WWUTT 919 Psalm 1, Bessed is the Man?

The entire Psalms begins with the word blessed. Blessed is the man. What does it mean to be blessed? Well, the word actually means happy, but not like a fleeting emotion when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text, a daily Bible commentary that we may be equipped for every good work in Jesus Christ our Lord. Please tell others about our ministry at www .utt .com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Psalm 1 and the Meaning of Blessedness

Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of the Psalms. Looking at the first couple of Psalms today, if you wanna open up your Bible and join with me there, I'll begin by reading Psalm number 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.

But his delight is in the law of the 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. In all that he does, he prospers.

The 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 shall perish.

The very first word that we have opening up the Psalms for us is this word blessed. And I think that we have kind of lost a theology of that word blessed and what it means. Probably the one place it appears the most often and we think of it most readily is in the Beatitudes.

Matthew chapter five, the way that Jesus starts the Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

And on it goes. That's our introduction to the Sermon on the Mount. So it's interesting that blessed begins the Psalms, and blessed begins Jesus' Sermon on the Mount as well. When he sits down on a mountain and begins to open his mouth, speaking and teaching to his disciples, both begin the same way.

Jesus' ministry of teaching starts with blessed, the Psalms begin with blessed. The word blessed means happy. But in our vernacular, that word is kind of cheap because it applies to an emotion that is rather fleeting.

You know, it doesn't take much for you to lose happiness. It might take a lot for you to have happiness. I don't know, maybe you're a person who is easily pleased, in which case it doesn't take much to make you happy.

But maybe it does. Maybe you're the kind of a person that demands too much, and it takes a lot for you to be happy. Or maybe there are certain other burdens or anxieties that must be overcome before you can consider yourself to be a happy person.

Either way, the emotion is easily fleeting. All it takes is a bad word or things don't go your way or something of that nature, and suddenly you're not happy anymore. So the way that we consider happiness is rather fragile.

But this blessedness that has been being talked about here, which is synonymous with happiness to a certain understanding, this blessedness is not dependent upon our emotions. It's not dependent upon things going right for us.

But we delight in something that is unmoving, and that is God, who is constant. Jesus Christ, described in Hebrews as being the same today, yesterday, and forever. And so there is a sure, steadfast, constant that we have placed our reliance fully upon.

And so because that is where our faith is in Jesus Christ, who is the same for us every day, whose mercies are new every morning, then our blessedness is not dependent upon a fleeting emotion since we are dependent upon Christ.

So there's something much deeper than mere happiness, mere surface-level happiness, or a certain physiological feeling that we want to have. There is a hope. There is confident assurance in the promises of God and the things that He has said He will give to us.

The righteousness that we have is not a righteousness of our own, but it is the righteousness of God through faith in Christ. All of these things lead to the blessedness, the wonderful confidence that we can have in our Savior, the comfort that we experience in the giving of His Holy Spirit, who has filled us up, who reminds us of His gospel truth, that our sins are forgiven and our inheritance is His kingdom, in knowing that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, Romans 8, 1, and that nothing in this world, not even life and death itself, can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

At the end of Romans 8 is that assurance. Jesus saying in John 10, that my sheep know my voice and my Father gives them to me and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand because I and the Father are one.

So knowing that we are secure in Christ, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit for the day of redemption, we have this steady assurance in knowing that what God has promised us, He will give to us. And that includes our sanctification.

As Paul said at the start of his letter to the Philippians, I am confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it at the day of Christ. Everything that we do and every circumstance that we encounter, all that we live through is for our sanctification, that we are growing in holiness, learning how to give praise to God even in the midst of our trials.

For James says in James 1, 2, count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

So we know whatever comes our way, God is ultimately using it for His glory. Romans 8, 28, God works all things together for good for those who love God, who delight in God and are called according to His purpose.

So we understand that there is meaning and purpose in everything that happens, no matter even the worst of disasters, God is ultimately using for His glory, though we will mourn for a time and it's okay to mourn.

I'm not saying that just because God is going to use this circumstance for His glory, that doesn't mean that if it's something sorrowful, that you shouldn't cry, because hey, buck up, God is gonna use it for something great.

No, we do mourn, Jesus mourned. And so likewise, we mourn at loss, we mourn at the results of sin, the fallenness of this world, longing for something more. And that is the heaven that is promised to us where there will be no more pain or tears, dying or suffering, all of these things will have passed away.

And so we have meaning and purpose in this life when we know that all things are working together for God's ultimate glory, the purpose that He means to work these things toward. And it's in the understanding of all of this, according to what God's word says, we experience a joy that cannot be comprehended.

It is a peace of God that surpasses all understanding as Paul explains it in Philippians 4. The Holy Spirit groaning for us even in our weaknesses, we have an advocate before the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, 1 John 2, 1, all of these assurances by faith, trusting in Christ, we are blessed.

We have a level of happiness that isn't dependent upon our circumstance, but it surpasses all of that. It is transcendent beyond all of that. It rolls up into praise to God. And it is but a small, the pleasures that we experience in this life are about a small taste of the glory that awaits us.

And even the sufferings that we endure in this life help us to long for that eternal place where this kind of suffering won't exist anymore. All of these things have meaning and purpose. When we know that, we are blessed.

Delighting in the Law of the Lord

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, because that man who knows that our destiny is in Christ, he does not delight in the things of this world, the passions and pleasures of the flesh, and all of those things that are wasting away and are perishing even as they happen.

Even wonderful moments that we can experience in this life are but fleeting moments. They roll up into praise to God, as I mentioned before, and they give us a taste of that which lasts forever. But the pleasures themselves that we experience in life are not eternal.

We know that they are but fleeting. They may give us a delight for a moment, but they are not ultimately going to last. And so we don't place our dependence upon those things which are not lasting, especially not the passions of the flesh.

So blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked. Those things that the wicked says, this is what you must have to find happiness. No, we know that happiness is not real happiness. It's cheap.

It's quickly taken away. It's also going to be destroyed in the final judgment when God will cleanse the world by fire. Those things will not be sustained. So the man who walks in the counsel of God does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor does he stand in the way of sinners.

2 Timothy 2 .22, so flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. So again, back to Psalm 1, the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, he is blessed because, verse two, his delight is in the law of the Lord.

And on his law, he meditates day and night. Now the law of God sometimes gets a bad rap, even among Christians, because we cling to passages like the one in Romans 6, where it says that we are no longer under the law, but under grace.

So we think law, bad, grace, good. But the law of God is still good. And the apostle Paul makes that clear in Romans 8. And he also says in 1 Timothy 1 .8, the law is good if one uses it lawfully. The law points us to what delights God.

So we don't keep it thinking that it merits our salvation. The scripture is clear that it does not, but it reveals God's mind and heart to us. What must we do in order to please God? Well, we find that in his law.

Jesus himself said in John 14, 15, you will show me that you love me when you obey my commandments. And Jesus himself said that all the law is summarized in these two commandments. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.

Those two things are not the gospel. Jesus stated clearly they're law. So loving God and loving neighbor is keeping the law. All of the law is summed up in loving God and loving neighbor. But what does loving the Lord your God look like?

And what does loving your neighbor look like? Well, that's the first and second table of the law of the 10 commandments. Love the Lord your God is the first four commandments. Love your neighbor as yourself is the next six commandments.

So loving your neighbor looks like honoring your father and your mother, not murdering, but rather cherishing human life, taking care of it and giving charity to others, not committing adultery, but rather respecting each and every human being as one who has been made in the image of God, not stealing from others, but being satisfied and thankful to God in what you have, not lying or bearing false witness, but delighting in truth and not covenanting.

But again, in your heart, even in your heart of hearts, you delight in what God has given you, not in longing for what you don't have. So in this way, when we are thankful to God and we are loving of each other, we are keeping the law and we delight in the law of the Lord.

It helps us to know the mind of God and what makes him happy. So it's on the law that we meditate night and day. God has revealed himself in his law. And so it's in studying his law that we come to know the character of God and therefore delight in the law of God.

This person who is blessed, who delights in his law, he is like a tree planted by streams of water. Now notice that the metaphorical use that was given to us in the first two verses, 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.

So he doesn't walk in the counsel of the wicked, meaning that he doesn't follow their way. He doesn't do what they say that you should do. He doesn't stand in the way of sinners. His status before God is not in sin, but rather his stance before God is in righteousness because he has been justified by Christ.

He does not sit in the seat of scoffers. A person so committed to hating the truth that he sits in it. He has come to rest in it. But the person who delights in the law of God does not do these things.

Rather, he's like a tree planted by streams of water. He's constantly nourished and his leaf is always green. He yields fruit in its season. So he shows evidence of being a follower of God. Repentance and faith is not something that you did in a moment of your life.

It's something that you're still doing. And a continual repentance doesn't necessarily mean saying, I'm sorry, every single day. Like you're not sinning so that you can therefore have something to ask God's forgiveness for, but rather you're growing in sanctification every day, not walking in sin, but desiring holiness.

And then when you stumble, asking for God's forgiveness that you may mature, delighting in even the discipline that God gives you, because we know that in being disciplined we are sons and daughters of God, not illegitimate children of God, according to what we read in Hebrews chapter 12.

So the person who delights in God is like a tree. He's steadfast and unmoving. And he's being nourished with streams of water, the Holy Spirit and the reference to the Holy Spirit being like water in not just the New Testament, but also the Old Testament.

As God says through the prophet Ezekiel in Ezekiel 36, I will sprinkle clean water on you and put my spirit within you. So you have that equivalence between the spirit and water even there in the Old Testament.

So the man who delights in God like a tree, firmly planted, yields fruit in its season, shows evidence of growing in God and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. You think of Paul telling Timothy, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season.

That's almost like Paul saying, let your leaf always be green. Don't languish in your faithfulness, but always be in the word of God so that you may be ready to answer the call of God and respond to every person who asks you for an answer for the hope that lies within you, but do this with gentleness and respect.

1 Peter 3, 15. In all that this man does, he prospers. And that doesn't mean financial prosperity, that means spiritual prosperity. That's what we have. So far we're just through the first three verses of Psalm 1.

I think we can cancel out, we're gonna get to Psalm 2 today. Anyway, verse four, the wicked are not so, but they are like chaff that the wind drives away. In Ephesians chapter four, Paul says that we as the church depend upon one another to keep one another steadfast, growing in unity and in maturity so that we may not be tossed to and fro by the shifting winds of doctrine.

Now we get kind of the symbolism of a boat there out on the sea being tossed to and fro by shifting winds. But I think that we have a similar picture that's given here in Psalm 1. If we're rooted in Christ, we're not being blown to and fro, but the wicked are like chaff that is easily blown away.

They are easily carried away by the scheming craftiness of deceitful men. Therefore, verse five, the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. In Matthew chapter three, John the Baptist said that his winnowing fork is in his hand describing Jesus, and he drives the chaff away and burns it up in unquenchable fire.

So the wicked are like chaff that the wind drives away and will not stand in the judgment. Then this reference to sinners will not stand in the congregation of the righteous. I think of Jesus' parable of the tares in Matthew chapter 13, where he lets the wheat and the tares grow together, but then at the harvest time, he says, gather the weeds first, or gather the tares first, and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.

So the sinners will not stand in the congregation of the righteous, just as the tares were gathered up and were burned. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, verse six, and this is in reference to God knowing what is in the hearts of man and has determined all of man's steps.

The Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. In back to the Sermon on the Mount again, Matthew chapter seven, Jesus said, enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the way that leads to destruction, and many are gonna find that way because that's the easy way, but narrow is the way and long is the road that leads to life, and few will find it because that's the difficult path, but the way of the wicked perish, the way of the righteous will lead to eternal life.

So I hope that you've enjoyed our exposition of Psalm one, and hopefully next week, I'll be able to do more than one Psalm at a time. I don't plan on going this slow all the way through the Psalms because that would take us 150 weeks.

Prayer of Thanksgiving and Benediction

Let's conclude with prayer. Our wonderful God, we thank you for this great wisdom that has been preserved for us. For 3 ,000 years, these words have been captured in your word, and we thank you that we may read them and know what delights our Lord so that we may be called blessed in the one who delights in the law of God.

Help us to be planted firmly in your statutes and what you have taught us, continually refreshed by these things, nourished by your Holy Spirit, and not be driven away or tossed to and fro by the shifting winds of doctrine, but steadfast and sure in your word.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Gabriel Hughes is the pastor.

Of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas. Find out more online at www .tt .com.