To Follow the Wicked or Not

 
Psalms 1-2

Much like the choices presented in Isaiah, Psalms 1 offers a stark contrast in choices... follow the wicked and be "worthless chaff, scattered by the wind" on the road to destruction... or delight in doing what the Lord wants "bearing fruit each season without fail" prospering in everything they do. Such an easy decision (if you believe) and yet the people of Israel (and us still) can't seem to pick the right path. Hmm... what does that say about our thought processes.

Is it any surprise that Psalms 2 begins with "Why do the nations rage?" The nations rage because they are wicked, for if they were following after the Lord then surely they would be filled with the joy that is "for all who find protection in him!"

In a recent message on the Lord's Prayer (12/20/2009), pastor Francis Chan from Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, California describes one reason why this might happen. He held up a huge poster board of a Y on its side and described the decision like this... we come to a fork in the road and can choose our path...  doing right (symbolically up towards heaven)... or wicked (down towards hell). The problem is that the wicked path goes downhill and is soooo much easier to walk, and after going down a little, even if you have second thoughts, you realize that now you have even farther uphill to go, because you've been going downhill so far. The further down you go, the harder the climb out seems.

Thanks be to God, he has provided a way. In Psalms 2:7-8 the king proclaims "You are my son. Today I have become your Father. Only ask, and I will give you the nations as you inheritance, the ends of the earth as your possession." Halleluia!