Jesus: The Blessed Man
Notes
Transcript
INTRO
INTRO
Do you ever wish life were as easy as 1+2=3?
Wouldn’t that be nice?
You do step one, then step two, and step three always happens
Eat right + exercise consistently = guaranteed to be healthy
Work hard + save money = you are guaranteed to get ahead
Parent well + pray faithfully = they are guaranteed to turn out exactly how you hoped
Avoid the wrong people + make the right choices = life works out perfectly
And the reason we like formulas is because formulas make life feel manageable, predictable, and controllable
If I follow the steps, then I get the result
TENSION
TENSION
And if we are honest, sometimes we come to the Bible looking for formulas
We want God to give us the steps:
Tell me what to do
what to avoid
how to pray
how to make life work
And sometimes, especially in the Psalms, it can feel like that is exactly what we are getting
The Psalms tell us
how to pray
how to worship
how to confess
how to suffer
Just last week, Sean preached from Psalm 95 and showed us a Psalm that calls us to worship rightly before the Lord.
And now we come to Psalm 1, and at first glance, it seems to give us a very simple formula for the blessed life
Live this way, and you will be blessed
Live that way, and you will perish
Easy as 1+2=3
So, this morning, let’s walk through Psalm 1 and see the formula it seems to give us
TRUTH
TRUTH
Psalm 1 begins with this word:
“Blessed”
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;
To be blessed is more than being happy
Happiness rises and falls with circumstances but blessedness is the favor of God
And Psalm 1 tells us that the blessed man is first marked by what he doesn’t do…
He does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
He does not stand in the way of sinners
He does not sit in the seat of scoffers.
And those three phrases are not random
There is a progression
It is showing us the slow drift of sin
To walk in counsel means you are listening to voices that do not fear God
You are taking in advice
wisdom
values
and opinions
that are disconnected from God and His Word
That is where sin often starts
Not with open rebellion, but with counsel
You start listening
You start considering
You start letting something shape the way you think
Then the Psalmist says you go from walking to standing in the way of sinners.
Standing means you have slowed down
You are no longer just passing by
Now you are getting comfortable
The counsel you were listening to starts becoming the path you are living
The mindset becomes a lifestyle
What you once only considered, you now excuse
What once felt dangerous starts to feel normal
Then the Psalmist says you go from walking to standing to sitting in the seat of scoffers
Sitting means you have settled in
Now this is where you belong
This is where you feel at home
And notice where the progression ends: with scoffing
A scoffer is not just someone who sins
A scoffer mocks the way of God
A scoffer looks down on righteousness
A scoffer laughs at what God calls serious
The progression of sin is simple:
Walk —> Stand —> Sit
Mindset —> Lifestyle —> Identity
And the blessed man refuses this drift into sin
But notice, the blessed man does not merely refuse the wrong thing
He combats it by delighting in the right thing
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
That word “but” is important
The blessed man is not shaped by the counsel of the wicked because he is being shaped by the Word of the Lord
He does not fight sinful influence with mere willpower
He does not simply say, “I’ll try harder not to listen.”
No, his heart is captured by something better
His delight is in the law of the Lord.
The blessed man does not merely avoid wickedness externally
He delights in God’s Word internally
He loves God’s Word
He treasures God’s Word
He meditates on it day and night
And meditation here is not emptying your mind
It is filling your mind with the Word of God
Thinking about it
Reciting it
Praying it
So the blessed man is not rooted in the counsel of the wicked
He is rooted in the Word of the Lord
And verse 3 gives us the result of this kind of life:
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.
That is the picture of the blessed man
Stable
Rooted
Alive
Fruitful
Sustained
He is like a tree planted by streams of water
this does not mean he never suffers
It does not mean his life is always easy
It does not mean he always has health, wealth, comfort, and success
It means his life endures because he is rooted in the Lord
When heat comes,
he does not wither
When seasons change,
he still bears fruit
When everything around him is unstable,
he remains planted
But verse 4 gives the contrast:
The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
If the blessed man is like a tree
Then the wicked are like chaff
Chaff has no root
no life
no weight
no permanence
The wicked may look strong now
They may look successful now
They may look confident now
They may look like they are winning now
But the Psalmist says, “Do not be fooled.”
They are not trees
They are chaff
And verse 5 tells us why that matters:
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
The wicked may stand now, but they will not stand when it matters most…
in Judgement before the Lord
Why?
for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.
That word knows means more than God being aware
God knows everything and everyone
This is personal knowledge
Saving knowledge
Covenant knowledge
The Lord knows, loves, guards, and preserves the way of the righteous
But the way of the wicked will perish.
So, at first glance, Psalm 1 seems clear… there are:
two ways
two kinds of people
and two destinies
Be like the blessed man and live
Be like the wicked and perish
Easy as 1+2=3
But church, here is the problem…
If Psalm 1 is simply a formula that says, “Live like the blessed man and you will be saved,”
then Psalm 1 is not good news for us
It is terrifying news
Because if we are honest, we are not nearly as much like the blessed man as we want to think
The problem is not that Psalm 1 is hard to understand
The problem is that it is hard to survive
Because when we drop the pride
we realize something painful
We are not the blessed man
How often have we walked in the counsel of the wicked?
Not through something obvious called “wicked counsel,” but through
our screens
our favorite voices online
our politics
our friends
our own sinful desire
How often do we allow voices disconnected from God and His Word to shape how we think about
money
marriage
sexuality
parenting
success
beauty
identity
comfort
and happiness
And the danger is that counsel does not stay counsel
What shapes our mind eventually shapes our life
How often have we stood in the way of sinners?
How often have we grown comfortable with what God calls sin?
The bitterness we have excused
The lust we have hidden
The greed we have renamed ambition
The gossip we have called concern
The anger we have justified
What once felt dangerous starts to feel acceptable
And then how often have we sat in the seat of scoffers?
Again scoffing is not just sinning
Scoffing is when we begin to look down on righteousness
When we roll our eyes at holiness
When we laugh at what God calls serious
When we criticize Christians who are trying to walk faithfully
When we make obedience seem extreme
And then verse 2 presses even deeper
Because Psalm 1 does not merely say the blessed man obeys God’s Word
It says he delights in it
So let’s ask honestly:
Do we?
Do we delight in the Word of God?
Not do we own a Bible
Not do we agree the Bible is true
Not do we occasionally read it when guilt gets heavy enough
But do we delight in it?
If your phone could testify, what would it say you delight in?
If your thoughts
conversation
search history
spending
and schedule were put on the screen
would they say, “This is a person whose delight is in the law of the Lord”?
Church, Psalm 1 is beautiful, but it is also exposing
Because many of us do not feel like a strong tree planted by streams of water
We feel more like chaff…
Blown around by our emotions
by our circumstances
by people’s opinions
by fear
by temptation
by anxiety
So here is the problem:
If Psalm 1 is a formula that says, “Be the blessed man, and then God will know you,”
then we are crushed…
Because we have not lived like this
We have walked in the counsel
We have stood in the way
We have sat in the seat.
We have not delighted in God’s Word as we should
We are not the blessed man
We are a lot closer to the wicked this Psalm condemns than the righteous this Psalm describes
So where is the good news?
Where is the hope for people like us?
The good news is this:
Psalm 1 is not first giving us a formula to perform
It is giving us a Person to behold
Because look again at how the Psalm begins:
Blessed is the man
That matters…
It does not say, “Blessed are the people.”
It does not say, “Blessed are those.”
It says, “Blessed is the man.”
Psalm 1 holds before us one truly blessed man
The man Adam failed to be
The man Israel failed to be
The man the kings of Israel were supposed to be
The man we have failed to be
Psalm 1 is ultimately pointing us to Jesus Christ
Jesus is the blessed man
Jesus never walked in the counsel of the wicked.
In the wilderness, Satan offered Jesus wicked counsel:
bread without trust
glory without suffering
a crown without the cross
But Jesus answered every temptation with the Word of God.
Where we listen to sinful counsel
Jesus refused it
Where we compromise
Jesus stood faithful
Jesus never stood in the way of sinners
Now, yes, Jesus stood near sinners
He ate with sinners
He welcomed sinners
He touched the unclean
He was called a friend of sinners
But He never stood in the way of sinners
He never joined their rebellion
He never excused their sin
He never became comfortable in wickedness
Jesus never sat in the seat of scoffers
In fact, He was surrounded by scoffers
At the cross,
they mocked Him
they laughed at Him
They said, “He saved others; He cannot save Himself.”
The blessed man was mocked by scoffers but He never became one
He did not revile when He was reviled
Jesus delighted perfectly in the law of the Lord
He did not merely know the Word
He loved the Word
He obeyed the Word
He fulfilled the Word
He meditated on the Word
answered temptation with the Word
taught the Word
and is Himself the Word made flesh.
Jesus is the tree planted by streams of water.
Jesus is
Stable
Rooted
Fruitful
Alive
Sustained
Jesus prospered in everything He did… even when it looked like failure
And nowhere did it look more like failure than at the cross
Because at the cross, the blessed man was treated like the wicked
The one who never walked in wicked counsel was condemned by wicked men
The one who never stood in the way of sinners stood in the place of sinners
The one who never sat in the seat of scoffers was surrounded by scoffers
The fruitful tree was nailed to a cursed tree
The righteous one stood in judgment
not because He deserved condemnation but because He was bearing ours
The blessed man took the place of the wicked
That is the gospel
Jesus lived the Psalm 1 life we have failed to live
Jesus died the Psalm 1 judgment we deserved to die.
And Jesus rose again so that wicked sinners could be counted righteous in Him.
So when verse 5 says:
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
We can say, “That should have been me.”
But Jesus stood in judgment for me.
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
We can say, “I had no right to be there.”
But Jesus brings sinners into the congregation of the righteous by grace.
And when verse 6 says:
for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
Our hope is not that we have perfectly walked the way of righteousness
Our hope is that the Father knows the Son
And by faith, we are united to Him.
Christian, God does not know you savingly because you performed Psalm 1 well enough
God knows you because you belong to the blessed man
Psalm 1 is not less than a call to godly living,
but it is much more than that
Before Psalm 1 shows us the life we are called to walk
it shows us the Man we must be united to
And His name is Jesus
APPLICATION
APPLICATION
Comfort
Comfort
And this gives us deep comfort
Because in Christ, failure is not condemnation
Christian, some of you hear Psalm 1 and immediately feel exposed
You hear about the blessed man who delights in the law of the Lord and
and you think, “That is not me.”
You know how often your Bible sits closed
You know how quickly your mind runs to everything except the Word of God
You hear about the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
and you think about how many voices have shaped you this week that were not the voice of God
You hear about the tree planted by streams of water
and you think, “I do not feel like that.”
I feel weak
I feel dry
I feel unstable
I feel tossed around
I feel more like chaff than a tree
And if Psalm 1 were only a formula, then all it could say to you is, “Try harder or perish.”
But in Christ, Psalm 1 is not crushing news for the repentant believer
It is comforting news
Because your hope is not that you have perfectly lived Psalm 1
Your hope is that Jesus has
So when you see your failure
do not hide
do not pretend
do not minimize your sin
But also do not despair
Run to Christ
When your delight is weak
run to the One whose delight was perfect
When your obedience is inconsistent
run to the One whose obedience was complete
When your heart has listened to the wrong counsel
run to the One who refused every temptation for you
When you feel like chaff
run to the One who stood in judgment in your place.
Because in Him, failure is not condemnation
Conviction is not God pushing you away
It is God calling you back.
The Father does not look at the Christian who is weak, struggling, and repentant and say, “You failed Psalm 1, so you are done.”
No, He says, “You belong to my Son.”
And because you belong to Jesus, the Father is not waiting for the wind to blow you away
He is holding you fast
He is nourishing you by grace
He is planting you by streams of mercy
He is working fruit in you in season
And sometimes that fruit feels slow
Sometimes the leaf feels weak
Sometimes the roots feel shallow
Sometimes you wonder if you are growing at all
But Christian, the promise of the gospel is not that you are strong enough to keep yourself planted
The promise is that Christ is strong enough to keep everyone who belongs to Him
The Lord knows the way of the righteous
And in Christ, that means He knows you
So Psalm 1 does not comfort us by pretending our sin is small
It comforts us by showing us that Christ is sufficient
Where we have failed, Christ has fulfilled
Where we deserve judgment, Christ has stood in our place
Where we were wicked, Christ makes us righteous
So lift your eyes from yourself to the blessed man.
Your hope is found in Jesus, the blessed man, who died and rose again for you
And if you are in Him, you will not perish
Calling
Calling
But Psalm 1 does not only comfort us
It also calls us.
Because grace does not make Psalm 1 irrelevant
Grace makes Psalm 1 possible
In Christ,
we do do not walk this way so God will know us
We walk this way because God already knows us in His Son
We do not pursue righteousness to become the blessed man
We pursue righteousness because we belong to the blessed man.
We do not delight in God’s Word to earn salvation
We delight in God’s Word because the Savior has opened our eyes to see that God’s Word is good.
So yes, Psalm 1 comforts the Christian who falls short
and confronts the Christian who wants to stay comfortable in sin
Because if Christ has saved us from the way of the wicked, why would we keep walking in it?
If Christ has rescued us from the counsel of the wicked, why would we keep listening to it?
If Christ has brought us out of the way of sinners, why would we keep standing there?
If Christ has given us a place in the congregation of the righteous, why would we keep sitting in the seat of scoffers?
Christian, you have been saved from that old way
So do not go back
You have a better way now
You have a better home now
You have Christ
But that does mean that Psalm 1 asks us:
What counsel is shaping your mind?
Is it Scripture or your screen?
Is it Christ or culture?
What way are you standing in?
What sin have you started excusing?
What compromise have you renamed as personality, preference, or weakness?
Where are you sitting?
Are you laughing at what God calls serious?
Are you looking down on holiness?
Are you criticizing obedience in others because it exposes compromise in you?
Christ did not save us so we could stay there
He saved us to walk in His way
And the way we fight the wicked counsel is not by mere willpower.
We fight it with a better delight.
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
So church, delight in the Word
Not because reading your Bible earns God’s love
Not because checking off a devotional box makes you righteous
But because God’s Word is where we hear the voice of the Savior who loved us and gave Himself for us
Delight in the Word because there you see Christ
Meditate on the Word because there your mind is reshaped
Return to the Word because there your heart is re-anchored
Let the Word expose you
Let the Word comfort you
Let the Word correct you
Let the Word feed you
And over time, by the grace of God and the power of the Spirit, He makes His people more and more like what Psalm 1 describes
Rooted
Stable
Fruitful
Alive
Not perfectly in this life
Not without weakness
Not without repentance
But truly
So church, walk in the way of righteousness
Not to earn Christ
But because you have Christ
Not to be known by God
But because in Christ, you are already known
Not to become your own savior
But because the blessed man has saved you
Unbeliever
Unbeliever
And for those of you who are not in Christ, Psalm 1 gives a serious warning
It’s clear that there are only two ways, two peoples, and two destinies:
The righteous who are known by the Lord
The wicked whose way will perish
And you may be standing now
You may feel confident now
You may feel successful now
You may feel comfortable now
You may feel like life is working now
You may be able to sit in the seat of scoffers now and laugh at the things of God
But Psalm 1 says there is a judgment coming where the wicked will not stand
And here is what you need to hear:
The answer is not to leave here and try to become the blessed man by Sunday afternoon
You cannot
You cannot perform your way into the congregation of the righteous
You cannot simply decide, “From now on, I will perfectly live Psalm 1.”
You need more than a new formula
You need a Savior
And the good news is that Jesus welcomes wicked sinners who come to Him by faith.
The wicked become righteous not by performing Psalm 1, but by trusting the blessed man Psalm 1 reveals
Jesus lived the righteous life you have not lived
Jesus died the judgment death sinners deserve to die
Jesus rose again so that everyone who turns from sin and trusts in Him would not perish but have eternal life.
So come to Christ
Turn from the way that is perishing
Turn from the counsel that is deceiving you
Turn from the sin that is enslaving you
Turn from the seat that makes you feel comfortable while your soul is in danger
And come to the blessed man
Come to Jesus
Today, may you not just admire Psalm 1
or merely agree with Psalm 1
Do not walk away thinking, “I need to try harder to be the blessed man.”
Look to the blessed man
Trust Him
Receive Him
Follow Him
CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION
Church, Psalm 1 gives us something better than a formula
Psalm 1 gives us Christ
We are not the blessed man, but Jesus is
He lived the righteous life we failed to live
He stood in the judgment we deserved
He rose again so that all who trust in Him would be known, forgiven, righteous, planted, and alive.
So rest in Him
Follow Him
Behold the blessed man
Trust the blessed man
Walk with the blessed man
Because the Lord knows the way of the righteous
And in Christ, the Lord knows you
