Heart Matters: The First Verse of Psalms Applied in our Digital World

[Mark Corbett]

The books of Psalms talks a lot about our hearts. We cannot easily and quickly change what we want, feel, and desire at will, like flipping a light switch. But over time we can shape our hearts by God’s grace. One key to gaining a good, strong, wise heart is found in the very first verse of Psalms:

NIV Psalm 1:1 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,

At first you might think you are already doing this well. And perhaps you are. But I would like to suggest that in our modern world there are ways in which we sit around with wicked, sinful people which did not exist when the Psalms were written.

We cannot always control who we are around. Sometimes our work and daily activities involve being around sinful people and sinful influences. The Bible recognizes this and is practical about it:

NIV 1 Corinthians 5:9-10 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people--not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.

And of course there are times that we “hang out with sinners” in order to share God’s love and truth with them:

NIV Matthew 9:11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"

I’ve heard people misuse this verse to justify situations where they were not really ministering or witnessing. Nevertheless, if done with care and for the right reasons, there are times when we should “hang out with sinners” and other times when we honestly can’t avoid it.

I think the type of situation which the Psalmist had in mind when he wrote Psalm 1:1 is a situation where we are unnecessarily opening ourselves up to sinful influence from others.

Perhaps the most common way Christians do this today is by hanging out with their TVs or secular music. Most of the people producing this stuff are not godly, and the influence is not godly. So if we passively absorb the latest TV shows (many of them, anyways) aren’t we sitting with the sinful?

So one important way to guard and shape our hearts is to avoid taking in these sinful influences, whether they arrive in person or through digital media. In the case of TV and secular music, we certainly are not ministering to the people we are listening to. The influence goes all one way, from Hollywood into your heart.

But we need to go on to read the second verse in Psalms:

Psalm 1:2 but whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law day and night.

It’s not just what we avoid that’s important. It’s what we put in! When we meditate constantly on God’s Word, our hearts are transformed and we are blessed. We can do this in many ways:

Just reading the Bible.
Studying the Bible ourselves or in a group.
Listening to Bible based sermons.
Listening to and singing Bible based songs.
Memorizing Scripture.
Talking about the Bible with a friend.

When we avoid evil influences and instead constantly think about God’s truth, the results are wonderful:

Psalm 1:3 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.

This was initially a post on my blog.

 

[Little Lantern]

It is imperative that we guard our hearts in these dangerous days. In fact, I would say it is a matter of life and death for our spiritual vitality.

 

[Halbhh]

"...or sit in the company of mockers..."

I was just thinking:

How many of us have been sitting there in a group when someone mocked (in some normal sounding way) some other person, and yet we remained sitting there, and at least sometimes didn't try to object or correct?

Well, I'm thinking that's either 100.0% or possibly it could be 99.9%.

Let's get to work.

Now, the how is very interesting to think on!

At a party with strangers I just kinda turn away and try to find another group to talk to, but the real situation is when it's your own friends, and it's so normal they don't even think about it, and it's more normal sounding to our ears, because we've heard it 1,000 times.

Isn't this sin even as common, everyday everywhere, as gossip?

It's the bad kind when it's what you would not want said about you by someone. (Over and over, any situation, the golden rule from Christ tells us whether something is ok or not ok, sin or not sin.)

 

[Little Lantern]

How many of us have been sitting there in a group when someone mocked (in some normal sounding way) some other person, and yet we remained sitting there, and at least sometimes didn't try to object or correct?

I thought about that, too. . . sobering, isn't it. It's just like @Mark Corbett said about passively watching TV and taking things in, except we're listing to live people and just taking their evil in to ourselves. I'm thinking it's the speaking up (in love, of course) that protects our hearts when we are in those situations.

This is s-o-o-o-o timely for me right now as I have just been asking the LORD to show me how to keep some of my husband's relatives' verbal dross from affecting me. My normal practice is to not enter the conversation and try to ignore it by thinking good thoughts louder than the conversation.

 

[Halbhh]

I thought about that, too. . . sobering, isn't it. It's just like @Mark Corbett said about passively watching TV and taking things in, except we're listing to live people and just taking their evil in to ourselves. I'm thinking it's the speaking up (in love, of course) that protects our hearts when we are in those situations.

This is s-o-o-o-o timely for me right now as I have just been asking the LORD to show me how to keep some of my husband's relatives' verbal dross from affecting me. My normal practice is to not enter the conversation and try to ignore it by thinking good thoughts louder than the conversation.

There may be several good ways to speak up, and for myself the main challenge for me is how I want to try to speak up in a way that does not accidentally seem to judge the person that mocked, because I could accidentally give the impression I'm judging them as a person, but instead it's my goal to bring us to a better place. I want to get better at making them feel....like I'm including them as my friend, as I speak.

For me, the particular person I am, the best way for me I can think of is to smile at them and truly think of them as my friend (or in my circle) as I speak to them, and even to the level of thinking I'm them (as remembering when I spoke like they just spoke) as I speak, and say something like "yeah...(pause)...(smile), but __(person that was mocked)__ is probably just trying the best he can to ___do his best____, in the fog of life, like all of us. He's like blundering around in the dark, like I did last [Tuesday] night when I couldn't find the flashlight."

I mean that I like to get to the place in that moment so that I'm really in love-embracing with the person that did the mocking as I speak. I mean to avoid my own tendency to be hard in that moment.