As I observe the world around me, the trends in broader culture as well as within our churches, I have come to believe that we suffer from a lack of rootedness.  Commitment to places, people and groups seems to have waned substantially. Rootedness is something I took for granted growing up. I lived in the same house from the time I was born until I was a junior in high school.  My parents were married from 1977, several years before my birth, to my father’s passing in 2018.  My dad worked at the same job from before I was born until I was in graduate school when he retired.  My mom began working as an elementary teacher when I was in high school and spent her entire career at the same school.  My mom still attends the same church we went to when I was a child. Growing up, the only time I moved schools is when I graduated from elementary to junior high, or junior high to high school.  To many it might sound as if my adolescence was incredibly boring, doing the same things with the same people in the same places year after year. The thing is, it never crossed my mind that there was another way to live. It was only in hindsight that I realized how much I took that stability for granted.

 

The world has changed a lot since my youth. An article written in 2022 notes that people moved in record numbers the previous two years, largely in response to the pandemic and the increasingly availability of remote work as an option.  On average, people now change jobs every 2.73 years.  However, even as the world continues to evolve, or devolve depending on your perspective, I think it is possible for us to obtain a level of stability in life.  As I contemplate what it means to have stability in life, even amongst the many changes that are often taking place, I cannot help but think of the first psalm.

 

1 Blessed is the person who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
² But his delight is in the Law of the Lord,
And on His Law he meditates day and night.
³ He will be like a tree planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season,
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers.

⁴ The wicked are not so,
But they are like chaff which the wind blows away.
⁵ Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
⁶ For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
But the way of the wicked will perish. (Psalm 1)

 

This psalm, which by virtue of its placement at the beginning serves as a type of introduction for entire Psalter, contrasts two groups of people.  It is easy to identify them generally as the righteous and the wicked, but specifically I am looking beyond those labels to the source of these identifications.

 

There is a positive aspect to the righteous, namely that their attention is on the law of the Lord. Importantly the Law, or Torah, is more than a list of regulations. Indeed, while consisting of a list of precepts that Israel was to follow, those precepts were embedded in the story of God’s action in our world. In short, the righteous meditates not only on the rules God gives us to live by, but also on how God has acted in our world. The focus of the righteous is not simply on God’s will, but also on God himself. The result is a man or woman firmly planted by streams of water, a source of blessing (or fruit) to those around them.  The righteous are a source of stability, and that stability is directly connected to the contemplation of who God is and how God expects us to live in this world.   

 

Is it any surprise then that the wicked are then described in terms that are the exact opposite of the righteous?  Rather than being planted, they are driven about by any wind that comes along. Far from producing fruit that blesses those around them, they yield only chaff void of any value. The path of the wicked is the path that leads to destruction because it is the path that leads away from God.

 

The prophet Jeremiah, when speaking to an obstinate people determined to go their own way, shared this message from the Lord:

 

⁵ This is what the Lord says:
“Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind
And makes flesh his strength,
And whose heart turns away from the Lord.
⁶ For he will be like a bush in the desert,
And will not see when prosperity comes,
But will live in stony wastes in the wilderness,
A land of salt that is not inhabited.
⁷ Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
And whose trust is the Lord.
⁸ For he will be like a tree planted by the water
That extends its roots by a stream,
And does not fear when the heat comes;
But its leaves will be green,
And it will not be anxious in a year of drought,
Nor cease to yield fruit. (Jeremiah 17:5-8)

Fascinating, isn’t it?  David’s poem and the message brought by Jeremiah centuries later share a common message.  In fact, they are almost identical.  The message might come in different forms and through different people, but at its core it remains the same- life-giving stability comes only by trusting in God.

 

Though stability is not of our own making, it is of our own choosing. My childhood was full of stability.  My parents’ long, happy marriage, a house full of memories, and schools where I grew up and learned year after year, all of these contributed to the stability of my formative years. But more than all those things, it was God that was the ultimate source of my rootedness.  Having godly parents that love each other, and a wonderful home, and successful schools are all tremendous blessings. Yet, you can have none of those things and still have stability. We might not ever find ourselves in a position to put down roots in a specific place or form a lasting relationship with someone with whom we fall in love. Our jobs, or even careers, might change multiple times over the course of our life. That does not prevent us from living with deep roots and a sense of conviction. Psalm 1 illuminates the path we must choose, the way we must go to find the rootedness for which we long. Rolf A. Jacobson writes, “The psalm offers the free and gracious gift of a better way.  But to follow in this ‘way’ that Psalm 1 recommends will require that we unlearn some bad habits.  Chief among those bad habits is the habit of relying upon ourselves and seeking to be our own lords and masters.” It has been noted that the first word of the psalm begins with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, aleph, while the final word begins with the last letter, tav. Beyond the meaning of the words, the language itself longs to make the point that God’s will, God’s very person, is the beginning and end of righteousness.  There is no other way. Or, to put it as Jesus does, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me. (John 14:6)