Blessed

Dear Friend,
How are you?  Hope you’ve been well.

Do you want to be blessed?  I do.
“Blessed is the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night. (Psalm 1:1~2)”

Eugene Peterson wrote in As Kingfishers Catch Fire: 
“But here is a surprise.  In the language of the psalmist, this word meditate has to do with slow eating, literally to slowly chew or masticate or suck on a lollipop.  My understanding of meditate in Psalm 1 took on a whole different meaning when I came across the same Hebrew word in Isaiah in the sentence “As a lion or a young lion growls over its prey” (31:4, NRSV)
… I always took delight in my dog’s delight, his playful seriousness, totally absorbed in the “one thing…needful” (Luke 10:42)
Hagah is a word our Hebrew ancestors used for reading the kind of writing that deals with our souls.
… But when Isaiah’s lion and my dog meditated, they chewed and swallowed, using teeth and tongue, stomach and intestines.  Isaiah’s lion meditated his prey.  My dog meditated his bone.  You and I meditate the revelation in Scripture and Jesus.”

When I read this earlier this summer, I was able to think of what I had corrected recently.  I’ve been doing exercise at home since 2020 or perhaps later, watching a series of home exercise programs in YouTube by a Christian Broadcast Network channel.  The exercise is simple with towels or water bottle in hands, yet I found it very helpful. I watched and followed 3~4 different videos and each video has 3 different sets of exercises.  In the beginning of the video, a well known trainer shows how to do each exercise with a model, and explains the benefits of each exercise.  When I started those exercises, I watched each video from the beginning, and listened to his explanation.  But as I got used to each exercise in 4 different videos, I skipped the trainer’s explanation in the early part of them, and followed the model’s doing exercise.  I became more focused on doing my daily or every other day routines as quickly as possible within 20 minutes or so.  I did that perhaps for more than 2 years.  Then, one day, I came to watch the exercise video from the very first part and listened to the trainer’s explanation as to what to keep in mind during exercise, such as breathing, balance, etc.  So, I tried to do it rather slowly, focusing on breathing in each movement than finish exercise quickly.  I used to focus on finishing exercise as quickly as possible, and felt good about doing exercise.  But, when I slowly followed the teacher’s instruction and focused on my movement together with breathing on that day, I felt that now I was doing things quite correctly.  What it counts is actually doing it correctly and slowly rather than doing it quickly and checking “Done” in my mind.  I was also able to notice the effects of doing correctly and slowly.  And I felt this applies to my meditating the Words.  Just like Eugene’s dog chewed and meditated his bone, seriously and delightfully, and just like I saw the benefit from changing my behavior in exercise, I think we should meditate His Words, chewing slowly and delightfully.  It’s not about how many chapters and verses we would read per day and feel proud of kind of achievement on daily “task”.  It’s not a task, but relationship.  Did we meet the Father, in slowly chewing His Words?  Even with a verse or two per day, we can meet the Person, talk to Him and listen to Him, by chewing slowly His Words.

On later part of Psalm 1:3 
“He shall be like a tree
Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper.”, 
Eugene Peterson wrote:
“And I love this detail: ‘planted by streams of water.’ Which is to say that it is a domestic tree, not a wild species growing by chance.  … They were the tree that had been the object of care and cultivation, the knowledge and skill of the horticulturist God.  Brains and purpose had been brought to bear on this tree.
… 
For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, … (verse 6)
Know in common usage among us mostly has to do with information.  But in the Christian way, it is firsthand relationship, personal knowledge, historical, and existential.  In Jesus Christ, God knows us, and then, because the initiative has been Sprit-given to us, we know God. But the knowledge is not speculative or literacy. It is personal and experienced. In this knowledge we are in on the foundational reality of existence.”

Friend,
I hope this blesses you, and I pray that you and I may chew delightfully and slowly His Words and we meet the Person and know Him in person (not know about Him) so that we are blessed, cultivated by Him and bring forth fruits.

Have a bliss!
Julie

You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life. (John 5:39~40)