God’s Law

Meditations on

Staying In the Grace for Today 

May 9, 2025

God’s Law

Blessed is the one

    who does not walk in step with the wicked

or stand in the way that sinners take

    or sit in the company of mockers,

but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,

    and who meditates on his law day and night.

Psalm 1:1-2 (NIV)

While some newer Bible translations render verse one gender neutral as “happy are those” or “blessed are those”, the original text uses a word that is very gender specific and should be translated, “Blessed is the man.” Jesus is this perfect man who delights “in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.” As followers of Jesus, yielding ourselves to be transformed to become like him, Psalm 1 gives us a clear example of how to order our lives. But is it possible for a mortal human being to get excited about meditating on God’s law, day and night?

When the Psalmist refers to ‘the law’ he does not mean just the Ten Commandments or other rules and regulations. Here in Psalm 1, law refers to God’s nature. God is love. God’s nature is to forgive. God’s law includes:

His love that cannot fail;

His Word that does not return to Him void; and

His mercies that never come to an end.

This line in the prayer we use in our liturgy for Holy Communion reveals this understanding of God’s law:

We do not presume to come to this thy Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies; . . . But thou art the same Lord, whose property is always to have mercy.

The Psalmist has in mind the law of God that looked at a world that did not exist and brought it into being by the power of His Word. The law of God can be summed up in one verse:

“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

The Psalmist pronounces God’s blessing on us as we take time to reflect on all the ways we have experienced God in our life. Psalm 1 is our invitation to mediate on how we have experienced God’s mercies and forgiveness, His favor, and how we know God to be our Shepherd.

My Takeaway: The bedrock of our faith, our means of grace to stay in the grace for today, is to meditate on God’s law, day and night.

Sē’lah

My book on prayer,

First Think, Then Pray

is now available on Amazon Kindle.

 

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2025 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.