Psalm 1--The Blessed (Part 1)

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

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Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.�

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In short, if you like smooth, watered down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you.

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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the

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Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King. Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth. Don�t forget you can pick up your Romans commentary, perfect for lay people and for Bible teachers and for pastors alike, called �Discovering

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Romans� by Zondervan, and you can pick up a copy at Amazon or CBD, Barnes and Noble, probably online.

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I don�t think they probably have it in the store. I wish they would. But anyway, I think it would be encouraged as Lewis was intentionally biblical and purposefully

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Christ -centered, and you are going to love that commentary that talks about the

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Lord Jesus Christ. If you want devotional, rich encouragement, go to the Romans 8 section, 28 and following, into 31, and then if you would like some doctrinal studies about the federal headship of Adam, the first Adam and Adam, the last

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Adam, Jesus, Romans chapter 5, 12 through 21. It is great stuff.

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So, there are some rumors that there might be more commentaries in the S. Lewis Johnson series, �Discovering�, maybe there should be �Discovering

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Galatians�, �Discovering Colossians�, �Discovering Hebrews�, maybe there will be a Samuel Lewis Johnson Jr.

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systematic theology. One never knows. When I am able to tell you any of these things, legally,

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I will tell you. But you should listen, sljinstitute .net,

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and here is one of my favorite things about that website. So, when I am listening, for instance, now to Lewis in his,

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I am in Acts, and just got done with Acts chapter 2, and I am into 3 now, and you hear a quote by someone, and you think, �Oh, you know what?

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I need that quote.� And you think, �All right, I have to sit there and transcribe the quote.�

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Rewind, back, forward. But with the HTML site there at sljinstitute .net,

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it is all, all the transcripts are there. And you can just find the quote quickly and easily.

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Well, today on No Compromise Radio, I would like to talk to you about the Bible, and reading the

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Bible, and studying the Bible, and if you listen to this show, I think you are probably a

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Bible student. If you are listening to this show, I think you love the Word. And so,

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I want today to encourage you to continue to study. I want to exhort you to study more.

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I am sure, no matter what kind of Bible student you are, could you read the Bible more?

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Could you meditate on the Lord�s Word with more time, or with a greater frequency?

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I think the answer is yes. And so, when I think that I am a pretty good

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Bible student, and have spent quite a bit time reading the Bible, I read a quote to motivate me, and it was written by Jonathan Goforth.

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Cool name, huh? Cool name. Goforth. 1859 to 1936.

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And Jonathan Goforth said, �My deepest regret on reaching three score years and ten�.

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What would your deepest regret be? I have some I can�t tell you. For Jonathan Goforth, it is that I have not devoted more time to the study of the

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Bible. You think, oh yeah, yeah, that would be a regret. You know, this guy is a sloucher, he is a sluggard, he is a slacker.

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What other words can I think of with alliteration today? Always alliterate.

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Somebody emailed me the other day and said, �I like your mix between the serious stuff and the satire.�

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Alright, see? So how about that? My deepest regret on reaching three score years and ten is that I have not devoted more time to the study of the

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Bible. Still, in less than 19 years, Goforth said, �I have gone through the New Testament in Chinese 55 times.�

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I think it would be fair to say that kind of sentiment echoes David in Psalm 19 regarding the

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Bible. They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.

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Moreover, by them thy servant is warned, and keeping them there is great reward.

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So on No Compromise Radio today, I want to talk to you about the Bible because we live in a day and age where everyone has a

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Bible. I mean, pretty much everyone has a Bible. If you want one, it's pretty easy to get. As a matter of fact, if somehow you don't have a

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Bible and you really want one and you want to write us, we'll make sure we can figure out a way to get you a Bible.

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But they are so common. We just were in a hotel room in New York City. Open it up. There's the

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Bible. You can call down to the front office and say, �Could I please have this Bible, this Gideon Bible ?�

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and they will say yes. I don't even know what the law is or the Gideon's M .O.

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for this, but my guess is if you're in a hotel room and you want that Bible, you can take that Bible. I think the

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Gideons maybe even encourage that. Who knows? I've baptized people who have said they became

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Christians because they were distressed and they didn't know what to do. They're on a business trip. They open up their little drawer there and they find a

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Gideon Bible and begin to read it. So we live in a day and age where people have access to the

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Bible. If you look back in ages past and ask yourself the question, in how many generations and in how many different languages and cultures did people have the

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Bible in their own native language or tongue, you would find that this, what we have today, is what some would call a rare privilege.

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We have translations, literal translations.

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We have translations, dynamic equivalent translations. We have paraphrases. We have online study tools.

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We have the Bible on our phones. I was visiting someone at a rest home yesterday and I said, �Well, let me read to you something from Romans 8, because I love to read

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Romans 8, 31 and following to the end of the chapter to folks in the hospital, whether they're believers or unbelievers.

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It talks about who Jesus is and what he's done. And you know, it's direct more to believers, but they get to hear who

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Jesus is if they're not a believer. And I have to say now when I pull my phone out of my pocket, I'm not checking my email, but I'm pulling up my

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Bible app because I don't want them to think I'm rude. Oh yeah, I'm here. You know, your loved one is sick and I'm going to be checking my email.

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So we have this Bible in our hand and we have such access to it.

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But it seems as if that maybe generations ago that the people that didn't have such access to the

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Bible, were they better Bible students than we are? I don't know, but when

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I need to be motivated to read the Bible with more intensity, more fervor, more verve, then

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I like to look at Psalm 1. So today we're going to start a little mini -series and it's going to be on Psalm 1.

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I like to have these little positive mini -series on Thursdays. So this will probably air on Thursdays and I don't know how many weeks it'll go.

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But for those who think that we always just whack people, woodshed Fridays, that would be on Fridays.

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This is Thursday and so we're upbeat, we're up -tempo, we're nice. It's nice to be nice.

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And it's good to be good. Correct? Well, of course, as my grandmother would say, anything less than that would be a no.

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Oliver Cromwell, my problem was that though I had read, sung, chanted, and warbled with Psalms, I had never studied them.

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When I did, I had my big surprise. It is fascinating when to look at Psalm 1 through 50, the

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Psalmist, the Psalms, rather. And then we zoom into this first one, the

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Gateway Psalm, and it is great, Psalm 1. My favorite meal, probably between sushi and tenderloin cut of a cow.

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I have to tell this funny story. I went to the gym the other day and took my daughter,

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Gracie. She's 13. She was trying out for the junior high team. She made the team, but we were in the middle of tryouts.

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And so another dad and daughter came because they knew tryouts were probably the next day too.

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And so I was trying to teach this little girl a couple tricks and the dad was saying, now see that other girl there, see how she follows through.

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And this guy's daughter wasn't following through. And so I said to her, you know, we were talking a little bit and rebounding each other's shots and stuff.

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And I said to the girl, I said, here's an easy way to remember to follow through.

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I said, what's your favorite kind of meat? She said, I don't really like meat, salads.

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My guess is she was 10, 11, 12, something like that. She was younger than my 13 year old daughter.

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And I mean, I was trying to be nice to lead up to it. What's your favorite kind of meat? And I wanted her to say beef, right?

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Maybe it's pork for her, I don't know, but you know, maybe she'd say chicken. Maybe if you know

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Carl Truman, it'd be yak. And so she said, wrong answer.

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I said, well, how do you spell beef? That's my favorite meat. And she said, B -E -A -F.

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Well, I guess, I guess, you know, this homonym or something, is that what you call it?

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Ted would know, but he doesn't listen anymore. Is he even alive? My linguist friend, ex -friend.

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So I said, well, B -E -E -F is the meat and it's B is bend your knees,

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E, keep your elbow in, E, eyes on the front of the rim, and then

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F, follow through. So there you have it. This passage,

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Psalm chapter one, Psalm one, it's like tenderloin for the soul. It is so good.

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John Donne said, like manna, which tasted to every man like that, he loved the best.

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How about Alexander White, Scottish, if I only had the accent, I envy you young men with your ministry before you, and especially that you have ahead a lifetime of explaining the

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Psalms to your people. I mean, this Psalm book that has the peaks and the valleys of human emotions and how this

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Psalm book captures these human emotions is wonderful.

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Some people call it the hymn book of the ages. I like the little slogan regarding the Psalms, he that would be wise, let him read the

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Proverbs. He that would be holy, let him, her of course, read the

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Psalms. And so we have this collection of songs called praises in the

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Hebrew text, called Psalms in the Septuagint, that is the

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Greek translation of the Old Testament. And then we picked it up in the New Testament and it would be called

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Psalms when New Testament authors like in Luke our Acts refer to the

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Psalms, plucking or twanging strings. That's what a Psalm means.

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Psalm 1 is the entry into the book of Psalms. And it is very important, this first Psalm, Psalm 1, because you're going to see the importance and necessity of scripture.

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You're going to see the fruitfulness found in those who absorb their minds in scripture.

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You're going to see the need and you'll see your need for the Lord Jesus Christ because of your lack when it comes to studying like you should.

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Of course, I'm preaching to myself as well. And when you look at this Psalm, you cannot get around the fact that God blesses people through his word.

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We could easily tie in the incarnate word and the revelation of the word of God and you are going to quickly see there's blessing found in and through the word of God.

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Often you'll find Psalm 1 kind of categories in the

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Bible, two ways, two paths, two roads, two boulevards, two strasses, two vegs.

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And you've got broad and narrow, you could put it that way. Jeremiah 21 says, thus says the

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Lord, behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. And so it could be the narrow gate, way is broad that leads to destruction.

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Many are those who enter by it for the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life and few are those who find it.

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Two kinds of roads, two kinds of people in the word. When you're tired, this is hard to do this radio show.

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Two kinds of people in the world. And what a message for today, a day of relativity, a day where all roads lead to heaven, a day that the day and age where the world tries to sell us that every religion is completely as valid as the other popular opinion.

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Could it be wrong? Could it be wrong that righteous living is worth it?

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And so Psalm chapter one, introducing the Psalms found in the rest of the book is kind of a front piece.

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Watson called it a blessed front piece. And what he means by that is as Kidner would call it a faithful doorkeeper functioning as the gateway for the rest of the

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Psalms. There's the right way to do it the wrong way. The godly way, the ungodly way, the righteous way, the unrighteous way, the wise way, the foolish way.

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And that's what we see in the rest of the Psalms. Now, let me read you Psalm one in the ESV. And as I'm reading it, ask yourself the question, what's missing?

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That'll be a good way to start off the show today since we're halfway through. I should be out of my bike listening to S.

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Lewis Johnson, but it is freezing cold today. We're talking freezing in real time, poo, burr.

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Although if you get some toe warmers, it's not that bad. Anyway, Psalm one, as I read the

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Psalm, tell me what's missing. 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, but his delight is in the law of the

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Lord. And on his law, he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither.

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And all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

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Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

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For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

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Now what was missing from that Psalm? Now specifically, you could say, oh, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, you know, that kind of stuff, propitiation.

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But I mean, just generally, as you look at the Psalm, what pops out as, oh, that's not found there.

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Interestingly, no imperatives in the Psalms. No, that's not true. No imperatives in Psalm 1.

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It doesn't tell you to do anything. No commands. It describes, and this is a descriptive

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Psalm. And of course, when you look at imperative indicative paradigm that you know about on No Compromise Radio, indicatives are statements of fact.

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Here's what Jesus did, for instance, and then imperatives in light of that, what are you supposed to do?

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How do you respond? And here we just have descriptions. Let me ask you another question about Psalm 1.

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What's described there? Well, what's described there is the life of the righteous contrasted to the life of the wicked.

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Let me ask you another question. What is the main difference between the righteous and the wicked?

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And I agree with many scholars that it would be the object of their delight, the object of their delight.

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And that should be the word of God. And isn't that true for us as Christians as we read

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Psalm 1 as a Christian would read it? It is in fact in the Christian canon that is between Genesis and Revelation.

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Jesus said in John 5, speaking of the Old Testament, which includes the Psalms, you search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life.

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And it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.

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John 5, 39 to 40. In addition, Luke 24 verses 47, 44 and following, these are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the

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Psalms must be fulfilled. And so we know at least at the macro level, that's the

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Old Testament, of course, as well as the new, testifies of the

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Lord Jesus Christ. And so the object of our affection, of course, is the word of God.

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And when we are in the word of God, and we are reading the word of God, you will see the words of Jesus to prove true from Luke 24, and you will see the

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Lord Jesus Christ. Psalm chapter one is a good motivation because although it's not a messianic

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Psalm, the Psalm is about Jesus. If you are going to be one of those who does what

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Psalm one describes, you are going to see Christ on a regular basis as you see him in scripture.

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Two ways, two destinies, two men, two kinds of living regularly found in the

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Psalms and in this doorkeeper, in this gatekeeper, Psalm one, as Jerome called the preface of the

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Holy Spirit. You'll see basically two parts if you want an outline. You've got the blessedness of the godly, and then you've got the ungodly's character and future found in the second half of the

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Psalm. So six simple verses. First talks about the godly, then it talks about the ungodly, and we see this didactic wisdom

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Psalm if you'd like to have the professional scholastic description.

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It is not a lament Psalm, it is not a messianic Psalm. It is a what?

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It is a didactic wisdom Psalm. It's trying to teach you something. Now let's start off with Psalm one, one.

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How great is this? How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked? How blessed is that man?

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He doesn't stand in the path of sinners, nor does he sit in the seat of scoffers. That man is blessed.

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What a great way to start the Psalm. By the way, Psalm chapter one,

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Psalm one, the first word is blessed and the last word is perish. Interesting bookends for this

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Psalm. How blessed. This kind of person is going to be blessed.

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This is not somehow a happy feeling only, a blissful feeling only.

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This is from God's perspective, blessed. A share is the word and it means what?

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Prosperity. When a superior bestows favor on someone, that is a blessing, right?

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Sometimes it means happy, but not all the time. When you look at scripture, Job is described as blessed, but he's not always happy per se as you look at Job.

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Here's something, this blessedness, wouldn't you like this? An inner contentment in life, a personal state of bliss and joy.

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We have lots of these Psalm beatitudes. Blessed be, this reminds you of course,

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Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter five, beatitudes in the Psalms, 25 of them.

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And we have how blessed, this deep seated joy and contentment in God.

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One way you could translate this word would be to be envied, to be envied. This is the man who trusts in the

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Lord, oh, that I could be like him, that he received these benefits from his

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God. Regularly in the Psalms, we have this blessing over and over and over.

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Now about half of the times that this word is found, it's used of blessing the Lord and about the other half is found blessing men.

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Don said, how abundantly is that word blessed multiplied in the book of Psalms?

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The book seems to be made out of that word and the foundation raised upon that word for it is the first word of the book.

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But in all the book, there's not one woe. Well there's woe in the second half of this, it just doesn't use the word woe, the word to bless.

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Can you imagine to receive the blessing of God? How blessed are all those who take refuge in him,

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Psalm two. Psalm 32, how blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

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How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity. How blessed is the man who takes refuge in him,

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Psalm 34. How blessed is a man who has made the Lord his trust, Psalm 40.

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Praise the Lord, how blessed is the man who fears the Lord, Psalm 112. How blessed is he whose help is the

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God of Jacob, whose hope is the Lord, his God. These are the blessings found in scripture and they go off into the

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New Testament as well with the Beatitudes as I said, and also Luke 11, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.

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And so the blessings come, we'll find out next week through the word of God as the man of God or the woman of God meditates on scripture.

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And so you, if you're listening today, the pastoral exhortation is to read the word of God.

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And if you're reading it, continue to read it, that you might think about it, chew on it, meditate, memorize it.

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And that is the means that those are the ordained means for the end that is a blessing.

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Well, my name is Mike Ebendroth, this is NoCompromiseRadio .com, if you've benefited from the program, maybe you write

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WVNE and say, thanks for carrying the show, or you can write us info at NoCompromiseRadio .com.

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God bless you. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

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Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston.

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You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.