Checking the Roots

Psalm 1:1-3 (CEB) · Tending the Soul · Trinity Sunday · Peace with Justice Sunday

“Nobody plans to drift. It happens one pause at a time.”

This Sunday launches the Tending the Soul series with Psalm 1, the doorway to the entire Psalter. Trinity Sunday and Peace with Justice Sunday meet a wisdom psalm that begins not with rules but with a question: what does it actually look like to be truly happy? The psalmist’s answer is a tree by the stream, fruit at just the right time, and a rhythm of returning to God’s instruction that quietly shapes everything else.

In the manuscript below:

• Why Methodists call this kind of practice a “means of grace,” and the difference John Wesley insisted on between earning and receiving.

• How the Hebrew word translated “recite” describes something more physical than silent study at a desk.

• The reason a tulip bulb buried in Kansas dirt before winter is the right picture of formation.

• What it means that “Your job is the rhythm. God’s job is the fruit.”