Pastor Nate continues our study through the Bible in the book of Psalms.
[00:00:00] One of the most well-known lines of American poetry comes from Robert Frost in his poem,
[00:00:09] The Road Not Taken.
[00:00:11] You all know this one.
[00:00:12] Two roads diverged in a wood and I took the one less traveled by.
[00:00:19] And that has made all the difference.
[00:00:23] I think that the reason that many people love that sentiment or that line is because they feel that their own lives have been unique, different.
[00:00:34] That they have been one of those who have taken the less traveled road.
[00:00:40] They feel that they've resisted the way of the most to pursue the way of the few.
[00:00:49] But history, along with God's word seems to tell us that we aren't as original as we might think.
[00:00:57] There are, according to God's word and according to this Psalm, two different paths.
[00:01:03] One is the way of the righteous or our Psalm refers to it as the way of the blessed.
[00:01:09] This is God's way and we're going to inspect it this morning.
[00:01:13] But another is the way of the wicked or the way of the sinner or the way of the unrighteous.
[00:01:19] And the Bible teaches us that most people choose this well-worn path of life.
[00:01:26] The one that is without God's presence, without his counsel and without his leadership.
[00:01:32] Most of us, the Bible teaches in our practical experience will rebuff God's governance and guidance for our lives.
[00:01:42] Thinking we're walking a less worn path of originality, we actually follow the masses who came before us.
[00:01:51] This is how Jesus said it in Matthew 7 verse 13.
[00:01:55] He said, enter by the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction and those who enter by it are many.
[00:02:09] Our Psalm today sets both paths before us, the way of the blessed and the way of the wicked.
[00:02:16] Now what you should know about this Psalm is that it's what we would categorize as a wisdom Psalm.
[00:02:23] In other words there's something to learn from this song.
[00:02:26] It's not a mere prayer or emotion that spills out onto the page.
[00:02:32] It's designed to set structure or wisdom or guidance for the human life and experience.
[00:02:40] And it's important because it will promote the life of blessing.
[00:02:44] And that's why they more than likely placed this Psalm at the beginning of the Psalter.
[00:02:50] Because Psalm 1 is explained through Psalm 2 to 150.
[00:02:57] Because all of those Psalms declare to us what that blessed life looks like.
[00:03:02] Really the rest of the Psalms are an exposition of Psalm 1 and the blessed life that God has declared to us.
[00:03:11] And not only is Psalm 1 a great explanation or preparation for all of the Psalms,
[00:03:20] it's also great as an explanation for all of the Bible.
[00:03:25] For this reason I thought it'd be appropriate and good for us to consider Psalm 1 together
[00:03:30] at the beginning of our study in Genesis and Galatians on Tuesday nights
[00:03:35] and our study of Mark on Sunday morning.
[00:03:37] We're starting three books of the Bible simultaneously at around the same time together as a church.
[00:03:43] It might be good for us to ask the question, why should we read and explain
[00:03:48] and apply the Bible to our life experience?
[00:03:53] Psalm 1 helps us answer that question.
[00:03:56] Psalm 1 will promote the way of the blessed.
[00:04:00] Now when we approach this song there's something I want you to do as we move through these lines again.
[00:04:06] Because we already read them but I'll reread them as we move through these lines.
[00:04:10] I want you to think of the two ways that we're going to look at
[00:04:14] or the two paths that we're going to look at.
[00:04:17] I want you to think about them like a machine or like a system.
[00:04:21] You see God is the one who's made this world and God is the one who has made us.
[00:04:27] He's the author of humanity and he has manufactured, he's designed how we work as a species.
[00:04:35] We're a system in other words.
[00:04:38] And when specific things go into our system, specific things come out of our system.
[00:04:46] Psalm 1 helps us understand what to put in so that we can get the right results out
[00:04:53] and what not to put in so that we can avoid the wrong results out.
[00:04:59] There's a pastor in Australia, his name is Mark Sayers
[00:05:02] and he wrote a book recently called Reappearing Church.
[00:05:05] Kind of a conclusion to a long sequence of books that he's written.
[00:05:09] And he makes the point that the fuel that our western world has proposed our system needs
[00:05:16] is coming up short and is right now in our modern time producing disastrous results.
[00:05:23] In other words, we live in a time of unparalleled advancements in science and technology
[00:05:29] but the promises that modernity have made to us are failing us.
[00:05:36] In short, we're putting into our western system the garbage of things like consumerism
[00:05:44] or the freedom of expression or the pursuit of pleasure
[00:05:49] or the worship of the self or rapidly accelerated technology
[00:05:56] and what is coming out of our human systems as a result?
[00:06:02] Well, we look around and we see the increase of emotional immaturity, anxiety and depression,
[00:06:10] sadness and loneliness, isolation, wars, hostility and polarization.
[00:06:17] We live in a time where individuals are hurting, marriages are fractured,
[00:06:22] families are in chaos, governments are paralyzed and nations rage against one another.
[00:06:29] But to me, this result or this comeuppance is exciting
[00:06:35] because perhaps as people get their way more and more, disillusionment will begin to grow
[00:06:43] as they begin to realize that Christianity isn't the big problem
[00:06:49] that they thought needed to be expunged from our collective psyche in order to have joy
[00:06:57] and begin discovering that joy cannot be found without God, without Christ, without the gospel
[00:07:05] perhaps people will begin to turn to him, perhaps they'll see that life without God isn't fulfilling in the way that they dreamed.
[00:07:14] Perhaps some will begin to see it was never God or his word that led to their pain
[00:07:19] but a way of life designed to remove him and his word from the picture.
[00:07:24] So we're going to look at this song that's going to present us a way of life that is different from the way of this world.
[00:07:33] I think that when Christians live this life that we're going to see in someone, not in confession only but in reality
[00:07:42] we will become the trailblazers that our world needs, required to lead others into God's way.
[00:07:51] In other words, I think when our lives are lived in the blessed way of Psalm 1
[00:07:58] we become a great and attractive and appealing apologetic for the beautiful message of the gospel to the world that we live in.
[00:08:07] So let's consider these two ways together starting in verse 1 looking at the first way, the way of the blessed in verse 1 through 3.
[00:08:16] In verse 1 he says again,
[00:08:29] Notice the first word of the Psalms, the first word of this Psalm and the first word of this verse.
[00:08:37] It's the word blessed.
[00:08:39] This person, the Psalm says is blessed.
[00:08:43] Now immediately I think introspection begins.
[00:08:47] At least it does for me when a word like blessed comes onto the pages of scripture.
[00:08:53] I begin asking myself questions like, when was the last time I described my life with this word?
[00:09:01] The word blessed.
[00:09:03] You know that, hey Nate, how are you doing?
[00:09:05] I am blessed.
[00:09:06] God's blessing is upon my life.
[00:09:09] We should immediately in reading this word say to ourselves, so this is possible.
[00:09:15] I could actually have my life described with this word blessed and it's an astounding word.
[00:09:22] It's a beautiful word.
[00:09:24] Sometimes we throw it around but I think sometimes we don't know the meaning of it.
[00:09:28] What it means is a rewarding life or to be supremely happy or fulfilled.
[00:09:34] And one author points out that in Psalm 1 it's plural meaning that there's a multiplicity or intensification of blessing,
[00:09:43] of rewards or happiness or fulfillment in this person's life.
[00:09:48] This is like God giving us the ultimate insider stock trading tip.
[00:09:54] This is God saying this is how blessing can come into your human experience so listen up.
[00:10:04] So I don't think I need to take a show of hands this morning to ask how many of you would like to have a life that could be categorically described as blessed?
[00:10:14] Wouldn't we all want that? Wouldn't we all desire that?
[00:10:16] I got three or four hands so I'm talking to you three or four this morning.
[00:10:21] The rest of you, way number two I'll tell you about that later.
[00:10:25] Okay but notice how the song goes though rather than first describe what the blessed man does he first talks about what the blessed man does not do.
[00:10:37] He walks not in the council of the wicked.
[00:10:40] He stands not in the way of sinners and he sits not in the seat of scoffers.
[00:10:46] This is really important because this is where we all start.
[00:10:51] This is where we all begin. This is where we live.
[00:10:55] The Bible teaches that before Jesus came into our life all we were were followers.
[00:11:01] Ephesians 2 verse 1 through 3 tells us that we followed three things.
[00:11:05] Number one the world system all around us no matter how original we thought we followed the world system.
[00:11:12] Number two we followed the spirit or the prince that is now at work in this world.
[00:11:18] And number three we followed the passions of our bodies and our broken minds.
[00:11:24] That's what we all before Jesus came into our life followed what we were followers of.
[00:11:30] That was our condition when Jesus rescued us and came into our lives but listen to me now we must be careful to allow him to continue to rescue us from such a life.
[00:11:44] If we don't as Christians we might blindly continue on in the council of the wicked the way of sinners and the seat of scoffers.
[00:11:54] In fact many polls and surveys and studies continually demonstrate that there isn't that much difference in the thinking of western Christians and those who do not confess Christianity.
[00:12:10] Many professing Christians are living a non-Christian life and thinking in non-Christian ways.
[00:12:18] In other words many who are professing Jesus who are actually living way number two.
[00:12:25] And notice the downward progression of the whole thing first you have the council of the wicked then you have the way of the sinners and then finally you have the seat of scoffers.
[00:12:37] The final position is worse than the first position.
[00:12:43] This this devolution describes a person who started out only listening to the ideas that of the culture that he or she was in that were contrary to God in his word but who end up in the seat where they are actually scoffing at or mocking God firmly entrenched against him.
[00:13:03] This picture is designed to be a stern warning to all of us who love God if we're not careful this way he's saying could suck you in.
[00:13:16] But this is where this song can really help us by producing honesty inside of us.
[00:13:21] I think we have to first awaken to the truth that we are often influenced by the ideologies and philosophies of a world system that is against God.
[00:13:32] After realizing that truth we then have to confess our powerlessness to come out of those ideas by ourselves.
[00:13:41] We need a way of escape.
[00:13:43] We need our minds, our brains, our souls rewired and renewed.
[00:13:50] If we don't think that way we won't pursue God for the renewal that he wants to bring within us.
[00:13:57] So let me ask you that can you make that confession?
[00:14:01] Can you say I know the counsel and way and seat of the unrighteous is beckoning me and has had a massive grip on my life and shaping the way I think about this life and world.
[00:14:16] Dallas Willard in his book renovation of the heart called these influences upon us ideas and images which are impressed on us in our daily experience.
[00:14:27] And about them he said this, he said they are broadly inclusive historically developing ways of interpreting things and events which for all their power often do not emerge into the consciousness of the individual.
[00:14:40] Therefore it is extremely difficult for most people to recognize which ideas are governing their life and how those ideas are governing their life.
[00:14:50] Ideas and images are accordingly the primary focus of Satan's effort to defeat God's purposes with and for humankind.
[00:15:01] When we are subject to his chosen ideas and images he can take a nap or a holiday.
[00:15:09] In other words we'll just be on autopilot making decisions according to a structure that is contrary to God's word if Satan can get us to believe his ideas and images.
[00:15:21] So the first thing that we see about this blessed person is that they have come out of the world system, the world's way of thinking, the world's regular rhythms of life.
[00:15:31] Their bodies, their minds, their allegiances, their sexuality, their spiritual and physical life have all escaped from the well trodden path of the world and into something else.
[00:15:45] But how does that happen? Where do the new ideas for life come from?
[00:15:52] Well that's where we get to verse two. Let's read it together.
[00:15:56] He says, but his delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law he meditates day and night.
[00:16:08] Now there's a little bit of that verse that might cause us to be surprised.
[00:16:13] We might have expected a different thing to have been said in verse two.
[00:16:19] If in verse one the point is hey the blessed man doesn't walk in the council, the ungodly doesn't stand in the path of sinners, doesn't sit in the seat of the scoffer,
[00:16:28] then we might have imagined the exact opposite being what the blessed man does.
[00:16:33] He walks in the council of the godly. He stands in the path of righteous people.
[00:16:40] He sits in the seat of and hangs out with other godly people and gets their input and guidance.
[00:16:48] And of course a Christian should want to pursue that kind of reality, but here he says that it isn't good company which drives out the bad,
[00:16:58] but a delighted relationship with the word of God which he refers to here as the law of the Lord.
[00:17:08] You see it's scripture, it's the Bible, it's God's word that will drive out the ideas and the images that run rampant in these minds and hearts of ours.
[00:17:19] The community that Jesus created by his blood is meant to come under the authority of his word.
[00:17:27] And as we delight in it or meditate on it daily as the Psalm says, we are transformed.
[00:17:35] In other words, it's the word of God that we need to internalize in order to have and live this blessed life.
[00:17:44] Look at how Paul says it in Colossians 3 verse 16. He says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.
[00:17:56] This should be our hope, our desire, our quest as believers that the word of Christ would dwell in us richly.
[00:18:05] But I want you to think about the way that Psalm 1 says it. This is really important right now.
[00:18:11] He says his delight is in the law of the Lord.
[00:18:17] Does that strike you as a little bit odd? The idea that the word delight and the word law could go together.
[00:18:28] You know some of us we know that the law of the Lord is a reference to scripture so we might have just replaced that in our minds.
[00:18:35] His delight is in the scripture, the word of God.
[00:18:38] But here the word is referred to as the law of the Lord.
[00:18:44] What does that mean? Doesn't that seem to grate against some of the images and ideas of our society?
[00:18:51] And we live in a world that worships self-expression. Think about it with me.
[00:18:57] One of the greatest sins that our culture thinks a person could commit is to be untrue to themselves.
[00:19:06] Whatever you feel, whatever you think, you need to express it and to repress that or to suppress that is a great sin in the minds of many.
[00:19:16] But the law of the Lord sets limits and restrictions upon its adherents.
[00:19:22] In other words when we embrace the Bible we're embracing God's rules for life.
[00:19:27] How could such a thing be a delight? How could that be something we rejoice in?
[00:19:33] This is where the truth of the whole thing comes in.
[00:19:37] Freedom at all costs leads to drudgery.
[00:19:42] But to accept the guardrails of God's design leads to the greatest version of the human experience.
[00:19:49] In other words, God's law, his restrictions and commandments are exceedingly good and good for us.
[00:19:59] And when I say that they're good for us, I don't mean like they're good for you in the way that eating a salad is better for you than eating a slice of pizza.
[00:20:08] You know? Like I know the Bible. God, I can do it because of the nutrients that are there.
[00:20:16] What I mean is that God's law leads to our health but also our flourishing, our joy and our blessedness.
[00:20:28] I've watched this a thousand times in the lives of so many people.
[00:20:33] People who bend their will to God's will are happy in life because all that he's designed for us is good.
[00:20:42] Christians say that God is good. And we know this because of the cross of Christ mostly.
[00:20:50] It's his ultimate good for us, his way of rescuing us.
[00:20:54] But if he is good, doesn't it follow then that his word is good?
[00:20:58] I think an example of this that we could find in Scripture comes from the institution of the Sabbath to ancient Israel.
[00:21:05] Think about when the ancient Israelites received the law of the Sabbath for the first time.
[00:21:12] They were a group of people who had been enslaved in Egypt for many years, working every single day with brutal taskmasters,
[00:21:21] keeping them in line, keeping them moving.
[00:21:23] And God delivered them through the plagues and when they went out into the wilderness, God began to speak to them
[00:21:29] and give them a new way of life.
[00:21:31] And one of the things that he announced to these ex-slaves was that every Friday at sundown,
[00:21:40] a thing called the Sabbath would begin.
[00:21:43] And it would end on Saturday at sundown which effectively meant that from every Friday evening to Sunday morning,
[00:21:52] this group of people who all they knew was work, work, work, slavery, slavery, slavery,
[00:21:58] they were to stop, slow down, rest, enjoy God, enjoy each other and cease from their labors.
[00:22:09] It was a hard lesson for some of them to learn.
[00:22:12] It was the law of God but it was good from God for these people who needed reprogramming after years of doing things in a totally different way.
[00:22:26] That's, I think, emblematic. The Sabbath is of God's law.
[00:22:31] It's good for us.
[00:22:32] Though it restricts us and our freedoms, it makes us less restricted and freer than before.
[00:22:39] Listen to me.
[00:22:40] Sinful freedom in slaves but godly restrictions set free.
[00:22:48] As an example of this, I think of some of the believers in our church who battle same sex attraction
[00:22:58] but who have discovered that God's word does not permit them to act out on those impulses.
[00:23:05] So they deny themselves.
[00:23:06] They take up a celibate life like Jesus did and they put God's commands above their desires
[00:23:13] and their impulses.
[00:23:14] They have decided not to walk in the counsel of the world but to celebrate restriction,
[00:23:22] to delight in the law of the Lord.
[00:23:26] His word is so, so good.
[00:23:29] It's so worthy of our delight and it must be delighted in.
[00:23:35] You see, one of the mistakes that modern believers make is simply trying to reject the counsel way
[00:23:42] and seat of the world without also delighting in God and His word.
[00:23:48] And when we do that, all that happens is that the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes
[00:23:54] and the pride of life remorphs in a different version in our lives.
[00:24:00] We might escape one thing that we condemn only to become another thing that is equally condemned
[00:24:06] in God's word.
[00:24:08] We have to replace the system that we used to believe in with a delight in the word of the Lord.
[00:24:16] Now I could talk to you all about delighting in God's word,
[00:24:19] but I thought I would simply show you a prayer from an ancient saint, Augustine.
[00:24:24] He said it this way.
[00:24:25] He said, God, let my delight in your holy writing be pure.
[00:24:29] It couldn't have been for nothing that you wanted so many pages of dimly lit,
[00:24:33] dimly lit, recondite things written.
[00:24:36] Those forests of words have stags native to them who retire inward and revive themselves.
[00:24:42] Walking around and grazing, reclining and ruminating,
[00:24:46] oh master, make me whole and unveil your pages.
[00:24:51] Your voice there is my delight.
[00:24:55] Your voice is superior to a flood of delights.
[00:24:59] Give me what I'm in love with.
[00:25:02] I do love it and you gave me my love for it.
[00:25:07] What a prayer about God's word, a desire for Scripture.
[00:25:13] Now before moving on to see some of the results, the beautiful results of this first way,
[00:25:18] let's think for a moment about what it means to meditate on God's word,
[00:25:23] because that's what it says there in verse two,
[00:25:25] that we should meditate on the law of the Lord.
[00:25:27] It needs a little bit of redefinition because a lot of us have been conditioned to think
[00:25:32] of meditation as the emptying of our minds or the emptying of the self.
[00:25:38] But in the Bible, to meditate is not to empty the mind but to fill the mind with God and His word.
[00:25:46] The word meditate actually means in the Hebrew language,
[00:25:50] muttering in low self-tones, muttering in low self-tones.
[00:25:56] It includes things like memorization or study or thoughtful consideration.
[00:26:02] It's a kind of constant reconsidering of Scripture, thinking about it,
[00:26:08] preaching its themes and truths to yourself throughout the day, all day long.
[00:26:13] A good example of what meditation on God's word is like comes from cattle.
[00:26:20] You know what cows do when they eat the grass as it goes into their stomach
[00:26:24] and then they bring it back up.
[00:26:26] They chew on it some more, it goes back into their second stomach.
[00:26:29] They bring it back up, goes into the third stomach, fourth stomach.
[00:26:32] I think it goes into seven different stomachs until a cow patty is produced.
[00:26:38] It's a great picture for what it means to meditate on the word of God.
[00:26:48] Keep on bringing it up all day long.
[00:26:53] Let it be a constant part of your thought life through reading or memorization
[00:26:59] or prayer or books or teachings and conversations with others,
[00:27:03] meditate on the word until you've soaked in all of its nutrients
[00:27:08] and it's become part of you.
[00:27:12] But what will result in that kind of life?
[00:27:15] Well, let's read it in verse three.
[00:27:17] It says, he is like a tree planted by streams of water
[00:27:21] that yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither.
[00:27:26] In all that he does, he prospers.
[00:27:29] The author uses an image of a tree to help us understand the results of a life
[00:27:35] which delightfully centers itself on God and His word.
[00:27:39] The image is real simple to see and understand.
[00:27:42] The tree is there planted by streams of water.
[00:27:45] That's the perfect place for a tree to flourish, by the way.
[00:27:48] It's not waiting for intermittent rains.
[00:27:50] It just has a constant source of life.
[00:27:53] And as a result, fruit comes in its season to this tree.
[00:27:57] There's no deadness.
[00:27:59] There's no withering of the leaf.
[00:28:02] It's alive.
[00:28:04] And after saying all this about the tree,
[00:28:06] the author then brings the man back into the picture.
[00:28:10] He says at the end of verse three,
[00:28:12] in all that he does, he prospers.
[00:28:16] The meaning of all this is really clear.
[00:28:20] The person who delights in God and His word
[00:28:23] is located in the best place for human flourishing.
[00:28:28] They prosper and good results flow from their lives.
[00:28:31] And everything they do and everything they do
[00:28:33] is a legion to God and subservient to His word
[00:28:36] because they love it, they prosper.
[00:28:38] Or as the Holman Christian Standard Bible says,
[00:28:41] whatever he does, prospers.
[00:28:44] What we're witnessing here in verse three
[00:28:46] is a human life that works.
[00:28:50] This person is fruitful and alive.
[00:28:54] People that see someone like this want to be this person.
[00:28:59] And this person, by the way, isn't a myth.
[00:29:01] This person is real.
[00:29:03] You know, I think a lot of times we follow unreal people.
[00:29:07] We believe the images that the powerful
[00:29:10] or the wealthy or famous hold out to us
[00:29:13] and tell us this is what our life is like.
[00:29:17] But they're often just a mere mirage.
[00:29:20] You know, it says in Daniel chapter five
[00:29:22] of one of the kings of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar's son,
[00:29:27] that he was weighed in the balances and found wanting.
[00:29:31] And he had everything,
[00:29:33] but his life really wasn't as good as he professed.
[00:29:37] But this life, the one that's listed here in verse three,
[00:29:41] it's available to all of us.
[00:29:44] You know how they talk in real estate, right?
[00:29:46] They say it's all about location, location, location.
[00:29:50] And you know, for us, we might not ever have beach property.
[00:29:56] You might not ever live in the best school district.
[00:30:00] You might never have the beautiful property of your dreams
[00:30:05] on this side of eternity,
[00:30:07] but every single human being on earth,
[00:30:09] no matter their situation, can live near the stream of God's word.
[00:30:14] His word can meet us wherever we're at.
[00:30:17] And even in a world where dryness and depression
[00:30:20] and unhappiness abound, the righteous person can thrive.
[00:30:24] And I think, like I've been saying, when we do,
[00:30:26] our lives have an attractive nature to them,
[00:30:29] especially in an age where people are having a hard time
[00:30:33] finding satisfaction.
[00:30:35] When you see a satisfied believer,
[00:30:37] it stands out in a dissatisfied world.
[00:30:40] And alive and fulfilled Christianity
[00:30:42] is one of the most beautiful things to witness.
[00:30:45] Now, please don't mishear what I'm saying.
[00:30:49] There's dead orthodoxy,
[00:30:51] and I'm not talking about that. That's unattractive.
[00:30:54] There's worldly Christianity, which is carnal and fleshly
[00:30:59] and has blended worldly ideas with professions about Jesus.
[00:31:03] And that's unattractive.
[00:31:05] And there's cultural Christianity.
[00:31:07] I go to church because my parents went to church
[00:31:09] and my grandparents went to church,
[00:31:11] and that's just what I do.
[00:31:13] None of that has the attraction of verse three.
[00:31:17] This life in verse three is a life.
[00:31:21] It's real. It's fruitful
[00:31:24] because this person has centered themselves upon God
[00:31:27] and His word.
[00:31:28] This is the way our system, our human system
[00:31:32] is supposed to work.
[00:31:34] The word of God, along with His presence within it goes in
[00:31:38] and out comes life and fruitfulness.
[00:31:42] Now, what I want to make clear though before we move on
[00:31:45] is that this fruitfulness, it's not a reward.
[00:31:49] It is rewarding to follow God, but this is a result.
[00:31:53] The result of living the way we were meant to live originally.
[00:31:59] James Boise said it this way,
[00:32:01] when most people think of the results of upright or godly living,
[00:32:05] they think of rewards.
[00:32:06] That is, they think that if they do what God tells them to do,
[00:32:09] He will reward them, but that if they do not,
[00:32:12] they will be punished.
[00:32:13] And there's an element of truth in this.
[00:32:16] It is what is involved in the doctrine of the final judgment.
[00:32:19] But what the psalmist actually says here is quite different.
[00:32:22] He is talking about blessedness,
[00:32:25] the blessedness of the man who does not stand
[00:32:28] in the way of sinners, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord.
[00:32:31] His point is that this is not a reward,
[00:32:35] but rather the result of a particular type of life.
[00:32:40] You see, God has just designed us for Himself to enjoy Him,
[00:32:44] to enjoy His Word.
[00:32:46] And when we do, this kind of fruit comes out of our lives.
[00:32:51] Okay, let's read on and look.
[00:32:53] I've been referring to the second way,
[00:32:55] but let's look at what it says in verse four and five
[00:32:58] about the second way as well, the way of the wicked.
[00:33:00] He said,
[00:33:01] The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
[00:33:05] Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment nor sinners
[00:33:08] in the congregation of the righteous.
[00:33:12] Okay, the wicked here, the song goes, are not so.
[00:33:16] Not so, what does that mean?
[00:33:18] That means that they do walk in all the counsel
[00:33:22] that humanity is meant to reject.
[00:33:24] So as a result, they aren't fruitful like the tree in verse three,
[00:33:27] but instead are like chaff that the wind drives away.
[00:33:31] Chaff from the wheat that's unusable, it's lifeless, it's void.
[00:33:35] And that's what he says about those who refuse to build a life
[00:33:39] with God and His Word at the center.
[00:33:41] And ominously, the author says in verse five
[00:33:44] that judgment is the result.
[00:33:47] Therefore he says the wicked will not stand in the judgment.
[00:33:51] That means that they won't make it through the judgment unscathed.
[00:33:56] Sinners cannot be, he says in verse five,
[00:33:58] in the everlasting congregation of the righteous.
[00:34:03] Okay, this is how our human system works.
[00:34:05] Garbage in, garbage out, or garbage in, judgment out.
[00:34:10] And just as the way of the righteous leads not to rewards,
[00:34:13] but results, so does this life also lead to results.
[00:34:17] And the result is life, both now and forever without God.
[00:34:22] Okay, now it'd be fine for us to think about verse four and five
[00:34:26] as eternal judgment, something which is most fully realized
[00:34:31] after the death of our bodies.
[00:34:33] Life without God today does lead to life without God
[00:34:38] forever tomorrow.
[00:34:40] But this also speaks of judgment today.
[00:34:47] The result of life without God today.
[00:34:51] And this is what I've been saying, it seems that many people
[00:34:54] are already experiencing that gracious hand
[00:34:57] of God's judgment already.
[00:35:00] Because it's grace from God that He refuses to bless
[00:35:05] such harmful forms of human living.
[00:35:09] And people today I think are discovering the price
[00:35:12] of such a path.
[00:35:14] And one of the books I referred to earlier, Mark Sayers says,
[00:35:17] the promises of our cultural and political elites
[00:35:20] that things will get better are falling flat.
[00:35:23] Say amen to that?
[00:35:25] We have endless opportunities to pursue pleasure
[00:35:27] in our desires yet so many of us are miserable and anxious.
[00:35:31] We can traverse geography, time and space
[00:35:34] yet loneliness is growing.
[00:35:36] Silicon Valley's promises that a world connected
[00:35:39] by social media will be a better, more tolerant world
[00:35:42] now look ridiculous.
[00:35:44] Remember when we used to say stuff like that,
[00:35:46] we're all going to be connected, this is going to be a beautiful
[00:35:48] utopia, like a big family over the face of the earth.
[00:35:51] Nobody talks that way anymore.
[00:35:53] The assurance that a globalized world will be a fairer,
[00:35:56] more peaceful and prosperous place seems shaky.
[00:36:00] These failed promises are fueling a growing sense
[00:36:03] of dissatisfaction, a desire to see things change,
[00:36:07] a hunger for a vision of personal and social life
[00:36:10] in which humans flourish.
[00:36:13] And what we pray is that that hunger would develop
[00:36:16] into a desire for God in his salvation.
[00:36:19] But listen, you don't have to be some cultural,
[00:36:22] culture reading savant to figure this out.
[00:36:25] It says it this way in Proverbs 14 verse 12,
[00:36:28] there is a way that seems right to a man
[00:36:31] but its end is the way of death.
[00:36:34] There it is, black and white.
[00:36:36] The Bible's been predicting this for so long
[00:36:39] that people would pursue a way that seems right to them
[00:36:42] but reap the disastrous results.
[00:36:45] Well let's close in verse six with an exhortation
[00:36:48] to choose the right way.
[00:36:50] He says in verse six, for the Lord knows
[00:36:52] the way of the righteous,
[00:36:54] but the way of the wicked will perish.
[00:36:57] It just ends with God's knowledge of both ways.
[00:37:02] He's involved with the way of the righteous,
[00:37:04] he knows them, but also the way of the wicked
[00:37:07] will perish.
[00:37:08] And this call from God, it beckons to us
[00:37:11] every day of our lives.
[00:37:13] Which way will you choose?
[00:37:15] Which path will you go down?
[00:37:18] Jesus said it like this, everyone who hears then
[00:37:22] these words of mine and does them
[00:37:24] will be like a wise man who built his house
[00:37:27] on the rock and the rain fell
[00:37:29] and the floods came and the winds blew
[00:37:31] and beat on that house, but it did not fall
[00:37:34] because it had been founded on the rock
[00:37:36] and everyone who hears these words of mine
[00:37:38] and does not do them will be like a foolish man
[00:37:42] who built his house on the sand.
[00:37:44] The rain fell and the floods came
[00:37:46] and the winds blew and beat against that house
[00:37:48] and it fell and great was the fall of it.
[00:37:53] There's no ambiguity there with Jesus.
[00:37:56] There's no middle path.
[00:37:58] There's no third option.
[00:38:02] It's just Jesus calling us, saying,
[00:38:07] follow me.
[00:38:12] And so we should take his invitation
[00:38:15] and follow his way of life,
[00:38:18] which is one of the reasons why I'm so looking forward
[00:38:21] to sharing with you the book of Mark
[00:38:23] so that we can discover the life of Christ
[00:38:25] afresh together.
[00:38:27] Now let me conclude with some applications,
[00:38:29] five things that I think are great takeaways
[00:38:32] for us with a Psalm like this.
[00:38:34] Number one would be said this way,
[00:38:36] if dryness has overtaken you,
[00:38:39] believe that God can bring you back to life.
[00:38:43] If dryness has overtaken you,
[00:38:45] believe that God can bring you back to life.
[00:38:49] And what I mean by that is think about the analogy
[00:38:52] in the third verse.
[00:38:54] The person centered around God in his word,
[00:38:57] they're like a tree whose leaf does not wither.
[00:39:00] They bear fruit in proper season.
[00:39:02] They're living by the stream of God.
[00:39:04] So you have to come to a place where you say,
[00:39:06] I know that when I'm feeling that dryness,
[00:39:09] I don't see any fruit coming out of my life.
[00:39:12] I know that I need to get re-centered upon God.
[00:39:15] I need to get re-centered upon his word.
[00:39:18] Delight in it, meditate upon it,
[00:39:20] apply it into my life.
[00:39:22] You've got to believe that about the Lord.
[00:39:24] Number two, make scripture meditation
[00:39:28] a priority in your life.
[00:39:31] Delighting in the law of the Lord day and night
[00:39:34] leads to this kind of robust human experience,
[00:39:39] then it makes sense that we would make meditation
[00:39:42] on God's word in its various forms,
[00:39:44] whether it's through listening to it explained
[00:39:47] and taught, reading it for ourselves,
[00:39:49] memorizing scripture verses, reading books about it.
[00:39:53] We should be getting into the word of God.
[00:39:57] Number three, I'll just say it like this,
[00:39:59] celebrate restriction.
[00:40:02] Celebrate restriction.
[00:40:04] There's a great book I've read a couple of times
[00:40:06] called The Paradox of Choice by a man named Barry Schwartz.
[00:40:11] It's not a Christian book or anything,
[00:40:13] but one of the cases that he builds
[00:40:15] is that by having unlimited options,
[00:40:18] we actually create anxiety and stress for ourselves.
[00:40:22] And that could go for the morality of our modern world.
[00:40:26] We like to think that there are no restrictions,
[00:40:29] and if you talk to a teenager these days
[00:40:31] and they're trying to figure out life, they're stressed.
[00:40:34] Their anxiety is through the roof
[00:40:36] in a different way than previous generations.
[00:40:38] They're trying to figure out not only
[00:40:40] what am I gonna do with my life,
[00:40:42] but what is my sexuality, my culture's telling me
[00:40:44] I can pick and choose.
[00:40:46] You know, they're trying to figure all those kinds of things out.
[00:40:48] It's a stressful experience.
[00:40:50] So instead, celebrate the law of the Lord.
[00:40:52] Celebrate restriction.
[00:40:54] It is good for us.
[00:40:56] Number four, see God's judgment for today
[00:41:00] as his grace to draw people to himself.
[00:41:03] In other words, when you see someone's life
[00:41:05] just puttering along because of the beliefs
[00:41:08] that it's built upon,
[00:41:10] and they're struggling because of the things
[00:41:12] that they've believed,
[00:41:14] they're, you know, just dealing with
[00:41:16] massive forms of depression or something like that
[00:41:18] as a result of the way that they've lived or thought.
[00:41:22] See that in a sense as God's grace
[00:41:25] to help nudge them to the truth.
[00:41:27] Rather than his like rejection of them
[00:41:30] as if he doesn't care for them.
[00:41:32] He doesn't want to give them their way
[00:41:34] because ultimately that would be harmful.
[00:41:36] And then number five,
[00:41:38] our last one this morning,
[00:41:40] see Jesus as the blessed man
[00:41:43] who can help you obey the word.
[00:41:45] You see, ultimately when you read Psalm 1
[00:41:48] it doesn't at the end of the day sound like any of us.
[00:41:52] Psalm 1, it sounds like Jesus.
[00:41:55] He's the one who never listened to any ungodly counsel,
[00:41:58] never enjoyed and dealt with
[00:42:01] in a way that he was attracted to the path of sinners.
[00:42:04] And he never of course sat in the seat of the scoffer.
[00:42:07] He was the one who was able to do it.
[00:42:09] And when that thing rises up in us
[00:42:11] we have to remember Jesus,
[00:42:13] our great deliverer and savior
[00:42:15] who can help us to love the word
[00:42:18] and to obey our God.
[00:42:21] Amen.