The Way of the Righteous and the Way of the Wicked

Among the various questions that we can ask each other to help us hear and understand each other’s heart, one of the most revealing would be, “What makes you contented over the long term?”

In answer to that question, some of us would acknowledge that we value a few things more than others - wholesome stable relationships/belonging to someone, fruitfulness - short & long term, approval/ affirmation.

That being the case, we probably should rephrase our question to, “Will what makes you content for the long term now, count for eternity?”

At first glance, Psalm 1’s beginning phrase “Blessed is the man” reminds us of how our Lord began what we refer to as His sermon on the mount. Every good sermon warrants a good beginning that with the help of the Holy Spirit grabs and begins to probe and dissect the heart of the listener.

We refer to the intro to Jesus’ sermon as the beatitudes. With a succession of pointed statements, Jesus explained that real happiness comes to those who demonstrate spiritual attributes and lives by those attributes that are that very much the opposite, the antithesis of the world’s idea of happiness things, riches, have “fun”, leisure etc. With His intro, Jesus began to explain that the one who is truly happy , is lastingly happy, will look beyond things to that which counts for eternity.

Matthew 5:2–12 ESV

And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

While our reference to the Beatitudes in fresh in our minds, some of you might be interested to know that the terms “Beatitudes” comes from the Latin “beatitudo” meaning “blessedness”. The koine Greek word that Jesus used was - makarios - happy, to be envied. From Jesus’ perspective, these were spiritual attributes to be embraced and lived by faith.

Directing our attention to Psalm 1, our text for today, there might be a few of you would like to know where we are heading so that