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. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers. Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.  (Psalm 1, NIV)

I’m starting 2021 revisiting Tim Keller’s devotional based on the Psalms. This book covers the text of all 150 Psalms through the course of the calendar year. I used this devotional in 2019, while deep in the midst of a seemingly endless desert, and I gained a new appreciation for the Psalms. (I used a different devotional book in 2020 – one published back in the 80s which was the first such book I ever purchased after starting to take my faith more seriously). I’ll confess that in 2019 I did the readings from Keller’s book in a more or less perfunctory manner – read the passage, read the reflection, pray the printed prayer, done.

I felt like I should revisit the Psalms now that the desert is off in the distance behind me (but still visible). For 2021 I’m going to attempt to engage with the Word a bit more deeply, keeping a notebook handy and following Keller’s recommended reflection questions for the day’s passage:

Adore — What did you learn about God for which you could praise or thank him?
Admit — What did you learn about yourself for which you could repent?
Aspire — What did you learn about life that you could aspire to, ask for, and act on?

The Psalms often fly in the face of modern, “progressive” Christianity, which is more interested in a God that conforms to our image and our sensibilities. But, as Keller states in the introduction:

The psalms also help us see God—God not as we wish or hope him to be but as he actually reveals himself. The descriptions of God in the Psalter are rich beyond human invention. He is more holy, more wise, more fearsome, more tender and loving than we would ever imagine him to be. The psalms fire our imaginations into new realms yet guide them toward the God who actually exists. This brings a reality to our prayer lives that nothing else can. “Left to ourselves, we will pray to some god who speaks what we like hearing, or to the part of God we manage to understand. But what is critical is that we speak to the God who speaks to us, and to everything that he speaks to us…. What is essential in prayer is not that we learn to express ourselves, but that we learn to answer God.” (Eugene Peterson)

So here’s to a new year of deeper learning, deeper humility, deeper submission, and a deeper capacity to reflect God’s love and truth to a world that desperately needs both.