How to Have a Well-Balanced Life

During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the US Army did something on an unprecedented level: it allowed over seven hundred journalists to travel with military units. These journalists were known as “embedded reporters.”

These reporters marched with the troops, ate with the troops, slept with the troops, and reported on the activities of the troops.

But something happened when the reporters started hanging out with the troops—it became hard to tell the soldiers from the journalists.

Here is an example—look at this picture and tell me who are the solders and who are the journalists. (show picture)

Tonight we are going to start a short series through the book of Psalms. My hope is that we gain a fresh perspective on the Psalms—not only seeing them as expressions of worship, but using them to help us form a biblical worldview.

You see, we need to grow in seeing the world, ourselves, and God through the lens of Scripture.

One of the things that will come to light through this series is embedded theology. It is quite possible—in fact, extremely likely—that everyone has some form of embedded theology.

What is embedded theology?

Well, just like those units of troops had a reporter with them who looked like a soldier but wasn’t, believers are probably carrying beliefs that one might think are Christian but in fact are not.

If anyone should know authentic Christian beliefs from non-Christian beliefs, it should be us!

Let me give you an easy example: You’ve probably heard the phrase, “God helps those who help themselves.”

Please tell me where that theology can be found in the Bible?

The truth is, “God helps those who help themselves” can’t be found in the Bible, nor does the biblical witness support such a statement, but it is often said in Christian circles.

Do you have any other examples?

Moderation in all things

Spare the rod, spoil the child

To thine own self be true

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you

Cleanliness is next to godliness

This too shall pass

God works in mysterious ways

The point of our time in Psalms will be to help steer clear of embedded theology and craft our worldview from the Word of God.

Now, before we can go any further, we need to understand what a worldview is.

A worldview can be defined as “the structure of understanding that we use to make sense of our world. Our worldview is what we presuppose.”

Your worldview is how you process events, news, and experiences; and how you arrive at your conclusions, how you make decisions, and how you determine your actions and responses.

For example. If you have a politically conservative worldview then all of your thoughts about politicians and policies are going to be filtered through your worldview and it will ultimately affect which news channel you watch, the radio programs you listen to, and who you vote for.

You see, a worldview is really a structure and when a decision is made, it is made on the basis of a preexisting belief or assumption.

So, when this series is over, I hope you will look more and more to the Bible as that structure in your life.

We begin tonight with the first Psalm...

Psalm 1:1–6 ESV

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; 2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 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. 4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; 6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

sets the tone for the entire book of Psalms and there is a high priority placed on something in these verses—does anyone see it?

These verses reflect a high value of God’s Word.

Listen, when it comes to living life, the Word of God should be the primary factor that shapes how Christians live.

Unfortunately it doesn’t always work that way. We often look to culture, family, desires, and other things to shape how we think and how we live. All-too-often we let the idea of “The American Dream” become the driving force in our lives.

We must get a good education.

We must get a good job and begin our career.

We must get married, have 2.5 children, a dog and own a home in a quite neighborhood with good schools.

We need to earn more than we need so we can save and retire.

We need to retire so we can spend all that we earned and saved.

Question: Is there anything wrong with any of that?

Of course not! But those are not thing criteria we should use to structure our lives. We are followers of Jesus Christ, therefore the Word of God shapes how we live.

To put it simply, the Word has the final word on how we structure our lives.

This is what we see in . Notice how the Psalms begin

Psalm 1:1 ESV

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;

The Hebrew language has two words that can be translated “blessed” in English. One is baruch—this is traditional word used to express blessing or good will.

The other word is asre (aash-rae)—which can be translated “blessed” or can also be translated as “happy.” Asre is the word that the psalmist used to describe the main character in this poem

So, the psalm begins by describing someone—a man or a woman—who is experiencing happiness. They are characterized by happiness. They enjoy a long-term state of happiness, a lifetime of joy.

But what caused them to be in this state of happiness?

They refuse to be influenced by those who do not follow God.

Look at the characteristics of this blessed person.

They do not walk in the counsel of the wicked.

The word walk in the New Testament often refers to a manner of living—the way a person behaves. Well, the word “walk” means the same thing this text.

The psalmist is saying that those who characterized by happiness and joy are the very same people who do not live or behave according to the direction or advice of those who are characterized by wickedness and godlessness.

In other words, Christians should not follow the advice or the example of those who do not know God and do not live to honor God.

Question: Does that mean that all unsaved people give horrible advice?

No.

Question: How do we know if we should take the counsel of anyone?

We have to ask this question, does the counsel I’m receiving line up with and lead me to follow the Word of God as the very structure of my life.

If the answer is no—then don’t walk in that counsel.

The first characteristic of the blessed person…they do do not walk in the counsel of the wicked.

They do not stand in the way of sinners.

The Hebrew word for way is derek and it refers to the direction of your life—the course of your conduct.

Walk means your behavior. Way means the direction your headed.

The progress is simple, when you start taking the advice of those who do not follow God, you will follow the path of those who do not follow God.

But those who are blessed do not stand—they do not plant their feet and maintain their ground in the same direction that those who rebel against God are going.

The idea is simple…to stand in the way of sinners means that you get on the path the ungodly are traveling and you refuse to be moved.

You enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season and it doesn’t matter what anyone says—your going to maintain your position.

There is a ungodly stubbornness in view in this phrase and that position will lead you away from the state of joy that God intends for the life of those who follow Him.

But those who are blessed do not stand—they do not plant their feet and maintain their ground in the same direction that those who rebel against God are going.

They do not sit in the seat of scoffers.

A scoffer is someone who mocks or treats something—in this context, God—with contempt.

The person who sits in the seat of scoffers is the person who dwells with and identifies with those who have nothing by contempt for God.

They have become one with a certain group that is fundamentally opposed to God. These are people who play games with their words, taking nothing seriously because they never consider there may be a God who reigns and observes everything.

Now, can you see the progression that is provided for us in verse one?

Look at the verbs—walk … stand … sit.

This verse describes a progression of movement away from the source of happiness and joy in life.

This is the picture of someone who, though claiming they follow God’s direction, are instead walking/following the ways of the world and have become indistinguishable from it.

They think just like everyone else.

They talk just like everyone else.

Their worldview is indistinguishable from the crowd.

Remember the embedded reporter? He was sitting there and became indistinguishable from the soldiers.

This is what it means to sit in the seat of scoffers—to become totally part of the crowd that does not know God.

Now, look at the result of this kind of life,

Psalm 1:4–5 ESV

4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;

Psalm

So, we’ve seen the negative side—they refuse to be influenced by those who do not follow God.

Verse 2 gives us the positive side...

They embrace and are influenced by the Word of God.

You can see the word “but”

Psalm 1:2 ESV

2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.

You can see the word “but” at the beginning of verse two—this marks a contrast that the psalmist wanted us to see and understand.

The blessed person—those who live a life that is characterized by happiness and joy do so because...

They delight in the law of the Lord.

The blessed person is the person who finds pleasure in the law of the Lord.

The word law is the Hebrew word, torah—which often refers to the first five books of the Old Testament—the five books of Moses.

But the word in this context refers to instruction—teaching—direction.

The psalmist is saying, “Rather than following the advice of the wicked and the way they live, the righteous person follows the instruction or direction of the Lord.”

In other words, the Word of God is the standard for how to live .

And they delight in it—they find their pleasure and satisfaction in learning what the Word of God says and they treat it as something that is very precious to them.

For Jordan’s graduation party we had the year 2019 cut out of foam board and Rebecca covered each number with pictures. Those things are still sitting in our living room.

Why?

They are sitting there because they are precious to us—we stop and look at those pictures and we delight in the stories behind them. We know those things can’t stay there indefinitely, but we cherish it because they show us our daughter.

Listen, those who are in Christ cherish and delight in the Scriptures because they show us our Savior.

As the Word shows us our Savior, it instructs us and we should delight in those lessons and take what we’ve learned and live it out.

This is what it means to delight in the law of God. But those who are blessed do more than delight in the law…

They meditate continually on the law of the Lord.

I love the definition of meditate—to think intently and at length for spiritual purposes.

I think a good analogy would be to understand the difference between a dog eating a piece of chicken and a dog chewing on a good bone.

If you’ve ever had a dog then you know when a piece of chicken hits the ground, its gone in a matter of seconds. The dog doesn’t stop to savor the flavor of the chicken—it’s goal is to swallow it as quickly as possible.

But when a dog gets a hold of a good bone, that animal will lay there and chew on that bone for hours—even days—until the bone is gone.

You know, sometimes I think we approach our Bible reading like a dog eats chicken. Let’s get it done as quick as we can so we can move on to the next thing on our list.

But those who are blessed treat the Scripture like the dog treats the bone. They aren’t in a hurry. They savor every bite. They naw on it and chew on it until they get it.

They live by the words...

Psalm 34:8 ESV

8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

Psalm

What is the result of embracing and being influenced by the Word of God?

Psalm 1:3 ESV

3 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.

Psalm

Their life is stable and fruitful and full, they make favorable spiritual progress and they succeed as they seek to follow Christ.

Here is the point...

A biblical worldview leads to a well-balanced life and we cultivate a biblical worldview by “chewing” on Scripture every day.

This is the starting point—this is the key to living a blessed life.