We’re going to be in Psalm 1 today.

Let’s pray.

Father in heaven, we know that you are moving in our midst. Thank you for giving us the privilege of delighting in your love.

Please make your power known as we meditate on your word today. Let us be drawn to you and humbly receive the salvation that is only available through your Word.

God, you deserve all the glory. You deserve all our honor. God let the activities in our lives  worship you and point all of creation to your love.

God, there are many here in the room that are starting school this week and next. We have the teachers, administrators, and support staff, the aids, the police officers, counselors, all these professionals who educate and influence the next generation. God give this a special anointing as they begin preparing for the work you will have them do this year. Give them your supernatural strength that can only be found through faith in  you. I also lift up our students who are entering these schools and classrooms. God bless your children. They are yours and they need your mighty hand on their minds and hearts as they live as bold witnesses of your gospel amongst their peers and teachers. Thank you Lord. We trust in you.

We pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Scripture

Psalm 1.

¹ 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;

² but his delight is in the law of the Lord,

and on his law he meditates day and night.

³ 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.

⁴ The wicked are not so,

but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

⁵ Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,

nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;

⁶ for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,

but the way of the wicked will perish.

Overview

Psalm 1 is an introduction to the rest of the Psalms. And the hope of the Psalmist, knowing that the person reading the Psalms is that he or she will take seriously the words of all of the Psalms to worship God as he deserves in every season (lament, freedom, exile), feeling – joy, sadness, rejection; and in every circumstance (death, birth, celebration, etc) in life.

In this introduction, the writer reveals two characters to us—the righteous person and the wicked person. We learn about the fate and outcome of these two characters in verse 6. In fact, it is the concluding thought for us to meditate on throughout this Psalm: If a person can only be righteous or wicked in the eyes of God, then, what do the actions and words in our lives reflect?  

• Here’s what’s beautiful in this Psalm: righteousness and wickedness is not based on performance;
  • Rather, righteousness or wickedness is based on where we derive our satisfaction, safety, and salvation.
• If we are to embrace the identity of the righteous, then our lives are marked by the blood of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ being the source of our words and deeds in life.
• Conversely, if we decide to embrace the identity of the wicked, then the source of our words and deeds in life are found outside of Jesus Christ.
  • In fact, the intention of our words and deeds in life are searching to derive satisfaction, safety, and salvation outside of God.
• I want to make one thing clear here.
  • People who are wicked are not people who have done bad things or said bad things. There are wicked people who are leaders and successful and good by all worldly and cultural standards.
  • They are wicked because their lives are not free from the guilt of sin, nor have they been redeemed for their disobedience and rebellion toward God.

This Psalm wastes no words in confronting us, as the reader, about where we derive our satisfaction, safety, and salvation from. Now, here’s the problem for many of us, especially me as somebody who believes Christ died for his sins and has been redeemed for the life God created originally for me:

• Why doesn’t the words I say and the actions I do reflect that my satisfaction, safety, and salvation comes from God alone?
• Why am I still trying to find my own satisfaction, create my own safety, and achieve my own salvation?

Many of you have heard that myself and a few other members from our church went to India on a short term mission trip to visit one of our missionary partners out there. We were out there hosting and teaching at a multi-city church leaders conference training pastors, church planters, and women leaders in studying, teaching, and preaching from the Bible.

I am so glad to report that the work of gospel ministry that you are generously sowing through your tithes, offerings, and prayers are making an eternal difference continents away. People are being healed. People are coming to faith. Justice is being championed. The widowed and orphaned are being cared for. The gospel is being proclaimed with power.

Through the trip, the Holy Spirit has really been convicting me through this Psalm that I need to confess that I have been subconsciously trying find my own satisfaction, to create my own safety, and achieve my own salvation and I want to repent of that idolatry that snuck up in my life without me noticing it was there.

My hope is today is that all of us would notice when these trends are present in our own lives and that we would ask God to root them out and proactively take steps to keep them out of our lives.

Let’s talk about satisfaction. Satisfaction is just another way to say contentment.

• Like, have any of you ever just spent a better part of the night scrolling through what you could watch on Netflix instead of actually watching something on Netflix? I have.
• Maybe you just add one more hobby, one more activity, one more thing, so that there is no free time in your calendar and at which point you complain that you have no free time. I’ve done this too. One more project at work. One more appointment to take.
• In fact, because my satisfaction wasn’t located in Jesus, I have just been numbing myself with entertainment and things to do to feign contentment in my life. I’m searching for an idol of happiness when I have the joy of God in my possession.

• Let’s talk about safety. Safety is the confidence that one will not be hungry, or physically harmed and have enough money to start thriving.
  • While we were in India, we met lots of Christians who decided to practice their faith openly despite the persecution and discrimination they face.
    • In the US that’s not a big deal. But for Christians living and making a living in India, that’s a huge deal.
    • India is the 11^th most dangerous country to live in for Christians.
  • In fact, our missionary partner was arrested and sent to jail a few months back because their Sunday worship service was too crowded and too loud.
  • Meanwhile, what am I worried about? My feelings being hurt by the Monday morning sermon critics? What restaurant we’re going to eat at after church? Which stock portfolio is going to be better for my 401k?

• What about salvation?
  • On every block there is a shrine, booth, or temple to some god. Literally mute idols carved into stone, erected in wood or steel, bowed to by people in the hopes that one would save them.
  • As I was scoffing at these sights in my heart, God stirred and said, “Jonathan, what have you built or what have you been trying to build to replace my deliverance of your life, the sanctification I am doing in your life, and the glory that I’m trying to get from your obedience in my life?
    • Is your salvation the approval of people? Building some type of business empire or career? Is it your kids? Or spouse?  

Let’s read verses 1 and 2 once again. 

¹ 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;

² but his delight is in the law of the Lord,

    and on his law he meditates day and night. (Psalm 1:1-2 ESV)

Harry Ironside, a famous American Bible teacher from the early to mid 20^th century once told of a visit to Palestine a man named Joseph Flacks. He had an opportunity to address a gathering of Jews and Arabs and took for the subject of his address the first psalm. He read it and then asked the question: “Who is this blessed man of whom the psalmist speaks? This man never walked in the counsel of the wicked or stood in the way of sinners or sat in the seat of mockers. He was an absolutely sinless man.”

Nobody spoke. So Flacks said, “Was he our great father Abraham?”

One old man said, “No, it cannot be Abraham. He denied his wife and told a lie about her.”

“Well, how about the lawgiver Moses?”

“No,” someone said. “It cannot be Moses. He killed a man, and he lost his temper by the waters of Meribah.”

Flacks suggested David. It was not David.

There was a silence for a long while. Then an elderly Jew arose and said, “My brothers, I have a little book here; it is called the New Testament. I have been reading it; and if I could believe this book, if I could be sure that it is true, I would say that the blessed man of the first Psalm was Jesus of Nazareth.” No one is truly like this wise and righteous man other than our Lord, Jesus Christ.

The gospels point back to the Psalms illustrating this truth.

John 1:1-5 says:

¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. ⁴ In him was life, and the life was the light of men. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:1-5 ESV)

What John connects for us is that in Jesus is the embodiment of the law of God. The law of God being to love the lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul, and to love your neighbor as yourself. That’s the whole love of God summarized. This is confirmed by Jesus in Matthew 5:17-18:  

¹⁷ “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. ¹⁸ For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. (Matthew 5:17-18 ESV)

• In Jesus’ life, he fulfilled the law of God, by living in perfect obedience to God, even to the death, which was an act of love for God with all his heart, mind, and soul.
• In his death on the cross, he accomplished what the law of God set out to do, which was to love God and love people as himself. He laid his own righteous life down for the unrighteous, so that in faith, the unrighteous could receive the righteousness of Christ by his act of sacrificial love.
• In Jesus’ resurrection, the prophets are fulfilled, the true king, the anointed one of God is glorified.

Jesus is the blessed man of Psalm 1, and he challenges all who trust in him to find their delight in him. Meaning, we must find our satisfaction, safety, and salvation in the Word of God, the Bible, which points to Christ. When we do:

The Word brings blessing

You see, what we find our delight in, determines how we will spend our time. The Psalmist says that the blessed person who finds their delight in the law of God will be somebody who meditates on it day and night.

The word “meditate” in verse 2, in Hebrew is Ha-ga. And what the word is actually describing is actually like a growling, or groaning, and muttering. It’s like the sound we make when we’re slowly eating something delicious or the sound we make when we’re eating in a very hungry state, muttering and growling.

Church, this is how we need to consume the Word of God in our lives. The Word of God is the most delicious meal we can eat. So we must prioritize it and devour it because that is how God blesses us.  

When we’re not devouring the Word of God like it’s our most delicious meal, we will end up walking in the counsel of the wicked. That’s simply to say, we will start taking advice and live like people who live in the brokenness that Jesus already saved us from. In fact, not meditating on the Word of God will lead to living as a doubter or skeptic of the love of God for us.

We are God’s chosen and beloved sons and daughters, do not let yourselves be swindled out of the blessings our father in heaven wants to give to you. Find your greatest delight in the Word of God. Meditate on the Word of God and experience why God sent Jesus to redeem you.

Church, as many of us start the school season, I want to invite you into this challenge: Intentionally find delight in the Word of God and prioritize meditating on the Word of God. Here’s how we can intentionally do that:

• First, make worshipping with your church family a priority on Sunday.
  • You see, every Sunday, when we sing together, and studying the word together at our Sunday worship experience, what you’re practicing is delighting and meditating on the Word of God, Jesus. We’re allowing the truth of God’s love come front and center in our minds and hearts. We’re being reminded about who God is for us.
  • We may not always be funny or entertaining, but we make sure every Sunday you’re chewing on something. Whether it’s like filet minion or broccoli, when you delight on the word and chew on the word, whether you like the taste, or if it offends you that week, you will be nourished by the Word of God.
• Second, participate in Life Groups, or Bible Studies, Men’s Events, Women’s Events. Send your kids to our Promiseland events, our Student Ministry Events. Calendar those activities first.
• Third, read the Bible daily. One verse a day, one chapter a day, several verses, several chapters, it doesn’t matter. One minute, or one hour. Start somewhere and do it consistently.

When you prioritize these things every week or three weeks out of the four a month. Not just you, but your entire family. Your spouse, your kids, your teenagers, what you are doing is delight in and meditate on the Word of God. Now, stick with it for one year and I bet your life will be marked by the blessings of God promised in his Word. You will have changed, your spouse will have changed, your kids will have changed.

I can make that bet because of what the Psalmist says in verse 3. 

³ He [the Psalmist is talking about the blessed person] 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. (Psalm 1:3 ESV)

This is a beautiful image the Psalmist is drawing for us.

• Trees need water to grow, produce fruit, and have leaves. With no water there is no life. with no life there is no fruit and definitely no leaves.
• Jesus tells the Samaritan woman at the well that he is the living water. Those who drink from him will never thirst.
  • When we delight in Jesus, and when we meditate on the Bible, Jesus becomes our source of life.

The Psalmist is saying that when that happens

The Word brings fruitfulness

Here’s the connection that is being made: if fruit is the tangible evidence that there is a tree with life in it. Then a life of faith, a blessed life will have fruit since it is connected directly to the source of life, the living water Jesus.  

It is God’s will for his children to be fruitful all the days of our lives. If fruit is evidence of life in the tree, then  God’s will is for our lives to have meaning, and for us to have tangible evidence that we lived in faith.

The way the Psalmist ends this verse is telling, “in all that he does, he will prosper.” The Psalmist isn’t talking about making money or gaining power and status. The Psalmist is talking about the everyday activities you engage in will bear tangible evidence of your faith.

Does your life, the activities you engage in, the things you do, leave tangible evidence of your faith in Jesus?

When we are delighting in the Word of God and meditating in the Word of God, there will be no season in your life, and it doesn’t matter what you’re going through or what you’re experiencing, where your activities and the things that you say are not marked by your faith.

Remember my invitation earlier?

• Make worshipping with your church family a priority on Sunday.
• Participate in Life Groups, or Bible Studies, Men’s Events, Women’s Events.
  • Send your kids to our Promiseland events, our Student Ministry Events. Calendar those activities first.
• Read the Bible daily.

Two out of three of those things are meant to help you cross pollinate with other trees planted in living water. There are certain types of fruit trees that need to cross pollinate in order to bear fruit. Like apples. Apple trees need to be cross pollinated to bear fruit.

People are the same way. People were not created to live alone. The Bible shows us this. People were always supposed to live in the context of community to experience thriving. Social science shows this. Do not neglect the importance of gathering as a church family. Not only will you be missed, you will be missing out on fruit because you’re not cross pollinating the delight and meditation in the Word of God.

That means you have to stick around long enough to know people and be known by people. Have a cup of coffee before or after the service and come regularly so you can build a relationship with that person or those people.

Verse 4.

⁴ The wicked are not so,

but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
⁵ Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,

nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;

The wicked are people who do not derive satisfaction, safety, and salvation from Christ. The Psalmist says the “wicked” are not connected to the source of life giving water. They will not join the gathering of those who find their satisfaction, safety, and salvation in Christ.

I love how this ends. Verse 6.

⁶ for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,

but the way of the wicked will perish.
(Psalm 1:4-6 ESV)

The righteous way is God’s way. Jesus stands at its beginning with a cross by his side, justifying the righteous before God. Jesus, having bestowed his righteousness on us then cares for us personally and intimately, making us holy as he walks with us until we get to the end, to stand before God, to give God the glory of our lives to worship him in eternity.

Here at Cedarbrook, one of our values is to live our lives as worship before God, meaning our words and deeds will be evidence of our faith in God and give him glory.

So make the decision to prioritize your relationship with Jesus by delighting in and meditating on the Word of God this school year.

To help us get started in living our lives as worship before God we will have an extended time of singing together. I want to encourage you, lift up your voices, your hearts, and minds to glorify the father who loves us and gives himself wholly to us. Let’s pray.

Heavenly father, Father, grant us a renewed hunger for Your Word. Move in our hearts that we may delight and meditate in your word day and night. Free us from chasing our own happiness outside of you.

God, forgive us if we have departed from you, forsaking your love, by accepting the world’s advice, being part of its way of doing business, by adopting its attitudes. Allow us to be rooted in your Word, so that the ways of the wicked, sinners, and scoffers don’t blow us away from our true love.

Thank you for giving us Jesus as our model of living blessed. As we journey in faith with him, help us become more like him. Conform us into your image and character. Free us to live fully glorifying you in every action take and every word we speak. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.