Flourish or Fade?

The Blessed

Who is not Blessed?

Those who walk in the counsel of the wicked

Those who stand in sin

Those who sit and scoff

Who is Blessed?

The man who meditates upon the law of the Lord

Law

Torah- Statute, command. Spoken or written word. We don’t look to nature for our inspiration, but to what God has spoken directly to us. So the Law is God’s word given as instruction through speech or writing.

Meditation

Hebrew word means to murmur, to talk to oneself. This word would be used with the growling of an animal, or the cooing of doves. The idea is you are so saturated with God’s law that you are speaking the truth to yourself, to your soul … day and night implies that you are always doing it (not excluding dawn or twilight). So simply, meditation is reciting truth to oneself. But it is also much more than that. There’s a sense in which you are so familiar with it, that you have it memorized, or that you have wrestled and pondered upon the meaning deeply. May we all learn to wrestle through God’s word and consider its implication deeply.

To Flourish

What does it look like if we meditate upon the law of the Lord?

Planted- permanence

Fruit- productivity

Leaf- longevity

Work- prosperity

Prosperity in all things

What does this phrase mean?

In other parts of scripture, we see it reversed. The evil prosper and the righteous suffer:

Psalm 37:7 ESV

Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices!

Psalm 119:67 ESV

Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word.

Psalm 119:71 ESV

It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.

Psalm 119:75 ESV

I know, O Lord, that your rules are righteous, and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.

So it seems, from the human perspective, that the wicked do prosper. So how does this line of scripture make sense?

The Lord is looking at eternal prosperity, which might mean temporary loss so that you may gain.

But prosperity, reward, comes to those who hope through Christ

Therefore, our prosperity doesn’t necessarily imply temporary reward, but it shows our eternal reward.

There are preachers who would claim that the gospel of Christ will grant you every desire of your heart in the here and now. This is a false gospel, the prosperity gospel. Scripture does not teach this. But what scripture does teach is the prosperity of those who find new life in Christ:

Romans 8:32–37 ESV

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Though we have received God’s blessing, we still undergo trials and hardship and persecution, even death. But we are more than conquerors. The greater reward, is to have eternal blessing in Christ.

To Fade

What if we don’t follow the law of the Lord?

Like chaff- temporary, arbitrary

Will not stand in the judgment- doom and death

Will not be in the congregation of the righteous

Their way shall perish- a fake promise with a bitter reward

The Way Forward

Meditate on the Law of the Lord, day and night. Dig your teeth into the meat. Pick the bones.

John 15:1–11 ESV

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

Do not turn toward the easy promise of sin. Alluring, does not end well.

Be encouraged that the wicked and that evil do not win. There is an end to pain, to suffering, to persecution, to injustice.

Preach Christ crucified and raised to those who are on the path to eternal punishment. We want to see others with us in the congregation of the righteous. We were once all sinners, but God has made us alive so that we may experience his blessing and to share his blessing with others.

Matthew 28:18–20 ESV

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

God does not abandon us in our mission. When we know his instruction and we are seeking to live it out, he does not forsake us.