I’m starting my 2025 reading plan today since the plan is based on one chapter per day, five days per week.

We’re going through the Psalms (and other poetry books), and there’s no better rendition of Psalm 1 than in the Living Bible by Ken Taylor, which came out in the 1970s. Psalm 1 begins with the best definition of mediation you’ll find anywhere:

Oh, the joys of those who do not follow evil men’s advice, who do not hang around with sinners, scoffing at the things of God. But they delight in doing everything God wants them to, and day and night are always meditating on his laws and thinking about ways to follow him more closely. (Psalm 1.1, 2, TLB)

“Meditating on his laws and thinking about ways to follow him more closely.” That’s our goal as we read the Bible – not more knowledge but better obedience.

These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock. But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards. (Matthew 7.24 – 27, MSG)