Psalms

Today begins our new series where I will be preaching through the book of

Psalms. You may be asking, well why Psalms? Well, first I will give a biblical answer

for that, but in addition, I’ll provide some personal reasons. The first reason being

this,

2 Timothy 3:16

16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for

correction, and for training in righteousness

If we believe this to be true, which I hope you do, then the book of Psalms has

something to teach us and to help us grow as Christians; to correct us and train us

in righteousness.

Now on to my own reasons for ultimately deciding to preach through the Psalms.

Being a relatively new preacher, I believe there is no surer way to grow and

develop in my understanding of Scripture than preaching straight from the Bible.

As I’ve experienced through my deep study of the Book of Acts, I’ve gained a

deeper and clearer understanding of God. And I firmly believe that continuing on

in this trajectory will lead our congregation as a whole into a deeper and richer

knowledge of the Bible, which results in a deeper and richer understanding of

God, His attributes, His nature, and His character. The first part in our mission

statement is “Love God.” How can we love God, if we don’t Him? Or worse, maybe

the god we claim to love or claim to know is not consistent with the God

described in our Bibles? Then we find ourselves chasing after and worshiping a

false picture of god (a false god). Because of this, I am excited to jump right into

the book of Psalms in order that we may continue to mature and to be taught and

to be trained in righteousness according to His Word.

The first verse in Psalm 1 starts out like this.Psalm 1a

Blessed is the man

What a way to start out this book. The word blessed is translated from the

Hebrew word, esher which means happy, or how happy! Now we all know that

this kind of happiness runs much deeper than the mere fleeting feeling of

happiness. To be blessed is to be happy for sure, but it is a happiness like no other.

It is a happiness that is steadfast no matter the circumstances.

What this means is that, one can be blessed and have a big house, a big yard, a

finished basement and a luxury sports car that’s only driven for a month out of

the year. It also means that one can be blessed while being homeless, or in

between jobs or going through a struggle whatever it is. Some of the best

examples, I could just pull from the Bible. Just take a look at the apostles. All of

them left their jobs to follow Jesus. By all definitions, they were homeless during

the time of Jesus’ ministry. They experienced ridicule and rejection. They all

experienced horrible deaths except for John. Yet, I believe all of us would not

hesitate to call them blessed. Why? It’s because happiness in the scope of

blessedness all depends not on one’s circumstance, but on a person; that person

being Jesus. Another way of putting this is, when looking at the example of the

Apostles, they were blessed because they walked with the Savior. And even today,

we can walk with the Savior. We’ve got the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of us. That’s

what it means to be truly blessed (in any all circumstances).

Now according to this Psalm, who is the one who is blessed? Is it everyone? Is it

the people who have bumper stickers that say blessed? (share thoughts on

bumper stickers particularly the 26.2 one) This psalmist has a completely different

idea than a worldly or carnal definition of the word blessed and the subject on

who it is applied.

Psalm 1:1

Blessed is the man

who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,

nor stands in the way of sinners,How many of you growing up had your parents tell you, “you become who you

surround yourself with?” Now, this is a general principle that is very true most of

the time. There’s a book written by Dave Ramsery co-host, Ken Coleman called the

“proximity principle.” The basic idea is that, if we want to continue to grow and

develop in a certain area, we ought to surround ourselves with people who have

the same mindset and pursuing the same goals. And of course, the opposite of

that is true. Surround yourself with people that don’t share the same values and

goals, and you will most likely start looking and living like the group.

1 Corinthians 15:33

33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”

Of course Paul is writing to Christians so influenced by the surrounding culture

that they may be tempted to live a scandalous and worldly life even though

they’ve got Christ in them. He’s telling them not to give in to such pressures.

Going back to the psalm, the one who is blessed is the one who does not walk in

the counsel of the wicked. It’s no secret to us nowadays. There is wickedness all

around us. But here’s the tricky part. A lot of the wickedness today is far more

difficult than it used to be to distinguish it from the things that are good. Again,

going back to Satan’s scheming that I mentioned last week. I can just imagine him

thinking, “well it doesn’t make sense to have a man do something that appears

bad to him; let’s just make him do something bad but have him think he’s doing

something good and noble.”

Isn’t that what we see with many of these anti-biblical social movements today.

We see these things such as love and tolerance and compassion as the prevailing

mantras of some of these movements, when in reality, underneath the surface,

they’re movements are not loving and not tolerant and are completely the

opposite of compassionate. But that’s what Satan does. He takes what God

created and distorts them and perverts them into things that take the form of the

things of God, but carries a deadly poison that reaps death and destruction.

Growing up, I heard stories of people’s dogs dying because they would lap up

antifreeze off a garage floor. To the dog, anti-freeze smells and tastes very sweet,

but little did they know, that it would be the very thing that would kill them. Atthis point, this should be alerting the memory center’s in your brain of where have

you heard this before? Oh, that’s right. Genesis! The fruit of the tree of the

knowledge of good and evil. It was appealing to the eyes “ the Scripture says, it

was a delight to the eyes” and so they (Adam and Eve) ate it. And of course our

instigator and antagonist in this account was none other than Satan himself. This is

a strategy as old as time. As far as Satan is concerned, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix

it.”

Don’t walk in the counsel of the wicked. There’s the part about proximity, who you

surround yourself with. There’s another that has to do with, who you lend your

attention to? Whose wisdom are you opening yourself up to? What kinds of things

are you exposing your mind to, to be constantly shaping and molding you into the

very things you don’t want to become? What kinds of podcasts, or YouTube

videos, or movies do you listen to or watch? If you grew up in church like me, you

would hear this phrase all the time, “we need to guard our hearts.” The wisest

man to ever walk the earth was King Solomon and he had this to say.

Proverbs 4:23-27

Keep your heart with all vigilance,

for from it flow the springs of life.

24 Put away from you crooked speech,

and put devious talk far from you.

25 Let your eyes look directly forward,

and your gaze be straight before you.

26 Ponder the path of your feet;

then all your ways will be sure.

27 Do not swerve to the right or to the left;

turn your foot away from evil.

Keep, guard, put away, look forward, think about and ponder, turn your foot away

from evil. These are all action words. That implies that, in order for us to be

successful in our efforts to avoid walking in the counsel of the wicked, it takes

work and effort. We can’t simply be complacent or neutral or we will find

ourselves caught in the riptide of a culture that does not desire to honor God.The one who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stands in the way of

sinners or sits in the seat of scoffers will be blessed.

The psalmist continues to elaborate.

Psalm 1:2

but his delight is in the law of the Lord,

and on his law he meditates day and night.

You see this word delight is an action word. We don’t just observe and follow what

God says, but we delight in those things. It makes us glad to follow God and walk

in His will. For the Chrisitan, it is not just in the doing that God desires from us, but

also the manner in which we do those things. It’s the condition of the heart. I’ve

spoken about an example of this before. When it comes to New Testament giving

(offering), we are not to give out of compulsion or with a reluctant heart, but

when we give, we do so with a cheerful heart.

We understand this as parents or grandparents. When we ask our children or

grandchildren to do something, and they give a loud audible sigh or groan, it

doesn’t really please us when they do that. Just think about how it makes God,

our heavenly Father, feel when we read about and learn about the things we

should be doing as His children, and we let out a huge sigh or groan?

Unfortunately, I think a lot of Christians live out their lives as if being a Christian is

all about being dutiful at the expense of joy. If that’s you in here today, I want to

let you know that that’s not an accurate picture of the Christian life. We are to

delight in the things of God, including the things he asks us to do for His glory and

for the building up of His kingdom. It is a blessing to take part in the work of our

Heavenly Father that he has invited us into, even despite our clumsiness and

brokenness.

One of the things my boys love to do is help me clean the bathrooms at the house

(I wonder how long that will last). I’ll be honest, sometimes it’s quite frustrating.

What should take about 10 minutes ends up taking 20 or 30 minutes. I’ll have to

say things like, “put the spray bottle down!” or “turn off the water!” or “get your

hands out of the toilet!”. And they’re just having the time of their lives. And here’sthe thing, I don’t believe the enjoyment comes from the job of cleaning itself, but

more from the person they get to do the cleaning with, their daddy. The things we

do for God and the attitude in which we do them is an expression of our love for

our heavenly Father.

Psalm 1:3

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.

We who are blessed are like trees planted by streams of water. While JJ and I lived

in Camby, IN, we had a tree in a our front yard that was just the saddest tree that

you could’ve ever seen. We lived in a very cookie cutter subdivision where all the

houses looked pretty similar and everything was evenly spaced out. Everything

was the same. The builders placed a single tree in the front yard of everyone’s

house. But our tree did not look the same as any of the others. The only time it

looked like all the rest was during the winter. Now, our little tree fought for its life

every year as each spring it would produce more and more leaves, little by little.

Part of the reason for this is because, we stopped using a sprinkler everyday

because it surprised us when we got a water bill for over $400 one month. But we

would continue to water this sad little tree. Needless to say, this little life snapshot

was simply meant to become a sermon illustration.

Being planted by streams of water where we are fruitful and are invigorated for

life does not come from anywhere else than Jesus. It’s all about abiding in Jesus.

As all heard a few weeks ago, Jesus is the source of living water and we will never

have to thirst again. In John 15, Jesus is the vine and we are the branches and we

get everything we need from him, by abiding in Him. We wouldn’t want to

separate ourselves from him, because that would cut off the very source of our

life. More than I want you to become a close brother or sister in Christ with me, I

want you to draw nearer to Jesus. I can barely keep a tree alive. Abide in Jesus. I’m

merely just a signpost pointing the way to Him.If we abide in Jesus, we will be blessed in more ways than we could imagine. It is

not so for the wicked.

Psalm 1:4

The wicked are not so,

but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

Some of you in here are farmers and know what is meant by this word chaff. Chaff

is the part of the crop that is not edible or useful for anything. And so, it is

discarded and tossed as it has no value or utility. It is that which is oftentimes

carried off by the wind signifying it’s weightlessness and powerlessness in light of

God’s judgement. It’s worthless. In Matthew 3:12, John the Baptist makes

reference to the coming judgment telling his audience that the righteous (the

wheat) will be saved and the wicked (the chaff) will be burned with unquenchable

fire.

What the psalmist is doing here is presenting us with the contrast between the

two camps. Those who are blessed, and those who are wicked. Those who are

blessed will receive life and the wicked will receive death and punishment.

The psalmist wraps it up this way.

Psalm 1:5-6

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.

Piano to play here.

Now when the text tells us that the wicked won’t stand in judgment, it’s not

telling us that they won’t be subjects under the coming judgment. The word stand

here means to be justified. There will be people standing before the judgment

seat and they will be judged guilty, condemned to eternal torment and separation

from God. And those people are going to come up with every excuse in the bookfor why they think they deserve to get to heaven. They’ll say I did this and I did

this, but again, as I so often remind us, there is no amount of good things that we

could ever do to earn our way to heaven. The only way is through Jesus. He is the

way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me. This is

a message of great horror to those outside of Christ. But for those who are in

Christ, it is a message of great hope. We know we are underserving of eternal life,

yet we rest in the assurance that Jesus paid the price for us so that we could be

justified and stand confidently before the judgment seat.

As I end my message here this morning, if you are not a Christian, I want you to

know that it is my deepest desire that you come to Christ and accept him as your

Lord and Savior. My desire is to see as many wont to Christ as I can. That’s the

calling that I’ve stepped into. My words would ultimately fall short in describing

the heart of every Christian whose desire is to see the lost come to faith, so I will

read straight from the Bible.

2 Peter 3:9

9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient

toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach

repentance.

I praise God that He is patient with us. I will reiterate the theme of our passage as

we come to a close. For those of us who abide in Christ and refrain from that

which is wicked, we are truly blessed.