The Way of The Righteous

So we now turn to the reading of

scripture,

which is found in Psalm chapter

Psalms 1 · chapter mention

1. Psalm 1. This is

the words of the living God.

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.

He is like a tree planted by streams

of water

that yields its fruit in its season,

and its leaf does not wither.

And all that he does, he prospers.

The wicked are not

so, but are like chaff that the wind

drives away.

And therefore, the wicked will not stand in

judgment, nor the sinners

in the congregation

of the righteous.

For the Lord knows the way of the

righteous,

but the way of the wicked will perish.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God. You may be seated.

Well this morning we begin our 12 week

summer series through what is considered by many

to be one of the most beloved and

cherished books of the Bible,

which is the book

of Psalms.

And the book of Psalms is unique in

many ways, very different from other books in

the Bible.

And the first is that the Psalms, or

the book of Psalms is actually a hymn

book.

It's a collection of divinely inspired

Hebrew poems

that were sung by the nation of Israel,

and they're worshiped to God both in, private,

as well as familial, and also in corporate

worship. This is a book of praise, and

today the book of Psalms

stands as a model for us

in how

our language should be in our singing unto

the Lord. Our first hymn this morning,

praise to the Lord the Almighty, is actually

inspired

by the language of Psalm

130.

Another way that the book of Psalms is

different is that the book of Psalms is

actually a book of prayer. The Psalms contain

individual and also corporate prayers to God.

If you read some of the Psalms, you

will find prayers of joy,

and prayers of sorrow,

prayers of anxiety, and also prayers of confidence.

And sometimes you'll read a Psalm, and all

those are actually found in that one Psalm.

The Psalms is just a great way of

how the emotions of us humans,

just function and operate here in this world

that we live in.

And so the book of Psalms functions as

a way in which, as a model,

for our prayer life. The words we ought

to use to the Lord.

And finally, the the book of Psalms is

an instruction book. That is, some of the

Psalms contain

poetic imagery,

simile,

and language that really

instructs

God's people,

to life, prosperity,

and happiness. And in the Psalms, the way

that the Psalms are guiding God's people to

life,

prosperity, and happiness,

is

is to meditate and obey

the law of God, the Torah.

And well, our Psalm this morning, Psalm 1,

this is a Psalm of instruction

thoroughly, from verse 1 all the way to

verse

6. However, rather than instructing us by a

series of don't do this and don't do

that,

really the way in which the psalmist is

instructing us is by way of contrast. And

it's a sharp contrast.

It's a contrast that is between,

that is that of black and white, of

good and evil, of left and right, of

up and down. These are completely polar opposites,

that the psalmist is trying to present to

us. And what the psalmist is presenting us

here is 2 humanities

that walk 2 different roads

that lead to 2 different

eternal

final

destinations.

1 is the righteous man, and the other

is the wicked man. And the the purpose,

the reason why the psalmist is presenting

this to us is because he wants the

reader to self reflect on this psalm. And

but more importantly, he wants us to ask

a question

that's of supreme

importance, and this is the question for us

this morning.

Am I in the congregation of the righteous,

or am I in the congregation of the

wicked?

This is the question for us this morning.

And so, by way of introduction,

let us jump into our psalm. We have

2 headings this morning, the way of the

righteous and the way of the wicked. And

so, beginning with our first heading,

the way of the righteous. Let us read

verse 1.

And it reads, blessed is the man who

walks not in the counsel of the wicked,

nor stands in the seat of sinners, or

the way of sinners, nor sits in the

seat of scoffers.

You see the book of Psalms here launches

with this word blessed.

And it's a word that appears over 26

times in the psalter, and many other times

in the bible. It's a word that we

use predominantly because the bible uses it. And

it's something that we also get acquainted with,

especially since we're in this in the Psalms.

This is our series.

The Hebrew word for blessed is asher or

ashrei, and it simply means happy.

And here, it's actually in the plural. So

it's it's meant to magnify

this happiness, the state of happiness.

It's one of the reasons why some translators

translate

the opening of Psalm 1, oh, the happinesses

or oh, the blessedness

is of the man or woman or people.

Now typically when we use the word blessed,

we usually,

use it only to convey

God's favor towards us. His his gifts in

this life, whether it be a salary

raise, or a new house, or a new

car, or maybe the comfortable life in which

you have lived, you know, the comfortable life

in which he has provided you.

Just the other day, I was listening to

a podcast, and in one of the interviews,

the interviewee said something to the effect of,

you know, the Lord has blessed me with

so much. He has blessed me with a

beautiful wife. He has blessed me with beautiful

children. He has given me, you know, a

good amount of friends around me. He's given

me a good bill of health. And so

typically, the way in which we use this

word blessed is in that way to know

God's gifts, to God's favor towards you.

And, you know, I mentioned this because although,

yes, the word blessed means God's favor to

us,

we also always remember that it means so

much more. To be blessed, to be happy

in the scriptures,

is not merely about what God gives you,

but more importantly about what God is for

you.

In other words, it is a happiness

that springs from the assurance

that you belong to God and God belongs

to you.

It is a happiness that flows out of

knowing that your creator calls you son or

daughter,

And that you could come before him and

call him father.

It's a happiness. It's this state of being

from knowing

that God is your savior, redeemer,

and friend.

It's a happiness that persecution

cannot destroy. This is one of the reasons

why Jesus says in the beatitude,

blessed are those who are persecuted.

Persecuted for righteousness' sake.

It's a happiness that poverty cannot diminish.

It's a happiness that prosperity cannot enhance.

This is one of the reasons why Paul

writes in Philippians,

but whatever gain I had, I counted

as loss for the sake of Christ.

Indeed, I count everything

as loss because of the surpassing worth of

knowing

Christ Jesus, my Lord.

And dear friends, happiness is a pursuit of

all people.

In every generation,

every man that is born of woman, there

is a thirst and a longing

for happiness. Nobody wants to live a miserable

life.

But yet, we do to some degree, and

we seek to,

remove ourselves from that state.

Well, Psalm 1 reminds us that there really

is no true blessedness, no true happiness, apart

from receiving and knowing the one through who

we were made,

exist, and the one and that we will

one day return, which is God. Unless

you know Christ in the Bible,

unless you know the Christ of scripture, true

happiness is not obtained

or experienced.

And this

this leads me now to ask a couple

of questions, or at least for you to

ask some questions,

which is, what is it that makes you

happy?

What is that one thing in life that

if you just had, would make you happiest

the longest?

Is it retirement? Is it a particular video

game?

Is it

a successful business?

6 figure salary?

A mansion, a home, a spouse.

Now there's nothing wrong with wanting these things.

I wanna be absolutely clear about that. However,

my point is this, that is that to

pursue happiness

apart from God

is really like trying to fill up a

strainer with water.

It's it's it's like trying to satisfy the

hunger of a lion with a carrot.

Or it's like trying to empty

the ocean

of its water by using a bucket,

and only a bucket.

Sure there might be momentary moments of happiness

in this world apart from God, but very

much like, you know, a kid who is

chasing bubbles,

once you touch it, there it vanishes.

Right? True lasting happiness, true lasting

blessedness in this life begins with God, and

the way of the righteous are those who

not only,

know that they have favor with God,

and the gifts that they receive come from

God, more importantly it's recognizing

that the gift is actually God himself.

He is

both the gift giver and the gift, and

this is what makes them blessed.

God is the source of their happiness.

This is the way of the righteous.

2nd, look with me at verse 1. The

righteous reject 3 things.

The way of the righteous walks not in

the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in

the way of sinners,

nor sits in the seat of scoffers.

The counsel of the wicked, that word counsel

there is a reference

to the beliefs

of those that neither

know God or his law. These are those

who are morally bankrupt, morally corrupt. These are

those people that call that which is good

evil,

and that which is evil good.

The righteous do not seek the counsel,

the advice,

the philosophy

from these sorts of individuals or people.

When the psalmist writes the way of sinners,

the way,

that phrase there is a reference to the

behavior

of those that neither know God or his

law. The word sin, it's a word that

we often use, simply means both in the

Greek and the Hebrew, to miss the mark,

and here in this Psalm, when it's describing

sinners, it's describing the people who conduct their

life in such a way as to oppose

God's law

habitually

and intentionally.

The way of the righteousness does not conduct

his life

in this way. He rejects this sort of

behavior

entirely.

The righteous walk it away

that aims to honor and please

God. They seek to aim,

they seek to obey God's law at all

costs.

And then we see the 3rd,

stanza there, and it says, the seat of

the scoffers. That seat there, it's a Hebrew

word that is also used for marriage. This

is where,

people find their belonging. It's a reference to

the belonging of those that know that do

not know God or his law.

These are the scoffers that mock God and

his law openly.

These are those that are unashamedly

anti God, anti Christian.

And the righteous

are those that do not sit

with them, do not sit in their committee

boards. They do not sit at their dinners

or their

other committees. They do not participate

with them in their hatred on the one

whom they treasure.

Now the psalmist is not suggesting that we

cease to

disengage with these individuals, to not engage these

individuals, but really what the psalmist is getting

at here is that we do not entertain

them. One pastor put it this way, that

we are not to be a party at

their parties.

This is the way of

the righteous.

And the simple reason is this, Paul puts

it very well in 1st Corinthians chapter 15

verse 33 when he says, do not be

deceived,

bad company ruins good morals.

Do not be deceived. Bad company ruins good

morals. Dear friends,

contrary to what the world may say, what

Psalm 1 is teaching us here, and the

three things that the righteous

reject,

is that there really is happiness in saying

no.

There really is joy

in disassociating

from different world views, people, and philosophies.

We don't have to accept

everything.

And when we do, we are quick to

be deceived. The the righteous,

those who are righteous, those who seek to

walk a righteous way,

understand the progressive nature of sin. Look with

me at the text again. We have look

at the verbs. It says, walk, sit, stand,

and

sit. Walk, stand, and sit. And isn't this

how sin functions and operates

in the world?

Right? First, it starts off with advice,

then it

moves into action,

and then into association.

This is what happened at the fall. First

it started with, did God really say?

To delighting

and disobeying God, to then actually touching and

eating the forbidden fruit. It starts with the

the the the words into the head, into

the heart, and out into the hands. And

the righteous know

that just as sin ruined the blessed estate

of our parents in the garden, so also

will it ruin our estate and blessedness in

this life.

Sin is not something to be trifled with.

It's not something to pets. It's not something

to play with.

And who we

surround ourselves with, things that we fill our

minds with,

this will eventually control

our mind, which will eventually control our hearts

and our actions. When we befriend sin,

there we will find misery.

And where we make a practice of sin,

there we will find destruction.

And where we fellowship with the wicked, there

we will find death. The righteous are not

guided

by the beliefs,

behaviors,

and belonging

of the world. Rather, the righteous truly seek

to follow and obey God's

law.

And we know that. Read with me verse

2.

It says, but his delight, that is the

righteous one,

his delight is in the law of the

Lord, and on his law he meditates

day and night. That word, God's law, in

the Hebrew is Torah. And it's it's a

reference to God's commands, God's teachings,

God's instructions, and for the for the way

of the righteous, for the righteous one, God's

law is not merely a preference.

It's actually his pleasure.

He enjoys

and delights

in God's

law.

He says like the psalmist,

in Psalm 119,

the law of your mouth is better to

me than thousands

of gold and silver pieces.

Or how sweet are your words to my

taste? Sweeter than honey to my mouth. And

how do the righteous demonstrate their delight of

God's law?

Well, the answer here is the act

of meditation.

And now typically when we think of meditation,

the image that is conjured up in our

mind is one of an individual sitting out

in nature with,

with maybe sitting in a in a very,

an Indian style, legs crossed, eyes closed,

sort of humming to enter into this,

tranquil

state of being.

And really the the idea

or the the objective there is sort of

to escape the reality in which they live.

This is really new age spirituality.

Well, biblical meditation

is not that.

And I think Psalm

Psalms 143:5

chapter 143 verse 5 really clarifies what biblical

meditation is. And I want I want us

to listen carefully here. Because there's 3 stanzas

in this verse,

and each each word here that we're gonna

point out is just simply another word used

for meditation. The psalmist writes, I remember the

days of old.

I meditate on what you have done,

and I ponder the work of your hand.

Here we have the words remember, meditate, and

ponder. In other words, to meditate is to

actually remember.

To ponder. It's it's a it's a act

it's an intellectual activity

of engaging with God's law.

And therefore, biblical meditation is not emptying the

mind, but rather it is filling the mind.

It's not eliminating thought like New Age Spirituality,

but it is redirecting

thought on the wonderful works of God,

on his truth, on his commandments.

It's not forgetting

the world in which we live, but it's

remembering the one which created the world that

we live.

His truth.

And really meditation is that activity

of calling the mind to think, dwell, and

apply the word of God, his promises, his

commandments, the truth that it is found therein,

to oneself. Meditation is not simply reading God's

word, even though we want to do that,

we want to also pray God's word, but

it's studying, it's pondering, it's memorizing it in

such a way that it becomes one with

you.

That you could carry it with you.

Dear friends,

when we delight in a person,

we wanna spend time with that person.

When there's a song that we really enjoy,

we want to listen to it.

When there's a movie

that we like, we repeatedly watch it.

Also, what Psalm 1 is teaching us here

is that if we delight in God's law,

and if we say that we delight in

God's law, then we won't meditate upon it.

And since the act of biblical meditation is

an act of really filling the mind, I

think the question for us

is not whether we meditate, but what do

we meditate upon.

What we fill our minds with truly reveals

where our delight is.

Sort of the the opposite,

of what we find here. So what do

we fill our minds with the most?

Who do we spend the most time watching

and listening to? What is the content that

is found there? Is it honoring to God

or is it not honoring to God?

Because whatever

you meditate upon, whatever you fill your mind

with, will eventually control you.

And the way of the righteous knows this,

and it is the reason why he reads

and meditates and prays upon the word of

God. This is the way of the righteous.

Just as a philosopher meditates on the laws

of logic

to sort of instruct his thinking,

just as a physicist may meditate on the

laws of physics for his experiments, so also

does the righteous

person meditate upon the law of God to

direct his heart, mind, and soul, and life,

his entire

body. And dear friends, it is important that

we meditate

upon God's law. I think one Puritan is

right when he when he says, without meditation,

the truths of God will not stay with

us.

The heart is hard. The memory is slippery,

and without meditation, all is lost.

When we encounter temptation in this world,

how are we to fight it? The way

that we see Jesus did is that he

quoted scripture. He had

scripture a part of his battle with temptation

and sin in this world. If we are

to discern the will of God in certain

circumstances, we ought to know it, and one

of the ways we do it is by

meditation.

How will we lead others as well into

the way of righteousness?

And it's through meditation. And there's a couple

of ways that the psalmist actually notes how

meditation

benefits us. The psalmist continues in verse 3.

Read with me.

The one who meditates, the psalmist says, is

like a tree planted by streams of water

that yields its fruit in its season, and

its leaf does not wither, and all that

he does he prospers.

And so first we see that the one

who meditates upon God's law, he's compared to

a tree.

And a tree that's planted by streams of

water, and that water is God's word, and

it's multiple streams. In other words, God's law,

the object of our meditation,

is never ending.

It's abundant.

And it could do nothing but give you

life.

And it's something that will never end as

well. I'm a seminary student, and the more

that I study God's word, the more that

I, study the old and the new testament,

the more that eventually you begin to understand,

the less you know, and just the depths

of God's word itself. There is

so much to meditate upon,

and it is good for us.

2nd, the one who meditates upon God's laws

compared to a tree that yields fruit in

its season.

You see, meditation here conforms us more and

more to the image of Christ.

The more that we meditate, the more that

we are gonna bear the fruit of the

spirit.

Love, joy, peace, and kindness.

For those who are married, you will know

this. For those who,

who are not married, be informed.

The more you spend time with your wife,

the more you will pick up on their

mannerisms.

The more that you will pick on the

way that they talk. The more that you'll

pick on the way, pick up on the

way that they react. And here it's sort

of the same. The more that we meditate

upon the word of God, the more that

we know Christ through the scriptures, the more

that we will become like Him.

Mortifying the flesh. This is one of the

reasons why we ought to meditate on the

scriptures.

Meditation,

God's word helps us with spiritual

maturity.

3rd, the one who meditates upon God's law

says does not wither.

That is even in the difficult seasons of

life, there is a spiritual life in the

righteousness.

It it it will withstand the heat, the

blizzards, the storms.

As long as this tree is meditating or

or sitting by the stream of water, it

will not experience

death. It will not experience

physical

or spiritual

death.

The psalmist of Psalm 119,

Psalms 119:92–93

verses 92 to 93 writes,

if your law had not been my delight,

I would have perished

in my affliction.

I will never forget your precepts,

for you have given me life by them.

It's often in the struggles and trials of

life

where, you know, the Christian life ends up

becoming very difficult.

Despair will lead into

easily falling into temptation.

Despair will easily lead into doubting the goodness

of God.

But if we are to meditate upon God's

word, it not only prepares us for that

coming, but also helps us to endure those

trials as well.

Those who meditate

will not wither. Meditation on God's word prepares

us to endure the hardship of the Christian

life. And so so far we've looked at

the way of the righteous. How the way

the righteous live. What they reject.

Who they love.

What they do, they meditate, their delights. And

now we look at the way of the

wicked. This is our final and last heading.

And look with me at verse 4.

It reads,

says, the wicked are not so, but are

like chaff

that the wind drives away. Verse 4 is

really short.

It is a short description

of the wicked.

And it's really revealing.

The wicked

live their life and act in such a

way that the words not so is actually

sufficient

to describe them.

Of just how opposite they are

of the righteous.

So,

case example that if you were to ask,

do the wicked delight in God's law? The

answer is not so.

If you were to ask, do the wicked

meditate upon God's law? You could be assured

that the answer is not so. Does the

wicked reject the way of the sinner? The

the the seed of the scoffer? The the

answer is not so.

It is sufficient to

describe them, but the psalmist even goes further,

and he compares them to something that is

completely

opposite

of the righteous. He uses another agricultural metaphor.

He compares the wicked to chaff.

And if you're unfamiliar with what chaff is,

chaff is that,

sort of thin membrane that surrounds a seed.

And when it came to harvest time, especially

grain, you would break this seed,

because it was necessary

to harvest,

the seed. So you were separating the chaff

and the seed from itself.

And this husk that surrounds it is really

dry. It's it's scaly. It's fragile. If we

were to compare it to maybe what it

might look like, it is, the closest thing

maybe to sawdust.

If anybody's ever cut wood, there's usually a

pile of just sawdust sitting around there.

This would be a comparison to what chaff

is. Chaff is something that is rootless.

That is, it's dead. It's not connected to

any sort of life.

Chaff is also weightless.

The farmer would have his winnowing fork and

shuffle through the grain, and when he would

lift the grain, the

chaff would blow away in the wind, and

the seed would would drop.

This is just how easily this chaff is,

is

is blowing. It's easily

moved around. And lastly,

chaff is worthless.

It's the reason why chaff is just simply

used for either starting fire or just throwing

in the fire itself.

Dear friends, the the wicked

are compared to chaff. That which is rootless,

weightless,

and worthless. And it's a reality

that we should all consider.

Now lastly, we read verses 5 and 6.

Read with me these verses. 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.

And here

is a text that speaks about the final

judgment that the Old and New Testament talk

about.

That one day the Lord will bring

every thought, word, and deed, whether good or

evil,

into judgment.

The book of Ecclesiastes says this exact thing.

Chapter 12 verse 13.

For God will bring every deed into judgment

with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

John the Baptist warned about this as well

in the book of Matthew, when he said,

his winnowing fork is in his hand, and

he will thoroughly clear his threshing floor.

And he will gather his wheat into the

barn, and he will burn up the chaff

with unquenchable

fire.

The psalmist, in harmony with the rest of

scripture,

teaches that the wicked will not stand before

God on the final day.

They will not be in the assembly or

the congregation of the righteous.

And why is that? Well verse 6 tells

us. For the Lord Yahweh

knows the way of the righteous.

On the final judgment, when the Lord clears

the threshing floor, he will

not have a hard time distinguishing

who is righteous

and who is wicked.

Just as a farmer could distinguish between a

tree and chaff, and just as a carpenter

can,

distinguish between what is wood and what is

sawdust,

so also on that day,

before the judgment of God, the Lord will

be able to distinguish the righteous and the

wicked.

And that word know is not merely an

intellectual knowledge of where they're at and who

they are, but it's one and that of

a shepherd.

It's a knowing that is intimate. It is

a knowing that,

cares, feeds, protects, and defends those we love.

This is one of the reasons why the

righteous are considered blessed, and why they're in

this blessed estate.

Well, this final destination of the wicked, however,

is simply described in one last word, which

is perish.

The righteous are those who obtain

life, those who are blessed, those who are

in that estate, and those who are

a part of the wicked perish.

And dear friends, these are solemn verses,

and therefore I wanna bring us back to

the question that we sought to answer at

the very beginning, which is, am I in

the congregation

of the righteous,

or am I in the congregation

of the wicked?

That was the question for us this morning.

And Psalm 1 is placed at the head

of the 150

Psalms because this question

is what he wants us to ask. This

is that question of supreme

importance. It is truly the difference, or may

be the difference between eternal life

and eternal death.

And I think if we're all honest with

ourselves, when we read the Psalm, it really

weighs heavy because

I think we all know

that

we have stood in the counsel

of the wicked.

We have walked in the way of sinners.

We have sat at the seat of scoffers.

Right? We fail to delight in God's law,

period.

Not always.

Especially, we struggle or even may even refuse

to meditate,

especially day and night.

We know that we are all unworthy

when we read the Psalm of the title

of righteous, or to even be in the

congregation

of the righteous. And that is what the

Psalm is intended to do to us. And

it's not meant to make us

fall into despair, but rather to seek a

deliverer for this.

Dear friends,

let Psalm 1 not lead you and me

to despair, but to seek deliverance in the

one who is righteous, and the one who

is righteous

ness for us, which is Jesus Christ. The

good news is that God sent his only

begotten son

to die a death that we deserve, but

not only that, but to live the life

that we cannot

to reconcile us and save us unto God.

He is the door that leads into the

congregation

of the righteous.

When we place our faith in him, God

promises that our sins are not only removed

as far as the east is from the

west, but he actually gives us the righteousness

of his own son

and credits it to us. It's the reason

why when we believe in Christ, he declares

us justified.

That is righteous,

innocent.

He credits his own son's righteousness

to us, and it's one of the reasons

why,

all Christians have eternal life, and there's no

there's not a fear anymore of that last

day

in judgment.

The only way sinners stand before a holy

and righteous God is if we believe upon

the one who is righteous. Jesus says, and

we'll end with this. In John chapter 5

John 5:24

verses 24,

truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears

my words and believes in him who sent

me has eternal

life.

He does not come into judgment,

but has passed from death to life.

This is the word of the Lord. Let

us pray.