The image, in Psalm 1, of trees planted by streams of water is a vibrant and evocative picture. It brings to mind refreshment and rootedness. The trees, which the psalmist invites us to imagine, are sustained not just occasionally but permanently from a source that invites them to sink their roots down deep and find nourishment and strength. Those who do not take the path of the wicked are like these trees, the psalmist tells us, with deep roots in the law of the Lord.
The wicked, in contrast, are not like sturdy trees but like chaff – dried out, lacking in substance and blown away by the breeze. Although we may not naturally make chaff the opposite of trees, it doesn’t take much thought to see why the psalmist chose this particular contrast.
This opening psalm of the whole Psalter presents us, then, with two rich images that not only stir our imaginations but also present us with a choice. Will we choose to be like those who love God’s law or those who spurn it? Will we, by the choice we make, find depth and refreshment, or aridity and flimsiness? By presenting us with this choice at the outset of the Psalter, Psalm 1 challenges us to choose what kind of life we will have and, as a result, how we will respond to the rest of the psalms that follow.
Reflection by Paula Gooder
Refrain:
The Lord knows the way of the righteous.
Prayer:
Christ our wisdom,
give us delight in your law,
that we may bear fruits of patience and peace
in the kingdom of the righteous;
for your mercy’s sake.
Psalm 2
Why are the nations in tumult,and why do the peoples devise a vain plot?
‘Let us break their bonds asunder’ (v.3)
Many people will hear the stern voice of the bass soloist in Handel’s Messiah when reading this opening verse. ‘Why do the nations so furiously rage together?’ he sings. Pilgrims would gather in Jerusalem for the new-year festival and this psalm was spot on with its theme of the kingdom of God as a new king was crowned or an established king renewed in office.
So why do the nations still conspire and plot against the peaceful way of the Lord, or in the old words ‘so furiously rage together’? Good question. The nations still believe what the rebellious choir in the Messiah sings, that they can burst asunder the bonds of the Lord and his anointed (v.3). We never learn. Even as I write this, there are over thirty wars still raging, often forgotten, in different parts of the globe.
There’s a dark part of us that would still rather like an autocratic Lord to break the warlike nations with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel (v.9). Life would be so much simpler if the baddies were always baddies and the goodies were always like me. But the biblical story leads us to another kingdom where the King rules from a tree. He does indeed destroy evil but he does it only with the weapon of love.
Dare we follow this ‘road less travelled’ today?
Reflection by John Pritchard
Refrain:
The Lord is the strength of his people,
a safe refuge for his anointed.
Prayer:
Most high and holy God,
lift our eyes to your Son
enthroned on Calvary;
and as we behold his meekness,
shatter our earthly pride;
for he is Lord for ever and ever.
Psalm 3
Lord, how many are my adversaries;many are they who rise up against me.
‘I lie down and sleep’ (v.5)
Our imaginations are imprinted for life by the stories and pictures we were introduced to as children. The stories of Helen Bannerman about various children in India were stories I loved, and I cannot read this psalm without seeing the image of a little girl called Quasha (this was my favourite story because her name was like mine!) lying on her stomach under a tree in the jungle and reading aloud a new book she has bought, while more and more tigers gather around her. Eventually every tiger in the jungle is there. The tigers do not eat her up immediately because the story is so entertaining and they want to hear the end. She’s oblivious to them.
Here, the hordes are encamped around the psalmist. There may be tens of thousands of them, but he is engrossed in something else: God. And absorbed in the worship of God, whom he recognizes as ‘his glory’, he is able to lie down and sleep. The difference between him and the little girl in the story is that he is not oblivious of anything; he is confident that he will ultimately be held even though his enemies set upon him. He is part of a bigger story than any their acts of violence can narrate. (The tigers discover something similar; they eventually set upon and destroy each other, but Quasha is saved by the book that rejoiced her heart.)
Reflection by Ben Quash
Refrain:
You, Lord, are a shield about me.
Prayer:
Shield us, Lord, from all evil,
and lift us from apathy and despair,
that even when we are terrified,
we may trust your power to save;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Psalm 4
Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness;you set me at liberty when I was in trouble…
‘… it is you Lord, only’ (v.8)
This evening psalm, often used in Night Prayer, gives us reassuring words to say as we entrust ourselves to sleep. It forms a pair with Psalm 3 and speaks of the betrayal and insult experienced by the psalmist and the foolishness of those who ‘seek after falsehood’ (v.2).
It fits David’s time as a fugitive hounded by the ‘nobles’ who turned
