Day 1 - Psalm 1

Welcome to Summer in the Psalms! We will spend the next 50 days reading selected Psalms and engaging in a conversation about what God is speaking to us through His word. Click on the Reading Schedule tab at the top of the blog home page to find out which Psalms we are reading each day....and click on the Contributors tab to learn a little more about each blogger.

Finally, when you have read the Psalm for the day and the blog post for that day, click on Comment at the end of the blog post and tell us your thoughts. We'd love to have a conversation with you!

So, on the first day it seemed appropriate to start with the first Psalm. I love, love, love this Psalm in The Message. It starts with, "How well God must like you..." We hear a lot about how much God loves us and we know that He loved us enough to send Jesus to die for us. But deep down inside, I think that we sometimes think that God may love us, but He sure doesn't like us much.

And nothing could be further from the truth. God delights in our presence and longs for us to come to Him for the first time or the 15th time or the 71st time. He is looking for us every day (sound familiar?).

The Psalmist here indicates that God is especially pleased with us when we delight enough in Him to meditate on His word (or "chew on Scripture" as The Message puts it). When we are thrilled by God's word, it becomes a part of who we are. It directs our paths, bears fruit in us, and distinguishes us from the wicked who have no excuse for the way they live.

I am often convicted that we don't...I don't...take the very word of God seriously enough. Bibles are easy to get. I have plenty in my home and can access any version I choose on the Internet. But what would my life be like if I didn't have a Bible? Would I be more hungry for it? Would I get up early every day to read it? Would I cherish every moment spent in its pages?

I pray that this journey through the Psalms will help us all to become more hungry for God's word. Let us chew on scripture together for it is the living water for our thirsty souls.

- submitted by Holly Barrett