The tension we look out at is the tragic state of the world and our lives the Psalms teach us not to ignore the pain of our lives and how biblical faith is forward looking to the promise of God’s future messianic kingdom. This is seen by how the torah & messiah, lament and praise faith & hope is what the Psalms are about. As we see today in Psalm 1how ready are we to come and sit before God to worship him? Psalm 1 starts with getting us to tune our hearts to God’s frequency. As the first words Psalm 1 speaks Blessed is the manwhich is interesting that of the first word chosen
starting the Psalms all 150 of them the first word chosen is blessed. This word is picked up and used right throughout the rest of the Psalter, so let’s not be confused blessed is a relationship word; blessed tells me where I stand not by my internal well being or emotions. Blessed is the state of being declared right by God as it is used by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount “blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom & blessed are…those who hunger & thirst for righteousness for they will see God.” See how blessed is this way someone who loves God and lives that out in the decisions and actions; or blessed as used of Job, who after his ordeal and disfigurement and grief is finally blessed in ways that exceeded any sense of his relationship with God before it. This is what is clear right from the beginning of Psalm 1. The way we live is at the heart of what we worship if that’s God then we will be called, blessed. As we read in verse 1
1 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers.
Here we are told what not to do; the wise we are told do not walk alongside the wicked. As the Psalm points us to see the wicked, sinners, and mockers of this Psalm
show us how the slide into sin occurs. Have a look at their postures as they walk alongside wickedness, then they stand with the sinners, and finally they sit in wickedness & mock everyone else. Notice how sin doesn’t have to happen all at once
most often it’s a gradual slide. So simply surfing the net we can be a click away from a sight you wished you’d never looked at; or sharing photos and stories about your day on facebook can suddenly buy into whether you feel good about yourself by the number of people who send you friends requests. At work the innocent conversation
with someone from the opposite sex starts you wishing your spouse was more loving
than the care the person you’d spoken with had shown you; or a simple half truth becomes a lie that gets bigger and bigger. The Psalmist warns us don’t think that we won’t escape sin easily and never think that this could never happen to me, As dealing with sin starts with repentance not just sorrow and applying this to getting help with someone to talk with and pray with you to walk alongside you through the Bible. This is where we see wickedness is instead of taking our satisfaction from God
we draw it from someone or something elsewhere, a poor second; wickedness is a way of saying what God offers us isn’t enough just like the mocker of Psalm 1 who shows a perverse kind of delight for people who don’t care for God. In verse 2 the alternative is the way of life.
2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.
This is delight brought to God by someone who stamps themselves all over, like with an ink stamp all over, as belonging to God. This is delighting in God’s word and his law. So that maybe when you hear mention of the law you’re thinking 10 commandments. The law mentioned here is much broader than that. The law of God for the people of the Old Testament included a bigger body of work as we saw the Torah was the first 5 books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. The law of God is the story of God’s covenant relationship with mankind and reminds us of God’s rescue just as God’s plans being worked out through Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the 12 sons of Jacob and Joseph and Moses. The rescuing, redeeming God the Psalmist calls us to meditate upon
even at it’s most basic sense, delight is gained through obedience to God’s word, by seeing how God is the God who saves is the God who keeps his promises and is unrelenting in his love; this is taking God’s word seriously is to delight to read it, to apply it, to obey it, to meditate upon it as a word for our day. That is our struggle isn’t it as this Psalmist promises the reward of coming to God at his word is worth it, verse 3
3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.
To state the obvious here’s a fruit tree well nourished by a stream it bears fruit in its season, as I’m no horticulturalist, there are others are, I do know that for that tree to be like that must draw it’s nutrients from a well established source, otherwise it’s perishes under the stress. To be planted in the right place shows the care of the one who plants it; just as God in this Psalm wants us to be thinking about his intentional care, so if you haven’t noticed it by now this Psalmist wants us to get both points of view what kind of a tree does the wicked have? Verse 4
4 Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.
All that endures are those who cast their lot in with God for the future. The prosperity spoken of here isn’t wealth this is relational prosperity which is just like a businessman closing of a contract so this tree brings to a successful conclusion the gardeners desire who planted it and nourished it and tended it, where fruitfulness is something Jesus tells us to be concerned about as well as we read in Galatians 5:22-24
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.
Selfless passion centers on Christ’s work in us to meditate on what brings God delight and be prepared for temptation to come and the schemes of the devil, and to desire for what we do not have or to start thinking that what God has given us isn’t enough. As we see in this Psalm it ends where it begins asking the question, “Who is blessed? Who is wicked?” Verse 6
6 For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
Two pathways, and two results; one way the way of life the other way the way of doom. Will we choose life which is all about God reminding us that he “watches over the way of the righteous”. There has only been one truly righteous man if we’re going to have any hope. We need Jesus, his death, his forgiveness, his life. We need Jesus changing us, and bearing fruit as a Christian is to be a delight which is as much a delight to God and to others around us. At this point I want us to ask ourselves what brings you delight? What specifically gets you talking with someone? Psalm 1 tells us to delight in God? We are called to talk about the way he’s been working in your life, and to talk about the reality of forgiveness from Jesus, while being realistic about ourselves and our temptations keeping Psalm 1 close.
“Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law he meditates day and night.”
Let’s pray…
David Hassan @ Tamworth Community Presbyterian Church 15/4/18