The Pathway to Blessing

Psalm 1:1-6

This sermon begins our Psalms preaching series called “Guided by a Sovereign God.”

In the Spring of 1915, Robert Frost sent a poem to his friend, Edward Thomas. This poem envisioned the proverbial “fork in the road” that we all face when we make consequential decisions. The path you take in life will make all the difference in determining the kind of person you will become and how your life will turn out, whether for good or bad.

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

This poem reminds me of an even more significant poem. It opens the Old Testament collection of poems called Psalms. Psalms opens with a proverbial fork in the road. Will you, the reader, follow ungodly guidance or God’s instruction? Which path are you walking on today? That’s the question to ask as we journey through the Psalms together.

Though Psalms is a book of songs, poems, and prayers directed to God, they are even more importantly a collection of directions to us from God. The Psalms teach us how to travel through life as God’s people, from promise, through pain, and to triumph. Which road will you choose? Will follow God’s instructions?

Ironically, a large percentage of the Psalms focus on poetic expressions of the excruciating pain, pressures, and problems people experience when they follow God. And the Psalms illustrate this difficult journey of faith by providing artistic insights into the story of the nation of Israel, with whom we can empathize as followers of Christ.

Did you know that Psalms is arranged into five “books” or collections? Each of these books ends with “blessed be the Lord” or “praise the Lord” (41:13; 72:18; 89:52; 106:48; 150:6), and the content and order of these books paints a poetic and instructive mural of God guiding his people through history.

Books 1-2 (1-41; 42-72) reflect on the reigns of David and Solomon over the united kingdom.

Book 3 (73-89) reflects on the dark days of the divided kingdom and their eventual collapse.

Book 4 (90-106) reflects on the years when Israel was exiled in the distant pagan land of Babylon.

Book 5 (107-150) celebrates Israel’s eventual return to the Promised Land and foreshadows the final triumph of all God’s people.

What’s fascinating about this overview of Psalms is that though the opening Psalm strikes a positive note that guarantees success to those who follow the path of God’s instruction, it also paints a mural that pictures a long, difficult journey textured with broad brushstrokes of suffering and pain, many questions, many prayers, and many tears.

No matter how frequently or deeply we struggle and suffer along the pathway of life, we know we are guided by a sovereign God – and that makes all the difference.

Like King David who wrote many of these psalms, esp. in the first two books, we know that God promised him ultimate triumph over evil and a kingdom that would last forever.

With this overview in mind, let’s take a closer look at the two roads that open before us in life as we begin our journey together through Book 1 of the Psalms.

As we walk through Psalms, I will follow an approach which I will describe for you up front. Since the Psalms are written as poetry, I will do my best to respect each psalm as poetry when I preach it. To do so, I will not follow a traditional speaking outline. Instead, I will:

Move through each Psalm by giving attention to its smaller poetic units of thought which build upon each other and relate to each other in various ways, being sensitive to how Hebrew poetry works.

Offer key observations from each Psalm while also attempting to emphasize the primary theme and message in view.

Attempt to apply this theme and message either to our personal lives, our shared life together as a church, or both.

Let’s begin!

Psalm 1 opens by reminding the reader that those who follow the instruction provided by God in his Word will succeed in both this life and especially the life to come. Those who reject God’s instruction, however, will not escape his judgment. To discover this success God offers, a person must choose the guidance that God’s Word offers over the advice offered by people who are not following God.

A blessed life requires saying no to ungodly guidance. (v. 1)

Happy is the man who has

not walked after the advice of wicked people,

nor stood in the path of sinners,

nor sat down in the house of scoffers.

As much as we like to pretend that we’re independent people who make our own autonomous decisions, we’re not as independent as we presume. We follow the guidance and influence of someone else one way or the other, and the guidance we choose leads us down only one of two pathways in life.

Psa 1:1-2 introduces each of the two paths we may follow: the pathway of ungodly guidance or the pathway of divine instruction. What’s important to emphasize here is that there isn’t a third option. We either follow God and his ways or we follow ungodly ways. We must choose and do choose one or the other. In fact, that’s what you’re doing today, and just because you may be sitting through a sermon at church doesn’t mean you’re following God’s instruction.

Psalm 1 (and the entire collection of Psalms) opens by announcing the blessed state of the person who follows the right path. Blessed here describes a deep, genuine, lasting happiness, not the fleeting happiness of a momentary pleasure but the happiness of a person who has been fully and permanently satisfied for real. As the Psalms will reveal, we can only experience such complete and lasting satisfaction when we submit ourselves to God as our king and follow his instruction.

To describe this happy experience, the psalm first introduces the source of such happiness. And to do this, it identifies the wrong source first, the source from which we naturally and normally look for our happiness and do not find it – the people of the world.

This psalm describes the people of the world in three ways.

Wicked (ungodly) describes the condition of people in the world – they have no close, personal relationship with God. They are without God.

Sinners describes the behavior of people in the world – they disobey God by their actions and lifestyle. They are missing God’s mark for their lives.

Scoffers describes the attitude of people in the world – they speak out against God and his people. They disagree strongly with God and his ways.

These words increase with intensity and paint a clear and vivid picture for us. When you get your advice, values, and worldview from ungodly people, you do not receive objective, unbiased advice. You get advice from people who have no connection to God, are living opposite of what God intends, and are hostile to God.

The verbs in these opening verses also increase in force.

Walk portrays a general admiration and experimentation with a lifestyle that mimics people who have no relationship with God. Advice describes the moral and ethical values that ungodly people embrace and teach.

Stand portrays a more deliberate choice to follow the advice and guidance of people who are disobeying God. Way refers to the lifestyle and daily habits that ungodly people practice.

Sit portrays an even more deliberate choice to fully embrace an ungodly lifestyle and worldview which disagrees strongly with God and his ways. House (or seat) refers to close and intimate cooperation with ungodly people in achieving their goals.

With this progression, we move from (a) experimentation to (b) participation to (c) collusion. When we follow this path, one stage of the journey leads to another. As we pattern our lives after ungodly people and take our cues from them, we will not be blessed, happy, or satisfied in any meaningful way. Only when we say no and turn away from such influences can we enjoy genuine, lasting happiness.

Are you experimenting with, identifying with, or colluding with ungodly people and their advice as you move forward on the pathway of life?

A blessed life requires devotion to divine instruction. (v. 2)

Instead, he delights in the teaching of Yahweh,

and on this teaching, he murmurs day and night.

After explaining the kind of guidance and influence that a truly happy person refuses to follow, Psa 1:2 describes this person’s attitude and behavior towards the Word of God, which is the exclusive, singular alternative to ungodly advice and values.

This psalm refers to a superior source of guidance as the law or teaching of Yahweh.

When I say Yahweh I am referring to God’s personal name. This name emphasizes God’s personal relationship with his people as well as his supreme majesty and glory as our Creator and King.

Teaching here refers to Scripture, which is the written words that God has revealed to us in the Bible. At the time this Psalm was written, this word referred primarily to the Torah, Genesis through Deuteronomy. Today God’s Word tells us so much more, from Genesis to Revelation.

Delight here describes an attitude opposite of scoffing. A genuinely happy person doesn’t resent God’s Word, she enjoys it! Do you enjoy the teaching of God’s Word?

The evidence that a person enjoys God’s Word appears in her daily thoughts and words. The word meditatemay be translated more literally as mumble, murmur, or mutter. It describes someone who talks to herself quietly but out loud, moving her lips and repeating key concepts and phrases as she mulls them over in her heart and mind.

Meditating here does not describe a formal habit or ritual so much as it describes the result of an inner heart attitude. As Christ himself taught, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matt 12:34). A person who enjoys God’s Word and seeks God’s Word for guidance in life will think about God’s Word frequently and mull it over in her mind and mouth a lot. Rather than think about what other people (esp. ungodly people) have to say, she thinks about what God has to say. That’s how she lives her life.

To summarize Psa 1:1-2, if you want to enjoy true and lasting happiness, you must detach yourself from the world and devote yourself to the Word.

Is this evidence in your life? Are you delighting in God’s Word? Are you thinking about it throughout the day and night and mulling it over in your heart and mind as you reach conclusions and make decisions? If not, then you’re probably following the pathway of ungodly counsel instead.

God’s instruction leads to genuine, lasting success. (v. 3)

He will be like a tree planted by channels of water,

that bears its fruit in its season,

and its leaf does not wither.

And in all that he does he will succeed.

Psa 1:3-4 illustrates what happens when we follow either of the two paths introduced to us in Psa 1:1-2, and the illustration God chooses is a tree.

This is a timeless, treasured illustration which reminds us of the abundant fruitful trees in God’s original creation, in the Garden of Eden, and it also reminds us of the abundant Tree of Life which awaits us by the River of Life in the New Jerusalem City in the New Earth God will make.

From an Old Testament Hebrew standpoint, this imagery is further significant because of Israel’s many experiences in the wilderness, esp. during their 40 yrs. of wandering through the deserts of the Sinai Peninsula when water and shade trees (not to mention fruit trees) were hard to come by.

This illustration first envisions not just any tree in your backyard but a flourishing and fruitful tree that’s been placed in a special location. This tree has been planted beside a deep channel or ditch engineered to provide a flowing, unbroken source of water for constant irrigation and does not rely upon sporadic rainfall for nourishment.

Second, though this tree enjoys constant, deep inner nourishment, refreshment, and satisfaction, it doesn’t necessarily produce a high yield of fruit constantly. That’s the second detail in this poetic portrait of this tree. It enjoys constant nourishment and regular seasons of fruitfulness. These seasons happen repeatedly when they’re supposed to happen but are interspersed by less fruitful periods in between.

Craig Broyles “explains ‘in its season’ by cautioning that ‘while believers may be able to sustain spiritual life through times of adversity, they may be productive only at certain times, whose determination is beyond their control.’” So, a fruitful and happy life includes seasons of necessary difficulty and reduced output and success.

Third, the leaves on this tree will never whither. This doesn’t necessarily describe an evergreen tree, like a cedar, pine, or spruce, but it may. It may also simply portray a tree which never dies and never fails produce leaves. Many fruit trees are deciduous, meaning they lose their leaves as part of a seasonal cycle, but they replenish those leaves with new ones in the following season. Such trees would also fit this description.

What this illustration does not portray is a tree who loses its leaves and never sprouts new ones. Such a tree dies and decays, but not so with a person who digs deep roots into the nourishing teaching of God’s Word.

The last line of this poetic thought, “and in all that he does he will succeed,” does not promise unlimited success. What it promises relates directly to what it portrays – a person who follows the guidance of God’s Word. Whenever a person takes guidance from God’s Word, he will succeed at the appropriate time in whatever actions or choices he made based upon the clear teaching of God’s Word.

This does not mean that we can simply pick out verses attach them to our decisions. It means that we know what God’s Word teaches and we make decisions that reflect what he has said – his commands, his principles, his purposes, his values.

Are you making decisions consistent with the principles and values taught to us by God’s Word? If so, keep doing that. No matter what your immediate results may be, at the right time in the right season you will experience success, both in this life and especially in the life that is to come.

Consider King David. He was faithful to follow God’s Word as a young boy and teenager and after much suffering and waiting, he was installed as God’s promised king over Israel. At the same time, he still waits for the ultimate fulfillment of that promise. He has more success coming in the future in God’s eternal kingdom. Sometimes our season of fruitfulness comes in this life and sometimes in the life that is to come. But it will come.

Ungodly guidance leads to failure. (v. 4)

But not wicked people!

They will be like the chaff which the wind drives away.

Psa 1:4 speaks abruptly. “But not the wicked!” Can you feel the jolt of these words? Ungodly people will not experience regular or lasting success. The success they enjoy will be meaningless and fleeting.

This psalm illustrates wicked people not by a dead or fruitless tree but by something even more insignificant – windblown chaff. At the end of harvest, when wheat grain is ground into flour, farmers would sift out the valuable wheat grains from the useless husks that surrounded them. They would do this by beating the grains on some hard ground or surface and then toss them high into the air. When they tossed them up, the wind would blow away the tiny pieces of husk as the heavier grain fell back to the ground.

There was no use for the husks on grain – whether for crafting, eating, manufacturing, trading, or otherwise. And that’s the lot of ungodly people. Though they may enjoy some limited success in this life, none of what they accomplish will achieve meaningful spiritual success in any lasting, eternal way. Their endeavors and labor will be of no value in the end. Since they and their works will be of no value, in the end, they will be removed and thrown away.

God devotes himself only to those who follow his instruction. (v. 5-6)

Therefore, wicked people will not stand up in the judgment,

nor will sinners be included in the gathering of righteous people.

For Yahweh takes personal interest in the path of the righteous,

but the path of the wicked will be lost.

Psa 1:5-6 emphasize the final outcome of both paths which this psalm has described.

Ungodly people who receive no counsel from God “will not stand up in the judgment.”

Stand up echoes the false confidence we feel when we “stand in the way with sinners.” Yet this standing is a fleeting, temporary feeling.

Stand up is a different word than stand in Psa 1:1. It emphasizes not the fixed position of “standing firm” but the act of “standing up.” In other words, the ungodly won’t have a leg to stand on when it’s time to appear before God for final judgment. No matter how successful they may have been in this life, if they did not live in submission to God’s instruction, then they won’t even be able to stand up to defend themselves, what’s more make a compelling case.

The psalm reinforces this helpless state by stating plainly that such people won’t only be unable to stand up before God’s judgment, they won’t even appear in the gathering of the righteous. They will appear at an entirely different judgment session when God will judge ungodly people exclusively.

Why will this be so? Because God devotes himself to those who follow his instruction. God’s Word comes with a personal guide – the author and giver of the Word.

“Takes personal interest” (or knows) describes the close relationship between best friends or between a husband and wife. When we submit to the guidance of God’s Word and follow his instruction, Yahweh joins with us to ensure our success. He is not a distant observer, but he is a close and intimate friend and guide for our journey.

But what about the pathway of the ungodly? They go nowhere. Of course, we know they will be cast away into the Lake of Fire, but that’s not the focus or emphasis here in this psalm. The emphasis of this psalm is that road that seemed so promising, the road paved with advice from ungodly people, goes nowhere. It promises so much but gives nothing in the end. The people who follow that road go missing and never come back. It’s as though they walk off a cliff, wander into a swamp, fall into a bottomless cavern, step into a trap, or be devoured by wolves.

What path are you following?

So, what path are you following today and what will the outcome of your life be based upon this psalm? That’s the question we each must ask.

Are you submitting to God by following the teaching of his Word as you make decisions and go forward in this journey of life?

Or are you choosing the advice of ungodly people who themselves are going nowhere in the end?

It’s not too late to change directions. Which advice or counsel which is not based upon the clear teaching of God’s Word are you meditating on and following today? Are you willing to turn away from that influence in your life and submit to God’s guidance instead?