"If only you had been alert" - reading these words from Isaiah 48:18, brought me back to my first trip to Europe - Paris. When I was at the airport, I checked my flight, it was not listed.

Panic filled me to despair. I checked carefully. I was at the wrong terminal. 'If only I had been alert'- I would not have panicked; I would not, in my haste to get to the right terminal, run my baggage across someone's toes!

Isaiah reminded the Israelites of who the people ought to have paid attention to - "the Lord ... your Redeemer ... the Holy One ... your God" Who "teach you what is good for you ... lead you in the way you must go" (v 17).

Because they were not alert to God's teaching and leading, they were exiled to a foreign land. Their happiness which could have been "like a river" and their integrity which could have been "like the waves of the sea" (v 18) did not happen. And all they could hear were more words of despair (v 19).

The Psalmist calls blessed "those whose delight is the law of the Lord and who ponders God's law, day and night" (v 2). What will happen if we delight in and ponder God's law? We will be blessed with fruitfulness, stay evergreen, and "prosper" in all that we do (Ps 1:2-3).