Psalm 1 - "The Blessed Man"

So, church, I have a question for you.

Do you ever feel weary and tired?

Do you ever feel weary and tired from the things of the world?

The things of the world just kind of pulling at you, pulling you down, the burdens of life, all the things around you that are pulling on you, kind of the demands of the world pulling at you.

Then you have your own sinful nature, your own struggles, your own baggage that you bring into life weighing you down.

And if you're like any other human, you just begin to get weary over time.

Life just kind of begins to weigh.

And gravity has its way, it pulls us down.

It's like when you take off in an airplane and you go and it goes really quick and it goes up fast, and the gravitational pool just kind of holds you down, it pushes you down, and it takes extra strength to resist that and to move.

Similarly, as followers of Jesus, as we're going about our day, we're going about our life, we're resisting the world.

We're resisting sin and the sin nature that we have, these things that pool on us, and it takes extra effort.

Extra effort to follow the ways of Jesus.

Now, I don't know how where you're at in life, but most of the time it feels for me like I'm pulling a couple G's, right?

Like I don't know how you measure gravitational force.

That's a lot of science stuff.

So I don't know how to measure it, but I know it when I feel it.

I know when things are pulling at me and weighing me down.

When I feel it, I know it's happening.

In the world, temptation, they just weigh on us.

They weigh on our hearts.

They kind of grind us down.

See, in the Psalms, this tension of living in this world is made so clear.

It's made clear in the Psalms, if you've ever studied the Psalms or read through them, just how the world weighs on us.

We see the sin nature, we see lament, we see injustices in the world.

We see these injustices in our own hearts.

In the Psalms, the book of the Psalms, this poetry, this song book of the Old Testament reveals these things.

Quoting a pastor who's quoting another pastor, the Psalms contain the whole range of human emotion and experience.

And again, if you're familiar with the Psalms, that makes sense to you.

They contain the whole range of human emotions and experience.

You can be hard-pressed to be wherever you're at and not find us somewhere in the Psalms, one of the 150 Psalms that corresponds with where you are at, what you're struggling with, what you're facing.

Now, as we just read through Psalm 1, what do you see?

What came into your mind as we were going through that?

What thoughts came to mind for you?

As you read about the blessed man and the righteous way and the wicked man and the wicked way?

Were you encouraged?

Were you discouraged?

Did you feel like, man, I need to do better?

I need to be doing my due diligence about where I'm walking and standing and sitting.

I'm not contending enough for the faith?

Did you feel frustrated when you were reading through Psalm 1?

Maybe you were reading through Psalm 1 and you're thinking, you know, I remember when I didn't care at all for the things of God.

I remember back when before I was saved, I had no regard for the things of God.

Just going the way of the wicked person.

Those who scoffed at the things of God.

But now you're different.

Praise God for that.

Either way, I think when we read Psalm 1, there is a temptation for us to pull out a measuring stick, a measuring rod, and to take our spiritual measurements, if you were.

How are we measuring up?

How's our walking doing?

How's our standing?

How's our sitting doing?

How's our meditating on God's word?

How are we doing with those things?

Are we seeing fruit?

Are we withering out?

Are we like chaff?

Are we like the blessed man or are we like the wicked man?

We begin to do this calculation.

How are we measuring up?

How are we doing?

Now there's something as we approach the Psalms, I know it's kind of a long introduction into chapter one, but as we approach the Psalms, there's something that we must understand.

It's going to shape everything else about the Psalms.

And that is that all of the Bible is pointing to Jesus Christ.

All of it.Anywhere you go in the Bible, it's pointing ahead to Jesus Christ or it's pointing back to Jesus Christ.

And that's the same thing in the Psalms.

What are they about?

Primarily Jesus.

They reveal how much we need Him, how sinful our own heart is, how messed up the world is.

It's all pointing to Christ.

They point to Him.

Now the Psalms were mostly written by David.

Again, it's a genre that's called a poetry song genre.

It covers this wide, wide range of human emotions.

Psalm 1 is often called the doorway or the introduction into the Psalms.

And Psalm 1 and Psalm 2 actually are very much connected.

So, Lord willing, in a couple weeks, we'll cover Psalm 2 and we'll see that connection made clear.

But it begins with this framework that the Psalms are about Jesus Christ.

It speaks to our emotions.

It tells us, reveals things about us, but it points us to Jesus.

So what does Psalm 1 reveal?

Well, it reveals there's two paths, essentially.

There's two ways to go about life here on earth.

There's the way of the righteous, and that brings blessing, and then there's the way of the wicked, which brings death.

Look with me again in verse 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.

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 yield its fruit in its season.

And its leaf does not wither.

In all that he does, he prospers.

So the blessed man.

There's places where he doesn't walk, places where he doesn't stand, places where he doesn't sit.

There's this delighting that he does in God's word.

He meditates on it.

Day and night, he's meditating, thinking, pondering, chewing, processing, delighting in God's word.

And he bears fruit.

There's fruit that comes from this.

His leaf, it's not withering, it's not faltering.

He prospers.

And just a few quick observations here.

Right away, the blessed man stays away from sinful things.

And he focuses on the things of God.

So he stays away from sinful things and he focuses on the things of God.

He delights himself in the law and he meditates on it.

He's intentionally doing things.

He's intentional to meditate on the law.

He's intentional to not be following the way of sinners.

He's meditating on God's law.

This word law, it's God's instructions to God's covenant people.

Because he's meditating on it, because he's staying away from sin, there is then fruit.

There's fruit that comes from these things.

It's healthy, it's vibrant.

It's planted by streams of water.

It's being fed constantly.

But this leaf, it doesn't wither.

It doesn't die off, it doesn't fall away.

It's bearing fruit.

It's not giving up.

He's not in sin.

He's meditating all the time on God's law.

It doesn't wither.

It's just the reality is that this blessed man, it can't be you.

And it can't be me.

The blessed man in Psalm chapter one cannot be us.

It must be Jesus Christ.

Psalm 1 is speaking about Jesus Christ, the blessed man.

His fruit, his practice, his meditation.

When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, every time he responds with scripture.

What does scripture produce?

It produces fruit in us.

Meditating on the word is like a tree that's planted by water.

It's going to be strong and produce fruit.

This is the Christ.

And in all that he does, he prospers.

Have you ever read the Gospels and read the story of Jesus' life on earth and his time here walking among men?

And just think, you know, the word that sums that up is prosperous.

Jesus seemed prosperous.

It doesn't feel like it quite fits together.

Prosperity in the life of Jesus, the work of his ministry.

No, of course, there is the Sunday school answer.

Did everything Jesus do prosper?

Yes.

Did Jesus prosper?

Yes.

But as a on a human level, as you're reading and you're watching these things, you're seeing how his life on earth is unfolding.

It doesn't seem like prosperity is happening a whole lot.

You come into the world and you grow up and your family and everyone who knows you just denies you.

Yeah, he says he's the Christ, but he's not the Christ.

Your family then discovers you can do miracles, so they kind of want to begin to leverage their relationship with you.

You start making friends and you want to encourage people, and they start leveraging their relationship with you for gain.

I mean, you think you heal people from these diseases, and then you tell them what to do.

Go to the temple and give a sacrifice of thanksgiving.

Don't go tell people what happened.

Uh go to the priest.

You and they just ignore you.

Here, God's walking in the earth and he's giving instruction, healing people, and they're just ignoring him.

This doesn't feel like prosperity.

It feels a little bit unfitting.

That's what Psalm 1 is saying about the blessed man.

He bore fruit, he prospered in all that he did.

This is not earthly fruit, now is it?

This isn't tangible, helps you retire early, makes life comfortable for you, makes people like you kind of fruit.

The prosperity of the blessed man is so much more than all those things.

And as you read the Psalms, you begin to understand.

Our view, our window, our perspective of life is so little, and God's is so big.

So much of the Psalms is the author crying out to the Lord about injustices and what's going on.

And the rich, look, they're getting away with murder, they're wealthy, they're happy, they're they're fat, and they're just enjoying life.

What is going on here?

The prosperity of the blessed man and those who follow him.

It's not the same kind of fruit as those who follow the ways of the world.

It's easy to be deceived by the ways of the world.

And if you think that you haven't, there's no temptation in you, there's not some part of you that is can be tempted or deceived by the ways of the world, I would say you're probably already deceived.

If you feel like you've isolated yourself so well from the things of the world that it just can't get to you, you're probably already deceived.

But in our perspective, we can look around.

Man, wouldn't it be great just to have that thing?

Or if I could just be, if my spouse could just be more like that spouse, if my if my kids could just be this way, or if this was different, or if that was different.

We begin to kind of rearrange things in our mind, thinking as if us who have done a great job living our life so far, if we could have the reins, we would really churn out a great product.

We cannot do those things.

We bear fruit by following the ways of Christ.

And we need to remind ourselves and remind one another the true reality of those who reject Christ, those who forsake the way of salvation.

Look at verse 4.

The wicked are not so.

So all those things about bearing fruit and the leaf not withering being by a tree and meditating on the word and all those things, the wicked, it's not so.

But they are like chaff that the wind drives away.

Chaff, if you're not familiar, it's an agricultural term when you're used to harvest and still harvesting today.

You take some of the grains off.

The chaff, once you get the grain out, it's everything that's left over.

It's mostly pointless, useless.

And back in the Bible times, they had a method for harvesting the grain, so the chaff would be driven out by the wind.

That's how they would separate the chaff out.

The wicked are like the chaff, the wind drives them away.

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.

Just take a moment and observe.

Let's learn here some things about the the wicked man, the wicked person, and that path.

Well, we know all the things they've rejected already.

The things of God, meditating on his word, his law.

We know they've accepted a certain amount of uh companionship and friendship with people who are like-minded in their wickedness, in their sin, in their scoffing.

They're like chaff.

How often do we know or we are tempted by things that they just come for a moment and it's gone?

It could be a pleasure, a momentary pleasure.

You just you long for that extra, that that kind of that pleasure with that person, or to partake in that that drink, or to get a hold of that substance, or even just to watch that thing.

You want those things.

You long for that thing, but you know, before you even get to it, you know where it's going to lead you.

Empty.

It's like chaff.

It's just then you are being kind of blown and taken by every wind and desire.

Like chaff.

But the the consequences for those, those who are who are content to kind of hang out with people who do not um, or not hang out, but to to to indulge and to to go through life with people who have rejected Christ.

The result is that's gonna have an effect on your your heart for the and for the Lord.

It's foolish to think I can spend all my time, my best friends, everyone I hang out with can hate God, but I'm still gonna love him, and they're not gonna have any influence on me.

That's foolishness.

It's foolish to think I'm a social creature, God's made me this way to be around people, and we have influence on one another's lives, and I'm gonna be around all these people who scoff at the things of God, who rebel against God openly, they're sinful, they're wicked, and that's not going to affect me in my love for Jesus.

Now, I'm not saying don't befriend people who aren't Christians.

I'm not saying don't go to family reunions or don't go to Christmas parties because there might be people there who do not love Jesus.

It's not what I'm saying at all.

And you you read that.

You you get that from the psalm.

But is there a pattern in your life?

And that the people I'm walking with, the people I'm running with, they're wicked.

They have no moral fiber in them.

They might have a cultural, moral construct that somehow they got culturally, but they don't care about the things of God.

They have no grievance for disobeying or rebelling against God's law.

The people I hang out with, the people I sit with and I spend time with, we do life together in some ways.

I spend a lot of extra time.

They don't love the Lord, they don't love his word.

It's fascinating.

The people we spin, we we walk, and we stand and we sit with.

It influences us.

And praise God for that.

Praise God that we have that ability to encourage one another, to be around one another, to encourage one another, all the more in our faith, and that we can go be around non-Christians and proclaim Christ to them and share the good news and stand for truth and be a light.

That's a wonderful, wonderful thing.

But if we're seeking to go through our life surrounded by people, the primary influences of our life are people, influences in our life are people who do not love God.

That's going to affect us.

It's going to have an effect on us.

So the wicked, they they're rejecting Christ.

They're like the chaff.

And then there's consequences for that.

They do not stand in the judgment.

This isn't this doesn't mean they don't go to judgment.

It means that they don't stand in there, they don't endure in the judgment.

They don't stay, they falter.

When their life is examined and all the work and all the things that they've done, it's chaff.

It's empty.

There's no substance there.

Again, how many times in life do you just look out and you're like, man, it seems like the wicked are they prospering?

It seems like they're doing very well for themselves.

They have food in abundance, tons of people around them.

They're popular, they're well-liked.

Whatever it seems like they want, they kind of get.

But they too will face judgment.

They too will stand before God and give an account for their life and what they've done.

They will not stand, they will falter.

They will not endure, they will falter, and they will not be in the congregation of the righteous.

No one will stand in the congregation of the righteous unless they are righteous.

No one slips in, no one sneaks in, no one hops over the wall.

Only those who enter through the gate.

Jesus teaches in John chapter 10 that He is the gate.

John 10 · chapter mention

He alone can save.

And He alone.

He alone is the righteous man.

So, brother or sister, I want to encourage you to put away your measuring tape.

Put away your spiritual measuring tape and stop measuring yourself against the blessed man.

And start to rather praise God for him.

Praise God for him.

The theme of the Psalms is that God is to be praised, that God is good and that he saves.

The blessed man never falters, he never fails.

Where we sin, where we indulge in things, where there's wickedness, where we at times had scoffed at the things of God, he does not.

He never fails.

When you and I delight ourselves in the things of the world, even for just a moment, even just a sliver, the blessed man does not.

Praise God for him.

For it is through his faithfulness, through his Love and his fruit.

It is because of his faithfulness that you and I can be saved and can now follow the way of the blessed man.

We're no longer bound to the way of the wicked.

Because the blessed man has come.

He's kept the law perfectly.

As Christians, those who've been saved from the way of the wicked, we're going to resemble at times, we should be resembling our Savior.

We don't become Jesus.

We don't become God or demigods or anything like that.

But we do become, we sort of follow Him.

We become like Him.

And so this is where you begin to read Psalm, and it does press in, like, well, this is Christ.

This is who He is.

This is how He lived.

This is where He didn't walk.

This is where He didn't stand.

This is where He didn't sit.

This is what He did do.

This is how He spent his time.

Is my life resembling Him?

Does it look like that?

See, I don't know of any other way to mature in our faith than to meditate on God's law.

Or I don't know a better way, I think, than to meditate on God's law.

It's a wonderful blessing and it's encouraging to our faith.

If we want to mature in Christ, we want to grow, become more like Jesus, we should be watching where we're sitting, where we're walking, where we're standing.

See, all these things have secondary effects to our lives.

Yeah, if we're a Christian, we should be in the Bible, and we should be praying and meditating, and we should be not walking in the ways of the world.

But it's not by doing those things that we then become Christians, which I know is Christianity 101.

It's basic.

But I'm here to tell you that as long as there is breath in your lungs, you, Christian, need to be reminded.

You and I both need to be reminded that it is through the work of Jesus Christ, in the blood of Jesus Christ alone that we are saved.

So if we read Psalm 1 and we think, well, I want to be a blessed man.

So I'm not going to walk here or stand here or sit here.

I'm going to do these three things.

And then I'll be like a tree.

We've missed the whole thing.

We've just missed the whole thing.

It is because Christ has come and done these things for us that we then can follow him.

It's because he's done these things that we're free from the way of wickedness to follow after him.

As I mentioned earlier, the world is pulling at us.

And one of the greatest gifts that God has given us as Christians to resist just the G force of the world pulling at us is the local church.

The gift of having brothers and sisters who you're committed to one another, you're accountable to one another.

You know each other's lives and you're encouraging and interacting and saying, brother, sister, look what Christ has done.

Remember what Christ has done.

Reminding one another what Christ has done.

This is a blessing.

Being a part of a church is not always easy by any means, but it's so good and vital to your soul.

It's like when you get in a swimming pool and everything's just lighter, right?

There's not that gravitational pool because you're just lighter.

It's easier in your muscles and your joints.

Being in the body of Christ brings encouragement.

It brings life.

It builds up these things.

So my encouragement to you, as you look, you read Psalm 1.

And for some who are here this morning, you might read it, and you might know right away.

I know that nothing in my life resembles Jesus.

Nothing in my life really resembles this blessed man.

But rather the way of the wicked.

My prayer for you is that you would repent from that life and follow Jesus.

You would realize that because of Jesus Christ, because of who he is and what he's done, you can have true life and have it abundantly.

That's my prayer for you.

For those who are here who are Christians.

When you think about your own life, how much do you long to be like a tree planted by rivers, streams of water?

Just the chaos of life.

You're weary from contending for the things of the gospel, and just this idea, this visual picture of being like a tree by streams of water.

It sounds great, bearing fruit, not withering, meditating on God's word.

You and I both know that's only possible through Jesus Christ.

And it's not just a matter of surrendering, surrendering, confessing your sin, and surrendering your life to Christ once.

But it's trusting the Lord as your Savior.

Saying, Lord, what your word says, that's is what I will do.

What your commands are, that's what I'm going to seek to follow.

Not doing those things, looking for salvation, but knowing that as those who are saved, walking in obedience, that obedience brings life.

Now, as we I said in a couple weeks, Lord willing, we'll get into Psalm 2.

It talks about why the nations rage and those who war against the blessed man.

Psalm 1 gives us this picture, this paradigm.

There are two kinds of people in the world.

The blessed man and everyone else who's going the way of the wicked.

And he has come.

That those who repent and believe in him might have life and not perish, that they might also enjoy streams of flowing water, that they might be free from sin and bondage, that they might have joy and hope, and that they would spend eternity with their Savior.

Even though all the things of the world's pulling at them, and the demands of life, and the injustices around them, and the frustrations of their own sin.

The Psalms speak to all these things.

But the Psalms echo again and again and again is that Jesus Christ has come to save sinners, and that you and me are sinners, and the world needs a savior, and that is Christ.

So let us read this and praise God that Christ has come, that Christ endured, that Christ lived a perfect life and died for the sins of his people.

And let us trust him and rest in him and enjoy him.

For it is in him and in him alone that do we hope.

And we trust and we rest.

Church, let's pray.