Blessed | Psalm 1:1-6 | Blake Jenkins

You might be hard pressed to find someone who likes watching YouTube videos more than me.

Okay.

I love YouTube.

And all of the things that you can find on YouTube, all of the educational, the inspirational kind of content.

We uh I tell you, one of the greatest investments, I don't get a kickback, there's no referral link for this, but we got YouTube Premium with the which takes away all of the ads, no commercials or anything like that on YouTube.

Greatest investment my family has ever made.

I do not know how many hours that we have saved not watching ads because of YouTube Premium.

And so it's a very regular practice that after the boys get cleaned, they'll come back downstairs.

They got to choose what to watch earlier in the day before dad got home, but dad gets home, and now it's mom and dad's turn to be able to pick what we watch on TV.

And so we're watching, and usually they'll come back downstairs after getting clean, and I'm watching a YouTube video.

And a lot of times they're like, what's this?

And why are we watching this?

And I was like, just watch.

And you can ask questions later.

And I was watching this incredible video that was talking about musical themes in movies.

Okay, like so music, like uh movie scores and everything like that.

And so there was this one guy on YouTube that was talking about how Hans Zimmer, one of my favorite composers, was able to part the Red Seas in one of the greatest animated movies ever, The Prince of Egypt.

I don't know if any of you have seen that.

Incredible animation, incredible soundtrack, and he was talking about how this music score was able to do so much with just five notes.

And how it goes back all the way to the very beginning before the movie even starts.

I have just a little clip of it.

I'd love for you to go ahead and watch the screen.

To part the red C, and it's one of the most emotionally impactful moments of any restart that.

Hansimmer only needed five notes to part the red C, and it's one of the most emotionally impactful moments of any story ever told.

That's it.

So how is it that these notes deliver such a monumental moment of hope?

Well, let's check it out.

And to find out why this theme is so moving, we have to go back to the very beginning.

In fact, before the film even starts, we have to go back to the DreamWorks logo.

Check this out.

Already, right there.

We we kind of got a little bit of a hint of it, but something, it's it's not quite there yet.

It's not quite right.

But I want you to see how this moment right here in the beginning gives way to our theme.

It's like the first thing we hear, but we don't quite have the context for it yet, except it's already being hinted.

Check this out.

So we get this sort of odd ethereal version of it, and then there's our theme.

In fact, we get the development of the theme.

This is really interesting, I think.

Because what we're gonna learn about this theme, and the reason it carries so much emotional weight, is because in the Prince of Egypt, throughout the film, this theme is tied to what?

The presence of God.

And I think you're gonna see as this continues to develop, this is where this theme continues to come back and come back.

And so you see, I mean, it's the Prince of Egypt, it's the Lord of the Rings.

I could have done that one, right?

But you will often see the introduction of this musical theme that is carried through and woven all throughout different parts of the movie.

It's introduced, it's developed, and then it reaches its absolute climax.

And it took everything within me not to just shout out to those that were sitting on my couch, this is what I'm talking about on Sunday.

This is Psalm one.

Because in Psalms, the book of Psalms, 150 chapters, we have the poetry, the song book of God's people.

And long before the masterful Hans Zimmer or any of the other people at DreamWorks were thinking about the introduction of a theme or a leitmotif, they were already, God, through the inspiration of the Spirit, was showing here in Psalm 1 themes that would be developed, carried out, and then would reach climaxes, would go into the low points.

We would experience all of the range of human emotions in the Psalms.

And we would see the fulfillment of that theme in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

And so as we turn to Psalm 1 this morning, we're going to hear some of those beginning notes that we will see developed and carried through our summer in the Psalms together.

And all of it, spoiler alert, all of it points to Jesus.

And so we'll come to Psalm 1, and as we do so, would you join me as we pray?

Gracious Heavenly Father, as we come to your word this morning, I pray that you would give us eyes to see and ears to hear.

God, I pray that you would speak.

For we your servants are listening.

It's through Christ we pray.

Amen.

So we will see in the first two verses of Psalm chapter 1, the blessed one.

Psalms 1 · chapter mention

The blessed one.

The psalmist writes, 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.

And when we slow down and as we consider these verses together, when we reflect on what it means to be blessed, happy, it could also be translated, flourishing.

We see that there is an avoidance of some things, and there is an embrace of other things.

That the blessed person avoids certain things and embraces other things.

There are three things that are avoided.

The psalmist will say that the blessed person does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of scoffers.

Many Bible scholars have noted there is this natural progression, this slow progression, and how there is an incremental way of going the way of the non-blessed.

It's becoming more and more comfortable with sin.

And it's noted through the physical postures that this person is taking.

Do you notice the first stage where it's somebody who's walking?

And then in the second stage, someone who's standing.

And then lastly, someone who is sitting.

That there is a movement, walking in the counsel of the wicked, those who are listening to the advice of the ungodly, those who are standing in the way, the path of sinners, that you are lingering in this way of life.

You are getting a little bit more comfortable in this stream.

And then finally, those who sit in the seat of scoffers or of mockers, those who are now living as one who opposes the blessed.

And so there's a settling into sin in stages.

Being influenced by sinners, identifying with sinners, and then spreading sin to others from bad to worse.

Someone said that mockers are missionaries of wickedness.

Those who are wicked are the ones that call evil good and good evil.

The blessed person avoids this progression of walking, standing, and sitting.

But what does the blessed person do?

What did they embrace?

Not just what did they avoid, but what did they embrace?

But his delight is in the law of the Lord.

And on his law he meditates day and night.

The law of the Lord, the word of God, the instruction from God that he has revealed to us.

And on this law, he meditates day and night.

That word meditate, we we need to define just a little bit because we have some baggage related to this word meditate.

Maybe, you know, if you if I were to ask you what comes to your mind when you think of the word meditate, you think of someone who, you know, does their hands like this and does this kind of low guttural chant or something like that, right?

You you probably think more in terms of like Eastern religions in their meditation.

That is utterly foreign to the Bible.

That Eastern meditation is often considered an emptying of self, a blankness of mind, trying to achieve some sort of unity with the world, the universe surrounding.

It's an meditation in that sense is an emptying.

But rather, biblical meditation is the complete opposite.

It is a filling up.

Meditation here in Psalm 1 is the Hebrew word hagah.

Hagah.

It's an onomatopoeia.

You know what onomatopoeia is?

Right?

Like boom, right?

You know, it's one of those, like if you were to see the old timey Batman's, right?

You know, slap.

You have like the word in the like explosive word bubble kind of thing.

Onomatopoeia.

And hagah is a Hebrew onomatopoeia.

It is the word that could be used of an animal that was growling over what it was eating, or like that of livestock chewing the cud.

Hagah, hagah, haggah.

Right?

I'm not doing it again.

All right, that's it.

But what it is, it's a word picture that is communicating to us that on God's word, the blessed person meditates, hagas, day and night, chewing on.

And it's not like sometimes with my busy family and we're rushing around every which way, like a lot of you in your busy families, and you're just chucking chicken nuggets in the back seat and you're just trying to get through the meal as quickly as you can.

It's not that kind of drive-by delighting in God's word.

But rather, it's like you're sitting down to a nice meal, and the waiter or waitress brings out the most incredible steak.

And you take the fork and knife and you cut it and you put it in your mouth, and your eyes close.

You tune out all other conversations.

Everybody respects the moment.

And you are just chewing and enjoying and trying to pull out every last bit of flavor.

The blessed one meditates, hagaz, on the word of God day and night.

That God is not just, and his word is not just number one on a list of priorities, but rather he and his revealed word are the center of our lives, that everything else is built around.

And on his law, he meditates day and night.

And I and I've got to tell you, I can't wait for the end.

I can't veil it or say, if you've heard me preach enough, you know, a conviction of mine that's not just unique or foreign, but I think is from God's word.

Every passage, Old and New Testament, points to Jesus.

Scripture is all about him.

And so there are sometimes, especially when preaching the Old Testament, I'll go through and I will explain it, I'll illustrate it, I'll apply it, and then show how Jesus is the fulfillment.

And it's kind of usually towards the last third of the message.

I just got to tell you front and center right here.

Psalm one is about Jesus.

Psalm one, he is the blessed one.

And we don't want to just think, okay, well, if I avoid enough things and pursue other things, then I will be able to have a right relationship with God on my own terms.

No, we need someone else who can fulfill this for us, who can make the way that we should walk in it.

That Christ, He is the blessed one.

He did not walk in the counsel of the wicked.

He did not stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of scoffers, but rather he was on the receiving end of all of this.

That there was counsel of the wicked that was conspiring against him.

That he did not stand in the way of sinners, but he stood in the place of sinners there at the cross.

And he did not sit in the seat of scoffers, but rather, as he was strung up there and nailed to a cross, that there were those that were scoffing and pointing up at him, if you can, bring yourself down.

That Jesus, he delighted in the word of God and meditated on it day and night, so much so that even when he was there bleeding on the cross, he was bleeding God's word when he cries out Psalm 22.

That the word was in him.

And it is only through Jesus Christ that true blessedness is found.

And when we are in Christ, the blessed one, we can live the blessed life.

When we have repented of our sin, when we have disowned it, when we have relinquished it, when we have let it go, and when we have received, when we have believed in the finished work of Jesus Christ, that he died on the cross for you and for me, and that he rose again from the dead, and one day he will return for those who are his own.

When we are in him, when we are on team Jesus, then we can live the blessed life.

Christ fulfilled this, and now we follow him.

Colossians 3.3 says, For you, it's for those who have repented of their sins and believed in Jesus, those who are in him.

For if you have died, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

That we now have this union with the Blessed One.

And this is true blessing, fellowship, peace with God.

It's not like hashtag blessed on social media, it's not the bigger house or the new car, but true blessedness comes from a living a life that is at peace with God and that has a secure future.

It's not contingent upon anything that's external, but it cannot, and it cannot be taken away.

It is secure in Christ.

So Christ, He is secured, fulfilled this.

And so now we should walk in His way if we are His followers.

Look at 1 John chapter 2, verse 6 on the screen.

1 John 2:6

Whoever says that He abides in Him, remains in Him, if you are in Christ, you ought to walk in the same way in which He walked.

This should affect your everyday life.

Not just your occasional Sunday morning and Wednesday evening activities.

That we are to walk in the steps of our Savior.

And so Christ, He has fulfilled this.

And if we walk in His way, we avoid the incremental spiral of sin.

It's why Paul would have to write to the church at Rome and Romans chapter 12, verse 2, and say there, church, don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

Romans 12:2

Eugene Peterson, he was pre- the late Presbyterian pastor who paraphrased God's word in the message.

Maybe you have read or used the message paraphrase before.

And I love the way that he was able to artistically and I think faithfully capture the sense of this verse when he said, Don't let the world squeeze you into its mold.

Don't be conformed to the world.

Don't be squeezed into the world's mold.

And so we've got to be reminded.

There are ways in which the world, this is the system that is surrounding, that is against the ways of God, that is trying to squeeze you into its mold.

And it's done with what we see here in Psalm chapter 1.

Psalms 1 · chapter mention

That to walk in the counsel of the wicked, to listen to what those in the world apart from God say.

And so it's got to be, we have to remember, where do you go when you have a question?

Where do you go when life gets hard?

Where do you go when you start to seek those things that are ultimate?

Are you going to the ungodly?

Are you going to the world for answers?

Or are you going to your brothers and sisters in Christ?

Are you turning to God's word?

When you're trying to get direction or a path in this life, are you looking to celebrities or to athletes or to influencers or businessmen or women or pundits or news anchors?

Or are you going to the unchanging truths in God's word?

Don't walk in the counsel of the wicked, but heed the counsel of God's word.

Or are you standing in the way where it is that they're going?

Are you lingering in that way of life?

Or are you finally getting to the place where you're pulling out the chair and you're sitting down at the table and joining in what they do and living life as one who is opposed to the blessed, those who are seeking to follow God?

That we don't need to be squeezed into the world's mold, but rather to be transformed in the renewing of our minds.

And how does that happen?

By renewing it according to meditating on, working God's word into every nook and cranny of our mind and our heart.

So Christ, He has fulfilled this, and we should delight and meditate on the Word of God.

Jesus, he would say this in John 17, 17.

Where he is there praying the high priestly prayer to his Father on our behalf.

And where he says this, sanctify them in truth.

Your word is truth.

Sanctify, that's a good church word.

It's to be sanctified is the process of being made holy.

And so Jesus is saying, holy fy your people in truth.

Your word is truth.

By being in God's word and God's word being it in you.

I'm here to tell you this morning, if you are looking for happiness, it can be found in delighting in God's word.

True happiness.

It's not gonna come in the next gadget, it's not gonna come in the next outfit or accessory, it's not gonna come in the next addition to your house or vehicle in the garage or vacation home in the portfolio or a certain number that you have in the account.

Happiness is not gonna come through any of these.

It might be just a spark, but it will be here today and gone tomorrow.

But you can have delight in God's word.

But what does it mean to delight in something?

You know, I've said it before, when you have kids in the house and they start asking the definitions for all these kinds of words, the words that you use all the time, and you're like, well, let me think about that for a second.

I I can use the word in a sentence, but I don't know if I can go Merriam-Webster on you right here.

And we we have a devotional that we use at home sometimes for our time in God's Word where we read, pray, and sing.

And one of the times since we were working through had a devotional on Psalm 1.

And I was like, yes.

And it had one of the greatest illustrations for what it means to delight in something.

It says there, what does it mean to delight in God's Word?

That's the question.

Here's the answer.

To help your children understand the word delight, ask them what they think it means to delight in ice cream.

To delight in ice cream, you need to eat it up, love its flavor, and wish you could have some more.

That is what we do with God's word.

We read it, we enjoy what it says, and we can't wait to have some more.

That when we delight in God's word, it's not just the quick drive bys, and that can be helpful.

I know life is busy.

But when we come to God's word, and I heard one of the Puritans write one time that if we feel ourselves cold coming away from God's word, it's because we have not lingered long enough in the fire of meditation.

And for us to sit and to say over and over again to ourselves, this is the word of God.

And for us to, in a sense, preach the word to our hearts, to meditate on God's word, to explain to ourselves this is what it means.

And to get a sense of the weight and how it affects our lives here in this world.

And so if we could workshop it briefly, we come to God's word.

Blessed is the man or the woman who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of scoffers, but his delight, her delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.

God, I want to be truly blessed.

I don't want blessing the way that the world sees blessing.

I don't want blessing the way that some prosperity preachers say blessed.

But I want true blessedness in the blessed one.

God, help me not to be conformed to this world.

Help me not to go and to be influenced by the ungodly, to walk in their counsel.

But would I come again and anew to your word and to my brothers and sisters in Christ?

Would that be my first impulse?

That we take God's word and we are preaching it to ourselves.

We are working it in and down into our lives.

And we are being transformed in the process.

As we do this, there will be an outcome.

Look at this in verses three through four.

The fruit of the blessed.

So we see the blessed and the non-blessed.

And now we see the fruit of both of these.

Here's what the blessed looks like, verse 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.

The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

When you live the blessed life in the blessed one, Jesus Christ, you're like a tree.

And again, a great impulse to have when reading God's word is, oh, that makes me think about this other place in God's word.

And did you see the description of the blessed one?

It's like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season.

That sounds a lot like the Garden of Eden, doesn't it?

Trees that are planted there that are watered by streams given by God.

There is stability.

They are well watered.

They are producing fruit and they're not withering, but they're flourishing.

This is what the blessed look like: a tree planted by streams of water, yielding fruit in its season.

Its leaf does not wither.

In all that they do, they prosper.

There's not withering, but there's flourishing.

As I was meditating on this passage and thinking about some examples of the blessed, those who are like those trees that are planted by streams of water, I thought of a number of people.

I thought of a number of people in this room.

And I thought about a man that I knew at a church in Alabama, and his name was Mr.

Dick Toya.

Now, uh, Mr.

Dick, he was a member of our church.

He was a veteran.

He'd served in the Navy, and he and his wife had been married for over 50 years.

And Mr.

Dick, he uh became a friend of mine at the church that I was serving at.

And we also lived in the same neighborhood.

They're pretty close to the church.

And I would see Mr.

Dick all the time.

He would come to the church, he'd be meeting with people, he'd be praying with people.

It would not be uncommon for him to have like a theology book or a book on prayer or something like that.

But apart from any of those conversations, the one that I remember the ones that I remember the most were when I was walking around our neighborhood with our dog.

I was taking him for his daily walk.

And Mr.

Dick, who had mobility issues there, especially later in his life, he would sit on his front porch with his little jar of dog treats, and he would wait for all the folks that were making their rounds to come by and for their dog to get a treat.

He'd put out a little bowl of water, and then we would linger just a moment to be able to talk and see what was going on with him and Miss Brenda.

And he did that for me, but he did that for everybody that came through our neighborhood.

If he was having issues going to them, then he would stay planted and wait till they came to him.

And he was like a tree, planted by streams of water.

He was faithful, he was serving, he was very involved in a homeless ministry there in Birmingham, that he would have to get somebody to take him there, but he would seek to meet these young men where they were at and call them to more and to let them know that life in Christ was a blessing for them, that it was available for them.

I remember during COVID, the student ministry there, choir, was kind of the cool thing to do.

And they were supposed to go on a chapel tour that summer, chapel choir tour that summer, and it got canceled because of COVID.

And so, rather, what they did that summer is they went around to all of the shut-ins and basically Christmas caroled in July and song and sang some of their favorite hymns.

And Miss Brenda, just days before she passed, they were all standing outside in their yard singing about the goodness of God.

And I remember one day as our pastor there was calling us to pray for our nation and for this world around us, that we had a time of corporate prayer and where he invited all who were able to turn around in where they were at in the pews and to kneel and use their pew as a prayer bench.

And I remember Mr.

Dick, who had every reason just to stay seated as normal, leaned over to the person, humbled himself, and went to the person next to him and asked if he could help him to kneel.

Mr.

Dick died in 2024, just a couple of years ago.

And he embodied for me this picture of the stable and flourishing tree.

And how 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 16 says this so we do not lose heart, though outwardly our outer self is wasting away.

2 Corinthians 4:16

Our inner self is being renewed day by day.

And some of you here in this room, you feel that.

You feel the infirmities, you feel age, you feel disease, you feel what's broken in our bodies, and you feel the progression, the decline, and that your outer self is wasting away.

I pray that the same would be true about into an even greater opposite way for your inner self.

That just as it's true and you feel your outer self wasting away, I hope that you embrace and feel the truth that your inner self, that reality, is being renewed day by day.

Because it's not dependent upon your circumstances, it is firmly fixed and rooted and secure in Christ.

That this person, the blessed, is bearing fruit, is prospering, that this is possible for those who are in Christ.

But those who are apart from Him, the fruit of the wicked, it's like chaff.

It's like the husk of a seed that is blown about by the wind, that has no root, has no place, and is carried here and there and everywhere.

It's empty, it's hollow, it's weightless, it's shifting.

This is what is experienced here in this life for those who walk and stand and sit with the world.

And we're told if we continue in this, here is the end of both.

Look at verses five and six.

This is the end of the blessed.

Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

The blessed, the wicked.

The wicked will not be able to stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation, the group, the gathering of the righteous, those who are blessed.

And the Lord knows the way of the righteous, they will be brought into fellowship.

But the way of the wicked, they will be given what they've always wanted.

Life apart from God.

And so there are two drastically different pictures before us.

On the one hand, blessing that God promises to those who love Him.

And on the other hand, those that experience the emptiness and the judgment that comes to the wicked.

And it begs the question: which life is yours?

Which life do you want to be yours?

Because there are two ways to live the way of the blessed or the way of the wicked.

And there are two fruits.

There is a fruit-bearing tree or an empty husk.

And there are two ends, two destinations, life with God forever, or apart from him, perishing.

But praise God.

One blessed one that you can be in him today.

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.

And no one comes to the Father except through him.

Let us pray.

Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word.

We thank you that through your Son, you have shown us the way to be blessed.

God, I pray that we, in seeking to follow you, would not be squeezed into the world's mold, that we wouldn't walk, stand, or sit, but rather that we would delight in you and in your word and be transformed into the image of your Son.

God, if there are any here this morning who do not know that delight, who do not have that life, who don't have that assurance, who feel that yes, they are outwardly wasting away and inwardly wasting away, I pray that they would find healing and life in Jesus this morning.

That they would use this time for prayer, that they would call out to you.

God, we have the promise from your word that all who call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

We look to you now and always.

It's in the name of Jesus we pray.

Amen.