Charles Haddon Spurgeon says Psalm 1:

“..may be looked upon … as the text upon which the whole of the Psalms makes up a divine sermon.”

The Treasury of David Vol. 1, Psalms 1-57 by C. H. Spurgeon available at https://archive.spurgeon.org/treasury/ps001.php

Because it is such an important Psalm it is worth learning off by heart. Hopefully this mind map helps with that – start in the centre and follow the numbers around:

Verse 2 lines up very closely with the command given to Joshua about meditation in Joshua 1:8

“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success.”

I have written about Christian meditation based on this verse in more length in this post. In that post I bring out the point that the Hebrew word (“Hagah”) translated as “meditate” here and in Psalm 1 is better translated as “deeply connect” or “allow it to well up and out of you” day and night.

There is no way of this happening naturally. None of us are going to think about and express the bible day and night, hour by hour, in our own strength. Maybe some people could do that for a few days but for your life to be the expression of Psalm 1 – a tree planted by rivers of water – always bearing fruit – and whose leaf never withers – you need a fundamental change to your heart, mind and soul to start with.

Jesus says you shall:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul and all your strength”

Matt. 22:37, Mark 12:30, (quoting from Deut. 6:5)

This is a promise only He can make true in our beings by His Holy Spirit within us. God says I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you (Ezekiel 36:26).

When you are born again (John 3:3-8) and baptized in the Spirit (Acts 2:1-4, 9:17-18, 10:44-48), you have the power within you to enable you to meditate on – eat, chew, deeply connect with – God’s word day and night. As a disciple of Jesus Christ you can do what your new heart craves to do, be fully in love with Him and hang on every word He says. There is satisfaction for your thirsty and hungry soul in Him – He is the Bread of Life (John 6:35) and the Living Waters that satisfy your eternal thirst for something deeper (John 4:13, 14).

However, there is a “not yet” to the promises of God. We won’t ever know full satisfaction in this life because we don’t get a new body until the next one (1 Cor. 15:42-44). You still have to take up your cross daily and deny yourself even as you eat and drink the body and blood of Jesus.

Paul describes the answer to this predicament in Romans 7:14- 8:4. We know there is another law working in our members that tends to bring us into bondage to sin. But thanks be to God that Jesus delivers us from this body of death. Because we know Him we can hear His voice (John 10) and obey Him unto the saving of our souls and eternal life. There is therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit (Romans 8:1). The answer is to walk with Jesus, take his light yoke upon you (Matt. 11:28-30) and learn from Him.

That way you won’t progress down the path of walking alongside, standing and eventually sitting down with sinners.