Sermon Tone Analysis

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.

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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.”