New Allegiance - Psalm 1

Your a Bulldog now and I guess I am too. I guess I am kinda shocked at how easy my conversion has been from Razorback red to "State" maroon.  I even wore an MSU shirt to work out in yesterday at the "Y." This may not seem like a big deal to you, but maybe I underestimate the impact my fanaticism had on you. As a little girl you may remember your dad, on certain Fall Saturdays, yelling and screaming at the TV thoroughly convinced my full bodied support was Samson like strength to the runner's legs, as if stopping would be like cutting the hair of the aforementioned. Yes, I probably underestimate the impact my victory dances or the agony I suffered at a Razorback loss had on you. To say I delighted in the Hogs is to understate the reality. I meditated on the roster, stood and sat with them through thick and thin.  I was loyal to the end.

Yet, there I was, at your, our, new school's Barnes and Noble starring at an Addidas "Dawg" shirt thinking of myself wearing it at the tailgate party already planned for the first home game. I'm already studying the players, getting familiar with the traditions, and even the thought of ringing a cowbell is not near as offensive nor strange as it once would be.

What has happened? Some may argue loyalty follows money. "Where your money goes, your loyalty goes." Well, we will spend a lot of money in Starkville over the next four years, but it is not the money that has made my conversion, it is you. You are the reason for this change in me. Just as I came to respect LIberty Universtiy becuase of Whit (maybe a more noteworthy conversion worthy of penning some thoughts at some point) and just as I grew to love the Colorado State Rams (much easier because I had never heard of the Mountain West Conference), my loyalties have shifted. You see, what you love is what you obey and I love you.

 The Psalmist says that the one who is blessed, and I love that word for it means so much more than happiness or joy, but more of a deep abiding satisfaction and stability, is the one who meditates on the law of God day and night. That sounds impossible, doesn't it? If you had told me several months ago that blessedness was becoming a "State" fan, I would have resigned myself to a life of pleasure with the "Hogs," rather than the blessedness of "Statedom." However, the one who has my heart has moved and my obedience, what I meditate on has moved with her.

The Psalmist doesn't just say, "meditate on THE LAW." Who can do that? That is as foolish as reading Leviticus before bedtime. You will only wake up defeated full of a heart of guilt that you have fallen asleep on God. But you would not have fallen asleep on God, but on laws separated and removed from Him. 

The Psalmist says, "...his delight is in the law OF THE LORD and on HIS!!!!! law he meditates day and night." Before God gave Moses the 10 commandments, literally the sentence before the first commandment, he said, "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery." That is a game changing btw and much more than a btw. What God is doing is giving them, us, the power, the strength and the key to obedience before giving the laws defining obedience. You see, we were not created to be able to obey apart from someone getting our heart. We have all tried it and we fail every time without fail. Why? Because love always precedes true obedience. Thus, God wanted Isreael to remember that they were dead men/women living. They were slaves being hunted and pursued by their well armed and trained oppressor cornered at the banks of a sea. He wanted them to remember that, precisely at that point, God directed Moses to lift a stick up in the air, pretty ridiculous and that is the point, and watch Him be their salvation. He delivered and rescued them and that rescue was to become the fuel for conversion, for later revival when the joy of conversion faded, and the power for new life kind of obedience.

You have heard enough of my sermons and had plenty of conversations with me to know where this is going, but it is good every time, right?  God has done the same for us! "God demonstrates his own love for us in this, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rm 5)!" To remember this is to obey. When we meditate on this, in the face of our current and Whole Foods organic produce fresh sin, the last night, this morning kind of sin, something happens in our hearts that moves to our actions.  Our loyalty changes for our Lover wins us!

This first Psalm is the key to it all for you will have all kinds of opportunities to stand and sit with sinners. You will be tempted by people whose lives seem to be attractive, but who are really as unstable and frivolous as the stuff that blows off a head of wheat, chaff. It is more than just isolated moments of temptation, but it is almost as if there is a strong current that wants to rip you off the bank and take you with it. It is nothing new, but the wounds it inflicts will be new. Thus, you must plant your heart by a different stream, the stream of God's love for what you love, you will obey.

Finally, all this addresses not just college but life. He uses the metaphor of a tree firmly planted by streams of water. That is the goal, a beautiful end product, not temporary survival. His goal is not fun for today, but blessedness for life. He wants to put you on a path of growth that ends strong. Oh it is tree that will have experienced its storms, but it is a tree that will have survived because of where it was planted.

There is nothing easy about this. It is lonely some times. There will be times you will not want to live this and you will not. But come back to Psalm 1 and remember. Come back to Psalm 1and fall in love with God to the point that He has your heart! A God whose commands are high, but whose commands are obeyed only through His love, a love for sinners like you, like me. May God give us grace for today to that end and Go Dawgs!