Some have called Psalm 1 the threshold to the Psalms. The first Psalm sets the tone for a believer’s happiness being anchored in the word of God and the God of the word.
One of the more arresting phrases in the Psalm is in verse 2:
his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.
This believer is blessed, he is happy, he is esteemed, because of his relationship to the Law of God. He finds himself feeding and delighting upon the Scriptures.
The Old Testament saints would pour over the Scriptures to learn of God’s character. They would learn of him through his mighty works of redemption. They would see his footprints in the symbols and types. They would hear of his faithfulness in the covenants of promise. To steadily sip of and marinate in the waters of Scripture is a delight for the saints.
But how much more ought the Christian to meditate and delight? We understand that all of the Scriptures point to Christ!! (Luke 24.26-27) He is the blessed end to all of the types. He is the substance of what the shadows pointed. He is the big point.
Furthermore, it was through the gospel that we see Mt. Everest view of God’s attributes.
We see his mercy more clearly at Calvary than in the Tabernacle. We understand holiness better when Christ is crucified than when a goat is slaughtered. We understand justice’s cost better when it claimed heaven’s prince than when it consumed Gomorrah. We see the love of God displayed in HD in the wounds of Christ vs seeing it in the promises of a Christ to come. And on and on the list could go.
The point is this: The Scriptures bring the believer delight because the believer is encountering the God of the Bible. He (and all that he is and does) is intended to invade our minds, arrest our hearts, and consume our lives with the blessed happiness of knowing him.
There is truly no better barrier toward a sinful lifestyle (Ps. 1.1) than for the believer to be amazed, truly affected by the God of the Word and the Word of God. When we are truly knocked off balance from delighting in our reflections in the mirror or the reflections of created things, then we are freed to delight in the unrivaled beauty of the God of the Scriptures.
As Christians we come face to face with the God through the Scriptures. We begin to understand who he is and what he has done for sinners like us. When we taste the goodness of God through the gospel we delight. And this is a taste that we pray that we can never get out of our mouths! So we work to meditate, to chew, to enjoy the Word of God and the God of the Word.
