Psalm 1
Everyone knows, I think, that there is a right way to live and a wrong way. Just like there is a right way to drive a car and some more careless ways of driving that we tend to avoid in order to keep our insurance rates low. Driver’s courses and behind-the-wheel practice prepare us for a test that determines if we are prepared for the right way to drive.
When it comes to life, we should probably stay away from the wrong way and veer toward the righteous path. But is there some type of course that we take to prep us for what is ahead? How do we live the right way and take steps to steer clear of the wrong? How can we avoid the peril of the wicked?
In this series called Heritage, we are addressing portions of God’s Word that help us to see the important nature of God’s Word. Today’s lesson, Psalm 1 takes us further down the road of this series and helps us to see that the Word of God is our connection to a blessed life. It is our source of life.
Psalms give us this intersection of the ideal world behind the real world; the intersection of the physical and the spiritual so that we can have a blessed life.
Consider the two ways
The way of the blessed
The way of the wicked
The parting of the two ways
Part One: the way of the blessed
Psalm 1:1
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;
This verse displays a progression of lifestyles from walking to standing to sitting. This is a progression of lifestyles from walking in a certain path to eventually sitting or dwelling in a place. “Walk” to “stand” to “sit” - this is one progression.
From “counsel” to “way” to “seat” is the second progression. This moves the person from receiving counsel to more of a lifestyle choice (the way) and then to a more permanent stance (the seat). The first step, where you will walk, is still being formed by the counsel you receive. But by the second step, the way is now determined and your course is set; the counsel a person receives in step one solidifies the direction in step two. Then step three shows the arrival at an end: the seat.
In order to be among those who are “blessed,” notice the direction that is NOT being taken: this person will walk to an end point but will do it without “the counsel of the wicked.” How do we avoid the wicked’s counsel? And who are they?
Pay close attention to the counsel with which we are exposed on a daily basis. What forms and styles of information are coming across your life? They are your “counsel.” What music do you listen to? What are the words teaching you? What books do you read, what TV series gets your weekly attention, who feeds your thoughts as you absorb video games or podcasts? Counsel is forever surrounding us. Some call it information overload but there are no shortages of counsel.
What would qualify as “wicked” counsel to avoid? Because if we are seeking the blessed life, a certain percentage of those voices and scenes will not fit the blessed outcome.
You can assess the counsel that you are receiving by simply asking the question, is it matching up to what God says is good and right or does it cross the line? Would your Sunday School teacher be comfortable watching or listening to the counsel you receive? Can you think of messages and music that might be best avoided because they offend one or two or more of God’s holy laws? What modern day artists might you avoid listening to because the content of their music stunts blessed living?
Remember the negative progress that bad [wicked] counsel creates.
Then there’s also a progression with those who give advice: the wicked, the sinners, the Scoffers. The wicked have criminal intent to make trouble. They are loose in their morals and not solid. Sinners miss the better way, the better road. They go wrong, they go astray, they’re missing the mark of goodness and good living. The term, “scoffer” can be used for an ambassador. Everyone represents someone. Who do they represent? Look at their words and you’ll see who they represent. Do they support properly what God represents in His Word or do they detract from it?
Psalm 1:2
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
This person who is hoping to be blessed avoids the progression of the negatives in verse one. In verse two, this person shows us what it is that delights him: the law of the Lord.
To delight in the law of the Lord means you give attention to it and you find pleasure in it. It’s a word that indicates an actual value that is there and that value is mined and discovered as you ruminate and meditate on the word of God
We see that in the word meditate. And “on his law he meditates day and night.” The word meditate means to moan or to growl. This word can be used for animals. One example of its use is with a lion growling over its prey. It has its prey in its mouth and is growling over it because it’s tearing it apart for the nutrition that’s inside. It pulls and tears at the meat because it wants to digest this.
God uses that same word to visually explain the process of meditating on His Word. We are to “growl” over it; picking it apart and searching for its nutritive value. Chew it apart. Find the nutrition that’s in there. Discover the insight in the counsel that God gives. His Law has value but it requires time for us to ponder it and draw long thoughts about its consul and direction in all areas of life.
Psalm 1:3
He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
Verse three shows us that this person is in constant connection with the source of Living water - the Word of God. It does not matter what the climate is around the tree because the roots of the tree are buried deep in the moist soil that surrounds the streams of water.
God, through His Word, connects himself to the meditative person so that in difficult times they can prosper. They can prosper because the roots go down deep into the spiritual, into the blessings that God gives through his Word. Tough times will come but if a believer is soaking up the nutritive water of the Word, and hearing daily that their identity is based on Jesus, that their destination is heaven, that their protector is the Almighty God Himself, then this blessed person can withstand all the heat and clamor of our parched world.
With our roots burrowing into the moist soil of the Word, we learn and becomes convinced that heaven is our future home, that Jesus fully paid for all our sin, that God’s presence will never be extinguished, that we have a purpose to be here and faith quenches every doubt.
Consider the two ways
The way of the blessed
The way of the wicked
The parting of the two ways
Part Two: the way of the wicked
Psalm 1:4
The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
The wicked do not have that same promise. In fact, it is antithetical to the Blessed person in verses 1-3. The description of the wicked’s plight is “chaff.”
Chaff is the result of separating grain from the rest of the plant. Chaff is not even the stalk or the straw. It is the husk of the grain that gets easily blown away by the wind. There is no stability to it; no substance. There is no value inside of it - it is dry, easily burned up in the fire and blows away with the wind.
Even though the wicked give counsel, they are short-lived. There is no eternal value to being on the trail of the wicked. The way of the wicked will dry up and be easily blown away. It has no lasting value but is quickly driven away.
Why is this true? The one element that would make a difference in the life of the wicked is meditating on the Word of God. But the Word of God takes work. Meditating is not an easy practice. The way of the wicked is slick and easy to fall into. It’s tantalizing nature comes, not from the long-term end results but the short term frenzied excitement of the way of the wicked.
This opening Psalm to the whole book of Psalms sets the course and end of the wicked; elsewhere in the Psalms, the writer laments that the wicked seem to prosper (Psalm 73). So it is good to note, at the start, that the wicked will not have a good end.
Consider the two ways
The way of the blessed
The way of the wicked
The parting of the two ways
Part three: the parting of ways
Psalm 1:5
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
The wicked cannot stand in the judgment. There are only two options in this world. You are either blessed and gaining nourishment from the soil of His Word, or you are dried up and blowing away - wicked.
The wicked won’t stand in judgment. To “stand” in the judgment means to survive judgment. The wicked will not survive judgment because “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”
And here is our challenge. If all have sinned, righteous and wicked alike, then how will the righteous be able to stand in judgment and survive?
There was a man who was already subjected to our judgment: Jesus. Jesus is the epitome of the blessed man. His counsel and direction were a constant stream from God’s lips to Jesus’ heart. He meditated and memorized the Holy Scriptures. He let them nourish Him and direct Him for His work.
And this blessed man took on the judgment of God because He God placed all the wickedness of humanity on Him. Jesus did not stand in the Judgment of God; He suffered under its weight and died.
The reason the righteous won’t even be in the place of judgment is because the ultimate blessed man, Jesus Christ, already took on every bit of that judgment. So now the only ones left to stand in judgment are those who do not want to be connected to the eternal blessings won by Jesus, the perfect God.
Psalm 1:6
for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.
THe Lord has a thorough knowledge of the righteous. Not a moment is missed or skipped. His loving eyes and powerful hands are monitoring and protecting the way of the righteous. He is watching and guiding their steps. He is giving counsel through His Word and by His Holy Spirit so that their path is a blessed one.
The end result is that they will not wither but will stay sound and secure and well-watered in times of trouble.
The end result is blessed. The righteous are blessed but the wicked vanish. Only two possible ends to every human life. God promises that there is a blessedness that will help the righteous survive the troubled times of this earth.
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