Sermon Tone Analysis

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.