Psalm 1 begins:
“Blessed is the man who does NOT WALK in the counsel of the ungodly.”
Two quick observations:
- The walking / journeying trope is used here as it is in many places in Scripture for both the manner and direction of one’s life including, ultimately, the arc of one’s entire life.
- The highlighted condition of being “blessed” requires one to not do something. This clearly implies that there is a norm, a kind of metaphorical current, that influences us all in a certain, wrong direction.
So in a very real sense, we are called to direct our life (our values, purposes, investments) in a way completely different than that which prevails upon us in this fallen world with men (and of course women)–all of us–with fallen hearts, having turned away from God to seek our own way, even ways that seem high meritorious to us.
Someone has said: “It’s about the journey, not the destination.” While the destination is a nice focus and lure, we miss a lot if we don’t also engage and embrace the journey. I do sometimes ponder why the journey is necessary, but it apparently is.