Instagram Generation

Blessed is the person who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers!  Psalm 1:1  NASB

Blessed – A few days ago I taught English classes to two groups of 16-year-olds in a local Italian high school.  I didn’t spend much time on grammar.  They get that every day.  I talked with them about paradigm shifts and motivation.  With video clips from Denzel Washington, Dwayne Johnson, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, I tried to get these young people to recognize the importance of surrounding themselves with people who display the kind of lives they would like.  To no avail.  Surveying the blank faces of these students was so discouraging.  They are being trained to be good little industrial complex workers, being just like everyone else in the herd, believing what they are told to believe, accepting without examination whatever role they are given, never asking why or why not.  I had them write down their goals.  Virtually every one wrote “be rich” but not a single person could tell me how they expected to accomplish that.  That was depressing enough, but what happened after class really said it all.  Before they even left the room they were taking Instagram photos and texting their friends.  Their world is completely wrapped up in social media.  That’s where they find identity, and that identity is all about pleasing others.

All of this reminded me of David’s verse.  “Blessed” doesn’t mean rich, famous, healthy, or wise.  “Blessed” is from the Hebrew verb ʾāšar.  It means “happy” or “lucky” or “good fortune.”  The root is about going straight.  But biblical “luck” isn’t a result of fate.  “To be ‘blessed’ (ʾašrê), man has to do something. Usually this is something positive. A “blessed” man, for example, is one who trusts in God without equivocation: Ps 2:12; 34:8 [H 9]; 40:4 [H 5]; 84:5 [H 6]; 84:12 [H 13]; 146:5; Prov 16:20. A ‘blessed’ man is one who comes under the authority of God’s revelation: his Torah, Ps 119:1; 1:2; Prov 29:18; his word, Prov 16:20; his commandment, Ps 112:1; his testimony, Ps 119:2; his way, Ps 128:1; Prov 8:32.”^[1]  If you want to be lucky, follow God.  As Denzel Washington said in his remarks to college graduates, “Put God first!”[2]

One of the keys in these motivational speeches was to discard anything that prevents you from maintaining the integrity of your goal.  People, places, and things that don’t keep you in line with the person you want to be need to be tossed out—no matter who, where, or what that happens to be.  David says that same thing in a positive manner.  Don’t walk with those who tear down God’s counsel.  Don’t stand with the company of those who flaunt His Torah.  Don’t sit with anyone who mocks God’s people.  Then you will discover you are a lucky person.

Most of the young people of the social media generation have no idea about David’s advice.  Their god is the little chime on the phone that alerts them to a new “friend” contact—a friend who judges their every move and cajoles them into believing that success in life is being liked.  It’s so sad to see those blank faces being manipulated by digital demons, going nowhere but into the pablum of a God-absent world.  Lives heading for the great Zero, the meaningless existence of conformity.  It’s too bad we don’t have a King David these days.

Topical Index:  blessed, ʾāšar, Instagram, lucky, Psalm 1:1

^[1] Hamilton, V. P. (1999). 183 אָשַׁר. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 80). Chicago: Moody Press.

[2] https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=you+tube+denzel+washington+put+God+first&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:5127c351,vid:BxY_eJLBflk