Dcn Susan Erickson
Their delight is in the law of the Lord, *
and they meditate on his law day and night.
They are like trees planted by streams of water,
bearing fruit in due season, with leaves that do not wither; * (Ps 1:- )
Dear Siblings in Christ,
We might lose some of the resonance of these verses from Psalm 1 if we read the word “law” too narrowly.
The Hebrew word for “law” is “torah.” We think of the Torah as the first five books of the Bible, the “books of Moses.” But in Judaism, “torah” can refer to the whole of the Hebrew Bible, the Tanakh, as well as to rabbinic commentary.
Literally, “torah” means “direction” or “instruction.” It comes from a root meaning “to throw or shoot an arrow.” So “torah” is instruction that guides us on a straight and true path.
So I read these verses from Psalm 1—“Their delight is in the law of the Lord”—to mean something closer to: “Their delight is in the Lord’s instruction and guidance.” Another way of saying that, and one that is closer to our own liturgy, is: “Their delight is in the word of God.”
Our Christian Bible is for us the word of God, God’s “law” in the broad sense I’ve just described. What transformations could that word bring about if we truly meditated on it “day and night”—with delight, no less?
I confess that even though I help to facilitate a weekly Bible study at Saint Philip’s, I don’t practice such meditation nearly enough. Were I to allow myself to dwell more regularly and more deeply on God’s word—using whatever resources I find most helpful to understand it better—I, too, might be more deeply rooted.
And like a tree planted by water, I might bear fruit “in due season.” I take this to mean that even though the full power of God’s word might not be immediately evident to me, it may reveal itself in due time, perhaps when I’m most in need of it.
Unlike so much of what we consume in our culture, God’s “torah” doesn’t fade with the next and latest meme. I pray that we can all produce “fruit in due season, with leaves that do not wither.”
—Dcn Susan
