John Marson Dunaway,
French and Interdisciplinary Studies,
Mercer University
[Nov. 28, 2010] —
As I recently read the beginning of Through the Psalms with Derek Prince, I was struck with his meditation on Ps 1:1-3, which I had memorized over twenty years ago.
“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth for his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”
Meditating
Those three verses have richly nourished me over the years. At an earlier time I had heard a teaching on the importance of meditating on scripture. If we memorize a passage like this and chew or ruminate on it “day and night”—sort of like a cow chewing cud–, the inimitable power of God’s Word is released in us. It begins to show us truths we didn’t detect from just reading.
I recall an occasion when I was moved to carry out one of the specific applications of this passage. That was during the tumultuous days over two decades ago when our faculty was bitterly upset with what they saw as the administration’s top-down management and profligate spending. The faculty lunch table in the snack bar became an extended gripe session of cynical criticism.
It proved to be one of the most trying times of my life, and I remember realizing I was “sitting in the seat of the scornful.” So I quit having lunch there.
I firmly believe God blessed me in just the way David describes in v. 3: I am now indeed “like a tree planted by the rivers of water.”
Flourishing
My children, their spouses, and my grandchildren are the flourishing leaves that have not withered. And I’ve prospered far beyond what I could have dreamed. A few years after the crisis, God led me and a couple of other Christian colleagues to establish a Faculty/Staff Christian Fellowship on our campus.
The stage of my career since that faculty ministry started has proved to be the most rewarding years of my tenure as a faculty member. Thankfully, after the crisis between faculty and administration blew over, I was able to return to the faculty lunch table and again enjoy the fellowship of my colleagues.