Two Ways
Jesus in the Psalms • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 20 viewsThis series explores the presence of the Messiah in various Psalms.
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Welcome
Welcome
Good morning!
We’re so glad you’re here, whether you are here in person or joining us online, thank you for joining us this morning.
If you have your Bible with you, please open up to Psalm 1 this morning.
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We have some printed sermon notes available for you as well, if that is your preference.
Introduction
Introduction
Last week we looked at Psalm 51 and talked about the fact that, we were born into sin and we were separated from God because of that sin. God provided a way for us to be cleansed from our sin and walk with Christ as a new creation. We find this through a relationship of trust in Jesus Christ.
This week we’re looking at God’s call for us to walk in righteousness
How does this relationship with Jesus Christ change us? Paul told the Corinthians that something would be different in them when they have Christ. This week we’re going to look at this blessing of righteousness...
1 How happy is the one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked or stand in the pathway with sinners or sit in the company of mockers! 2 Instead, his delight is in the Lord’s instruction, and he meditates on it day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted beside flowing streams that bears its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. 4 The wicked are not like this; instead, they are like chaff that the wind blows away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand up in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. 6 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to ruin.
[pray]
I. Be Blessed
I. Be Blessed
This morning in Psalm 1, we see this concept of being blessed introduced and the righteous person compared with the wicked person.
Let’s look at this concept of blessing in verse 1...
1 How happy is the one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked or stand in the pathway with sinners or sit in the company of mockers!
How do we find this blessing that is mentioned in verse 1?
One of the things that we sometimes see when we are studying the psalms are the classic constructs that can be found in Hebrew Wisdom Literature. We sometimes see an open and closing sandwich of an idea that wraps around another set of ideas. We can see an example of this in Psalm 1 & Psalm 2.
We’ll be looking at Psalm 1 today and will begin to explore the content of Psalm 2, along with some other psalms next week.
Psalm 1 & Psalm 2 are bound together with this opening and closing idea of blessing (in English it might say “Happy” in Spanish it probably says “Bienaventurado”)...
There is a pairing of the Hebrew word esher in verse 1:1 and in verse 2:12.
1 How happy is the one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked or stand in the pathway with sinners or sit in the company of mockers!
Psalm 2 ends in this way, “All who take refuge in him are happy.” [Psalm 2:12]
The word “happy” is “esher” in Hebrew...
New American Standard Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek Dictionaries: Updated Edition 835 אֶשֶׁר (esher)
אֶשֶׁר esher (80d); from 833; happiness, blessedness:—blessed(41), happy(4).
This idea of “happiness” is not the same happiness that we love and pursue so well in the modern age. Today the word “happy” indicates “feeling or showing pleasure or contentment.”
This is a very relative term, that means the feeling of happiness changes in relation to our moods and with our emotions. We might be happy about something one day and bored with it the next.
Most of us will recognize the words within our national Declaration of Independence—dated July 4, 1776—that declares the truths that we hold "to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
These words established our independence and proclaimed our belief that we have the right to pursue happiness. However, these does not guarantee that right, and in establishing our form of national government, sets forth the government as a means of providing us with the ability to pursue this happiness. However, I think we can safely draw the conclusion that government is not the source of our happiness either. However, when it works according to the design, it should provide for our ability to pursue a way of life that provides for our needs.
We often find our happiness in other things. We find happiness in family, friends, connections to other people.
I believe that “blessing” is something else...
This “blessing” that we hear about in the Bible has often been understood by explaining the benefits of the blessing: prosperity, power, even fertility. However, the product or content of the blessing is not always the primary focus in scripture. It is the relationship that is the basis of the benefit. When we connect with God, we can be truly blessed.
The so-called “one” here is translated as “man” in other versions. This is not saying that only men can be blessed. This word in the original language could be translated “person” though it might also mean “man” in a generic sense.
Some readers connect this “one” to the Messiah by talking about the “righteous man.” They are not wrong when we look at this psalm in a paired relationship with Psalm 2, which is clearly about the coronation of the Son. We’ll look at the son as King next week.
This righteous man is blessed because of his relation to the Lord and his blessing can be found in the Word of the Lord.
When the married man says that he is blessed, it it because in the relationship that he has with his wife that he finds his blessing. The same could be said of the parent who refers to their children as a blessing.
Principle: The blessing is defined by the relationship rather than the content of the blessing.
II. Separated from the World
II. Separated from the World
Psalm 1:1 gives us some Do Not Rules that will help us to evaluate our actions...
Do NOT Rules for Righteousness
Do NOT Rules for Righteousness
1 How happy is the one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked or stand in the pathway with sinners or sit in the company of mockers!
1. Does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
2. Does not stand in the path with sinners
3. Does not sit in the company of mockers
There is a progression of involvement here. Walking refers to passing through a place that is not desirable. Standing refers to spending time there. Sitting means that one has decided to spend a significant amount of time there in spite of what is going on.
This does not mean that we refuse to hang out with sinners… Didn’t Jesus hang out with sinners? This is more about engaging with them in their sin versus protecting our hearts from the sin that we can find all around us.
If we can resist this temptation to engage with the wicked an sinful lifestyle that our world embraces, we can be blessed. In fact, if we can continue to take on the attributes of Christ, we can become more like him and receive his blessing.
If Christians start listening to the counsel (advice, plans) of the ungodly, they will soon be standing in their way of life, and finally will sit right down and agree with them.
Do THIS Rules for Righteousness
The actions described in these Do Not Rules lead toward wickedness, rather than righteousness. What would these rules look like if they were stated in the positive rather than the negative?
1. Walk in the counsel of the righteous
2. Stand in the path with those who refuse to sin
3. Sit in the company of the blessed
5 Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God—who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly—and it will be given to him.
And since the Righteous Man seeks his counsel in the instruction of God’s word, I cannot help but recall...
12 For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
In this path of walking toward and dwelling in righteousness we can find blessings instead of curses. In the words of wisdom of the father writing to his son...
10 Listen, my son. Accept my words, and you will live many years. 11 I am teaching you the way of wisdom; I am guiding you on straight paths. 12 When you walk, your steps will not be hindered; when you run, you will not stumble. 13 Hold on to instruction; don’t let go. Guard it, for it is your life. 14 Keep off the path of the wicked; don’t proceed on the way of evil ones. 15 Avoid it; don’t travel on it. Turn away from it, and pass it by. 16 For they can’t sleep unless they have done what is evil; they are robbed of sleep unless they make someone stumble. 17 They eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. 18 The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, shining brighter and brighter until midday. 19 But the way of the wicked is like the darkest gloom; they don’t know what makes them stumble.
III. Delighted with the Word of the Lord
III. Delighted with the Word of the Lord
2 Instead, his delight is in the Lord’s instruction, and he meditates on it day and night.
The sinner finds delight in pursuing their fleshly desires. The Righteous One, finds his blessing in the word of the Lord. He delights in the Lord’s instruction.
The word for “instruction” in the Old Testament can also be translated as “law.” It is “torah” which were the holy scriptures that made up the Hebrew Bible. This is the first five books of the Old Testament, also called the Pentateuch or the Books of Moses.
We see this kind of language throughout Psalms and the other books of the Bible.
8 This book of instruction must not depart from your mouth; you are to meditate on it day and night so that you may carefully observe everything written in it. For then you will prosper and succeed in whatever you do.
Pastor Warren Wiersbe said this of the one who meditates on the Word of the Lord...
Their mind is controlled by the Word of God. Because of this, they are led by the Spirit and walk in the Spirit. Meditation is to the soul what “digestion” is to the body. It means understanding the Word, “chewing on it,” and applying it to our lives, making it a part of the inner person
IV. Find Nourishment in the Blessing
IV. Find Nourishment in the Blessing
3 He is like a tree planted beside flowing streams that bears its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.
The tree in verse 3 finds its benefit in relationship to the stream that provides water and nutrients that supply its health and its growth. The tree cannot bear any fruit without this relationship to the stream. Without the stream, the tree is unhealthy and unproductive.
Verse 3 is really a one-verse parable.
The tree represents the believer in God. Where the tree is planted makes all the difference here. If the tree is planted in the desert, it will not be vibrant and growing. In fact, it will likely be stunted and will not bear fruit at all. In this agricultural region, a tree’s worth was measured by whether it could bear fruit or not.
The water in this parable is a symbol of the Spirit of God. When the believer is able to draw sustenance from the Word of God and is filled with the Spirit of God, he will grow strong and be able to produce much better than the one who is planted in the worldly flesh.
Then there’s this statement, “Whatever he does prospers.” Let’s not misunderstand that statement. This is talking about a spiritual sentiment.
22 But now, since you have been set free from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification—and the outcome is eternal life!
10 so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God,
When the believer plants his/her roots in anything but the Spirit, the fruit will not be spiritual life, but spiritual death or separation from God.
V. Two Ways
V. Two Ways
Hebrew Wisdom Literature often employs a compare/contrast form that we can see in Psalm 1. We see the one who is advised by wicked counsel and the righteous one, who finds their delight in the counsel of the Lord, through his word.
4 The wicked are not like this; instead, they are like chaff that the wind blows away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand up in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
A. The Wicked Person
A. The Wicked Person
1. The wicked are like chaff blowing in the wind. (v 4)
When I lived in West Africa for a couple years as a young adult, we would travel through the bush villages during harvest time. Unlike what we see here with large machinery taking up the harvest, in the villages the harvest was accomplished by hand. All of the sorghum was gathered up into a huge pile. They would take the sorghum grain and beat small batches of it to break off the husk, then they would toss the grain up and let the wind blow off the husks. The clean grain would fall back down and be gathered together.
This process of separating the good grain from the waste is an agricultural image that is seen throughout the old and new testaments. The idea is that the grain is desirable and is to be kept secure like a treasure. However, the chaff (or the husk) is undesirable and removed so that it doesn’t interfere with the use of the good grain.
The imagery here speaks of the judgment Day of the Lord. The Apostle Paul told Timothy that the Lord knows who are his righteous ones and he is constantly leading his people away from wicked and sinful behavior...
19 Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, bearing this inscription: The Lord knows those who are his, and let everyone who calls on the name of the Lord turn away from wickedness.
God treats the righteous person like a treasure that is to be guarded. If the righteous person is guarded, like a treasure, what happens with the wicked person?
2. The wicked cannot stand up to judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. (v 5)
The wicked person is like the chaff that blows away in the wind, or worse!
John, the Baptist said it this way...
12 His winnowing shovel is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn. But the chaff he will burn with fire that never goes out.”
The winnowing shovel is the tool that gathers up the grain and is used to toss it into the air. The threshing floor is where the grain is beat to break away the husk. The chaff is a waste byproduct that has no use. It is burned off and not stored.
What does that mean at the judgment for the wicked? [the wicked will be tossed away and burned. they are of no use to the kingdom.]
Jesus spoke of this day of judgment...
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them one from another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
…continuing in verse 41...
41 “Then he will also say to those on the left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels!
…continuing in verse 46...
46 “And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Which of those sounds better to you? Would you rather be blessed by the Father and inherit the kingdom? Or would you rather ‘go away into enteral punishment?’
B. The Righteous Man
B. The Righteous Man
One could easily draw the conclusion that Psalm 1 is a stand-alone psalm that intends to give us advice on how to live a Christian life. However, some interpret this psalm to refer to Jesus as the ‘blessed one’—the righteous man—he was the one who lived among the wicked and refused to follow their ways. Certainly Jesus is the prototype, the Second Adam, the Righteous Man who found his delight in the Lord.
Yes, we also have to remember to look at this passage from a perspective of taking on the character of Christ—that is to say, how can we walk in a more righteous way...
24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.
There is not only a calling toward righteousness, but a calling away from wickedness.
This is our Calling!
This is our Calling!
Our calling is toward righteousness, not away from it.
Jesus told us that we should go for the narrow gate, the path less traveled that leads to life and righteousness, rather than death and destruction...
13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it. 14 How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it.
Conclusion
Conclusion