Bible Intake

Good morning church. It’s so good to be here with you all today! If you are new here, we want to say WELCOME! We are pumped you’re here. And we have a gift for you. If you will take that card from the back of the seat in front of you, fill it out and drop it by Next Steps in the lobby, they will hook you up with a free tshirt and some info about our church! Please do that!

This morning we are continuing in this study called Rhythms: spiritual disciplines in everyday life.We will look at Psalm 1, go on and turn there.

Last week was just an introduction of sorts. And if you were here Wednesday night, our groups looked at 1 Corinthians 9:24-27. They discussed the fact that everyone in the world is striving after a prize. There is something they want that is driving every decision and behavior in their life. But every one of those prizes are just temporary! They will not last. Paul comes on the scene and says, But we (Christians) have an imperishable prize, an eternal medal that we have already received for which we must live now! We have an eternal relationship with God through Christ that should be driving everything for us! Our decisions and our behavior.

The Goal of looking like Jesus is the end. And just like good competitors in athletic events, we must be willing to discipline ourselves to that end!

That is where spiritual disciplines come in! We are going to talk about bible reading, meditation, scripture memory, prayer, fasting, silence/solitude, evangelism, serving, and maybe a couple others. But these are the habits, the RHYTHMS that we need to work into our lives if we are to strive properly for the prize.

Let me read all of Psalm 1 (it’s only six verses, don’t grumble), then I will pray, and we will walk back through it together, alright?

Psalm 1 CSB

How happy is the one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked or stand in the pathway with sinners or sit in the company of mockers! Instead, his delight is in the Lord’s instruction, and he meditates on it day and night. He is like a tree planted beside flowing streams that bears its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. The wicked are not like this; instead, they are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand up in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to ruin.

PRAY

This is a pretty simple Psalm. Not too long. Not too many different parts. But BOY is there a lot going on here! Many theologians view Psalm 1 and 2 as an introduction to the rest of the Psalms. They lay out a basic thesis for what comes after.

We need to remember before we dive in that the Psalms are ancient forms of Hebrew poetry. In light of that, we read them differently than we read the Gospel of John in our last sermon series. Or as we did Paul’s letter to Timothy last week! It is poetry, and we need to read it carefully.

Hebrew poetry is like our poetry in some ways and not necessarily in others. Don’t look for rhyming words, instead look for rhyming images. Much of Hebrew poetry is about comparing two or more images.

And that’s what we have going on here in Psalm 1! The first thing I want to take note of is...

1. The Comparison

The Psalmist really paints for us two very different images here as an effort to drive his point home. It has at least three parts...

A. 2 People

Much of Hebrew poetry is laying out different ways a person can choose to live. This Psalm is doing that. The first person is not really labeled, but it would assume by verse 5 that the person is “righteous.”

Psalm 1:1 CSB

How happy is the one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked or stand in the pathway with sinners or sit in the company of mockers!

This person is someone who doesn’t hang out with wicked, sinners, or mockers. The Psalmist says that they are HAPPY. This Hebrew word is used 44 times in the OT and gets most often translated in this version of the Bible as HAPPY, but also JOYFUL and BLESSED.

Don’t think of this word as synonymous with the same as #blessed. That’s a different thing. Y’all familiar with this term?

#Blessed is what you post on social media along with a picture of something good in your life: your family, your new house, your first paycheck from your new job, on a night out with your friends, and any other number of things.

But the biblical word blessed is used in ways that we wouldn’t post on social.

Job 5:17 CSB

See how happy is the person whom God corrects; so do not reject the discipline of the Almighty.

Psalm 41:1 CSB

Happy is one who is considerate of the poor; the Lord will save him in a day of adversity.

Psalm 94:12 CSB

Lord, how happy is anyone you discipline and teach from your law

Proverbs 28:14 CSB

Happy is the one who is always reverent, but one who hardens his heart falls into trouble.

There is more here than possession, good job, family, right? Then if you consider the NT, Jesus blows the idea up big time in the sermon on the mount!

Blessed is the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the humble, the merciful, among others, and ends on blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness.

You gonna post #blessed about that? You got made fun of because of your loving stance in Christ… #blessed? Tears running down your face as you grieve… #blessed?

There seems to be a deeper spiritual meaning to this word HAPPY or BLESSED in Psalm 1. And it’s this spiritual happiness that the “righteous” will experience.

But there is another person used here in this poetry.

Notice the Wicked in verse 5...

Psalm 1:5 CSB

Therefore the wicked will not stand up in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

So, you have these two different ways to live presented here: the way of the righteous or the way of the wicked.

To help us understand the two people, the Psalmist also gives us...

B. 2 Pictures

Did you notice this when we walked through the text? What picture was given to describe the life of the righteous?

A tree, right?

Psalm 1:3 CSB

He is like a tree planted beside flowing streams that bears its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.

Notice this… A tree planted beside flowing streams that is bearing fruit and it’s full of healthy leaves!

That is what the one who is righteous looks like! The idea in the word “planted” is that it is not a seed planted, but a tree that is transplanted or at least a small sapling that is planted there next to the stream. The righteous person is not effective and productive on its own. The focus here is on the stream! The tree has been planted next to a life-giving stream.

We will talk about more in just a bit...

But what about the other picture. What are the wicked like?

Psalm 1:4 CSB

The wicked are not like this; instead, they are like chaff that the wind blows away.

They are like chaff. Some of you, know exactly what this is because you have a little better working knowledge of agricultural terms than others. But I don’t want to assume you do.

When grain is harvested, the heads (the instead part we need) are surrounded by the useless shell called chaff. And it needs to be separated. Until the industrial revolution, the way man has prepared grain after harvesting was by first THRESHING, then WINNOWING all by hand.

Alright, thresh means to stomp your feet literally. In agriculture, the grain would be tied up and beaten or even slammed down on a flat hard surface, called a threshing floor. This was to break up the more fragile chaff around the outside and loosen it. Once the grain was properly threshed...

It would then be tossed into the air on a slightly windy day. The heads are heavier and would fall back to the ground, but the chaff being lighter would be blown away. Once winnowing was complete, the heads could be gathered for grinding.

The chaff would be blown everywhere or if it was an indoor threshing floor, it might be swept up and burned. But either way, it had no purpose.

Before we move to part C of this, I have a disheartening thing to point out…

Notice the singular nature of the righteous one. The pronouns are singular, “his delight, he meditates, he is like a tree, he prospers.”

But what about the wicked? They are like chaff...

If you have trusted in Jesus, you have already experienced this

These two pictures paint a pretty clear picture of what the Psalmist believes about the way we choose to live our lives. We see that in the two promises made here as well.

C. 2 Promises

Let’s look at both promises...

Psalm 1:6 CSB

For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to ruin.

Notice what is said of the righteous… The Lord watches over their way, their path, their life. This phrase “watches over” is the word YADA in Hebrew. Its most basic translation is the word KNOW. It’s an intimate knowledge, not just a bird’s eye view like the God of every other religion has. It is an intimate knowing. A sovereign yet personal knowledge of the path.

It’s important to note that the text doesn’t say the way of the righteous will be easy. Or that it will be fun and full of happy days. It simply says that YAHWEH would watch over their way.

Difficult days will come. Heartache will come. Fights, arguments, broken relationships, may come. But God is watching over the way of the righteous.

But what about the way of the wicked. Their way leads to ruin. As the Psalmist has already said, they will be blown away. There is no good end for them. There is no God watching over them in an intimate way. Does God see their path? Absolutely! But they are not KNOWN by him in the way that we see fleshed out throughout Scripture.

This is the poem that begins the series of poems called Psalms. Over and over, these themes return.

The point of the Psalm is not hard to comprehend. Right? Be on the right path that the Lord watches over! Be the tree planted by streams of water that bears fruit.

But what is the kicker? What is it that separates these two paths? Many of the times in our lives when we head down the path of the wicked, we aren’t choosing that path willingly. We are not looking at the evidence here, “Hmmm. This way seems to end in destruction and is utterly pointless. Let’s go that way!”

Most often we are misguided by our own desires and mind that are both sinful and find ourselves headed the wrong path without realizing the destination!

So, what is the Cause? What is the deciding factor between the two paths?

2. The Cause

To see this, we need to talk literature for a second. If you find science the most interesting, feel free to tune me out for a moment. If you are intrigued most by history, check your email. If you really like math, find the square root of 3,289. But if you really like literature, this is for you!

That was all a joke, no matter what, pay attention!

There is a literary device called a chiastic structure. Comes from the Greek word CHI that is shaped like an X. This is when a paragraph or poem is laid out in a reciprocal way. Most often ABBA. But it can be ABCCBA as in Matthew 6:24.

Best way to explain is to show you.

(on one slide)

A   No one can serve two masters;

B   since either he will hate one

C   and love the other,

C′ or he will be devoted to one

B′ and despise the other.

A′ You cannot serve God and money

Matthew 6:24.

Do you see how Jesus works his way to an idea, then backs his way back out the same way? It may seem like some nerdy stuff, but it has been a common form of writing and speaking through most of history and is often used to prove a point. Often times, the key to understanding can be found in what isn’t part of the chiasm. Like in Psalm 1...

As we look at verse 1, notice how it parallels verse 5...

The righteous are seen walking, standing, and sitting. Then the wicked are seen not standing and not sitting. That’s the As

Then you have verses 3 and 4 that mirror each other. That’s where we have part B, right? These visual pictures: the tree and the chaff. Verse 6 seems to be a summary at the end, but verse 2 is just stuck oddly in the midst of this structure. I want to argue that it’s because it is precisely the key to it all! The cause of the wicked’s downfall and in turn, the cause of the righteous person’s closeness to God!

Psalm 1:2 CSB

Instead, his delight is in the Lord’s instruction, and he meditates on it day and night.

What is the key to the path? Delighting in Yahweh’s instruction? The word in Hebrew is the word TORAH! Which for the Jew could mean just instruction or teaching, but it also represented the Scriptures!

The Psalmist paints this beautiful chiastic image for us in such a way to urge us to be on the right path, and then throws the key in the middle: loving God’s Word!

If you and I desire to follow the righteous path in any way, we must submit ourselves to the Word of God! But not out of duty! THe word for delight.... means DELIGHT! Right? We need to find God’s Word exciting! And if you are not there right now, ask God to create in you that very emotion for God’s word. And then start diving in to it!

We will talk more about this idea of “meditation” Wednesday night in our groups, but let’s look lastly at...

3. The Conclusion

If verse 2 is the hook that the rest of this balances on, then let’s look back at each of the parts I mentioned in point one in light of God’s Word...

A. 2 People (God’s word provides wisdom)

Why would a righteous person not associate with the wicked, with sinners, and with scoffers? Because he is informed by the counsel of God rather than the world. He or she sees the path that they are on because of a knowledge of God’s Word!

In verse 5, the Psalmist said that the wicked sinners will not sit in the assembly of the righteous. WHY? Because they sought out the ever shifting and subjective wisdom of man as opposed to the wisdom of God in his Word.

Do you see that God’s Word provides wisdom?

B. 2 Pictures (God’s word provides a sturdy foundation)

Why is the righteous like a tree? Because he is rooted and grounded in the truth of God’s Word.

Why is the wicked like chaff? Because they have failed to anchor themselves in truth.

C. 2 Promises (God’s word stands the test of time)

Why does God know the way of the righteous? Because the righteous’ ways are God’s ways!

Why will the way of the wicked perish? Because only God’s word, not man’s word, will stand forever.

Church, there is before every one of us an opportunity each and every day to follow a particular path.

Invitation