“1But to Jonah this seemed very wrong [how God related from Nineveh’s destruction], and he became angry. 2He prayed to the Lord, ‘Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. 3Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.’ 4But the Lord replied, ‘Is it right for you to be angry?’ 5Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. 6Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. 7But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. 8When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, ‘It would be better for me to die than to live.’ 9But God said to Jonah, ‘Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?’ ‘It is,’ he said. ‘And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.’ 10But the Lord said, ‘You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left – and also many animals?’” (Jonah 4)

Dear Friends and Members of IBC, In our current ten-part sermon series, Summer in the Psalms, we are exploring the depth, beauty, and variety of the Psalms. In this week's Word for the Week, we will reflect further on the first verses of Psalm 1, the opening psalm of the Psalter. When we think of the word ‘wicked’, we tend to have in mind someone who is purely evil, like a wicked witch. This can be true, but the Hebrew word ‘rasha’ also has the meaning of someone who has departed from the path of following God. Notice how the psalmist shows this retrogression with three verbs: walk, stand, sit. We might picture someone walking alongside people who are doing morally wrong things, allowing them to influence him or her. Then the person begins to just settle into that way of life, by standing there with sinners. And then finally, they end up sitting there themselves, in the company of mockers, no doubt now counselling others to join them in the immoral things they are doing. They might not always start off by being destructive - but soon they actively choose to do wrong. Now, this warning for us not to go down the ungodly path isn’t about spending time with people who don’t know God, about being an ambassador of Christ. It is about surrounding ourselves with worldly advice and actively taking part in a sinner’s way of life. For example, if all your friends or colleagues spend every weekend getting drunk, and you continually place yourself in that environment, you should not be surprised if you eventually follow their example. As 1 Corinthians 15:33 warns us: “Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.” So instead of going down the crooked, ungodly path, let’s follow the straight path. This means delighting and meditating on God’s word. Day and night, our verse says. The difference between meditation practised in many Eastern religious traditions, such as Hinduism and Buddhism, and Christian meditation, is that Eastern meditation focuses on emptying your mind and trying to connect with nature or the universe around you, but Christian meditation is all about filling your mind with God’s word and allowing this purposeful reflection on His Word to go from head to heart. So, we absorb His word, accept it, and become obedient to it. There is no over-analysis. It’s accepting it for me. And that is transformative. For us to delight and meditate on God’s Word, we need the help of the Holy Spirit. Both believers and unbelievers can intellectually comprehend a Biblical text. But we need the Holy Spirit to give us a deeper, spiritual understanding of what it means. 1 Corinthians 2:14 tells us: “The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.” The guidance of the Holy Spirit does not mean that we will get absolute understanding of God’s word every time. Some things are hard to understand. The role of the Holy Spirit is to give us clearer understanding, to help us apply it to our lives and become obedient to it. Without the Spirit of truth, there will be very little ‘heart-pull’ for the Scripture - we won’t have this love and desire to chew on it and put ourselves under it. Friends, let me exhort us to be people saturated and rooted in His Word. Let’s walk down that narrow path with delight. God bless you James