning as they should.

That is to say, they were separating the wheat from the chaff, and the wheat was ending up in the hopper of the combine, and the chaff and the straw was getting spread out on the field.

And what I learned from that is there's some things that are meant to be kept because they're valuable.

And then there's some things that are meant to be discarded because they're not as valuable.

And the difference isn't luck, it's nature.

You see, wheat, those kernels of wheat have weight and value, and that's why we were trying to keep them.

But the chaff does not.

And that's why we were trying to discard it.

Psalm 1 says something similar about human life.

It tells us there's only two ways for human beings to live.

There's only two kinds of people that we can become.

There's only two paths for us to walk in life.

One path leads to rootedness, stability, and fruitfulness, a life with weight and substance.

The other leads to drift, emptiness, and impermanence, a life that blows away like those feathers that Carolyn blew in her children's lesson.

Everything gets sordid.

Some things are gathered, some things are left behind.

Psalm one presses this question into our souls.

What kind of a person are we becoming?

A person whose life has weight and value is meant to be kept?

Or a person whose life is empty and light and meant to be discarded?

And that leads us to the question that this psalm wants us to wrestle with.

And that is, how do we become the kind of people who walk in the path that leads to security, stability, and salvation, the blessed life?

And to answer that question, today we are going to begin a four-part series on the Psalms called Psalms for the Journey.

And across this series, we will walk through seasons when life feels steady, seasons when everything falls apart, and seasons when God brings surpassing and surprising renewal.

You see, the Psalms give us language for every part of our journey in life, from confident trust to raw lament to joyful praise.

And ultimately they lead us to the God who meets us in every season and draws us into deeper, more resilient faith.

As we follow this path together, we will discover that the Psalms just don't describe life with God, they shape our life with God.

And for the first part of this series, over the next four weeks, we will attend to those seasons in life when life feels grounded and steady.

We will focus on Psalms for grounded living.

And today we begin with Psalm 1.

Now, the Psalms are like the hymn book for God's people.

That's been the case right from ancient times right up to today.

And Psalm 1 not only introduces and sets the stage for the entire collection of 150 Psalms, it also identifies what we could call the central theme of the entire Bible, which is that there are only two ways that a person can live, but only one of those ways leads to the blessed life.

And as it describes the blessed life, Psalm 1 begins in a surprising place.

Before it ever tells us what the blessed person does, it tells us what the blessed person does not do.

Blessed is the one who does not walk and step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers.

This Psalm starts with a refusal, a deliberate turning away.

Because the blessed life isn't first about adding something to your life, it's about subtracting the things that slowly hollow you out.

Just like wheat and chaff look similar until the combine shakes them apart, the Psalm says that there's patterns, voices, and influences that may look harmless on the surface, but ultimately they leave us weightless.

They shape us without our noticing.

They form us into people who drift rather than people who are rooted.

Psalm one, you may notice, mentions three kinds of movements: walking, standing, and sitting.

And together they indicate a slow slide from casual influence to settled identity.

It's a picture of a life that gradually aligns itself with the wrong voices, the wrong loves, and the wrong center of gravity.

The psalm is saying to us: if you and I want a life with weight, we need to pay attention to what is shaping us.

And everyone is being shaped by something.

The only question is, who or what is shaping you?

The blessed life begins with a kind of holy resistance, a refusal to let your life be formed by whatever is loudest, easiest, or most convenient.

It begins with the courage to say, I won't walk in that direction, I won't stand in that place, I won't sit in that story and let it become my story.

Not because we are better than anyone else, but because we know, we know, we know how easily our hearts can drift.

I know how easily my heart can drift.

And I know how easily things can turn, though well-intentioned I may be, into chaff.

Before we can be rooted, we must stop drifting.

Before we can be planted, we must stop being blown around.

Psalm 1 invites us to ask ourselves, what voices, habits, or patterns are quietly shaping me into someone I never intended to become.

What do I need to do to turn away from, or what do I need to turn away from so I can turn toward the life God wants to grow in me?

This is where the blessed life begins.

Now, if the blessed life begins with what we turn away from, it continues with what we turn toward.

Psalm one moves from resistant to rootedness, from subtraction to nourishment, telling us that the blessed ones are those whose delight is in the law of the Lord and who meditates on his law day and night.

The psalmist is making a very profound claim here.

And that is, you become what you delight in.

Your life takes the shape of whatever captures your imagination, your affection, your attention.

This is why Psalm 1 doesn't say, blessed is the one who obeys the law of the Lord.

It says, Blessed is the one who delights in it.

Because God isn't after reluctant rule keeping.

And when God's word becomes our delight, when his voice becomes the stream we return to again and again, something incredible begins to happen inside of us.

We read, that person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.

A tree doesn't grow by trying harder.

A tree grows because it's planted in the right place.

The blessed person is not a wild tree that happens to grow near water.

They are a tree intentionally planted by a gardener who knows exactly where life will flourish.

And when we are planted beside the right stream, our roots go deep.

Our fruit becomes visible.

Our resilience increases.

And our lives gain weight and substance.

Fruitfulness is not something we manufacture, it is something God grows in us as we stay rooted in Him.

It happens all by itself, we could say, but we know it's God.

And here is the good news that Psalm 1 whispers and that the New Testament shouts: Jesus Christ is the true stream of living water.

He is the word made flesh.

He is the one whose life flows into ours.

He is the source of the fruit that we bear.

To delight in the law of the Lord is ultimately to delight in Jesus Christ.

To let his words, his ways, his presence, his spirit become the steady stream that nourishes our souls.

And when Christ becomes our delight, we become the kind of people who bear fruit in season.

Fruit that lasts, fruit that blesses others, fruit that reflects the life of the one who planted us.

And so Psalm one is asking us to ask ourselves, what stream am I planted beside?

What am I delighting in?

What fruit is growing in my life because of where my roots are?

Dear friends, the blessed life is not achieved.

It is received.

And it grows in us as we root ourselves in the one who is the living water.

Psalm one encourages us and invites us to take an honest look at how our life is being shaped.

Not in a guilt-driven way, but in a grace-filled, spirit-led way.

Because every one of us is being formed by something.

Every one of us is planted beside some kind of a stream.

Every one of us is becoming.

We're becoming either wheat or chaff, a person with weights.

Or a person who drifts.

So the question is not, am I being shaped?

The question is, what is shaping me?

And Psalm 1 gives us two invitations to pay attention to the voices and the forces that are forming us.

And to plant ourselves beside the stream that gives life.

And be nourished by that stream.

And so, before we talk about what this might look like, hear this clearly.

Becoming a person with weights in a world of drift is not about trying harder.

It's about being attentive to God and his plan to redeem you and the whole world.

And aligning your life with God and His plan.

This is the inner work.

This is the reflective work.

This is the heart-level work we are called to do.

The foundation and the power to live a blessed life is not based, though, on what we do.

It's based on what is already true.

The hope of Psalm 1 is not that we would somehow become perfect trees, always rooted, always fruitful, always steady.

The hope of Psalm 1 is that God Himself has planted us.

And he planted us beside a stream that never, ever, ever, ever runs dry.

As I mentioned before, the blessed life is not something we achieve, it is something that God is already growing in us.

Because the one who is living water has come to us.

And his name is Jesus of Nazareth.

Jesus Christ, Jesus the Messiah, the word made flesh, the true tree of life, the one whose roots go down into eternity, has stepped into our world of drift and weightlessness.

He has taken our chaff-like tendencies that we all have, our wandering hearts, our shallow roots.

And in his death and resurrection, he has given us his life, his strength, his rootedness.

He is the one who says, Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.

And elsewhere in John's gospel, he says, I am the vine, you are the branches, if you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.

Even when you feel ordinary, even when your life feels steady and uneventful, even when your growth feels slow.

God is at work, you see, beneath the surface.

Your roots are going deeper than you realize.

Your fruit is forming even when you cannot see it.

Your resilience is growing in ways you won't notice until the drought comes.

Your life is gaining weight and substance because Jesus Christ is your stream.

Psalm one is not a picture of what you must become on your own, it is a picture of what God is making you into through Jesus.

And the promise at the end of the Psalm is breathtaking if you think about it.

For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous.

Not from a distance, not with crossed arms, not waiting for you to fail.

The Lord watches over you like a gardener watches over a beloved tree.

Nourishing, protecting, rejoicing.

The blessed life is not a reward for the strong.

It's a gift for the rooted.

And in Christ you are rooted more deeply than you even know.

So here's three small ways you can.

Well, it says plant yourself, but actually it'd be better to say nourish yourself from where God has planted you.

Because Christ is already growing his life in you.

There are three simple steps I will share with you that'll help you to stay rooted in him this coming week.

You see, the blessed life does not grow from big spiritual heroics.

It grows from small, steady choices that keep our roots near that precious water.

So first choose one voice to turn down.

Maybe that's a social media feed or a news cycle, maybe it's a podcast or a habit of scrolling.

Maybe it's a cynical or negative voice.

Whatever it may be for you, try just turning it down a few notches in volume this week.

Not forever, but just long enough to create space for God's voice to be heard.

And then second, choose one practice that roots you in Christ.

Pick one small rhythm that keeps those roots of yours drawing from the stream.

Maybe that's to read a short psalm each morning.

Maybe it's to breathe a s or pray a simple prayer as you breathe.

Maybe it's a minute of silence with God before you go to bed.

Maybe it's writing down one thing each day you're grateful for.

Small practices done steadily help to grow your roots into that water.

And third, bless one person with the fruit God is growing in you.

The fruit is never for the tree, you see.

The fruit is always for someone else.

And so ask the Spirit to show one person show you one person that you could bless this week.

With a word, with a meal, with a prayer, or maybe a simple act of kindness.

And so, dear friends, I want to encourage you to nourish yourself with the living water from the stream God has planted you beside.

That stream is Jesus.

And let Him grow the blessed life in you.

Amen.

Thank you, Lord, for your love and your grace and your mercy and your peace.

By your spirit, we pray that you would help us to grow and be fruitful trees, trees that grow fruit for you, as we're rooted in your living water.

Bless us, Lord, and help us to be a blessing.

We ask this in Jesus' name, and all God's people said, Amen.

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Thank you and God bless us.