Psalm One "The Blessed Man"

Psalm One

“The Blessed Man”

Introduction: Good Morning Redemption Church. It is good to see you all this morning. If you are new to Redemption Church, my name is Noah Toney, and I am the pastor here. Here at Redemption Church, we exist to proclaim the gospel and make disciples for the glory of God. That is our vision and the focus of our church. If you have your bibles, please open them to the book of Psalms. This morning we will be in Psalm one together. Last week we started our new sermon series, "Summer in the Psalms.” Over the next ten weeks, we will be going verse by verse through the first ten Psalms. If you were not here or have not had a chance to listen to my sermon last week, here is the sermon in a sentence: The book of Psalms is an epic poem that tells a unified story of the Messiah King and his people. I used the illustration of a photo album. You can look at individual pictures and gain some knowledge, but when you put them together in the correct order, they tell a larger story. The Psalms are the same way. They tell the story of the messiah and his people. If you have not had a chance to listen to last week's sermon, I would highly recommend you do so because I will constantly be alluding back to it and building from it. If you have your bibles, please turn to Psalm One.

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 Lordknows the way of the righteous,

but the way of the wicked will perish. [1]

Pastoral Prayer:

Jump In: Last week, I did a flyover of the whole Psalter; I showed how the book of Psalms is broken into five distinct books. These five books, when they are read together, tell the story of God’s king and his people. Book one: tells the story of David’s rise and reign. Book two: tells the story of David's reign and his expectations for the messiah. Book three: tells the story of David's lineage until they go into exile. Book four: tells how Israel seeks the Lord in exile. Book five: the people of God sing about YHWH’s faithfulness, and the messiah king brings the people back into the land.

It is essential to know the whole story the Psalms tell because today's passage and next week's passage, Psalms one and two, form an introduction to the entirety of the Psalter. Psalms one and two were likely written together and should be understood as one poem. They are the only Psalms in book one that does not have a superscription, but David is likely the author. Has anyone ever been to an orchestra concert or seen a Star Wars movie? Ok, in professional symphony music, almost every show has something called a prelude. The prelude is a concise piece of music played at the beginning of a concert that lets the audience hear the show's overarching theme. So for Star Wars, John Williams is a professional composer; he wrote all of the music for the star wars soundtrack. Everyone here should know the song that plays at the introduction of every Star Wars movie ever. The music throughout the movie will change with the emotion of the movie, but sometimes very subtle in the film; the introduction “prelude” will be played slower or faster, or very softly, or at the end during the triumph of good over evil it will be played loud and proudly. This is how Psalms one and two are for the Psalter; they are foundational because themes, words, and phrases from these two psalms will repeatedly appear in the book of Psalms.

Verse One:

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;

Let us start with the first few words of Psalm one. “Blessed is the man.” Psalm one opens with this blessed man. The term “blessed” is crucial because it will be used many times throughout the book. This word in Hebrew is אשׁר. This word, in many translations, has been translated as happy or happiness. But there is a big problem with translating it that way. This word goes deeper than temporal happiness. To you and me, happiness is a temporary pleasure. I am happy when it is turkey season; I am not happy when it is not season. I am happy when it is sunny and 75 degrees; I am not happy when it is snowy and cold. This word does not mean that kind of happiness, it might better be translated as “truly happy” or “truly flourishing.” To help fill this word picture out, let's look at other times; it is used in the Psalms. Psalm 32:2, “blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven and whose sin is covered.” Psalm 34:8, “oh taste and see that the Lord is good, Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him.” Psalm 119:2 “Blessed are those who keep his testimonies who seek him with their whole heart.” This blessedness is not just happiness, but it is so much more, it is joy, it is prosperity in the face of adversity, it is God’ shining his face upon you. Psalm one introduces us to this blessed man, and this man has three things that he does not do and one thing that he does do.

First, the “blessed man does not walk in the in the council of the wicked.” I want you to notice the great degression of temptation that David is poetically describing for us. It all starts with a whisper, you hear the wicked, and you think and ponder on their words instead of the instruction of God. You meditate on their wickedness and their delights instead of delighting in God's word.

Examine yourself: Examine your life, who is pouring into you. What are you reading? What movies are you watching? Where are you seeking council? What are you listening to? Flee from the advice and counsel of the ungodly. This pattern is seen over and over in wisdom literature, only fools seek the counsel of the wicked, but the wise seek counsel from the wise. All of these things that we consume have a way of forming us and changing us. We are never neutral to the material we consume.

Second, the blessed man “does not stand in the seat of scoffers.” The blessed man does not stand in the way of sinners. Meaning that he does not partake in their sin with them. I want you to pay attention to the verbs in this verse. Walk, Stand, Sit. It starts with listening to the wicked, then you heed their advice and their council, and you start sinning with them. Partaking in their ungodliness. There is a great degression, From Walking to standing to sitting. After you ponder the advice and the council of the wicked, you move to sin with them; you forsake the Godly for the ungodly. You forsake the righteous for the unrighteous.

The word “Way” is the Hebrew word דרךְ; it means road, path, way. This word for way, road, or path will be significant in the psalms because David is painting a poetic picture for us of the way of the righteous and the wicked. Whether you know it or not, you are on one of these roads, and this will reappear over and over again all the way into the New Testament.

Examine yourself: are you currently joining sinners in their sin and partaking in their sin?

Third, this blessed man “does not sit in the seat of scoffers.” The next step in this digression from righteousness to wickedness is when you go from obedience and delight to disobedience and scorn. You no longer are just sinning, but you are bragging about your sin. And you join the scoffers who call out to the righteous to join you on your road to Sheol. The word scoff is to mock and or brag. This is an intensifier; not only are you sinning, but you are boasting in it; you no longer feel conviction for your sin. It shows that the heart has been hardened.

This is painting a picture of someone who is on the right track. They have started on the right road, then they see the wicked, having a good time, and they seem very happy indulging their own pleasures, and the wicked call out come and join us, our way is better. Then instead of meditating on the words of God and trusting that your labor will be fruitful and trusting in God for deliverance, you join the ungodly, and you head down the road of wickedness. Believe me or not, this happens every day in the Christian life. People who are on the way of righteousness and are and look like they are on the path with God’s people start on the road with great joy. But then they start walking and listening to the council of the wicked ones, saying, “there is a better way.” Then they stop and stand and consider the advice they have received from the wicked ones, and something happens, and they turn and start to walk towards the way of the wicked. Next thing you know, those who were once walking down the path, are now joining in with the scoffers, and they are calling out to others, “turn, this way is easier; look at how slow and easy this path is; it is truly better, the road is wide, and grade is gentle.”

I believe that Jesus talked about something similar, there are those who start on the right path, and it looks like they are in the fold of God, but then they are pulled away by the world.

Mark 4

And these are the ones along the path where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them.

And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. And they have no root in themselves but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.[fn]And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.

In this parable, there are those who received it with great joy and start off on the right track. They sprout and look like they will become a mighty oak for the lord, but as soon as the going gets tough and the persecution comes, they hear the calls of the scoffers, and they are drawn away. How do we avoid this? How can we guard ourselves so that we will be protected from the advice of the wicked, the way of sinners, or the voices of scoffers? How does this blessed man do it?

Verse Two: But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law, he meditates day and night. This is how. This is the first Positive command for the blessed man; His delight is on the law of the Lord. I want you to see how the psalmist moves from external to internal. The wicked walk, sinners, stand, and scoffers Sit, But the Righteous delight in the law of the lord. Delight is an internal word. This delight in the Word of God results from delighting in God. We delight in the word of God because we Delight in God and want to hear from him. The reason the blessed man does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the way of the sinners nor sit in the seat of scoffers is because he is different on the inside; there is a heart change, and he is made righteous because of where he places his trust. True believers delight in God's word. Period.

Not only does this blessed man delight in the law of the YHWH, but he meditates upon it. The word meditate does not mean what we think that it means. It is literally the Hebrew word for murmur or mutter, which is essential because I believe it has a much stronger meaning for memorization. I want to challenge you to think about something that I hope is convicting all of us. For thousands of years, Old Testament Jews and New Testament Christians did not have bibles. They would go to the synagogue, or they would go to the church, and they would hear the word of God read aloud. The only way they would know what the word of God said was to memorize what they heard from the public reading of the scriptures. They did not have four or five bibles sitting at the house collecting dust; they didn’t have their own personal copies of the bible. So, this word, meditate or mutter, paints a fantastic picture. It is the word picture of the blessed man, walking and whispering scripture to himself; when he is working, he is muttering the promises of God. When he lays down to sleep, he mutters the teachings of the Torah. When the blessed man rises, he is speaking the words of God to himself. Do you want to know how to fight sin? Do you want to know how to guard yourself against the voices of the scoffers who are calling you to join them, you have to get scripture inside of you.

I have this big picture in mind of those who are on the straight and narrow, they are just walking along this very difficult walk which is the Christian life, and as the Scoffers Call out from the wide and easy road, Come join us. The Christians cast their eyes up this tall and challenging mountain, and instead of turning and joining the throngs of the sinners, they mummer the promises of God. And as they meditate on the law of the lord, they are reminded of the glory ahead of them, and they will never give up this difficult journey for the temporary pleasure.

Application: No excuses, Merle Haggard Songs, Sports rosters, directions, etc. Bible holster.

Verse Three:

This blessed man is filled to the brim with the word of God, and because he delights in the Lord and his word, “He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season.” This blessed man, and those who are like him, when they delight in the word of God, and when they meditate on it, they will be transformed. There is some very cool Hebrew wordplay going on here. This blessed man is like a tree “planted.” “planted” is a Hebrew word that many times has the meaning of transplanted. It is the image of a tree that was one place and was not flourishing, and it has been moved to the care of a grander and is now going to flourish. This tree will thrive because it is by “streams,” which does not mean river but means more along the line of the irrigation channel. This tree is under the direct care of a Gardner, which has been transplanted from the wilderness, from the dry, dusty barren desert to a garden. And to ensure that this tree will prosper, it will be nurtured by a stream. This stream is the Word of God.

I would love to spend an hour tracing this image through the bible, but time avails me. For example, in Ezekiel 47, he sees a trickle of water leaving the alter, and as he follows the trickle of water, it begins to turn into a mighty river that runs into the desert. He looks up and sees along this river many trees that will no longer wither and are prospering in the wilderness. Psalm 80 depicts Israel as a wild vine, that has been brought from the wilderness and planted in the promised land. Jeremiah 2 describes God as a Gardner who transplants Israel as a vine in the promised land.

Those who are like this tree, will be planted by the Lord and they will be sustained by his word, they will yield their fruit in their season. This just means that they will be healthy, and they will prosper, in their appointed time. This also teaches us that yielding fruit is not an option. There must be fruit in the Christian life, or there is no Christian life. I am a Protestant of Protestants, I believe we are saved by the grace of God, through faith in God, of no, doing of ourselves, and we are saved for the Glory of God. But I must tell you, the bible is crystal clear. A tree will be judged by its fruit. I want to challenge us to examine ourselves for fruit. And if there is no fruit, it will only come by being completely transformed by the gospel.

This tree yields its fruit in its seasons, and “Its leaf does not wither” The blessed man, his strength does not fail; he never runs out of water. My wife has a basil plant. And it sits on our windowsill, and it is the most temperamental plant I have ever seen. If it does not get water daily, its leaf immediately starts to wither. Brothers and sisters, I know that as Christians, we can get tired, we get weary, and we struggle on our lifelong journey to Zion. But there is a great well where we can drink freely; there is a great fountain that never runs dry. This fountain is the eternal life that comes only by the blood of Christ.

John 4:13-14 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,

but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Our strength does not come from within ourselves but from the eternal life Christ gives to those who believe in him.

“In all that he does, he prospers.”

I need to address this verse. So many take this verse, twist it, and bend it to tickle their ears. When we read this verse and look at our lives and see our lives not flourishing but suffering, we struggle so hard to get by. We tend to tie prosperity to wealth and money; we see someone living in a big house and driving a nice car as someone prosperous. The bible does not see it that way. It seems to teach the opposite. Those who walk in the way of the righteous will suffer, and we will go through hardships, but we have something in us that the wicked do not have. Life. We have true life. The difference is that when the righteous suffer we still succeed. I think that this is two-fold. One when the righteous suffer we still have this “Blessedness” this true joy and true happiness.” Therefore, when the English martyr went to the stake to be burned to death, he went with his hands lifted, smiling and reciting Psalm 51. This true happiness in Christ is something that none of the wicked can take away. Second, this hope is eternal. Those who are aligned with this blessed man, those who are in Christ, will one day forever be with him and will forever rule and reign alongside him.

Verse Four: “but the wicked are not so.” This true blessedness, true happiness and future blessing is not true for the wicked. This is a crucial part of Psalm one. Everything that is true about the blessed man is the opposite for the wicked. They do listen to the council of the wicked, they do stand in the way of sinners, they do sit in the seat of scoffers, they do not delight in the law of the YHWH. They are not like a tree, planted by streams of water, their leaf does wither, they will grow faint in the face of adversity. They ultimately will not prosper.

Jeremiah understood this, he was meditating on Psalm one. In Jeremiah 17, he takes Psalm one and he turns it upside down and he describes the cursed one. Jeremiah 17:5-8 “Cursed is the man who trust in man, and makes flesh his strength, who’s heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come, he shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.” Jeremiah takes Psalm one and he applies the same poetry to the wicked. They are not like a tree but like a shrub. They do not delight in the Torah, but they delight in the strength of men. Ect.

“The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.”

What is chaff? When the grain comes, they would go to the threshing floor or would go onto of a ridge, and they would beat the grain than they would toss the grain up into the air and the grain would fall back down and the chaff the hulls would get carried away by the wind.

The chaff has no value; you can not eat it. It has no nutritional value.

The righteous are the grain that provides nutrients, and when planted, they grow into mighty tree. Let’s talk about this; the lord regards the wicked as chaff. No matter how important they think they are, how much money, or how powerful, if they do not have a relationship with Jesus, they are chaff. Let’s get practical, men who have built great empires, and ruled over billions of people, are like chaff to the lord. All of their accomplishments are but dust in the wind. But the poor man, who has suffered for the gospel's sake, will have a crown in heaven, and he is a chosen and cherished child of God. Who will spend eternity worshiping Jesus, there will be no more pain, no more sorrow, and the Glory of God will outshine the sun.

Vere Five: “Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.”

David comes to the last two verses of this Psalm and is now using plural language. So far, he has only mentioned the Blessed man and the wicked. Now it would more literally read the “Wicked ones” and the “Congregation of the Righteous ones.” This is plural language. It is like those who choose to follow the blessed man are the congregation of the righteous, and those who decide to listen to the council of the wicked one are the wicked ones. This is a picture of the judgment. We do not like to talk about this often because it makes us uncomfortable, but this is a major theme in the Psalter, so we will talk about it now. There is going to be a judgment. In this judgment, there will be a great separation, those who walk in the way of the wicked will be together, and those who trust in this blessed man and follow in his way will be together as the congregation of the righteous. Look at the text closely, “the wicked will not ‘stand’ in the Judgment.” With the word “stand,” one of the possible meanings is to stand up, but there is another very common meaning in the OT that I think fits it better. This word also means “arise.” I believe that “arise” does the context better because it means something like this, after the judgment, the wicked ones will no longer rise to join the congregation of the righteous, which means that this judgment will be final. Right now, God stands at the ready to receive anyone who turns to Him in repentance and faith. God sent his Son Jesus, who is this blessed man, the messiah king of God’s people, and Jesus fulfilled the Law perfectly and showed the most incredible love when he willingly went to the cross and died. And after he died, he was buried, and on the third day, he “arose” from the grave, and now he is our King and our Messiah. Those who place their trust in him will flourish forever, and those who trust in their own strength will perish forever.

Verse Six: “For the Lord knows the way of the Righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.”

Those who trust in YHWH, God knows them. He knows the way of righteousness because he walked it. Jesus did it. He fulfilled the way of the righteous; he was the only one to walk the hard long, steep road on his own. He never faltered, he never turned, he always trusted. He constantly muttered and whispered to himself the Word of God. And he prospered, even under the most brutal suffering imaginable, even unto violent death on a cross. The Lord knows the way of the righteous, but there will be a day when the judgment is over when the way of the wicked will be no more. Never again will the godly be deceived by scoffers. Every tear will be wiped away, and every sorrow and suffering will be gone. Praise the Lord what a savior we have.

At this time we will remember how the Lord walked the way of the righteous as we go to the Lord’s table together as a church. When we go to the Lord’s table this morning, it is in remembrance of Jesus and his life, death, burial, and resurrection. It is a time of reflection and repentance, and faith. Communion is only for baptized believers who are a part of the body of Christ. So, if you are here this morning and are not a baptized believer or are not an active part of the body of Christ, I ask that you please abstain from coming to the table. The same is true for our members; if you have any unrepentant sin in your life, please refrain from coming to the table until you have had time to confess to God and repent in faith.

We are going to turn on some slow music, Let's take a moment and seek the Lord in prayer, and I will close us in prayer, and then we will go to the table together.

Pray

At this time, if you would like to come to receive the elements.

23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. [2]

[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ps 1:1–6. [2] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), 1 Co 11:23–26.