Blessed is the one
Psalm 1:1-3
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
and who meditates on his law day and night.
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers.
When I was in Singapore, I attended a mega church and the Greek word “suniemi” stuck with me from the speaker’s sermon. “Suniemi” is the supernatural understanding of God’s Word. It is the supernatural discernment and experience of what is spiritually important and is of God. It is the ability to “decrypt” God’s Word by dependence on the Holy Spirit who guides us to all truth, as in John 16:13.
We should not take this “suniemi” lightly because it is given to us by God through the Holy Spirit to understand the spiritual world. The things of this world are temporal, but the things unseen are eternal.
Like 1 Corinthians 2:10-12 says, “These are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand [“suniemi” in Greek] what God has freely given us.”
But this also comes with a warning. John 10:10 says, “the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” Steal what? Maybe one of those things the thief wants to steal is your understanding. I met a man in Singapore who was baptised and even helped to start a small church. But now he wants nothing to do with the church. He felt betrayed and disappointed by a church pastor. His understanding was stolen, like in Matthew 13:19.
But there is good news. Look at the parable of the Sower in Matthew 13:23. “But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” This is the abundant life because your understanding produces fruit, and fruit that will last.
Like the Psalmist, meditate on God’s word daily and you will be like a tree whose roots reach deep down into the soil for refreshment and strength even during the storms of life. Your leaves will not wither and provide shade and comfort for those around you like in verse 2 and 3 from Psalm 1.