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By: David Bothof You may listen to this devotion in audio form via podcast here.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.
- Psalm 1:2-3
I attended Christian schools from Kindergarten all the way through graduating from university, and there always seemed to be a handful of kids in each grade who loved to hate on our school that their parents were forcing them to attend. One of the common themes of their “love-to-hate-it” tirades was “There are so many rules against what you are allowed to do! There is no freedom! I want to do what I want!” It used to annoy me to have to listen to this on a regular basis because I didn’t feel the same way. But I kept my mouth shut because I didn’t know how to respond, and because at that point in my life I didn’t have the life experience to realize that all those “restricted freedoms” they were bitter about usually end in chaos and misery in the long term.
So I would sometimes wonder, “Are they right? Are all of these laws God has given us restricting me from getting more enjoyment out of life?” But as I gained life experience and I watched many of these same kids ruin their marriages or end up in miserable marriages, battle alcoholism, get lost to drugs, have addictions to pornography, become estranged from their families, etc. (sadly, the list could go on and on), I slowly began to realize that God knows what he’s doing with the laws he has given us. I began to realize that the laws aren’t restricting us, but on the contrary, they free us to live the life we were DESIGNED to live. And then one day an analogy struck me that describes this phenomenon. Basketball!
If a group of people go to the court with the intention to play a good game of basketball, the only way they are going to enjoy the game is if they play within the rules that make the game basketball. On the other hand, if one person starts running with the ball, another starts tackling people who have the ball, and yet another keeps punting the basketball across the court, in the end, everyone will have had a miserable time because it was just chaos. You can’t even really call it basketball anymore.
And then, while reading Psalm 1, I realized that through this author, God has already given us an analogy of a person who lives within God’s law. He calls that person a tree that does what God designed it to do: Yield fruit when it is supposed to and to provide shade. A tree like this - one that is healthy and fruitful - is a delight. As is a good game of basketball played within the rules of the game. As is a life lived within the law that God gave us. He knows what is best for us because HE designed us.
And then the author of Psalm 1 touches on an even bigger benefit of a life lived within God’s law: The wonderful freedom of living for eternity in the delightful presence of our Creator. But he alludes to this eternal reward by mentioning those who do NOT want to live within God’s law. “They will be blown away like chaff,” he says. They will eventually get what they want: An eternity of chaos and misery without God and his “restrictive” law.
There is no delight in a tree that refuses to grow its fruit or provide leaves for shade, and there is no delight playing basketball without any rules. His laws aren’t a restriction on enjoying life… they are a blessing, both here on earth and for all eternity.