Please turn with me in your Bibles to Psalm 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 will perish. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Let us pray. Holy Father, you speak to us through your Spirit and by Your Word. Let it illuminate for our hearts now to hear you speak and receive the blessing that you give to us through all of your teaching by Scripture. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
The Book of Psalms is a wonderful thing for us as believers. It is, in many ways, the center of Scripture because, truly, regardless of where it is, it is the church’s heart. The Book of Psalms is also an unusual book in Scripture because it is a compilation of Psalms, songs, and prayers written by many different authors like King David, the Levite singer Asaph, and even Moses in Psalm 90. It was written over a period of 7 to 800 years and was collected into this final form sometime after the Babylonian exile. So, in this sense, it is a picture of the Bible in miniature as this collection of many authors but one voice.
While the Psalms were written from and for many diverse yet specific situations and circumstances, they continue to be applicable and useful for us because they cover and express the full breadth and depth of our human experience and emotions. The Psalms teach us how to pray. Psalms help us to pray by giving us words to use, especially when we do not have it.
It commends us to pray whenever we are happy, like in Psalm 68, or sad. It affirms for us that it is still okay to pray when we are mad or angry or whenever we are aggrieved, challenged, or have been wrongfully abused, like the imprecatory Psalms of Psalm 69 or 109. It demonstrates for us how we should confess our sin, as in Psalm 51, to confess and beg the Lord’s forgiveness, even though we have no right or reason to expect to turn to him, even when we feel as if our sins are unforgivable. But when we cannot forgive ourselves, the Psalms provide comfort for our souls, as in Psalm 23.
The Book of Psalms is the songbook of God’s people. Psalms are poetic, lyrical, and meant to be sung, as in Psalm 42. They teach us how to rightly praise God, as seen in Psalm 100. The Psalms teach us to appreciate and love all of God’s holy word, as in Psalm 119. They teach us who the Lord is and all the wonders that he has done, as in Psalm 19. The Psalms even tell us about Jesus Christ, prophesying about his passion and his eternal reign as the Son of God, as seen in Psalm 22 and 2.
The Psalms also unite us together as the church, as Israel, as one body of God’s people throughout history. Unlike the rest of Scripture, the Psalms are intended to be easily divided into discrete units. A Psalm is unique because each one carries its whole context within itself. Each Psalm stands alone and upon its own merits. Some will also give us clues as to the specific historical context of their composition, like Psalm 3, which begins with ‘A Psalm of David when he fled from Absalom his son,’ calling to our minds the story found in 2 Samuel 15 when King David abandoned Jerusalem after Absalom had usurped the throne.
But those are the exception rather than the rule, and a large part of why the Psalms continue to meet our every devotional and emotional need is that they touch upon every specific feeling within us, and they are written so broadly and generically, which makes them applicable universally to every possible different situation.
The Psalms are, in many ways, the perfect example of God-breathed Theonustos Scripture because they are truly useful for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete and equipped for every good work. Thus, the Psalms are the best parts of Scripture for us to memorize, remember, and digest to carry with us everywhere we go to support and encourage us in faith. There is something for everyone and something to be done for every situation within the Psalms.
One last point concerning their continuity of relevance and application: it is very important for us to remember that Jesus knew, sang, and prayed the Psalms as part of his own worship and devotional life. Therefore, if they were good enough for Jesus to use in his worship, then they certainly must be good enough for us to use too, right? The Psalms, they are a great resource and an excellent source of food for our souls.
The evangelist Billy Graham kept a personal practice of reading through the Psalms and Proverbs daily. According to his son Franklin, this practice consisted of devotionally reading through five Psalms in consecutive order and one chapter from the Book of Proverbs every day, in addition to whatever he read as part of his own personal Bible reading as well as his preaching study. This means that by following this routine, every month he read through the whole of both Psalms and Proverbs 12 times every year. What a wonderful habit!
I’ve tried emulating this practice in the past myself, and I must admit that it is very difficult. I failed to even achieve it for one month when I tried, and I failed. But I do remember how rewarding it felt and how close I felt to Christ while I was doing it.
So, I’d like to challenge each of us to do it this July—five Psalms and one chapter of Proverbs every day in order. I would ask you to help keep me accountable to do this and to keep each other accountable too. I believe that it will be something good for each of us. Perhaps, after all that, you could take some time and talk about which Psalm is your favorite and why.
Is it Psalm 1? Because I think it should be. All kidding aside, while I expect most people would answer either Psalm 23, the Shepherd’s Psalm, or Psalm 91, the inspiration for Luther’s ‘Mighty Fortress,’ I myself would otherwise say Psalm 100. But really, when it comes down to it, I believe that the first Psalm may well be the most important Psalm of all. Its position within this book of worship is not accidental; it sets the tone for all the rest. It echoes the fundamental truth that underscores all of Scripture: the Lord is sovereign, and we are not. That it’s his way or the highway.
Ever since we were cast out of Eden, there have only been two kinds of people: those who are on the Lord’s side and those who are not, those who are on Satan’s side, the world’s side, the righteous and the wicked. Psalm 1 explores that dynamic. It begins, ‘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,’ describing this binary situation of either/or, a parallel relationship between those who are blessed and those who are not.
The opposite of blessed being those who are cursed. So, if we have the blessed on one side and the cursed on the other, who then are and what is it like to be the blessed? His delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. In all that he does, he prospers.
So, the blessing, delight in the law of the Lord—they find joy in it. They meditate on the law of the Lord day and night. They study it to learn it, to know it, and obey it. They are prosperous in all that they do because of this. They are prosperous because they are faithful and obedient to God, keeping his precepts, ordinances, and commandments.
Now, there are three very important distinctions to note about this. First, the psalmist does not say that prosperity is the consequential blessing for obedience. This does not mean that God rewards them with prosperity because they are obedient or because they love his law.
This does not mean that we are in a transactional relationship with God, that we are in a works-reward relationship. God is the Lord; that means he is sovereign, and he will have mercy upon whom he will have mercy. So, we get what we get because he gives it to us, period.
What this does mean is that by God’s grace and mercy, and the mercy of love for his creation, he has given us his law. God has given us his law commanding us how to live so that if we are faithful and obedient to his law, we will be blessed and therefore prosperous because we are following what he knows to be the best thing for us.
See, humanity has an equal opportunity to be prosperous, to enjoy God’s blessing—all it requires is love and faithful obedience to Christ and his Word. Second, what law of the Lord is the psalmist writing about? The Hebrew word is Torah, but even that word is subjective because it simply means teaching.
So, the psalmist does not mean the ceremonial law, all the rules governing sacrifices and ritual purity. He does not mean the judicial law of all the societal rules that govern crime and punishment. Clearly, since the psalmist is writing about the Lord’s teaching, it is what he teaches for us to live our best lives with righteousness and holiness. So, he must mean the moral law.
Questions 41 and 42 of the Shorter Catechism ask us, ‘Wherein is the moral law summarily comprehended?’ The moral law is summarily comprehended in the Ten Commandments. And what is the sum of the Ten Commandments? To love the Lord our God with all of our heart, and all our soul, and all of our strength, with all our mind, and our neighbor as ourselves.
So, the moral law is what we must delight in and meditate on because if we do, then we shall surely be prosperous since we are blessed in the first place to have received it. And if we meditate, then we shall know it, and we may apply it well to our lives. If we know, and if we delight in it, then we shall surely do it. Then we shall love the Lord and our neighbors, living according to law, acting justly with all fairness and righteousness, and we shall do what is right and best for us and our neighbors.
Third, what does prosperity look like? What does the psalmist suggest it means for us to be prosperous? He uses the image of a tree, creating an emotional picture to describe our prosperity. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.
Hearing that, what vision appears in your imagination? Is the tree young or old? Is it tall or short? Thick or broad? What does the water sound like? Does it burble, or does it rush? Is the water cold, cool, or warm? What do you smell?
Myself, I would imagine something like a tall old oak tree or a weeping willow with broad branches providing shade against the heat of the day. I smell the smell of fresh-cut grass, and I hear the sound of cool waters moving slowly over ancient smooth stones.
I expect that most of y’all’s imaginations crafted something similar. If so, then we would both be right and wrong. If we thought more like an Israelite, then we would more rightly imagine a fig tree—something native and common to their environment. A fruit-bearing tree with thick, broad leaves.
Oh, did you forget that it was supposed to be a fruit tree, as I did at first? The fig tree was also a symbol of prosperity in ancient Israel because it provided them with good food and shady shelter. Jesus found and called Nathaniel while he was resting beneath the fig tree.
When Sennacherib’s envoys came to Jerusalem, they promised the people that if they sued for peace, then the Assyrians would give them their own fig tree and vine and cistern to drink from. In King Solomon’s reign, a time of peace and prosperity, of building, growth, and ease, the writer of Kings describes it: ‘And Judah and Israel lived in safety, from Dan even to Beersheba, every man under his vine and under his fig tree all the days of his life.’
See, that is what the psalmist means by prosperity—a life of ease, freedom from hardship, rest, and peace, living entirely upon the gracious provision of the Lord; a sense of harmony where the spiritual leads to the physical.
So, if that is what it is like to be blessed, to be counted among the righteous, if that is the life we could or should have as the righteous, as the consequence of our obedience and loving fidelity to the Lord, then how could we find any alternative to be more attractive or desirable? Why would we choose to live as one of the cursed?
The only answer I have to offer is the sinfulness of man, due to our fallen nature and our total depravity.
So, who are and what is it like to be the cursed? The cursed walk in the counsel of the wicked. To walk suggests that they are actively engaged and participating. They stand in the way of sinners. To stand suggests that they are resolved and resolute—firmly unshakable in their sinfulness. They sit in the seat of scoffers. To sit suggests that they are satisfied with their circumstance, while the scoff implies that they do not know or that they disbelieve that there is any other or better option or alternative.
So, together these three statements perfectly describe the circumstances and attitude of the unregenerate—those who have not been born again. These are those who are dead in their trespasses, unable, unwilling, and unwaning to be any other way. They have not been given a heart of flesh but still possess one of stone. Their heart has not been circumcised, and so they do not love the Lord; they love only themselves.
Those who are the cursed—the wicked—are not so. They do not prosper; they are like chaff that the wind drives away. They will not stand in the judgment, and they will not remain within the congregation of the righteous. They will not be numbered among the people of God; they will be separated and removed. The goats will be divided from the sheep; the tares will be separated from the wheat. The tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
So it is, and so it shall be for the cursed, because the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. God knows the righteous way because he is sovereign, and he has established it by his sovereign decree.
What God says goes. His children, the blessed, those who love and meditate upon his law, also know this righteous way, and that is the way in which they follow and prosper.
Meanwhile, the enemies of God—the cursed, the wicked, those who hate and ignore God’s holy law—they follow the path to destruction, for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. They shall die in their sins and their trespasses, while the Lord is perfectly just to leave them in that state of reprobation.
Now, it becomes really easy to see how this is an either/or situation: God’s way or no way. It’s a matter of blessing or cursing. It’s a question of life and death—eternal life and bliss in Christ’s kingdom, or eternal condemnation and torment in the fires of hell.
The bad news is: none is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God; all have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. Because we are the cursed, and the circumstances of our lives show it. If we were to examine ourselves honestly, then we must admit that we do not delight in God’s law, nor do we gladly meditate upon it night and day. Truly, we are among the wicked, or at least we would be were it not for the grace of Jesus Christ.
But while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Jesus Christ, the righteous one, died so that we might live. He surrendered the prosperity that he deserved to be blown away like the chaff that we are. He stood in the judgment and suffered our penalty so that we would not perish, so that we would prosper.
That is the gospel, the good news. Do you believe it? Does it make you want to sing God’s praise? Yes, it is an either/or situation, and no, we cannot choose as we ought out of our own desire. Yet hope remains because there is a Righteous One, and he is our perfect substitute and it’s because he sent us his Holy Spirit to regenerate our hearts, to sanctify us in body and soul, that now we can strive to love and obey him.
Now we want to love and obey him. But this is not one single choice; it is not a one-time decision. Now that we may choose the good and the right, we must try to make that choice every time and with every decision.
Now all of our choices become simple either/or choices. Either we choose to follow Christ and obey God’s law in all things, or we choose to walk in the ways of the wicked. Every choice distills down to the basic question: By doing X, am I living faithfully to the Lord in his call upon my life, or am I being faithful to the world and its demonic overlord?
There is no middle ground for God’s people; there can be no middle ground. There is no compromise with Satan. We do not have the option to compromise with the world because Jesus did not, and because the Lord God will not.
Please understand: we’ve all been drafted; we are all on somebody’s team. Because no one is left leaning against the wall. Even those of us who claim to be undecided or who seek to be free agents have still made a choice. Deciding not to choose is itself a choice. If they have not chosen God because he has first chosen them, then they have, by necessity, chosen Satan, the world.
So have you decided? Have you been born again? And if so, then, because of the finished work of Christ and because of the Holy Spirit’s work of regeneration upon our hearts, we shall now delight in the law of the Lord.
Therefore, let us now meditate upon his law day and night. Let us live according to His holy law in which we delight all day and all night. Therefore we shall be made to prosper by varying degrees in this life but especially in the next, because God has promised that he shall preserve us. Because in Christ Jesus, our leaves shall never wither.
Therefore, in all that we do in Christ’s name, we shall prosper for his sake and for his glory alone because the Lord is sovereign, and we are not. So, walk in the Lord’s counsel, stand in the way of the righteous, and sit confident in the seat of those who trust Jesus Christ. Amen.