We’ve been discussing the “way of the righteous” from Psalm 1. It stands in contrast to the “way of the wicked.” Hebrew scholar Robert Alter points out that taking a certain “way” (or “road” or “path”) is a metaphor for a “set of moral choices.”*

When I first tried to visualize these two ways, I pictured a fork in the road. One road went left, the other went right. I pictured that they were both equal in size.

But I was wrong. Jesus corrected my thinking in the Sermon on the Mount: “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matthew 7:13-14, ESV).

In other words, the two ways which diverge at the fork in the road are not equal in size. The one that leads to destruction is much wider. In fact, a lot of people go that way! 

But the other path through the narrow gate is hard. It leads to life. And only a “few” find it.

This is serious stuff.

-How prepared are you to be in the minority?
-How willing are you to choose the instructions of God instead of majority culture morality?
-How eager are you to please God instead of pleasing people?

We have choices to make. On a daily basis. 

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

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Notes:

–“Like a tree planted by streams of water.” Click here to listen to this Bible study on Psalm 1. Or you can tune in to ‘The Pulse Podcast with Matthew Ruttan’ wherever you subscribe.

–*Robert Alter, The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary (W.W. Norton, 2007).