Meditating on God's Word with sadness- A message from Psalm 1

I hear a lot from people that God's Word is to make you happy.  That when you read God's Word that you will get this sudden urge of happiness and all things in the world will suddenly make sense.  Except, not many times do people finish reading the Bible, and rejoice that there is sin in the world.  We do not read that the disciples were very excited about Jesus’ death on the cross.  Neither do the Psalms portray a person that has everything together.  Many of the Psalms are a lament of King David as he cries out to God for help.  Psalm 1 portrays an image of what the reading the Bible does involve, and that is from the word “meditate.”

Psalm 1 is the first Psalm that is usually the starting point for people who want to begin reading the Psalms (and sometimes that is as far as we get).  It is very easy to read this Psalm and say that everything seems all right here.  The Psalmist is not crying out to God or pleading for help from his enemies.  Instead, the Psalmist writes about delighting in God’s law.  That seems like a simple Psalm to me.  However, there is deeper meaning behind this Psalm that conveys a sense of pain and sadness.

The word “meditate” gives a sense of ponder and reflection.  This word seems to convey some type of prayer that seeks to see God in the text.  I believe this word still does that, but this word means more than that.  The Hebrew word for “meditate” is hgh which can mean to mutter, moan, or moan with pain.  Now, why would the Psalmist use this word to convey only a sense of meditation?

Meditation, here, may show what it really means to reflect on a passage.  As we meditate on a passage of Scripture, we are to seek to understand its meaning.  We are to seek the God who is speaking to us.  When we pray, we are to seek sadness, but to seek a relationship with God.  For, we are broken people searching for the God who created us and loves us.  That should alone compel us to weep every day because without the breath of God we cannot live.

This Psalm reveals to us the nature of seeking God.  We are to seek God with everything that we have.  We are to be open to the text, as well as be honest about ourselves before God.  Prayer involves giving everything to God.  The Psalmist writes this word “meditate” to show that we are to be honest with ourselves and with God with our lives.  To moan when we hurt, to rejoice when we are happy, and to seek fervently the God who created our very being.