The Way of the Righteous and the Wicked

Announcements

Just two announcements before we jump into our sermon this evening:

We’re still looking for people to volunteer in different ways throughout different ministries of the church:

First off, we’re still looking for a new treasurer to handle the church’s finances—for that position there are a few requirements, you need to be a member of the church in good standing with the ability to utilize a computer, you have to be able to count money efficiently, and you need to be willing to contact the bank on behalf of the church. You can contact me about that if you’re interested.

Secondly, we’re always looking for more help during our outreach events—every other week, we have a group of people at the Philipsburg Revitalization Corporation’s farmer’s market on the corner of Front and Pine Streets. We have people volunteering this weekend, but we do have a sign-up sheet at the back of the room at the YMCA that you can sign up on other weeks with. If you want any information, contact Natalie about it.

Third, on Sunday mornings, Natalie and I basically handle everything from Scripture reading to prayer and singing—that needs to change because our worship of Jesus is something that everyone is to be involved in. That means, that on Sunday morning, I’d like for other people to read Scripture, for other people to pray corporately, and for other people to join the worship team. If you have any interest in helping in any of that, please contact me about it as soon as possible. We worship God together as a group.

The one other announcement is just a reminder about Faith Night at the Altoona Curve. Tickets are $9 per person and are now available on a first come, first serve basis. I have 13 tickets remaining, contact me about ticket and game information.

As always, let me remind you to worship the LORD through your giving. To help you worship in your giving, we have two digital ways for you to do so: (1) you can text the number 84321 with your $[amount] and follow the text prompts or you can (2) visit us online at www.graceandpeacepa.com and select “giving” in the menu bar. Everything you give goes to the building up of our local church and the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ around the world.

Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Sermon

Introduction

I am excited to start a new series with you guys concerning one of the best known and best loved books in the Bible. It is a book that in our American culture, even those who aren’t too familiar with the Bible can at least point to something in the book of Psalms that they know (whether that’s Psalm 23, “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want” or Psalm 19, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork” or Psalm 42, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so pants my soul of you, O God.”) The Psalms speak to every emotion and every season of life, whether that’s a good season or what we would consider a bad season; and they’re all written in a way that is easily relatable and mostly understandable.

Before we jump into the Psalms, there is definitely some background information that would be beneficial for you to know. Usually at the start of a series, I spend a little bit of time talking about who wrote the book, where it was written from, and to whom it was written to, but the Psalms are a little different in that they were written by several different authors and from several different places. I will say that the ultimate purpose behind every single psalm is the same, though they accomplish that purpose through a few different means. The ultimate point of each Psalm is to lead God’s people to worship the LORD and it would behoove us to remember that as we work through each psalm.

So, let’s start by answering a few introductory questions:

Who wrote the Psalms? We often assume that David wrote the majority of the psalms, but in reality, David only wrote about half of the psalms (out of 150, we know for a fact that he wrote 75 of them). How do we know? Because the psalms in their superscription, usually tells us that David wrote them. You’ll see statements like, “A Psalm of David” or “Of David” or “A Maskil of David.” David’s Psalms would include Psalm 2-9, 11-32, 34-41, 51-65, 68-70, 86, 101, 103, 108-110, 122, 124, 133, 138-145. In most cases the Psalm itself tells us David wrote it, in the case of Psalm 2, we learn that David wrote it in Acts 4:25; and in the case of Psalm 95, we learn that David wrote it according to Hebrews 4:7. So that’s (like I said), half of the Psalms, but what about the rest of the Psalms?

12 of the Psalms are written by a man named Asaph and his family. Asaph was mentioned first in 1 Chronicles 6, in which David assigned a number of Levites to lead the worship of the Israelites. Asaph was one of these designated men and the Bible tells us that he was a skilled singer and poet. That skill in music was taught to his children and so his children continued in the leading of Israel’s worship. These include Psalms 50 and 73-83. We know that these are Psalms written by Asaph because the superscription of the Psalm tells us that it is “A Psalm of Asaph.”

11 of the Psalms are written by the sons of Korah and I do want to explain that these psalms are written by the sons of Korah not Korah himself. I’m emphasizing this, because remember with me that in Numbers 16, Korah along with 250 men rose up together to challenge the right of Moses and Aaron to the priesthood. Korah and these 250 men were rebellious against Moses and ultimately against God himself. And there’s a terrifying event that happens to these men in Numbers 16:28-35. The Bible says that Moses gathered the rebellious people together and the LORD had warned Moses to let all the rest of the Israelites know to get away from all of the rebels. And Moses calls out, “This is how you will know that the LORD has sent me to do all these things and that it was not my idea: IF these men die a natural death and suffer the fate of all mankind, then the LORD has not sent me. But if the LORD brings about something totally new, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them, . . . then you will know that these men have treated the LORD with contempt.” The Bible says that as soon as Moses finished saying this, the ground under them split apart and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and the earth closed over them and the rest of the rebellious people were consumed by fire. Even though Korah himself was destroyed, it is clear that Korah had children that were spared. And it is this group of sons that wrote of the psalms (which I think are some of the most beautiful expressions of gratitude and humility to God. These include Psalms 42, 44-49, 84-85, 87-88. They include lines like, “As the deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.” And Psalm 84:1, “How lovely is your dwelling place, O God.” And Psalm 46:1-3, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.” Knowing that Korah rebelled against God, but God was still willing to utilize Korah’s children to pen such beautiful psalms, truly shows us the redemptive work of God in the lives of his people.

Solomon wrote two of the psalms, both Psalm 72 and 127. I don’t think that I really need to explain who Solomon was, he was very literally the wisest man on earth and thus, it should not be surprising that both of his psalms speak of wisdom and also speak of various events that happened in his life.

Moses wrote Psalm 90, which reflects on the LORD being our dwelling place in all generations and asks for the favor of the LORD to be upon us.

Ethan the Ezrahite wrote Psalm 89. We don’t know too much about him other than what 1 Kings and 1 Chronicles teaches us. Ethan was a wise man (though not as wise as Solomon), he had four brothers. The Psalm itself emphasizes praise to God for the Davidic covenant, for God’s character and power, and God’s faithfulness to David and his descendents. Even in times of struggle, Psalm 89 teaches us to call upon the LORD.

And then the remaining 48 psalms are anonymous. We don’t know who wrote them, though there have been guesses as to who wrote them. In the case of the Psalms, authenticity doesn’t rely necessarily on the human author, but rather on the use of those psalms throughout Israel history.

When were the Psalms written? Because the Psalms were written by at least six people and because Moses is actually listed as one of the authors, that means that the Psalms would have been written over a time period of 1,000 years ranging from about 1440BC to about the 300s BC. Most of the Psalms were written during the lifetimes of David and Solomon (though again, that doesn’t mean that David wrote the majority of the psalms; only that the majority of the psalms were written when David was alive).

How were the Psalms used? I think you can tell by the name of the series, what the purpose of the Psalms were and still are. I’ve titled the whole series “Psalms: the Hymnal of the Israelites.” There might be a little bit of a confusion there in that hymnals didn’t exist when the psalms were written and technically, the collection of psalms has never been referred to as a hymnal—the proper term for the collection of psalms is the Psalter, but I’m utilizing that term hymnal to help you connect what the Psalms were for with our modern-day use of hymnals. So, what do we utilize hymnals for today? We utilize them for our musical worship of the LORD. What were (and technically are) the psalms for? They’re utilized for musical worship of the LORD. And you can see that through the superscriptions, that certain psalms were to be sung with certain instruments and other psalms were to be sung during certain events, which brings us to our last introductory question concerning the psalms for today:

How are the psalms arranged? As in, why are they in the order that they’re in? Is there (like our modern hymnals) different sections for different themes? Is there a specific order that they’re to be used in?

The book of Psalms again, isn’t like most of the other books in the Bible. Most of the books in the Bible are written in a chronological way, you can follow the text through the Gospel according to Matthew and find a mostly chronological account of the life of Jesus Christ. If you were to read it backwards, it wouldn’t make much sense. When you read Genesis or Exodus, you read it in a chronological way from the beginning to the end, if you read it from the end to the beginning, it wouldn’t make much sense. In the case of the Psalms, you can read them starting in chapter 150 and go backwards through the chapters. You can start in the middle if you want, or you can select one at random every day of the week, and it would still make complete sense.

So, the Psalms weren’t arranged in a chronological order and they aren’t necessarily intended to be read in a chronological order. So, how are they actually arranged?

We have the book of Psalms in one big book, but originally the book of Psalms were actually five different books.

Book 1: Psalm 1-41

Book 2: Psalm 42-72

Book 3: Psalm 73-89

Book 4: Psalm 90-106

Book 5: Psalm 107-150

We know this based off of two things: (1) The Dead Sea Scrolls, which is a set of Old Testament scrolls, separates the Psalms into five books; and (2) within the text itself, if you read the psalms carefully, you’ll notice that each section ends with a doxology or a song of praise.

The final verse of each of the five section concludes with a phrase like, “Praise the Lord!” or “Amen.”:

Psalm 41 (the end of the first book) ends with, “Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and Amen.”

Psalm 72 (the end of Book 2) ends with, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things. Blessed be his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory! Amen and Amen!

Psalm 89, “Blessed be the LORD forever! Amen and Amen!”

Psalm 106, “Blessed be the LROD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’ Praise the LORD.”

And Psalm 150, which ends the whole psalter ends as one big benedictory statement for all to “Praise the LORD!”

There is some debate as to why the psalms are arranged like this, but many scholars today believe that that each section of our book of Psalms, was originally one book given to a different section of Israel. Remember that Israel is a big country and that not all of the people of Israel are always able to be together to worship the LORD together.

The idea is that each group of Israelites would have their own collection of psalms to utilize for worship when they weren’t altogether—much like how if you go to different areas of the country today, there are hymns and hymnals that are different depending on the area of the country that your in, even in similar traditions.

So in our area, many churches that aren’t part of a large denomination utilize a green hymnal and quite frankly, I can’t remember the name of that hymnal. Where we lived in South Carolina, many churches utilized a hymnal called Majesty Hymns or the Rejoice Hymnal. Many of the songs between both areas are the same, but some songs were different because the area was influenced by different songs.

In a similar way, some of the psalms seem to share in their ideology—what they say is similar but they’re in a different book of psalms. Again, the idea is that some of the Israelites would have book 1, another group would have book 2, a third group would have book 3, and etc.

And during the life of Ezra, the Israelites made the effort to combine all five books into what we have today and added Psalm 1 and 150 to introduce and conclude the whole book of psalms as one.

Let’s take the remaining bit of time this evening, to look at Psalm 1, which serves as an introductory psalm to the whole book of Psalms. Psalm 1 is written by an anonymous author and it is an opening statement that draws our attention to two different types of people—the first psalm opens the whole psalter by contrasting the righteous man and the wicked man and it concludes by essentially encouraging the reading to eschew wickedness and seek righteousness.

Read with me Psalm 1:1-6, after which I’ll explain how we’ll divide up the text, and then we’ll dig into Scripture.

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.

As we study this passage together, we’re going to divide it into two parts, which I think you can see where the division is very easily: (1) Vs. 1-3, The Righteous Man, speaks of the man who seeks the LORD and delights in God’s law. The first three verses gives insight into the result of what delighting in the Law of God does for a person. (2) Vs. 4-6, The Wicked Man, then contrasts the righteous and the wicked with the intent of showing that righteousness is known by the LORD and wickedness will perish. Both sections will encourage us to seek righteousness and abstain from wickedness, which is a integral part of our worship of the LORD.

Prayer for Illumination

Read with me Psalm 1:1-3 to keep it fresh in our minds as we dig into the text:

The Righteous Man (1-3)

Psalm 1:1–3 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.

Remember with me that Psalm 1 was an introductory psalm to the whole Psalter and in its introduction it summarizes, compares, and contrasts the two different baths that mankind can take. Either man can choose to seek righteousness through the LORD or they can choose to seek wickedness against the LORD. As we start the text, the psalmist starts with the man who is righteous and he gives various descriptions of that person starting in Vs. 1:

He writes “Blessed is the man” and we really need to stop there, because I want us to have a clear understanding of what the word blessed means.

Often when we think of the term blessed, we don’t think of the Psalms, we actually think of the Sermon on the Mount. We often think of Jesus’ words when he says this in Luke 6:20-22, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man.”

But here’s the issue, even in the Beatitudes, many of us don’t have a good idea of what we mean by blessed. How do I know this? Because typically when we read through the Beatitudes, many people have a false idea of what it actually means and we think, “oh, if I want to be blessed, I need to be poor; or if I want to be satisfied, I need to be hungry now; if I want to laugh, I need to experience weeping now; but that’s not actually what the passage means and in the context of Psalm 1, it simply doesn’t make sense to think of the word blessed in that sense.

We tend to hyper-spiritualize the idea of being blessed, when in reality the idea of being blessed comes from a secular origin—in fact, unbelieving Greeks utilized the idea of being blessed to speak of what the gods experienced in happiness without suffering and labor. It eventually becomes known to describe any positive condition that a person experienced

But the biblical authors, when they utilized the term blessed, they had in mind the person who trusts God, who hopes for him and waits for him, the one who fears God and loves God. And in the biblical sense, when utilizing the term blessed to describe someone, it very literally means “happy” or “fortunate.”

So, in Psalm 1, what the psalmist is saying that this man is “happy” or “fortunate,” but the psalmist doesn’t stop his description of the man by saying that he’s happy or fortunate, he continues with some descriptions of this man. The Psalmist describes the man in four ways and then describes what the result of this man’s descriptions is.

Starting in Vs. 1, the psalmist says that this man does not “[walk] . . . in the counsel of the wicked, nor [does he stand] in the way of sinners, nor [does he sit] in the seat of scoffers.” And in these three sections, there’s actually a progression in which each parallel unit becomes more intense.

As you read the verse, the Bible starts with the generic term wicked, which typically refers to all who have yet to believe (whether or not they have rejected God intentionally), it then moves to sinners, which typically refers to those who intentionally sin, and then scoffers, which would be those who aren’t just wicked and aren’t just sinners, but those who openly ridicule God (think of this as those who are utterly opposed to God and openly fights against God—think of people like Richard Dawkins and Bill Nye). There’s a progression of more intense wickedness in Vs. 1.

We’re given three verbs in vs. 1, walks, stands, and sits. Each one representing which represent a progression as well. To walk in the counsel of the wicked involves the idea of thinking and being influenced by the wicked. To stand in the way of sinners involves the idea of behaving like sinners, and to sit in the seat of scoffers gives the impression of belonging and making an alliance with those who scoff against the LORD.

Derek Kidner, “The three complete phrases show three aspects . . . of departure from God, by portraying conformity to this world at three different levels: accepting its advice, being party to its ways, and adopting the most fatal of its attitudes.”

The Bible in Psalm 1 is saying that the person who is not characterized by thinking, acting, and belonging to the wicked are happy or they’re fortunate.

But it’s not just the rejection of wickedness that makes them fortunate—we’ve looked at three negative attributes in the sense that the one who is blessed is not walking in the counsel of the wicked and he is not standing in the way of sinners and he is not sitting in the seat of scoffers, but there’s a positive attribute here as well. What is it? Vs. 2, “But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.”

The word translated as law can really be translated as all of God’s instructions and the idea is a juxtaposition between God’s instructions and the counsel of the wicked.

Or put differently, there is a contrast here between thinking like a wicked person and thinking according to God’s truth.

Or put another way yet, the psalmist is developing a theme that whatever shapes a person’s mind shapes the person’s life.

A wicked person has a mind that’s been shaped by the counsel of the wicked, the way of sinners, and the seat of scoffers; whereas the blessed man has a mind that’s been shaped by the instructions of the LORD.

How can we tell that this passage is referring to the shaping of his thoughts by the instructions of the LORD? Re-read Vs. 2, “But [the man’s] delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.”

The idea of delighting in the law of the LORD is the idea of loving God’s law and enjoying God’s law—it isn’t a chore to read the law of God, it is a privilege and a pleasure to engulf oneself in the law of God. And what Psalm 1:2 is saying that the one who finds the reading of God’s instructions a joy, a privilege, and a pleasure is blessed.

The idea is for the individual to delight in God’s Word so much that he can’t help but to meditate on it day and night—in our modern world, there is a false idea of what meditation is. The modern-day new age movement has taught that meditation is the idea of emptying your mind of all thoughts, which supposedly helps you to find peace; but when the Bible speaks of meditating, it speaks of meditating on God’s Word, which is the opposite of emptying your mind. Instead, you are to fill you mind with God’s Word.

Blessed is the man who delights in God’s Word and meditates on it day and night—blessed is the one who constantly fills his mind with the Word of God, blessed is the one who constantly reflects on the Word of God, blessed is the one who delights in God’s instruction.

Why is this person blessed? Vs. 3, because “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.”

This is very obviously a simile in that the person isn’t literally a tree planted by water, but rather the image of a tree planted by streams of water provides imagery into what a person who meditates on the Law of God and delights in his instruction is like.

So, we have to consider what the imagery means. We live in an area of the country in which there are thousands and thousands of trees that have been growing for several hundred years and longer than that. None of these trees would exist if it weren’t for the underground system of tree roots that keep the trees grounded. If it weren’t for the vast network of underground roots, the trees would be completely unstable.

In California, there’s a national park called Sequoia National Park in which there is 404,000 acres of land blanketed in giant sequoia trees. Some of the giant sequoia trees in that part of the world are 30 feet in diameter, with an average height of 250-275 feet.

I mention this, because those giant sequoia trees utilize a similar root system to the thousands of trees that we have in Pennsylvania—and just like the trees in Pennsylvania, without those roots, they couldn’t stand.

The reason for the tree being planted by streams of water is for the sustenance that the water brings. The water brings nutrients that the tree needs to continue to grow and whereas there are nutrients in rain water, planting a tree by a stream of water provides more consistent sustenance.

The imagery that the psalmist is utilizing is that the man who delights in the law of the LORD and meditates on it day and night has a root system that both stabilizes him and nourishes him.

And as that person is stabilized in the law of the LORD and as that person is nourished by the Law of the LORD there is fruit and prosperity.

Now I do want to make a disclaimer, because the sense of prosperity that Psalm 1 is speaking of has nothing to do with what we call the prosperity gospel, which is heretical nonsense propagated by false teachers. Psalm 1 is not about living your best life now.

The prosperity and fruit in Psalm 1 that’s a result of being rooted in the Law of the LORD is that of the prosperity of following the Law of the LORD. When the psalmist says, “in all that he does, he prospers,” he isn’t referring to earthly prosperity, but rather spiritual prosperity.

That there is fruit and prosperity for the one who seeks to do the will of God through the Word of God.

For the one who meditates and delights in the Law of the LORD, he has nourishment and stability that helps him to produce fruit and helps him from withering, and helps him to prosperously serve the LORD.

This is not material prosperity, but rather spiritual prosperity as a result of being rooted in the truth.

Now remember, the psalmist is contrasting the wicked and the righteous. So far, he’s really only spoken about the righteous. He closes off the chapter by speaking of the wicked. Read with me Psalm 1:4-6.

The Wicked Man (4-6)

Psalm 1:4–6 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; 6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

Unlike the one who meditates day and night on the law of the LORD and delights in God’s Word, the wicked are not so. Unlike the one who is like a tree planted by streams of water, who is fruitful, and prosperous; the wicked are “like chaff that the wind drives away.”

Chaff is the substance on plants that we typically don’t utilize in our own food. This would include the husks of corn or other seeds that we separate from the actual food through what’s called winnowing or threshing.

This isn’t the only time that Scripture talks about the wicked being like chaff—in the Parable of the Weeds (Matt. 13:24-30), Jesus tells of a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while he was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat. When the plants grew, the wheat grew amongst the weeds and when his servants asked if they should pull out the weeds, he tells them not to so that they don’t accidently pull up the wheat with the weeds. They were to harvest them both when they had finished growing and the weeds were to be bound up and burned.

When Jesus explains the meaning of this parable, he says that the one who sows good seeds is the Son of Man and the good seeds are the sons of the Kingdom of God. The weeds are the children of the evil one sown by the devil. At the end of this age, the reapers will gather together the harvest and the wicked will be burned with fire. The righteous will live.

Whereas the blessed man who is righteous shall prosper and bear fruit, the wicked will be blown away—they can’t stand because they have no stability or nourishment in the truth of God or in the law of the LORD.

Rather, as Vs. 1 says, their counsel is of the wicked, their way is the way of sinners, they sit in the seat of scoffers.

And there is no true spiritual nourishment in thinking, acting, and behaving like unbelievers.

In fact, the psalmist continues and says in vs. 5, “Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;”

Because the wicked are like the chaff that the wind drives away, the wicked will be “unable to stand in the judgment.”

The wording of this verse can be a little tricky in that it might give the impression to someone who isn’t carefully reading the verse the impression that the wicked will not face judgment, but what the verse is actually saying is that when the wicked are at their judgment, they won’t have a defense to stand on.

It almost gives the imagery of standing before the judge and when the judge asks for the defense to defend himself, the wicked won’t have a defense—they will be condemned for their wickedness.

Because the wicked are like the chaff that the wind drives away, “sinners [will not be] in the congregation of the righteous.”

We have in our modern-day world the concept of universalism, that no matter what religion someone believes, they will find God.

This verse contradicts the universalist hope in that we’re told that anyone who is a sinner won’t be in the congregation of the righteous. Romans teaches us that all who are without Jesus Christ are sinners that have fallen short of the glory of God.

Belief in God and reconciliation through Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven—there aren’t multiple paths to God, Jesus is the one path. All other paths are wicked.

You cannot follow the path of wickedness and be considered righteous.

To follow wickedness rather than righteousness put you in opposition to God

To follow wickedness rather than righteousness leads you to a path of destruction and despair

And those that are following a wicked path will perish, Vs. 6, “For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.”

As we move into our application, I want to do our application in two ways: (1) I want to utilize and illustration to help drive the overarching point of the passage and then (2) I want us to look at specific application from the text itself.

Application

Application by illustration:

This passage speaks of the way of the wicked and the way of the righteous and I can’t help but to think of both of these ways as being a path in the woods. Consider with me that you’re walking through Black Moshannon State Park or Prince Gallitzen State Park; and you get to a point in the path where there’s a fork in the road. You can’t turn back, you have to keep going forward.

One of these paths is narrow and at times seem precarious—there isn’t much room on that path, but the sign on the path says that that is the direction towards righteousness and life.

The second of the path is quite large and broad, it’s almost as if they planned to put a six lane highway on the path and quite frankly, the path itself looks smoother—there is a sign on this path but it looks as if someone had scratched out the original name and replaced it with another.

If you were to take that larger, smoother, and easier path, what you would find is that when you got to the end of the road, there is nothing but destruction and death.

If you choose to take the narrow road, that isn’t as smooth and might seem precarious, what you would find is that when you get to the end of the road, there truly is life and righteousness.

If you are a Christian, you have already chosen to take the narrow, sometimes precarious, and bumpy road. The Bible says that this road “leads to life, and few find it.”

The road is narrow, it is precarious (I can’t help but to think of the road that the hobbits in Lord of the Rings take to get to Mount Doom)

And what you find as you travel down this road is that you will still face situations that can distract you, that can bog you down, that can cause you to despair

Much like the main character in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, you will face demons, you will fight against the flesh, and you will struggle

But in the end, you will find that this path leads to the Celestial City and all of the dangers that you’ve faced in this life, will be utterly worth it.

The path for the righteous still experiences hardship, but the end is far better than the destruction promised to the wicked.

So, how do you apply this?

Be sure that you’re on the righteous path and not the wicked path—repent of your sins, call out to the name of Jesus, and believe in him. That’s what initially puts you on the path of righteousness

Be sure that you don’t get distracted by hardships in life and wicked desire—Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress was tempted to take the easy way out, he was tempted in Vanity Fair, and he was led astray by false teaching

But it was the fact that he continued on the path and made it into the Celestial City that made the whole journey worth it.

Repent from your sins, believe in Jesus and don’t get distracted by the wickedness around you. You’re on your way to the Kingdom of God and the New City and New Earth.

Now, application specific to the passage, is a little more easy to determine:

Vs. 1-3, which are the verses written concerning the blessed man who walks in righteousness. There is one application that I want to draw from these verses:

Vs. 1, speaks of the blessed man not walking in the counsel of the wicked, not standing in the way of sinners, and not sitting in the seat of scoffers. The idea being that the blessed man doesn’t act like the wicked, he doesn’t entertain the thoughts of sinners, and he doesn’t align himself with those who ridicule God. So, the application is simple:

Do you as a believer, take counsel from unbelievers? Do you as a believer, entertain the thoughts of sinners? Do you as a believer, align yourself with those who ridicule God? Let me encourage you to ask yourself these questions every day with every decision:

Is this what God says or is this what the world says?

Is this something that believers should be thinking or is this something that unbelievers think about?

Is this a position that believers can take or is this a position that only unbelievers can take?

And in each instance in which you find yourself acting or thinking like an unbeliever, you need to repent. Romans 12:1-2 tells us to not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. As a Christian, you cannot think and behave like an unbeliever, you have to think and act like a Christian.

How do we do that? Psalm 1:2 tells us, “His delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.”

How do we determine what God says or what the world thinks?

How do we determine whether we should be thinking about something?

How do we determine if our position is one that a believe should have?

It’s quite simple, delight in the law of the LORD, meditate on God’s Word day and night.

Fill your mind with Scripture and you will be able to determine what God says from what the world thinks, you’ll be able to discern whether what you’re thinking is correct, and you’ll be able to have proper, biblical positions.

Take everything in your life and put it through the filter of Scripture—are you walking like the wicked or are you walking like the righteous and then repent from all that is wicked, delight in God’s Word and meditate on it day and night.

Vs. 4-6, which speaks of the way of the wicked. That the wicked will be judged and they will perish for their wickedness. There’s two application points for this final section:

Know that despite what the wicked thinks, there aren’t additional ways to heaven—if you don’t believe in Jesus Christ, you are on the path of wickedness, which leads to destruction. God doesn’t just forgive everyone, he only forgives those that repent.

So be sure that you are have repented from your sins, believed in Jesus, and are on the path that leads to life and righteousness

Don’t allow anyone to convince you that all paths lead to the same place—any path other than Jesus leads to destruction.

Put simply, what Psalm 1 teaches us as it opens the whole book of psalms is this: (1) there are two paths—one that leads to life and the other that leads to death, (2) if you’re a believer, you’re on the path that leads to death—so stop thinking, acting, and behaving like the wicked, and (3) you determine what’s right and wrong through delighting in God’s Word and meditating on his truth.

Or put another way, Psalm 1 opens the book of psalms by confronting which way in life you’re going and be explicitly stating that the only right way is the way that God has set before those who believe in him as given in his Word, which we should love, learn, and live.

Pastoral Prayer