Meeting God in the PsalmsSample

The Gateway to Joy

Is it really possible to experience God in this life, here and now?

The very first psalm is going to show us the way to a life with God. It’s the gateway to the entire book of Psalms, and it could not be more extraordinary.

It starts with joy! What is this God path going to look like? It’s going to be joyful! It’s going to show us how we can find joy.

The psalmist paints a beautiful picture of what happens when we choose to follow God. We’ll be like trees along a riverbank with luscious fruit, leaves never withering. Do you recognize the tree image? It takes us back to the tree of life in the garden of Eden, in Genesis, where God walked every day with Adam and Eve, sharing their hearts, their days, their lives. They were that close.

And Psalm 1 says we can experience closeness with God again now, even though we’re long gone from Eden.

The tree image also points to Revelation, the last book of the Bible, to the new, restored heaven and earth, when God again dwells with his children.

But we don’t have to wait until then. We can experience closeness with God now—even now.

But we have to make a choice

We can choose a life of joy and soul prosperity—or we can choose our own way, rejecting God, which ultimately ends in destruction.

The choice and the promises of this psalm extend to you as well!

Now let’s step into this psalm. Let’s experience its promises fully, personally.

As you do either one of these or both, God’s Word will come alive, and you’ll already be doing what this psalm says to do: meditating on God’s words. Which means there will be joy.

Draw Near

Here are two simple ways to experience God in Psalm 1:

1. Read the psalm out loud. Lift it off the page with your voice, your breath. It’s not meant to stay silent on the page. Stand up if you can. And as you read it aloud, put your own name in it. Personalize it so you fully grasp that these words were written for you, to you, and that their promises are true. You’re going to feel the difference by speaking it aloud and putting your name in it.

Oh, the joys I, Leslie, experience when I do not

follow the advice of the wicked. . . .

But I delight in the law of the Lord.

2. Want to go deeper? Write this psalm out by hand, adding your name wherever it fits. As God’s Word moves your hand, let it flow through your body, and you’ll be engaging both sides of your brain. Read it out loud when you’re done.

As you do either one of these or both, God’s Word will come alive, and you’ll already be doing what this psalm says to do: meditating on God’s words. Which means there will be joy.