Discipleship on the Way: Insights from the Psalms
Author: Daniel Owens, PhD
November 17, 2023
First in a Series.
When we think of being a disciple, our thoughts may first drift to Peter, John, Mary, and Martha. And certainly we should draw from the teaching of Jesus in the Gospels. While the early disciples’ and Jesus’ own words are indispensable sources, they are not the only place we can go. This is the first on a series of blog posts on how the Book of Psalms helps us see what it means to be a disciple.
While the word translated “disciple” (mathetes) in the New Testament does not occur in the Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament, the concept is everywhere in the Hebrew Scriptures.
The related verb “to learn” (manthano) is found throughout the Septuagint:
- In Deuteronomy 4:10, Moses recounts God’s word of instruction on Mount Horeb: “Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn (the verb manthano) to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so.”
- In Psalm 119:7 (which in Greek is Psalm 118:7), the psalmist declares: “I will praise you with an upright heart, when I learn (the verb manthano) your righteous rules.”
Christians, for our part, rightly associate being a disciple with being a learner, particularly a learner of a great teacher. In his book Following the Master: Discipleship in the Steps of Jesus (Zondervan, 1992), Michael J. Wilkins writes that “a disciple of Jesus is one who has come to Jesus for eternal life, has claimed Jesus as Savior and God, and has embarked upon the life of following Jesus” (p. 40, emphasis mine).
Whether we know it or not, once we come to Jesus, we are committing ourselves to a life of learning. Discipleship is not a laboratory exercise isolated from normal life. Wilkins rightly says, “Jesus called his disciples to him so that he could teach them how to walk with him in the real world” (p. 22). Being a disciple involves keeping it real with Jesus, wherever we go.
You can’t get much more real than the Book of Psalms. In it we see David and his literary heirs wrestling with God and their enemies. We will begin our journey in Psalm 1:1–2:
Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
Reading this passage, we see that discipleship involves a choice. Will we choose to follow the counsel of the wicked or the way of God? Remembering the words of NCC’s theme this year, to whom do we belong?
This psalm begins by defining the righteous person by what he is not. He is not like the person who first joins the wicked along the way, walking after their example, then stands in solidarity with sinners, and finally is fixed in his chair alongside scoffers. In three short lines, the psalmist paints a picture of how someone ends up belonging to the wicked. What is the end of such a life? Psalm 1:4 compares the wicked to chaff, blown away by the wind. Verse 6 is even more direct: “The way of the wicked will perish.” The end is death.
What is the alternative? It is to delight in God’s word. Much like the psalmist in Psalm 119:7 who anchors his life of worship on God’s Word, the righteous person in Psalm 1 demonstrates her delight in God’s Word by meditating on it day and night. God’s Word is always with her, wherever she goes. What is the outcome of such a life? God knows the way of this righteous person (Psa. 1:6). That is to say, he protects and preserves her (Psa. 37:18–19). The righteous person belongs to God and is known by God. And the end is abundant life (Psa. 1:3).
What is discipleship? It is belonging to God and learning from him along the way. Discipleship is not a program to be scheduled but a process that encompasses all of life. And all along the way, God is with us to teach us and to preserve is in Christ
Daniel Owens, PhD, is NCC’s pastor of discipleship.
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