Wednesday, September 24, 2025 PM

Psalm 1 and the Blessed Man Who Delights in the Law

We thank you for this evening that you've given to us, that we are able to come together as a family and bring our needs before the throne, that you hear our prayers and you are already aware of the situation and working, but that we get to come to you and trust you all the more.

We praise you for the answered prayers and we look forward to how you will work in the lives of those who have requested your aid. We ask tonight that as we open your word, we would again trust in you, that your spirit would move and we would understand your word even more.

Our lives would be changed and we would be more conformed into the image of your son. We thank you for your son. We thank you for what you've done in this world and ask that you would be with us tonight and through the rest of the week.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, we're continuing in Psalm chapter 1, so if you'll turn in your Bibles to Psalm 1. Psalm chapter 1. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scornful.

But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper.

The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the ungodly shall 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 ungodly shall perish.

Last week we talked about the blessed man in contrast with those who are giving ungodly counsel and the sinners that stand in the path in order to assail their victims and in the the scoffers. The blessed man is the one that delights in the law of the Lord, and he meditates on it day and night.

And then it continues on in verse 3 to describe the blessed man as a tree. He shall be like a tree planted by rivers of water, and it brings forth fruit in its season, and the leaf shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper.

Trees, Israel, and the Need for True Delight in God’s Law

So this is giving us an image of this blessed man. The image of a tree has its roots firmly planted all the way back in Genesis. Right from the very beginning we see this language of trees. Adam in the garden, set before him were two trees, one man, two trees, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

One granted eternal life, and the other tree brought a curse, life and death, blessing and cursings. Out of that one man, after the curse, having eaten from the tree, out of that one man sprouts a nation.

And I use that word sprouts intentionally. Set before that nation was blessing and cursing. If you look in Deuteronomy, God says I set before you blessing and cursing, life and death. The nation of Israel is called a tree.

It's called a vine. The terms are synonymous. The vine and the tree, that imagery is intentional. That vine and that tree, the nation of Israel grows and it spreads and it's fruitful for a time, but eventually that tree, that vine stopped bearing fruit.

So the question becomes why? The blessed man, it says that he shall always produce fruit and whatever he does shall prosper. His leaves shall not fade. Israel was called the tree and yet it stopped bearing fruit.

So why is that? In the Psalm, we already discussed that the blessed man delights in the law of the Lord, but wasn't Israel delighting in the law of the Lord? They were given the law. They were given the oracles.

They were given the promises. They were given the ceremonies and the feasts. Didn't Israel delight in these things? So why did Israel stop bearing fruit? How is it that the blessed man here continues to bear fruit?

But you'll turn to Jeremiah 17. You'll notice some similar language here and Jeremiah comes a bit later than the Psalm. He's talking about the nation, but they also use individual language. So Jeremiah chapter 17, starting in verse 5, cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord, for he shall be like a shrub in the desert and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land which is not inhabited.

So that's a bad picture for someone to find themselves in, the cursed man. Well, verse 7, blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose hope is in the Lord, for he shall be like a tree planted by waters, which spreads out its roots by the river and will not fear when heat comes, but its leaf will be green and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit.

Here again, we see blessings and cursings. We see life and death. So in that question, how is it that Israel stopped bearing fruit, but the blessed man continues to bear fruit when it says that the blessed man delights in the law of the Lord?

The blessed man delights in the law of the Lord, yes, that's true, but is merely keeping the law the same thing as delighting? Is checking these items off the list, I've done this and now I need to do this, and now I need to do this, and now I'm good to go.

Is that the same thing as delighting in the law of the Lord? The law of the Lord was encoded in the Old Testament for specific use for the nation of Israel. It was wisdom from God on how they were to conduct themselves.

They were to delight in it, and yes, they were to obey it. We can delight in the law of the Lord wherever we encounter it, whether it's in the Old or in the New Testament, but our delighting and our obeying will look different in the light of Christ.

To delight in the law of the Lord is to delight in Christ, both for the Old Testament saint and the New Testament saint. The Old Testament saint could not delight in the law of the Lord without hoping in the promise of the one to come.

To perform these tasks, to go through all of the law without an eye on faith and forward-looking in the promises of God is just legalism. It's without faith. It's merely law-keeping. There is no delight there.

There is no delighting in the law of the Lord. So the Old Testament saint obeyed these commands of God and would delight looking forward to the promise. The New Testament saint delights in the law of the Lord when we see Christ in them.

So as an example, take the sacrificial system. The Old Covenant saint, the one who is underneath the law, who is performing the sacrifices, whenever they would perform these sacrifices, the Old Covenant saint delights in the law of the Lord because the sacrificial system was a continual reminder of the need for a covering for sin.

We have sinned. We need a covering. And it was a continual reminder of things to come. So when they had faith in the promises of God, they could delight in the law of the Lord and they could obey it correctly.

The New Covenant saint can also delight in the Lord. They can look at that sacrificial system and we can delight in it as well. And we see how Christ was sent as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

We delight in that. Both the Old Covenant saint and the New Covenant saint both look to Christ. We both delight in the law of the Lord. We both look to Christ. But how we delight is going to look different.

We have to be careful that in our zeal, in being obedient, in delighting in the law of God, that we're not delighting in the practices themselves just for practice sake. So taking that same example of the sacrificial system, for me to take up the sacrificial system, if I were to start sacrificing lambs for the forgiveness of my sin, is not to delight in the of God.

That is to dishonor what Christ has done. He came as the sacrificial lamb. So when I look at the Old Testament laws, I delight in them by delighting in Christ. What a good thing that He has done for us.

And so the question is, were those things done in faith? Delighting in the law of God is an act of faith, not merely obedience, not merely law-keeping. And so I ask myself and would ask you all, are we trusting in our ability to keep the laws or are we trusting in God's goodness and His fulfillment of the laws?

In thinking about that passage from Jeremiah, cursed is the man who trusts in man and who makes flesh his strength. Am I trusting in myself and my ability to fulfill the laws or how obedient I can be for my salvation?

Or are we like the blessed man who delights in the law of God by looking to Christ? Our hope is in the Lord. Our hope is in the Lord. So that's verse three, looking at the tree, continuing on with that image of the tree.

The blessed man, yes, he delights in the law of God. He sees Christ there. Thinking about the image of the tree, after eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Adam was cut off from the tree of life.

He no longer had access to the tree of life. Sin and violence spread and death ruled in the land without access to the tree of life. When Israel was given the law, which is a knowledge of good and evil, Israel began trusting in their ability to keep the laws rather than trusting in the Lord.

Israel was supposed to be a light to the Gentiles and their laws were meant to point to God, but rather than bringing the Gentiles in, they began boasting of being God's people and keeping the law. This is why we see in various places, including in Isaiah, that God says that he detests their sacrifices and their feasts.

Keeping the laws is not the same as obedience. They were following the letter, but their heart was not in it, and God wanted their heart. Looking at Psalm 1, there's the image of the tree, but right after that, in verse 4, it says this.

So, if the blessed man is like a tree who's planted by the water, he bears fruit, whatever he does shall prosper. In verse 4, it says, the ungodly are not so, but are like chaff, which the wind drives away.

So, we see this comparison, and he calls the ungodly chaff, that the wind drives away. According to one commentator, that word chaff is a frequent Old Testament word picture. It's talking about harvest time, and during harvest, you go out and you get the wheat and you bring it in, and you've got to separate it out.

So, you've got the grains of wheat, and then you have the chaff. And the chaff is what is unsubstantial. It's without value. The only worth is in being discarded. It's blown away. It's not to be kept.

So, that's a word picture that God uses here of the ungodly. If you would turn to Matthew 3. In Matthew 3, we see the image of the tree and the image of chaff being used. Adam, because of his sin, was cut off from the tree of life.

Israel begins to be called the tree, the vine. In order to be connected to God, you had to be connected to Israel. If you wanted to know God, you were to go to Israel, understand God's relationship with his people, and be connected in that way.

In Matthew 3, towards the end of that old covenant, we see that the tree of Israel was not producing fruit, and God was finished with it. Matthew 3, starting in verse 8. The context here, John the Baptist is out preaching out in the wilderness, which is saying something.

He's not in the camp, but he's out of the wilderness calling people out. And the Pharisees and religious leaders go out to see him. And this is what he has to say. Matthew 3, starting in verse 8. Therefore, bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father.

For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. Verse 10. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree which does not bear fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

I indeed baptize with water unto repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. But he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

Israel had been called the vine, had been called the tree, and here Israel is no longer bearing fruit. And John the Baptist is pointing this out, saying the axe is laid at the root of the tree, is ready to be destroyed.

He's calling people out of that. If Adam was cut off from the tree of life and Israel was supposed to be the new means in which people could communicate with God, what happens when that tree is destroyed?

Well, we see that Jesus calls himself the true vine. He says that I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. And this language continues throughout the rest of the New Testament.

Rather than continue as a prosperous tree by trusting in the Lord, Israel began to trust in their own might, to trust in their temple, to trust in their law. Dry and dusty were the only of being discarded.

Israel was about to be cut down. If Israel was no longer the point of contact between God and man, how would God's people gain access to the tree of life again? And again, this is where Jesus comes into picture, comes into view.

Christ the Root, the True Vine, and the Tree of Life

In Romans 11, it says that Jesus is the first fruit. Jesus is the first fruit. Romans 11 is the picture of a tree and there are branches that are being cut off and grafted in. And oftentimes, this tree is thought to be Israel.

And if the tree was Israel, well, then maybe the church is the tree, but they missed the mark here. Because if you read through Romans 11, and I'll start in verse 16. Romans 11 verse 16, for if the first fruit is holy, which he is, Jesus is holy, the lump is also holy.

And if the root is holy, so are the branches. And if some branches were broken off, and you being wild olive trees were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and the fatness of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches.

But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root. The root supports you. Jesus is known as the root of Jesse. Out of the stump, a root shall grow. And the tree grows and all of the crows of the field shall come and roost in its branches.

Jesus is that tree. And it's in him that we have life. Jesus is now the point of contact between God and man. Rather than going to Israel, we go to Jesus, who is the true Israel. Where Adam brought a curse through a tree, the second Adam hung on a tree in order to bear the curse.

Where Adam produced a nation of sinners, the second Adam produces a nation of saints. Where Adam was forbidden access to the tree of life, the second Adam is the tree of life. Where the first Adam's actions led to a broken covenant, the second Adam is our covenant.

Christ the seed died and was buried, and out of that seed blossoms a harvest of saints, and the chaff is blown away. And so the question in the New Testament, you have two things happening. We talked about this in Sunday school.

When Saul was king, you had one king. You had an anointed. And then David is anointed as king, but he's not yet king. There's an overlapping between the two. And when we read the New Testament, we see this happening as well.

There are two covenants happening at the same time. And set before the early church, are two covenants, two trees. Do they go with the knowledge of good and evil, which is the law, the covenant of death, as 1 Corinthians describes it?

Or do they go with the living, breathing tree of life who is walking in their midst? They're given that choice between the two. And so we see this parallel between knowing what the law is and strictly keeping it for tradition's sake and delighting in it because of the one who gave it.

Jesus is the fulfillment of those laws, and we can delight in it by not by trusting in our own might, but by trusting in the Lord. That's Jesus Christ. So that's how the blessed man can be planted, and he's planted by God.

And we'll continue on the next time that we meet. So would you join me in prayer? God, I thank you so much for what you endured on the cross. We know that it says that cursed is anyone who hangs on the tree, and you bore that curse for us.

I thank you that you teach us, that you tell us that yes, that you died and just as a seed is planted in the ground, it bears a harvest. And I thank you that we are part of that harvest, Lord, that we can be counted as the blessed man because our hope is in you and what you've done.

So we ask that we would continue, yes, to be obedient, seeking to fulfill the law of Christ by loving one another. We thank you for the Psalms and ask that we would continue to sing them joyfully, delighting in your law.

And as we go through them, and as we go through the Old Testament, that we would see your son in them, that we would delight in what you have done and what you've done for us, and that we would give you all of the glory.

In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.