The Way to Happiness

2 paths, 2 lives, 2 destinations

“Blessed is the man”

To be blessed is to be happy

It is to have a “good” life

Does wealth bring this?

Does power and respect bring this?

Does romantic love bring it?

It Goes beyond this life

English Standard Version Psalm 37

16  Better is the little that the righteous has

than the abundance of many wicked.

17  For the arms of the wicked shall be broken,

but the LORD upholds the righteous.

It Goes beyond this life

Everyone wants this

The whole world seeks blessing

But they fail to realize the SOURCE of blessing

English Standard Version Psalm 37

16  Better is the little that the righteous has

than the abundance of many wicked.

17  For the arms of the wicked shall be broken,

but the LORD upholds the righteous.

They try to find it in this world and outside God

True blessing can only come from he who made us

It is better to have nothing of this world and a little of God, then all of this world and have not God

The wrong way to blessing

“who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,”

“To walk”

This refers to the manner in which we live our lives

In life we are always moving forward, there is not pause

What path are we on and what direction are we going

We will be on one path or the other

Sometimes the path of the righteous and the wicked can start out looking very similar

it inevitably separates into different directions

What are we walking towards? What do we want?

To be blessed we must NOT walk according to the counsel of the wicked

Council = advice

Council can also mean to follow the pattern of the wicked

If others are doing it then it must be okay

Who are the wicked?

English Standard Version Psalm 14

2  The LORD looks down from heaven on the children of man,

to see if there are any who understand,

who seek after God.

3  They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt;

there is none who does good,

not even one.

The wicked are those that do not seek after God

This passage also shows two paths

To understand and seek after God

To turn aside from God

To walk in the counsel of the wicked is to live like the average person

What are some things that the world considers good that would be following the council of the wicked?

You deserve it

You should live with someone before you marry them, to make sure its going to work out

You need to work hard to get the life you want

Be whatever you want to be

Love yourself

The wicked can be the Murderers, thieves, or people like Hitler

But it is also those that the world might consider good

Doctors, teachers, scientists, athletes, astronauts, scientists trying to cure cancer or diseases, philanthropists trying to end world hunger

“nor stands in the way of sinners”

Similar to the last point, this goes further than doing what the world does in that the person now finds their identity in this world

This person is now standing in and holding onto what he has in this life.

Interests or hobbies

Sports, “I’m a Broncos fan!”

Image - how I look, exercise my body, wear the current fashion.

Profession or job

Political party “I’m a republican” Go Trump!

LBGT

Sinners find their standing in this life

Their self worth

their reason for doing what they do is all in this life

But we find our standing in the Lord

Our identity is not in ourself or the things of this world

We find our identity in our Creator

The Creator is our reason for being

“nor sits in the seat of scoffers;”

This person is so consumed by the world that he scoffs at God and those who might follow Him

Not content to live like the world and to find value in the worlds wicked systems the scoffer attacks those who believe and follow God.

Being so in love with the world the scoffer lashes out at any that are not equally in love with the same thing

The right way

“But his delight is in the law of the Lord”

In contrast to the wicked that delight in this world

The Law speaks of all God’s word

Why doesn’t the author Say

Walks in the counsel of the righteous

Stands among God’s assembly

Sits in the seat of the teachers of the law.

It is NOT saying to walk with the righteous instead of the wicked

It is contrast between living in the counsel of the world or the counsel of God

Going to church instead of a bar is not it.

It is not saying to work for God and in exchange he will bless you

“God, I’ve been working hard to obey you, now its time for you to give me the things of this world that I want.

It says the blessed man Delights in God’s law

Not the man who studies

Not the man who reads

Not attending Sunday school

How can I delight in the Law

What if you don’t delight in God’s law?

6. What makes the law delightful?

What makes the law delightful?

The law reveals who God is.

For the one who seeks after God he loves the Law of God because it teaches him about God.

The goal is not just to know the bible, the Goal is to know God through His Word

What if you don’t delight in God’s law?

“and on his law he meditates day and night.”

To Meditate is to think about it

Day and night he is thinking about scripture

It is not the quantity that is read

Even a person who can not read can meditate for weeks on passages that they may have heard.

Reading 20 chapters a day is of little value if your mind thinking about.

What can be meditated on

What is God like?

What does God want me to be like?

We all, generally, spend our time mediating on something

We think things that we are interested in or whats important to us

Cars, Clothes, sports, friends

What you spend your time thinking about can reveal where your heart is

To be blessed, The Lord is to be at the center of our affection

A life of blessing

What is this blessing like

“He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.”

This is the ideal tree, it is everything we could want from a tree

It does not fail to yield fruit

The A healthy tree should produce healthy delicious fruit in its season

Its leaf does not wither

This tree does not go through dead seasons

It is always green and full

The tree is planted by a never ending source of life

Water provides the substance and nutrients necessary for the tree to be healthy and fruitful

This tree does not depend on the unpredictable schedule of rain to thrive.

The tree is constantly fed from the streams of water

We likewise need to be constantly fed from that which sustains us

What sustains us? The word of God

English Standard Version Chapter 8

3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

To meditate day and night on God’s word is to be planted between streams of living water.

To hear occasional sermons or to read without meditating is to rely on the occasional sprinkles of rain.

To be truly blessed in this life you must drink deep of the word of God that gives life.

Do not

A life without blessing

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

Chaff is the hull of a wheat grain, it is not edible so it must be separated. How they did this was by running a cart over the grain to break the chaff and then they would use a winnowing fork to throw both the chaff and the wheat into the air. The chaff was light and would blow away in the wind and the heavy wheat kernel would fall back down to the threshing floor. Thus the wheat would remain and the chaff be separated out.

The blessed man is compared to a fruitful tree full of life

The wicked are compared to worthless chaff with no life

Chaff is worthless

Chaff is worthless

Chaff must be separated out

Chaff must be separated

Life for the wicked is futile and accounts for nothing

It produces no fruit pleasing to God

The Destination

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

The two paths in life have 2 outcomes

There will be a judgement

The wicked will come before God to be judged for their life.

They will not stand - they will have no defense or excuse

Like Chaff, they will be driven away

Just as the chaff cannot stay with the wheat so the wicked cannot remain with the righteous

By contrast, the righteous will stand in the judgement.

God will declare them blameless

We shall be among the congregation of the righteous

Always in the presence of God and completely separated from evil, pain, and death

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

That the Lord knows the way of the righteous should be a great comfort to us in this life.

Though we may have doubts and fears at times the Lord knows. None who are his will be accidently sorted with the wicked. And none who are wicked will escape judgement, they all will perish.