The Way of the Righteous
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Think with me for a moment...
As humans, we are all presented with a choice. We can choose righteousness or wickedness
It’s like we have two paths in front of us: the path of the righteous man and the path of the wicked man. The path of the righteous leads to life, but the path of the wicked leads to destruction.
It seems like a simple choice, but it’s not really that simple, is it? So many people choose the way of the wicked.
This is what we are going to talk about this morning. We are going to look at the way of the righteous in comparison to the way of the wicked.
Psalm 1.
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.
This chapter serves as the first part of an introduction to the psalms. I once read that the first psalm serves as a gatekeeper to the book of Psalms. The gatekeeper is saying that if you don’t want to choose the way of righteousness, then don’t go any further. This book is for the righteous.
That’s why we are going to take some time and study this psalm. We are called to be righteous, aren’t we? Matthew 5:20.
20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
The kingdom of God is for righteous people.
So, we are going to jump into psalm 1 and take a look at what this psalm tells us about the righteous man… We are going to ask 3 questions about this righteous man.
What does he do?
What does he do?
He is separate from the world.
He is separate from the world.
(Psalm 1:1)
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;
This righteous realizes that he is not with the world.
This righteous realizes that he is not with the world.
We need to realize this as well.
Have you ever seen a Christian fall away from the Lord and wonder how?
This verse shows us how a strong Christian becomes a part of the world. It happens slowly (incrementally).
Notice the progression… (Walks, Stands, Sits). That’s not the only progression… (Counsel, Way, Seat). There’s one more progression… (Wicked, Sinners, Scoffers)
The point is that the process of changing paths is a slow one. We don’t just decide to walk away from God. It may end with us mocking the godly, but it starts with something as simple as taking advice from the world. The scary thing is that we may not even see it.
So how do we avoid this slow, invisible decline into unrighteousness? We must realize that we are not with the world, and they are not with us.
It’s easy to say this, but it isn’t always easy to live it…
It’s easy to say this, but it isn’t always easy to live it…
We see this in Psalm 1:1.
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;
When this psalm talks about the righteous, is it singular or plural? It’s one righteous man. When this psalm talks about the unrighteous, is it singular or plural? It’s plural.
The idea is that this one righteous man is outnumbered by the wicked, the sinners, and the scoffers.
This is the way that things are, isn’t it? The righteous are the few, and the unrighteous are the many, and this makes it hard for us.
I think of Joshua and Caleb.
Why did the Israelites want to go back to Egypt?
Because the majority said they should.
It’s hard to be the righteous man standing in front of the wicked majority, but that’s what we must do.
We can’t allow the many to tempt us to join their wickedness. We must remember that we are not with the world.
.... He is separate from the world....
He delights in God’s word.
He delights in God’s word.
(Psalm 1:2)
2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
My translation reads that the righteous man “delights in the law of the Lord.” The idea is that this man delights in God’s wisdom and instruction. This man enjoys reading the word, and in the context of the psalms, this man loves reading the wisdom of the psalms.
The question for us is: do we enjoy reading God’s word? Is reading God’s word a highlight of our day or is it a chore? If it is a chore, then I have some growing to do.
He meditates constantly on the word.
He meditates constantly on the word.
(Psalm 1:2)
2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
Because of his love for God’s wisdom, this man meditates constantly on the word.
The word that is translated meditate is the word for mutter. When the Jews would meditate on the word, they would read or recite it out loud over and over again as they pondered its meaning.
These people knew their scripture. They were immersed in it.
If we are going to be like the righteous man, then we need to be immersed in the word.
We live in a culture that doesn’t really read, or meditate on, scripture. We are a culture or proof-readers.
We find a verse that we like, so we take it out of its context to make it say what we want it to say, and we put it on a bumper sticker.
We treat the Bible like a book of individual verses that aren’t connected with what’s before or after it. We like to read verses… we don’t like to read the Bible.
This is why reading scripture can be difficult for us. Sometimes we read through a chapter once, and we are done… We don’t want to do any more than that. That’s not what the righteous man does. The righteous man meditates on the word day and night. This is what we must do.
So, what do we see from this man? He realizes that he’s not with the world. He’s with God.
What is the result?
What is the result?
He is rooted.
He is rooted.
(Psalm 1:3)
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.
The text describes him as a tree that is planted. The idea is that the righteous man is stable. He isn’t going anywhere.
This reminds me of the poet in lamentations.
Do you remember the agony and pain that the poet was expressing? In spite of everything that he was feeling and going through, the poet was still grounded… why?
It’s because at his core, he was with God.
This righteous man in Psalm 1 is grounded because he is with God. He understands his need for God’s wisdom.
The same is true of us. When we are truly with God, he plants us, and we become grounded in him.
There will be winds and storms that try to uproot us…
… but if we are walking the way of righteousness, then we will be stable. Nothing will be able to uproot us.
It doesn’t mean that we won’t hurt, or feel despair, but even in despair we can be stable like the tree.
You see, this tree is stable through the storms, but why is this tree stable through the storms? It’s because its planted next to the streams of water. The water of life.
The righteous man who delights and meditates in God’s instruction is a man who drinks from the water of life.
So, even during difficult, stormy times, we can be rooted knowing that we have life.
He bears fruit.
He bears fruit.
(Psalm 1:3)
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.
Since this tree is planted next to life-giving water, it also bears fruit. The righteous man bears fruit for God.
Do we bear fruit?
Are we doing the work of the kingdom? Are we building up other citizens of that kingdom? Are we helping others who are also created in God’s image?
Are we producing love, joy, peace, etc.? It’s interesting that some people want to produce the fruit without the spirit. But in order to produce the fruit of the spirit, we need the life-giving spirit.
The tree doesn’t produce fruit without the life-giving water, and neither do we.
So, we need to ask: do we bear fruit? If we don’t then maybe we aren’t like this righteous man.
He prospers.
He prospers.
(Psalm 1:3)
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.
Because this tree is planted next to the water, he prospers.
If we choose the righteous path, then we will prosper.
This is not prosperity like we think of it. We think of prosperity as a life with no troubles and a lot of money. That’s not what prosperity is here.
This man is prosperous because he partakes in the life that’s given to him by God. This is something that we need to remember because focus so much on the life given to us by the world, but we don’t focus on our treasures in Heaven.
We need to remember that we are a prosperous people because we have true life.
What is the alternative?
What is the alternative?
The wicked are not stable.
The wicked are not stable.
(Psalm 1:4)
4 The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
After the poet compares the righteous man with a beautiful, stable tree, he says that the wicked are not so. The wicked are not stable. They are like chaff… They aren’t like the tree.
Have you ever seen tumbleweed get dragged along with the wind? Do you think that the tumble weed could stand in the storm?
The wicked are like the tumbleweed.
They aren’t stable through the storms
They aren’t prosperous
Someone might say, “I see wicked people prosper all of the time.” What do you mean when you say that the wicked won’t stand the storms?
The wicked will not stand in the Judgment.
The wicked will not stand in the Judgment.
(Psalm 1:5-6)
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.
The tree will stand through God’s judgment because the tree is planted next to God’s water.
The wicked do not have this life-giving water. They will not stand in God’s judgment.
The righteous man will stand. The wicked will not.
Conclusion
Conclusion
This chapter begins by telling us that the righteous man is blessed. I think the idea is that the righteous man is going to partake in God’s blessings.
Genesis 1:28.
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Here we see that man was blessed by God in the beginning. After the fall, man lost some of that blessing.
Genesis 12:1-3.
1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Here we see the promises made to Abraham. God promised to restore man’s blessing through Abraham, and we know that it’s through Jesus that we receive God’s blessing.
If we want to return to the blessed state that we saw in Genesis 1-2, then we must choose righteousness.
Do you want that blessing?