The older I get, the more I ask the question: 'how do I live a life that lasts'? How do I leave a legacy that will bless others long after I'm gone? Psalm 1 answers these questions with two vivid images. The middle lines of the Psalm (v.3-4) are its heartbeat. They compare a luscious tree that is firmly established close to a river, producing its fruit every year, with 'chaff', which is useless and blows away with the wind. The psalmist says the righteous are like the tree, and will stand at the Final Judgement. The wicked are like the chaff, and won't be seen for dust. 
What then makes us sturdy trees and not transitory chaff? Answer: delighting in the Word of God. 'Blessed is the man…whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree…' (v.1-2). If we want a life that lasts, a legacy that will bless others after we are gone, it begins with getting God's Word into our bloodstream.
Please notice, the psalmist doesn't say 'read' the Word, or even 'study' it, but 'delight' in it.
Reading and studying are steps on the pathway to delighting, but they are not the 'end zone'. Like the Pharisees, it is possible to know the content of the Word, without growing in love for its Author. Pharisees used to commit large chunks of the Torah to memory, yet failed to recognize God when he walked into their neighbourhood (John 1:12).
If I may apply this Psalm to preaching (a personal passion) - it is possible to preach in a way that gives impressive details about the background and context of each text, but does not lead your people to love God with burning hearts. I know. I have preached that way, and have watched my words fall to the ground as people snooze in front of me.
It is also possible to be very engaging and entertaining - making people laugh one minute, and cry the next - without actually opening the Bible, and leading worshippers to a serious encounter with God. Both approaches, I would suggest, have the whiff of chaff, and leave no legacy.
What this Psalm is proposing is neither a dry knowledge of the Word, nor a passing glance at the Word in the quest to be engaging. It entices us instead to a delight that comes from meditation. Reading the Word to be shaped by it, to have all our thoughts and attitudes refined and defined by it. Savouring Christ, as John Piper puts it. Allowing the Word to penetrate our consciences so deeply, that it could separate our spirit from our soul, if that were possible.
When it comes to preaching, that means going to the pulpit 'clothed' in the text, delighting in it, praying ourselves hot, so that we will preach with fire in our hearts, as if our lives depended on transferring God's message to divide the heart form the soul of our hearers. That is how we pass on a delight for the Word that will leave a legacy.
When it comes to our devotional lives, it means being dissatisfied with ten hurried minutes in the Word in the morning, as though a 'thought for the day' will keep us fresh. The goal is 'delighting' - developing an unquenchable thirst for the Word. I delight in sport, and feel robbed when I only get ten minutes to watch it! Robert Murray McCheyne's 'Read the Bible in a Year' plan is a great place to start.
So if you want a life that lasts, a life that will leave a legacy for God - get into the Word like never before. Read it, as Don Carson puts it, 'for the love of God.' Meditate on it morning and evening. Soak yourself in it like you soak in a bath at the end of a hot day. And little by little, you will get hooked. You will start to delight. You will flourish like a tree planted by a bubbling brook, and you'll grow fruit for others to feed on long after you've gone.
Jeremy McQuoid is the Teaching Pastor at Deeside Christian Fellowship Church in Aberdeen.
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