5. The Palace Of Blessing   Psalm 1:1-3 part 5 

Saturate in Your Blessings v.1  Blessed is the man

  Direct Our Steps that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly

  Determine Our Stands          nor stands in the way of sinners

  Defend Our Surroundings   nor sits in the seat of the scornful

In the Hebrew the word stand means to lean against a thing, to derive support from, to take up a position or move into a spot.  It’s to have a confirmed position that we continue in and defend.

The position is usually a set of values and opinions.  This can awkwardly become our outlooks, feelings, attitudes and beliefs.

The way is poetic imagery depicting a custom, the territory, conduct, habit pattern and manner of either a group or individual.

The word sinner means to miss a target, fall short of a standard and purpose, to undershoot the expectation.  For example if we’re suppose to be somewhere at a certain time we choose to be late.  If we’re supposed to be organized we choose to be sloppy or disoriented.  Where there is a normal we choose the abnormal.  Instead of doing what is right we choose the wrong and support the action with excuses or rationalizations.

This clearly is a poor place to lean or expect quality support.

This is a lousy livelihood to choose.  There is no blessing to be experienced in a habit pattern of living in defeat, and beating ourselves up as failures.  Why would we hang with those who’ve committed themselves to mediocrity or below average, unacceptable behavior?

  Defend Our Surroundings   nor sits in the seat of the scornful

Each action of walking, standing or sitting is descriptive of an increase in directive commitment and blinding obligation.

We can more easily move away if we’re just walking but when we start standing in a position before we know it we’re settling down there and relaxing.

The term sits, means to dwell, to set up an inhabitance in a location or settle down in a certain place to relax and even  live.

First we walk to the position, then we stand there, defending our reasons for moving there, then we settle down with all our stuff in the territory we shouldn’t have walked too in the first place.

The seat of the scornful is the comfort zone of the skeptic.  The skeptic is a doubter, a disbeliever and a pessimist.  They disdain, mock and sneer in critical interruptions and disrupting instability.

Scorn is the enemy of faith always opposing and antagonizing reliance and trust.  It’s so frustrating to allow that to settle in our inner being like a festering oppressor slinking through our heart and thoughts.  Ridicule sneers out at the most inopertune moments, shaming our demeanor and baggering our attitude.

I owned a business at one time that I named Eagle Ridge Ranch Trucking inc.  I named it after a Ranch that I never really occupied very long but was working toward settling down there.

The ranch was located on a ridge where the Eagles soared often in pairs circling and ascending on the wind drafts.  I neat memories of seeing the Eagles play in the skys over that ranch as the lunged and soared.

Isaiah 40:31 says,

“Those that wait upon or hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will mount up and soar on wings like eagles.”

Watching eagles soar is stunning and impressive.  When they dive they seem to throw themselves down in mid air in a dive bomb plummeting toward the bottom until at just the right moment they spread their wings and are shot back into heaven.  They dirft and glide on wind currents and thermal drafts that linger around precarious clifts and jutting ridges.

Eagles have sensors in their nostrils and binocular vision that enable them to know not only the precise moment but see the distant possibilities.

Faith opposes scorn in our hearts and waiting on the Lord is like persistent prayer where we dive out in the unknow arena of God’s mercy and grace calling that which is not as though it is.  We abandon ourselves to the promises of the Word of God, and we echo encouragement in the place of doubts and scorn.

We experience the strengthening of the Lords renewing energy and feel the wind of the Spirit of Christ who blows where He will to lift us above the sharp clifts of defeat.

We need the wisdom of Christ to avoid the foolishness of walking in the path of rejecting God and His ways. We need the understanding of the Father’s forgiving love to keep from leaning on the way of sinners.  And we need the uplifts of the Spirit to deliver us from relaxing on the rotting cushion of scorn and defeat.