The Truly Blessed
Psalm 1
Introduction:
I would like to first greet everyone a very Happy New Year. God has indeed been good to each of us here as well as to the church throughout 2011 and we look forward to what God will be doing in 2012.
I would also like to welcome you all to our series of studies on the Book of Psalms for the months of January and February and the Book of Proverbs during the month of March. Starting today and for 8 subsequent weeks, we will look into the Book of Psalms which has often been described as the hymnbook or songbook of the Bible. The Hebrew name is Tehillim, which means “praise”, while the Greek name is psalmoi which means “music of the lyre” or “songs sung to a harp.” The Book of Psalms has the most chapters among the books of the Bible with 150. Around 73 of the Psalms were written by King David. The other authors include musicians in the temple courts like Asaph and the sons of Korah. The longest Psalm is Psalm 119 which is devoted to describing the beauty of God's Law or God's Word. The most popular Psalm, in my opinion, is Psalm 23, which is a Psalm of great comfort to those who are going through hard times and through the valley of the shadow of death.
To start our series on the Psalms, we begin with the very first Psalm. We could say that the first Psalm is like the introduction to the whole book, and it is a Psalm that many people are familiar with. According to a commentator, the reason why this Psalm is placed first in the book was because, in its six verses it tells us briefly what many of the Psalms and many parts of the Bible tell us – that there are two different ways in which people can live their lives. They can choose to follow the way of the wicked or the way of the godly, and we will need to give an account for the choice we make. Let us explore this beautiful psalm and learn some important lessons that we can take home and apply.
First, I would like to ask you, what does a blessed man look like? Since we're starting the New Year and the Chinese wish to someone during the New Year is a wish for blessing and prosperity, I like for us to think about the question – what constitutes blessing for you? For the world, the picture of a blessed person is that he is financially rich, physically healthy, powerful or influential, well-educated, and has children. What I have just said is a true assessment. Consider the Chinese tradition where three statues are placed in one's home in order to bring threefold blessing to the household. The three statues represent longevity, prosperity and posterity. The Chinese believe that when you have all three, you are truly blessed. Other cultures most likely hold on to the same beliefs. However, there is something faulty or flawed about this idea. If our idea of a person being blessed is someone who has everything that life has to offer, then are we saying that the poor, the powerless, the uneducated, the sickly, and those who cannot have children are cursed? Are we saying that people who go through hardships in life are not blessed by God? If that is our line of thinking, then Jesus himself was not a blessed person because he was born to a poor family and he never received higher education. Jesus would not be a blessed person because he never got married and had children. Such wrong belief about true blessing is not only found in other cultures and religions. Sadly, it is also found in certain sectors of Christianity, through the preachers of the health and wealth gospel who lead people astray by saying that when you believe in Jesus, you will be blessed with material possessions and good health. If that is the case, how do we account for the faithful followers of Jesus Christ in Muslim and Hindu cultures who suffer loss of material possessions and even their lives, all because of their faith in Christ? Let me say it to you straight – you can't equate material prosperity with God's blessing.
So, what is true blessing? In Psalm 1, we can clearly see the people who are truly blessed by God. The passage says nothing about being financially rich as a result of God's blessing. It never says that we will be free from all illnesses. Instead, true blessing has everything to do in relation to our walk with God. Let's spend the rest of our time looking into the passage and understand the principles set forth by the passage. As I mentioned a moment ago, this Psalm tells us that there are two different ways of life that people live. The first way is the way of wickedness, while the second way is the way of the righteous.
The Way of Wickedness
In verse 1, the Psalmist declared that people are blessed if they do not follow the way of wickedness. Now, the way of wickedness is vividly described in verse 1 where a person sinks from one state to the next. The way of wickedness is where a person disregards having a relationship with God and the Word of God and chooses to follow the way of the world. A person is wicked because, first, he chose to walk in the counsel of the wicked, meaning, he chose to heed the advice of wicked people and do what they tell him to do. The second stage of wickedness is when a person stands in the way of sinners, meaning he longs to do what the wicked are doing. He even longs to be with them. The last stage of wickedness is when the person sits in the seat of mockers; he himself is now associated with wicked people and he is influencing others to sin with him. He is a mocker because he laughs and scorns at those who do not follow them. Their particular target for mockery will be the righteous.
The way of wickedness may seem attractive and even pleasing to the senses, but there are consequences for going down this path. The passage gives us three results of following the path of wickedness:
(a) An empty life
In verse 4, the wicked are described as being like chaff which the wind blows away. Now, what is chaff? Chaff is the dry, protective casings of the seeds of cereal grain. It is inedible and is usually thrown away or burned. Once the seeds are milled or pounded, the chaff is then separated by means of tossing everything into the wind. The seeds, being heavier, will fall to the ground, while the empty casing, which is lighter, will be blown aside. The ungodly, though they may enjoy the pleasures of this world, will soon realize that the life they're living is so meaningless and empty. They may look happy on the outside and even like they have achieved much in life, yet they generally have lingering feelings of loneliness and emptiness.
(b) No place among the righteous
In verse 5, we read that the wicked will not be in the assembly of the righteous when Judgment Day comes. The wicked may enrich themselves now and they may enjoy the pleasures of this world now while disregarding the condition of their souls, but one's life doesn't end with the grave. Instead, there is the afterlife where the souls of the dead will be consigned to its proper place. For the righteous, they will be enjoying a place which Jesus calls as Paradise. But for the wicked, they will not be found in that place, but they will be consigned instead to a place of hardship, often called hell, awaiting final judgment. The story of Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16 illustrates very well this second result.
(c) They will perish
Finally, the wicked will have to stand before the Lord on the Judgment Day. On that day, they will have to give an account of what they've done and they will be judged for their deeds as well as for what they did with their knowledge of the Lord Jesus. In verse 5, it says that the wicked will not stand. This means the wicked will not be able to bear God's wrath. Then in verse 6, the wicked will perish. It means there will be an eternal punishment awaiting the wicked. When one reads Revelation 20, he will find that a terrible fate indeed awaits the wicked. They will be thrown into the lake of fire, which is known as the second death. The torment from the lake of fire will last for all eternity (Revelation 20:10).
The Way of the Righteous
We've talked about the way of the wicked and the result of such a life. Now, let's talk about the way of the righteous. Let me just briefly define what we mean when we say someone is righteous. A righteous person is someone who trusts only in God for his salvation. He is someone whose sins have been forgiven by God, through God's grace alone. He is someone who has a healthy fear and reverence for God such that he will obey God. When we turn away from our sins and trust Jesus as Lord and Savior, we are made right by God. Our sins are wiped away and we are made clean. Then, God helps us to be righteous by providing us with His Word and the Holy Spirit to guide us. The righteous will also give of his best to avoid associating and doing what the wicked are doing.
It is not easy living the righteous life. In fact, if we want to live righteously, we will be ridiculed and laughed at. But if we choose the way of the righteous, the blessings are tremendous. Consider what the passage mentions as our blessings.
(a) He will have a fruitful life (v. 3)
The righteous is compared to a tree that is planted beside the streams of water. Because it is near the water source, the tree is properly hydrated and nourished. This leads to fruitfulness. The Word of God is the stream of water. The righteous person is one who takes the time each day to delight in God's Word and to meditate on it. He thinks about how he can apply the Word of God into his life and he obeys the Word without hesitation. The result is that he will be fruitful. This fruitfulness will be seen in his character. In the New Testament, this fruitfulness of character is called the Fruit of the Holy Spirit. This fruitfulness is also seen in his good works and in his service to others. When we are taking time to be nourished by God's Word, we will not live a fruitless life.
(b) There is no withering of life (v. 3)
When the leaves of a tree starts to wither, it can mean a couple of things. One, the season is changing. The other is that the tree is drying up because of a lack of water and nutrition. I believe the author of the Psalm has the second idea in mind since the weather is Israel does not go into extreme freezing temperatures for long periods of time. During a season of drought, the trees that are farthest from a water source will soon have her leaves start withering and dropping off. However, a tree that is closest to the stream will remain green in color as the tree is hydrated. The person who takes the time to draw close to God and to meditate on His Word everyday will find that his life is renewed everyday. The person who chooses to obey God everyday will find that God will sustain him and give him strength. Now, this does not mean that we are free from the problems of life and from disappointments; what is does mean is that our relationship with God will remain fresh, and that we will become closer to Him each day.
(c) He will experience true prosperity (v. 3)
Third, the righteous person who maintains his close relationship with God, and who meditates on God's Word and obeys it, will find real prosperity in this life. Now, the prosperity that I am talking about is not about material wealth or even physical health. Instead, the prosperity comes about in that the righteous person finds life and work worthwhile and deeply satisfying. A life where God is in the center is a life worth living. Our outlook in life changes for the better. Sometimes God may add the bonus of material prosperity and physical well-being to the godly but this is an exception rather than an absolute rule. Nevertheless, the godly will feel contented because of his relationship with God. The righteous also knows that the wealth that truly matters is not material things but the treasures in heaven that Jesus talked of. The righteous knows that the health that truly matters in the end is one's spiritual health and not our physical health. The more he aspires for godliness, the more he profits from it (1 Timothy 4:8).
(d) He is under God's care (v. 6)
Fourth, the righteous is blessed with the promise of God's care and love. In verse 6, we read that the Lord knows the way of the righteous. The idea of “know” here is not just intellectual knowledge, but it is knowledge that connotes approval on the part of God, it is knowledge in the sense of a deep, personal relationship. The righteous is God's beloved, and he will do everything to attend to their needs and provide for them. God loves those who belong to Him and will never abandon them. God will help keep us on the right path when we strive to draw closer to Him each day.
(e) He will be among those who will be safe in God's presence (v. 5)
Finally, the righteous will stand in God's presence, free from condemnation. We find this idea in verse 5. While the wicked will surely be condemned, the righteous will receive their reward from God – spending eternity with God in heaven. They need not fear about their future or what will happen after they die. They will be with the Lord forever. Whatever hardships, trials and persecutions the righteous go through in this life is nothing compared to spending eternity with God. Furthermore, this reward can never be taken away from God's people. It will always be theirs because they trusted in God and in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Conclusion:
This morning, we have learned that there are two paths or roads in life. One is called the path of the wicked while the other is the path of the righteous. The Lord Jesus would later on talk about these two paths in the Sermon on the Mount where he talked about the narrow gate and the wide gate. The wide gate leads to destruction while the narrow gate leads to life everlasting. Jesus counseled his listeners to take the narrow gate, even if it is difficult and almost everyone else prefer to easy way. The path of the righteous is not an easy path to travel along, but it is the right way.
We are all left with a choice that we have to make – will it be the path of the wicked or the path of the righteous? We all know the results of following these two different paths. So, which will you choose? I hope and pray that everyone here will choose to walk in the path of the righteous. Real, lasting blessings are found along this path. To begin along this path, you need to start by getting right with God. If you don't have a relationship with God by trusting in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, asking him to forgive your sins and give you new life, you can't be righteous at all. Start by inviting Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior. For those who already know Jesus as Lord and Savior, I invite you all to take the time to read, meditate and apply God's Word into your life. The Bible is God's instruction manual for us to follow. When we carefully follow what's written in it, we will truly be blessed by God.
As we start 2012, my prayer for all of us is that we will travel along the path of blessing that God has set for us.
