Psalm 1 "The Path to Blessing"

1:08But do we? Usually, when we say that we are blessed, we mean that things are going well in our lives. So we buy a new house and we say, we're blessed. We get engaged. We're blessed. We have a child. We're blessed. We get hired. We get a promotion. We say we're blessed. When we say we're blessed, we typically mean things are going well for us. We are healthy and wealthy. Or at the very least, we're not sick and poor.

1:47But in the Bible, the word blessed doesn't mean healthy and wealthy. It refers to a state of happiness that you experience when a superior confers blessing, confers favor upon you. And so you can be blessed by parents, as we see in Scripture. You can be blessed by friends or employers, as we see in Scripture. But most often, you see people being blessed by God in Scripture. And friends, that's what we really want, isn't it? We want to receive blessing from God.

2:27In the end, we want to hear, well done, good and faithful servant. Because if we don't have God's blessing, it doesn't really matter who else blesses us. Jesus said, what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and yet forfeit his soul? Friends, what good does it do us to receive blessing from everybody else if we don't have the blessing of God? So what we really want is God's blessing because his blessing is The one that really counts, and it lasts forever.

3:05But here's the thing: if you want God's blessing, you have to know what God blesses. That's what Psalm 1 is all about. It's about the pathway to God's blessing. So, here's what we're going to learn from Psalm 1 this morning. This will be on the screen. If you want God's blessing, make God's word the center of your life. If you want God's blessing, make God's Word the center of your life. So, in this Psalm, we see two distinct people: we see the wicked person and the blessed or the righteous person.

3:52And these two distinct people are on two very distinct paths. And so, you can break this psalm down into a couple of truths here. We'll put this up as well: the wicked listen to each other and perish, but the righteous listen to God and live. So, let's start there with the wicked listen to each other and perish. Take a look at verse 1 in this psalm: 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.

4:37So the psalmist begins by setting up this contrast, helping us to see that the path of the wicked does not lead to blessing. That's what he's doing here. Now, you might read that and say, the wicked? Well, that's a strong word. That's a word we usually reserve for really bad people, like Hitler or Stalin or our former baseball coach. But this word in Hebrew can be translated not just wicked, but guilty. Guilty. So the person the psalmist has in mind is not the worst person ever, but an unrepentant sinner.

5:24A person who sins against God and others without confessing those sins and turning from those sins and asking for forgiveness from God and other people. So what are the characteristics of a wicked person, of a guilty person, of an unrepentant sinner? Well, the psalmist highlights three characteristics. First, the wicked receive counsel from other wicked people. The wicked receive counsel from other wicked people. The blessed person does not walk in. The counsel of the wicked, but the wicked person does.

6:04So instead of listening to God, instead of going to God's word, where do they go? They go to other wicked people. And what does that counsel sound like? Well, it sounds like something that you might find in Proverbs chapter 1. Take a look here. My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. If they say, come with us, let us lie in wait for blood. Let us ambush the innocent without reason. Like Sheol, let us swallow them alive and whole, like those who go down to the pit. We shall find all precious goods.

6:47We shall fill our houses with plunder. Throw in your lot among us. We will all have one purse. Wicked people give bad counsel. Counsel that destroys life rather than gives life. And it doesn't just have to be friends or co-workers or classmates or teammates. It could be the music that you listen to. It could be the shows that you watch on your phone, on your laptop, on your TV. College students, teenagers, do you have these kinds of people in your life?

7:36I had people in my life like that when I was in college, when I was in high school, when I was in middle school, people who gave bad counsel. Adults, you may have these people in your life, family members, friends. Here's why that's dangerous. Here's the second characteristic of the wicked: wicked people begin to imitate other wicked people. The wicked begin to imitate other wicked people. That's what it means to stand in the way of sinners. It doesn't mean like you're standing in their way, blocking them from doing bad things. That might be a good thing. To stand in the way of sinners means to do what they do.

8:17Look at 1 Corinthians 15. This is what Paul said. Do not be deceived. Bad company corrupts good morals. So, if you put those two things together, if you listen to the counsel of wicked people long enough, if you take their advice, if you do what they say, eventually you're going to start acting like them. Eventually, you're going to start standing in the way of sinners. Have you noticed that in your own life? It has been said that you are the average of the five people. That you spend the most time with.

9:03You're the average of the five people you most spend the most time with. So, if your five closest friends are not very serious about serving God or aren't serving God at all, then it would not surprise me if you are not serving God or not very serious about serving God because bad company corrupts good morals. And in plenty of cases, you spend enough time with them, you become just like them. And that's the third characteristic: the wicked join in mocking righteous people.

9:47The wicked join in mocking righteous people. That's what it means to sit in the seat of scoffers. Now you've gone from listening to wicked counsel to doing the things that they do to now making fun of and mocking righteous people who don't sin like you do. So, after describing the behavior of the wicked, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, lawless idolatry, look what the Apostle Peter says in 1 Peter 4. He says, with respect to this, these sins, they are surprised. When you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you.

10:37They are surprised and they malign you. Wicked people are surprised and offended when righteous people will not join with them in what they're doing. They're surprised because they cannot imagine living any other way. Why wouldn't you want to get drunk? Why wouldn't you want to be sexually promiscuous? Why wouldn't you serve the same idols as the rest of our culture? They're surprised by that. And then, on top of that, they're offended because they see your lifestyle, the lifestyle of the righteous, as an indictment against the way that they're living.

11:23And in those moments, those moments where it seems like there's so much pressure to conform to the world because everybody else is saying the same thing, everybody else is doing the same thing, everybody else is making fun of you for not living like them, that there is so much pressure to get on that same path, to take that same road and just join in with the crowd. I mean, that many people can't be wrong, right? That's why we need God's word. We need God's. To remind us what the wicked are like and how it's going to end for them. So, take a look at verse 4.

12:12The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. Friends, if you are tempted to listen to the counsel of the wicked and live like them and mock the people who are living righteously, you need to remember that the wicked are like chaff.

12:52Chaff is that outer shell or husk of certain crops, like wheat. And so, back in the day, they would cut all of the wheat in the field, and they would take it up to what they called a threshing floor. That was usually high up on a hill somewhere. They put it all in the ground, and they would crush it. And then they would take winnowing forks and they would throw it into the air because the prevailing winds would take the chaff and blow it away. It was that light, and all of the grain would fall back to the ground.

13:23Here in Psalm 1, God is saying, This is what the wicked are like. Like chaff. They're light. There's no substance to them. They're easily blown around by whatever is popular, by whatever is trendy, by whatever is cool. Chaff is not nutritious. It's useless. It's separated and then it blows away or it's gathered up and it's burned. And God says that in the final judgment, when God gathers all of his people, all the people that he's ever created, to be judged, the wicked are not going to be able to stand. They're going to perish. Revelation 20 and 21 gives us a vivid, terrifying picture of every person that hasn't repented and trusted in Christ being thrown into the lake of fire for eternity.

14:30Friends, I trust that most of us in the room this morning are not on the path that leads to destruction. I believe that most of us are not walking in the council of the wicked. We're not standing in the way of sinners. We're not sitting in the seat of scoffers. But some of you may be. And if that's you, God is speaking to you this morning. He is speaking to you and drawing your attention to these truths so that you will consider the path that you are on and the destination where you end on that path.

15:16He's trying to get your attention this morning so that you will turn around. That's what the word repent means. Metanoia, it means to turn around or to change your mind. God wants you to turn around from the path that you're on and get on the path to blessing. And that path starts with repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. You can't get on the path to blessing without starting there with repentance and faith in Jesus. So what do you need to do? Look at Proverbs 3.

15:56Toward the scorners, God is scornful. But to the humble, God gives favor. That Hebrew word is hen. It means grace or favor. Toward the humble, he gives grace or favor. So humble yourself this morning. Humble yourself before the Lord and receive his grace. Say, Lord, I see the path that I'm on. I see where the path ends. I know that I deserve punishment for my sin. You have offered another way, the way to forgiveness and eternal life through Jesus. Get on that path to blessing this morning that starts with repentance and faith in Christ. Get off the path that leads to destruction.

16:46So the wicked listen to each other and perish. But in stark contrast, the righteous listen to God and live. So let's back up now to verse 2. But his delight, the blessed man, the blessed person, but his delight is in the law of the Lord. And on his law he meditates day and night. I want you to think about that. His delight. This person's delight is in the law of the Lord. That's a reference to all of God's word, all of Scripture, the whole Bible. And when Psalm 1 is written, think about this for a minute. The psalmist probably had the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch, a few of the books of history, maybe Joshua, Judges, Ruth, maybe some of the wisdom literature, some Proverbs, some Psalms. That's it. That's it. And the psalmist says, the blessed person's delight is in the law of the Lord. Have you read Numbers before?

18:01I am a Christian. I'm a pastor. And I will tell you that I have rarely read through Numbers and thought, what a delight. I'm so glad to know who begat whom. But the psalmist delighted in God's word. Why? Because every word in those books, like the book of Numbers, points back to a faithful God, to a God who makes promises and keeps promises. You see, for the psalmist, those aren't just numbers on a page, those are his ancestors. Those are the ancestors that came from the promises that God made to Abraham when he rescued him and chose him out of a pagan lifestyle and said, I'm going to bless you and make a great nation out of you. Abraham said, I don't even have a kid, not one. And God said, I will do it. And the book of Numbers is all about God keeping the promises that he made to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. The psalms celebrate God rescuing his people out of 400 years of slavery in Egypt. The books of history celebrate the fact that God promised that he would lead them into a land that would be their own. And so when he read all that stuff, he delighted in it because it was pointing back. To a faithful God who made promises and who kept them. That's how he was able to delight in the law of the Lord. And friends, we know so many more promises at this point that God made and kept than the psalmist did. So many more. About the Messiah, about the Savior who came to save us from our sin. We know so many more promises. And so, friends, we all want God's blessing.

20:02But if we want His blessing, we've got to make His Word the center of our lives. We're not going to make God's Word the center of our life if we don't delight in it. So, how do you delight in it? Take a look at verse 2 again. But His delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night. There it is. Meditation is the key to delighting in God's Word. Now, when we hear the word meditation, it conjures up images of like New Age spirituality or some Eastern spirituality where you're sitting on the floor with your legs crossed for hours on end going, um.

20:51That is not what the word means when we read meditation. The goal of New Age meditation and some Eastern religion. Religions is to empty the mind. It's to completely empty the mind and think of nothing at all. But that is not Christian meditation at all. The goal of Christian meditation is not to empty the mind, but to fill it with God's truth. That's the point of Christian meditation. And so we meditate on God's Word for three purposes: understanding, application, and prayer. Understanding, application, and prayer. First, we meditate for understanding. We meditate for understanding.

21:44Some of God's Word is hard to understand, isn't it? I point this out often. Look at what the Apostle Peter said about the Apostle Paul. There are some things in his letters that are hard to understand. This should encourage you greatly that the Apostle Peter couldn't figure out stuff in the Apostle Paul's letters. But here's the thing: God is not trying to confuse and frustrate you with the Bible. Friends, what would be the point of that?

22:15What's the point of speaking to us if the goal is to confuse and frustrate us? That is not what God is doing. So look at what Paul, the guy whose stuff is hard to understand, look at what Paul says to his disciple, Timothy. 2 Timothy 2, 7. Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. Paul tells Timothy, think about what I'm writing to you. Meditate on these words. Why? Because the Lord will give you understanding in everything. Friends, spiritual truth is spiritually discerned. You have to have the Holy Spirit inside of you to rightly understand the word of God. That was actually something the Lord used to bring me to faith in Christ. I'm reading the Bible as a freshman in college, and I'm like, this does not make sense at all. It was literally like I was reading it upside down. And the moment that God brought me to faith in Christ, I was like, oh, well, that's very plain.

23:23So don't hear me saying if you're confused by a lot in the Bible, you're not a Christian. But if you're confused by the Bible, you may not be a Christian. That was the case for me, for sure. So Paul tells Timothy, think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. Spiritual truth is spiritually discerned. You know, I've never once written to my wife, Kendra, and said, think over what I say, and the Lord will give you understanding.

23:54It's like when I write to her, I hope you're making that pasta that I like. Or, like, can you roll out the trash can? I forgot. She's not like, Lord, what does he mean? You don't need the Holy Spirit to understand that, but we need the Holy Spirit to understand God's Word because spiritual truth is spiritually discerned. So, we meditate for understanding. Second, we meditate for application. We meditate for application because it's not enough to know what God's Word says, and it's not enough to know what God's Word means.

24:39Take a look on the screen at James chapter 1. But be doers of the Word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, listen to this, he will be blessed in his doing.

25:18He will be blessed in his doing. That's what this psalm is all about. It's about the path to blessing. Why will we be blessed? Because we own a copy of the Bible and read it? Because we've grown up in church our whole life and know what it means? No. We will be blessed only when we do what God's Word commands. In other words, we have to apply it to our lives. So, friends, when we meditate on God's Word, the first question that we are asking ourselves is: what does this mean? Not what do I want it to mean? Not what do I hope that it means, but what does it actually mean? What was God communicating through the author to his original audience?

26:12And then the next question is: what does this mean for me? What is God calling me to believe? What is God calling me to do today based on his word? So, we meditate for understanding, and then we meditate for application. Third, we meditate for prayer. We meditate for prayer. Once we understand what Scripture means and we can see how it applies to our lives, the next step is to pray. Why is that? That's because we are still struggling with the sinful flesh. Yes, we are new creations. Yes, we have new hearts. Yes, we are filled with the Holy Spirit, but we are still struggling. Struggling with the sinful flesh. Isn't this what we saw a few weeks ago in Romans 7? Take a look on the screen. Paul says, For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

27:21So what do we need? We need God's help. So we need to pray and ask for his help. If blessing comes through doing, it's not enough to know what it says. It's not enough to know what it means. We have to do it. And in order to do it, we need his help. We need his grace and his spirit. So we pray and we ask him to help us. And what an amazing reality that we can go to God and say, Lord, I want your blessing and you want to bless me. So help me. Help me obey your word. Give me the strength, the resolve, the courage to put your word into practice, and God will do it. He will answer that prayer.

28:10So friends, if you need practice, if you want help with this, come on Wednesday mornings at 6.30 and pray with us. We have a weekly prayer meeting, Wednesdays at 6.30, and this is literally what we do every week. We open God's Word and we read. The scripture passage for this coming Sunday. We discuss what it means. We meditate on it. And then we pray through it. So if you want practice with this, come at 6:30 this Wednesday and pray with us. The blessed person delights in God's Word and meditates on it day and night. What is the result of that? Verse 3.

28:57He 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. So we already talked about the unrighteous. They're like chaff that the wind drives away. But the blessed person, they're like trees planted by streams of water. Now, if you're familiar with the Old Testament, you know that they often refer to the cedars of Lebanon. For Americans, think of the redwood forest in California. The cedars of Lebanon are 100 feet tall or more. They are over 1,000 years old in many cases. They're thick and they're sturdy, and it's because they have deep roots that are planted near streams of water. That's why they can grow so tall and live so long. Chaff doesn't have any roots, weeds barely have any roots. But trees have deep, established roots connecting them to a water source. That's why they're healthy. That's why they can bear their fruit in season. And you notice it says bear their fruit in season. There are some trees that bear fruit year-round, but most trees don't do that. They bear their fruit in season only.

30:24And they do that because they have these deep roots with access to water. Now think about the Christian life. Look what Jesus said in John chapter 4: 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. Look at what he said in John 15: I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing.

31:03Friends, the blessed person is the one who delights in God's Word and meditates on it. When we do that, we are connected to Jesus, the very word of God made flesh. And because we are connected to him, we become like trees planted by streams of water, yielding fruit in season. And in all that we do, we prosper. I've That's a big statement. In all that he does, he prospers. You're like, hang on, how can that be? I know Christians that aren't prospering, don't you? I know wicked people who are prospering, don't you?

31:43Well, how are we defining prosperity? Usually, health and wealth, right? Those are certainly forms of prosperity. But remember, many healthy people are spiritually sick. Many wealthy people are spiritually poor. Health and wealth can be blessings, but it's often the healthy and the wealthy that are the quickest to forget God. When you are unhealthy, when you are poor, you know that you are dependent on God for your next breath, your next meal, everything. Eternity looms in front of you.

32:24So, again, earthly health and wealth are forms of prosperity, but when we live according to God's word, we are prospering and we are going to prosper whether it looks that way or not. There are times that you could go to any kind of tree, almost any kind of tree in this world, and look on it and it won't have fruit. Why? Because it's not the season. But that doesn't mean it's not prospering and it's not going to prosper. It means that the fruit is yet to come. Friends, our prosperity is going to be seen on Judgment Day when everyone stands before God. Person who has trusted in the person and work of Jesus Christ is known by God and is going to prosper forever. That's what verse 6 says. Look at that. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous. That word knows doesn't mean knows about. Of course, God knows about everything and everyone. This word knows means to know in a covenantal, relational sense. He knows you.

33:32That's very different than the wicked. Jesus said, Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. I never knew you. But God knows the righteous. So, friends, you may have noticed that this psalm isn't a list of commands. It doesn't say, do these things and you will live. Don't do these things or you'll die. This psalm simply says, you already are living one way or another. You are already on the path to destruction, or you are on the path to life. That's what the psalm says. And at the end of the day, you're on the path that you're on because you are known by God, or you aren't. That's what it comes down to.

34:33When Jesus said those words, depart from me, for I never knew you, he was talking to people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous. He was talking to Pharisees who thought that their religious works, their good deeds, would make them right before God. But, friends, our religious works, our good deeds, can never take away our sins. Those who are known by God don't come to him with their works. They come to him in repentant faith.

35:03We've seen that we have sinned and we cannot save ourselves, so we cry out to God to save us. And he saves us through faith in Jesus Christ. Remember what we heard in John 1 at the beginning today? He is the word of God made flesh. He came and he dwelt among us. He is the one who delighted in God's word every day of his life, who meditated on it constantly. When he spoke to other people, it just flowed out of him.

35:37Jesus never walked in the counsel of the wicked. He never stood in the way of sinners. He never sat in the seat of scoffers. No, he walked in the counsel of God. And he walked in the way of the righteous. He lived his life every day in perfect obedience to God's commands and in perfect communion with the Father, like a tree. By streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. He did not deserve to die like a wicked person.

36:13But that's what happened. According to God's perfect plan, Jesus was condemned to die on a cross in your place and mine for our sins. As he hung on the cross, scoffers scoffed at him. They mocked him and said, If you are the king of Israel, come down from the cross and we'll believe. But Jesus, the truly blessed man, didn't do that. He could have, but he didn't. And he didn't because God's plan all along was to put him to death in your place and mine for our sins so that he could rise again on the third day, defeat sin and death, and give us the guaranteed hope of eternal life because he was the one who did everything that we read in Psalm 1 that the blessed righteous person does.

37:11Friends, all of our hope must be in him. When God saves us, he gives us new hearts with new desires, and he puts us on the path to blessing. That is what we all want. We all want to be blessed by God, to hear at the end of our lives, well done, good and faithful. Servant. But for that to happen, you have to know what God blesses. And what Psalm 1 tells us is: if you want God's blessing, you've got to make God's Word the center of your life. Trust in the Word of God made flesh this morning, Jesus Christ. Let's pray.

38:18Father, what a wonderful psalm that we got to meditate on this morning. Oh Lord, we want your blessing. We want to delight in your word and meditate on it day and night. Thank you for helping us this morning to understand and apply your word. And so we pray now that you would help us to be doers of the word, not hearers only, but doers. God, we pray for every Christian here today that we would seek your blessing above any other blessing that this world could offer.

39:15That our great desire would be you and your glory. I pray that when the counsel of the wicked is all around us and when temptation is all around us and we are looking at the wicked and thinking maybe that's a better life, you would remind us of the truth and you would keep us on the path to blessing and life. We cannot do it without you. And God, I pray for any who are here today who are recognizing that they are on the path to destruction.

39:59Oh God, would you turn them around this morning? Would you set them on the path to blessing through repentance and faith in Jesus? I pray for every person who's been putting it off, who's been putting it off for one reason or another. Would you speak to them today? Would you draw them to yourself and save them through faith in Christ? And God, we pray for. The Pembleton family. We think of Becky right now as she is in paradise seeing you face to face.

40:56Oh, we are so happy for her. And yet we are so sad because she was such a blessing to us. I pray that you would comfort Chris and his sister Mindy and all of their extended family and all of Becky's spiritual children and brothers and sisters. Would you help all of us this morning to consider the fact that we are going to be in that same position that she was in yesterday, facing death? Oh, God, I pray that we're ready.

41:49Wake us up to the reality of death and the promise of eternal life in Christ. Thank you for Becky's life. Thank you for her ministry. Thank you that she delighted in your word and meditated on it day and night to the very end. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.