Psalm 1

Yogi Berra, Hall of Fame catcher for the New York Yankees when I was a boy, was also famous for reasons that had nothing to do with his skills behind the plate.  Yogi had a knack for mangling the English language.  He became famous for “Yogi-isms” such as “It ain’t over ‘till it’s over,” “It ain’t the heat, it’s the humility” and “I really didn’t say everything I said.”  He once described a switch-hitter this way: “He hits from both sides of the plate; he’s amphibious!”

And this one: “When you come to a fork in the road, take it!”

This week begins a new series, The Way of Wisdom.  Psalm 1 will be our entryway into the series.  As we’ll see, Yogi didn’t have it quite right: when you come to a fork in the road, you must make a decision, a choice that will determine how you journey into the future and the kind of person you will become.

It’s easy to make fun of Yogi – everyone knows that when you come to a fork in the road, you can’t “take it,” you have to go one way or the other! – but Yogi may have inadvertently been on to something about human nature.

When we come to forks in the road, we try to straddle the two ways more than we might care to admit.

Psalm 1 sets before us the image of the two ways: the way of folly and the way of wisdom, the way of darkness and the way of light, the way of self-will and the way of obedience.  The way that ends with a life that is wind-scattered “chaff” and the way that results in a life of rootedness, delight, and fruitfulness.

The psalm begins by asking us who we’re hanging out with, who gets our attention, whose words carry weight.  None of us wants to be wicked – but there’s a lot of wicked counsel out there. Along with some in here, too! Who has our ear?  We don’t want to be sinners, but if we find ourselves standing around getting most of our input from “the crowd,” we may be shaped more by them than by God’s Word and Spirit.  We don’t want to be mockers of God, but let’s be honest: so much of what God honors, our world ridicules; so much of what God cares deeply about, our world couldn’t care less about.  What’s made the deepest impact on us?

Who gets our time, attention and energy?  Whose word carries weight?  Whose approval matters most to us?

We come to these small, often unmarked “forks in the road” all the time.  And, truth be told, we try to take both ways more than we think.  May God set our hearts and feet free to walk in his way of wisdom, light and life.

Lord, show me where I’m straddling.  Help me to be honest with you about my ways and teach me how to delight in your ways.  Jesus, you are the way of God; lead me in the way everlasting!  Amen.