If all goes well, Becky and I will be in Memphis visiting family about the time you read this. We should escape our upper Midwest smoke for some deep south heat and humidity – headed towards 100 degrees and 82 percent humidity in Memphis on Monday. Still, it will be warm enough in Indiana while we’re gone, with no or little rain in the forecast. Fortunately, we have a programmable sprinkler system to help keep the lawn half-way healthy. Every other morning the sprinkler heads will pop up and spray their life-giving water on the thirsty grass. 30 minutes for each section. Besides that, not only will the lawn receive its measured dose of water while we’re gone, if it does rain, the system knows not to add more moisture to the wet ground. The WR2 Wireless Sensor is an electronic rain gauge, and once a half an inch of rain falls, the irrigation system is turned off for 24 hours.  No wasted water. No sprinklers spraying while rain is falling. The idea is to keep the lawn green, to conserve water, and to save money on the water bill. It’s a nice system.

The Psalms begin with a description of the righteous person. Like our lawn that needs water in order to remain healthy in the hot summer, the righteous person needs God’s word to remain healthy in the droughts and storms of life. The righteous person is one who “delights in the law of the Lord” and meditates on it day and night. The law of the Lord, the torah, the written word of God given as a gift to the faithful. (Psalm 1:2)

The psalmist paints a picture of the righteous person as being “like a tree planted by streams of water.” (Psalm 1:3)

But unlike my lawn irrigation system with its WR2 Wireless Sensor, the righteous person needs no high-tech rain gauge to determine if there’s been enough word for the week. God’s law is not an irrigation system with pop-up sprinkler heads that spray water on a dry life for 30 minutes at a time. The Psalmist envisions a flowing stream and a tree with roots digging deep into the rich moist soil of the streambank. The tree prospers and so does the righteous person.

Our programmable irrigation system should help keep the lawn green through the next couple of months or warm and dry weather. Then we’ll have it winterized and shut down until next year. No shutting down our delight in the law of the Lord. The righteous person meditates on God’s word year-round, night and day. The flowing stream does not run dry and the righteous prosper in all they do.