Bible Devotion on
Psalm 1

This Bible devotion on Psalm 1 will bring more

godly wisdom and godly protection

into your life.

To begin,

I want to take you back to my childhood.

My parents took me to Sunday morning church every week.

(I am very grateful to my parents for that gift.)

For a season,

when I was in elementary school,

my parents also took me to Sunday night church.

It is my experiences

during that time that I will highlight today.

-

Reading Psalm 1

in children's church

protected me during my young vulnerable teen days.

My Part in
Children's Church

My routine on

Sunday

nights

was to arrive at church,

and go directly to the classroom for my age group.

Each Sunday night, one of the elementary school classes would be chosen to put on a children’s church service for the rest of the elementary school children.

The children in that class were in charge of the children’s service that night.

One child would volunteer to pick out the songs that we would sing.

One child would volunteer to lead the singing.

One child would choose a scripture and read it during the service.

One child would read an uplifting message. 

Every time my age group was assigned to put on children’s church, I quickly volunteered to read the scripture.

And every time

we put on children’s church,

I read the same scripture.

It was Psalm 1.

I have only a few memories of that time.

The main memory I have is standing up

before the group and

reading Psalm 1.

I do remember

why I picked it every time.

It was because it was easy to find –

since

it was the first Psalm AND it was rather short!

As I remember back to

how I felt

as I read the words,

I do remember feeling that

the words were strong and powerful.

I also remember that

I had no idea

what all those words in the psalm meant.

Each time

when I would read Psalm One at my church,

I would say:

“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly,
nor
standeth in the way of sinners,
nor
sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

And he shall be
like a tree planted by the rivers of water,
that
bringeth forth his fruit in his season;
his leaf
also shall not wither;
and whatsoever he doeth
shall prosper.

The ungodly are not so;
but are like
the chaff which the wind driveth away.

Therefore
the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment,
nor
sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous:
but the way of the ungodly shall perish.”

Psalm 1

I did not understand

what most of the words meant.

I only knew that

God was telling us that it was good to be godly,

and

God was warning us that

there are bad consequences to being ungodly.

Several years ago,

I was rereading Psalm 1.

As I was reading and pondering that Psalm,

I began to think back

to my Sunday night experiences reading

Psalm 1.

In the New Century Version -  Psalm 1:1-2 says,

“Happy are those who don’t listen to the wicked,

who don’t go

where sinners go,

who don’t do what evil people do.”

I wish I had had the New Century Version

to read when I was young.

It is a lot easier to understand than the King James Version.

In the New Century Version,

it is easy to see that

one of the main ideas

presented here

is the idea of choosing your friends wisely.

As I was pondering my times of reading aloud Psalm 1

in children’s church,

I realized that

when I read Psalm 1,

I was reading about

carefully

choosing your friends

AND

I realized that later in my teen years,

I did chose my friends - wisely.

I never chose to hang out

with teens

who were drinking or doing drugs.

I never chose friends

who were rebellious to their parents.

The fact is that

 I was an easy teenager for my parents to raise.

Someone might call me a

“Goody Goody” type person

because I never got into any kind of trouble.

-

I was a happy teen who had great friends!

Recently,

I began to think about

The Power of the Words of God.

Bible scripture is

Powerful.

I realize that

my wise choices in friends

was

the result of

more 

than just reading Psalm 1 at my church.

But...

I believe it played a part!

I sincerely believe that

one

of the many things

that helped me

s u c c e s s f u l l y

get through my teen years

was choosing

as a child

to read and promote the reading of Psalm 1.

I believe that in some

supernatural way,

my steady choice of reading Psalm 1

led to

part of the

wisdom and protection

that I enjoyed in my teen years.

I believe this is true

even though

I didn’t understand all the words that  I was reading.

Wisdom

is choosing well.

Choosing good friends

is very important to children, teens, and adults.  

The Bible echoes this in

Proverbs chapter 27:19.

“A mirror reflects a man’s face, but what he is really like,

is shown by the kind of friends he chooses.”

Proverbs 27:19 TLB

The Bible tells us that...

what kind of friends we choose

tells people

what kind

of person we are

AND

what kind of person we want to be.  

Psalm 16:3 in the New Century Version says,

“As for the godly people

in the world, 

they are the wonderful ones I enjoy.”

I'll also throw this verse in

especially for the teens –

“Keep away from angry, short-tempered men,

lest you learn to be like them and endanger your soul.”

Proverbs 22:24-25 TLB

In speaking to teens I say,

"Teens, don’t choose angry, sarcastic, harsh people as your friends."

Teens -

Remember that your friends

will either

inspire you to obey God

or

tempt you to disobey God.

Be careful to choose good friends.

Even us adults

need to be careful about our choice of friends.

It is true that

no one is going to follow God’s laws perfectly,

but

friends who are seeking to please God

will encourage us to do right,

and

friends who are seeking to disrespect God’s laws

will bring

peer pressure to tempt us to do wrong.

ANOTHER Aspect of Psalm 1

Next, I want to highlight

another important concept found in Psalm 1.

Psalm 1 encourages us to :

Love the laws, commandments, and statutes

of God

that are found in the Bible.

The King James Version

-  that choose to read in church as a child -

says in verse 2,

“His delight

is in the law of the Lord

and in his law

doth he meditate day and night.”

That verse means that...

we are blessed and we are wise 

if

we choose to love and delight

in the law of God

and if we think about the Bible -  both day and night.

As I was growing up,

I never remember

viewing God’s laws and commandments

as something to ignore,

or something to treat with disrespect.

I didn’t live my life

trying to see how much I could get away with.

Again, I say that

I believe that my choice of Psalm 1

had a wonderful  impact

on my growing love for the word of God.  

To all of you reading this

– children, teens, and adults –

think about this...

You will have

difficulty obeying God

if

you do not grow to love God’s laws.

If you are

not

growing in your love of God’s laws

-  and his whole Bible -

then

you will be struggling with

opposition to God and opposition to his will.

-

You will be

pulling away

from what God wants for you.

That will greatly affect

your thoughts and your behavior

and the consequences

that you face in life because of your actions.

So I urge you to begin or continue in your journey to delight in God’s laws.

I encourage you to:

• Think with delight about obeying God.
• Spend time with people who delight in God and who delight in the Bible.
• Develop a joyous relationship with Father God.

God is our loving heavenly Father.

It is true that he gives us unconditional love.

But as a loving father,

he warns us

that if we ignore his laws, commandments, and statutes,

we will face

many more problems and difficulties  -

than if

we had decided to delight in his word.

God’s word is Powerful.

Speaking God’s word is Powerful.

Speaking God’s word

out loud

changes us in many ways 

including supernatural ways.

Psalm 119

is one of my favorite Psalms.

The whole psalm is about

respecting and growing to love God’s laws.

The Psalm begins by telling us

that

Happy and blessed are those who seek to obey God.

I’m going to skip to verse 16 in the Amplified Bible.

Notice the Love in these verses...

Verse 16 says, “I will delight myself in your statutes; I will not forget Your word.”

Verse 17 b “I will observe Your word
[hearing, receiving, loving and obeying it.]”

Verse 35 “Make me go in the path of Your commandments, for in them do I delight.”

Verse 113b “Your law do I love.”

Verse 145 “I cried with my whole heart;  hear me. O Lord:   I will keep Your statutes  [I will hear, receive, love, and obey them.] ”

Verse 165 “Great peace have they who love your law.”

Verse 174 b “Your law is my delight.”

Psalm 119 is full of verses like these. There are also many verses like this in other places in the Bible.

For example,

“I delight to do your will. O my God: yes.
Your law is within my heart.”

Psalm 40: 8 AMP

Heavenly Father,

I thank you for giving me my Bible. I thank you for the wisdom inside my Bible. I thank you for the protection and guidance that you have put in my Bible  - to help me in my daily life. 

Lord, I am asking that you would help me to grow in my love for my Bible. I am asking that you would remind me to read my Bible. I am asking that you would grow a hunger in me for your wisdom and your ways of living.

Today I am choosing to increase my delight in enjoying you and your word.

Lord, I realize that you have been drawing me toward a closer relationship with you. Thank you for drawing me. I will move closer to you.
Amen      

Copyright © 2013 Beth McLendon of Inspirational-Prayers.com

"Great blessings belong to those who don't listen to evil advice,

who don't live like sinners, and

who don't join those who make fun of God.

Instead they love the Lord's teachings and

think about them day and night." 

Verses 1-2 in the ERV

Teen Bible Devotion

I encourage adults to share this Bible devotion with teenagers
and even children.

Bible Devotion Copyright © 2013 Beth McLendon of Inspirational-Prayers.com

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