Psalm One, "Am I happy?"

PSALM 1: Meditation on Joy

Ashrei ha’ish? Am I Happy?

Who is happy?

Lasting Happiness

Comes

When I see the yetzer’s lure

For what it is

And leave its counsel unheeded

When I make space for another choice

not settle for lazy ways,

When soul is stirred with compassionate curiosity,

with Your Torah,

the beauty and intentionality in each detail

of day and night, of absence and presence.

There

joy rises like water through roots

of trees planted on the banks of steady-flowing stream,

bearing fruit in season,

leaves green year-round.

Here

Word is seed and deed is blossom.

Whispers of yetzer,

whines of an appetite for whims

are carried away like chaff blown in the wind,

born away with appreciation

by breath-wind,

leaving paths of a just joy

The sheer delight of doing right

by You, is to know You and live.

FOCUS PHRASES:

“Happy is One who…”

“Now, That’s Joy!”