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Psalm 1:1-6, How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! [2] But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night. [3] He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers. [4] The wicked are not so, But they are like chaff which the wind drives away. [5] Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. [6] For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the wicked will perish.
TREASURING GOD IN THE PSALMS
I’ve titled this series Treasuring God in the Psalms. To treasure something means to regard as highly precious, to cherish, to prize. The Psalms are about treasuring God above all. They’re all about intimacy with God, worshipping, trusting, waiting on, hoping, delighting in God. In the face of every conceivable life struggle, trouble, trial, or problem, God is the treasure and hope of the Psalmist’s soul, and hopefully of ours. He hungers after God, thirsts after God, confesses his sins to God, rejoices in God, overflows with gratitude to his God, and finds his greatest pleasure in God. David calls on God to keep him close.
Psalm 86:11-12, Teach me Your way, O LORD; I will walk in Your truth; Unite my heart to fear Your name. [12] I will give thanks to You, O Lord my God, with all my heart, And will glorify Your name forever.
Psalm 1 is the front door or the entrance into this temple of wisdom and praise to God. You read here the doctrine of the two ways. There are two ways in life and only two, not three or four or more. There’s the wicked and the wise. Like the end of the Sermon on the Mount, there are two gates, two roads, two houses, two foundations, one way to life and the other to destruction. Your life is either a magnificent tree or worthless chaff. You’re either known by God or, as the last word in verse six puts it, you are in the way of the wicked who will perish.
THE SUPREMELY HAPPY MAN
The word blessed is really plural in the original Hebrew language, which intensifies the idea of being blessed. “Oh the supreme happiness of the man who follows God’s counsel.” Do you want to be happy? Normal people want to be happy. There are a few “Eeyore’s” around who seem to thrive on being miserable and negative. I love this little verse, “Two men looked out through prison bars. The one saw mud, the other stars.” The perspective is ours to choose.
This first great word “blessed” points the way to God’s prescription for true and eternal happiness. This is not the happiness of finding a hundred-dollar bill in the parking lot or finding your life partner. Do you want a happiness that regardless of what you go through or what happens to you, you know that ultimately you have found a supreme happiness that holds you up through thick or thin? I want to know that even if everything goes haywire today, I can stop and do some meditating and discover an inner joy that absolutely no one and nothing can take away!
Before we get to the positive way to this supreme happiness, we need to be aware that this world will never provide you true and lasting happiness.
THE ENEMY OF YOUR TRUE HAPPINESS
Psalm 1:1, How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
Life is very simple. There’s God’s counsel and then all the rest. Go back to the garden. God said enjoy eating anything you want except from this one tree. Don’t eat its fruit. Got it? It’s very simple. God’s counsel and all the rest. Here comes that snake with another counsel, “Did God say you can’t eat from that one tree? Ridiculous! Go ahead and eat it and you’ll be your own boss.” There you have the world’s counsel: “You don’t have to listen to God to be truly happy.”
Listen. God says right here you should not get your counsel for life decisions from people who don’t know the Lord or the true purpose of life. Such counsel is the enemy of your true happiness. The world won’t tell you the truth. The world tells you what you want to hear for the wrong goals. The world’s counsel is coming to you from every direction from every human source. It is driven by the father of lies, the devil, and comes from secular science and humanistic psychologies to godless commencement speakers. Harrison Ford recently told the graduates of Arizona State, “Humanity is part of nature, not above it.” Wrong! Man was made in God’s image to rule nature. Today everyone seems to have a platform to spout off their godless counsel. “Follow your heart,” they say. But even your heart will give you ungodly counsel. Jeremiah says your heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). Here’s the question you must ask. What does the Bible say? The world’s counsel may make you feel good and may make sense to you in your situation, but if it isn’t coming from somewhere between Genesis 1 and Revelation 22, either directly or by accurate application, it isn’t coming from God and is the counsel of the world, the wicked.
Do you see the downward progression in verse one? What happens when you listen to the counsel of the people without the fear of God, without a conscience shaped by God’s truth? You begin to stand in the way of sinners, living out an ungodly, self-pleasing life, and that will lead you finally to take a seat with those who make fun of God, of Christianity, of godly standards. Paul said in 1 Cor. 15:33, “Bad company corrupts good morals.” Hang out with godless people and you will absorb godless standards and soon you will excuse sinful behavior. After you imbibe so much worldly thinking you will even begin to mock or scorn what God says. Proverbs 14:9, “Fools mock at sin.” Isn’t that what has happened to so much of America as we’ve come through an academic system that puts man first and God is completely ignored or mocked. Like Athens in Paul’s day, our nation is full of idols rather than truth; full of scoffers and mockers rather than the fear of the Lord. Don’t be one of them. Delight in the Lord’s counsel.
THE SURE PATH TO TRUE HAPPINESS
Psalm 1:2, But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night.
After Henry VIII, that grease spot on England’s history, finally died, his son Edward VI through Jane Seymour became king. He was nine at his coronation. He lived only six years, but he loved God’s Word. At his coronation they brought him three swords representing the three kingdoms he would rule, England, Wales, and Scotland. But he called out, “A sword is missing!” After a hush someone asked, “What sword is that?” He replied, “The Bible.” Then he said, “Without that sword we are nothing, we can do nothing, we have no power…. Under the Bible, the Word of God, we ought to live, to fight, to govern the people, and to perform all our affairs.” Young Edward loved the Word and urged the people of England “to read, mark, and inwardly digest the Word of God.”
This blessed, supremely happy Psalm One man delights in God’s Word. He knows the Bible is from God Almighty and is God’s revelation to man. The author of Psalm 1 only had part of it but we have it all – the sixty-six books of the inspired, inerrant, infallible authoritative, sufficient, and supreme Word of God. He treasures God above all else and that’s why he finds the Bible a delight to his soul. It tells him about God and all of His works and he wants to know these things.
Do you know this delight? Do you desire to know God? There is an inner, “Oh, that is good!” Just like savoring a tender ribeye steak garnished with a little horse radish – MMMMM! But even so much better!! Thank you Lord for your truth. Sometimes truth hurts, but it also heals. Sometimes it cuts us like a sword, but it cuts us to cure us. One author made this point. This delight in the Bible indicates the new birth, the new heart that God gives us in regeneration. When you get saved, when you come to Christ trusting Him to save you, one of the first marks of regeneration is a new love, hunger, and delight in God’s Word. It’s like the Bible becomes a new book.
Holy Bible, book Divine,
Precious treasure, thou art mine.
Mine to tell me whence I came;
Mine to teach me what I am.
What feeds and encourages this delight? The psalmist meditates in it. Here is the key. Some don’t find delight in their Bible because they just take a bite and spit it out. You have to chew on those words. You have to cogitate on it, meditate on the words, think carefully about them. You roll it around in your heart like you roll a piece of Werther’s in your mouth, over and over, enjoying as much flavor as you can. The more you ponder the words of Scripture, the more alive and delightful it becomes to you, and you’ll join Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 15:16, Your words were found and I ate them, And Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart; For I have been called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts.
You might say, “Frankly, I don’t have this delight, this joyful passion for God’s Word.” We all know times like that. Here are three possible problems.
1) You need a new heart through faith in Christ. Maybe you’re religious but not regenerate.
2) You are so filled with the world that your appetite for the Word is blunted. This Psalm One man delights in the Word because God has lifted him out of the mirey clay and he now treasures God above all. He is supremely thankful for God’s sovereign grace that saved him and that grace just feeds his delight.
3) You aren’t taking the time to prayerfully meditate and ponder and knead God’s Word into your life. Read the Bible with a pencil in hand and jot some truths down in a notebook. Take what you read into your days and even your nights. Review those notes you jotted down. Psalm 63:6 says, “He meditates in the night watches.” Think about what God says and apply it to your life. Believe God when He says the Scriptures are sufficient for your life issues and sins and problems (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Believe God is in control of every situation. God is working everything in your life, the good and the bad, for His purposes and your good (Romans 8:28). Hardships and trials are a key part of God’s plan to help you grow more like Christ, which is His goal for you (Romans 5:1-4). Know God’s grace is sufficient for you right here in this situation with this person (2 Cor. 12:9). God wants you to esteem others as more important than yourself (Phil. 2:3-5). God wants you to replace bitterness, anger, slander, malice with kindness, gentleness and forgiveness (Ephesians 4:30-31). What does it mean to live with your wife in an understanding way? Or for the wives to have a gentle and quiet spirit (1 Peter 3:1-7). How can you live at peace with all men (Romans 12:18)? These are just a few examples of biblical truths to chew and knead into your life. And don’t forget to preach the gospel to yourself every day by reminding yourself of God’s grace in your life.
THE RADICAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE GODLY AND THE WICKED
Psalm 1:3-6, He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers. [4] The wicked are not so, But they are like chaff which the wind drives away. [5] Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. [6] For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the wicked will perish.
Here is a stark contrast. God’s people are trees; people who don’t know Christ are chaff. There couldn’t be a greater difference than comparing a tree to chaff.
The Tree
First, you are a tree if you’re a believer. Not a pansy or petunia or dandelion but a tree. Trees are one of the great blessings on earth. We couldn’t live without trees. They lick up CO2 and breathe out oxygen! They protect and give shade. Trees are sturdy! They provide homes for squirrels, monkeys, robins, and bluejays. And wood for your home. God’s people are trees, not shrubs or bushes. Jeremiah agrees.
Jeremiah 17:5-8, Thus says the LORD, “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind And makes flesh his strength, And whose heart turns away from the LORD. [6] “For he will be like a bush in the desert And will not see when prosperity comes, But will live in stony wastes in the wilderness, A land of salt without inhabitant. [7] “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD And whose trust is the LORD. [8] “For he will be like a tree planted by the water, That extends its roots by a stream And will not fear when the heat comes; But its leaves will be green, And it will not be anxious in a year of drought Nor cease to yield fruit.
Second, you’re a tree that’s been transplanted. You didn’t grow here by yourself. You’re not naturally a tree. The only reason anyone becomes one of God’s trees is because God plants them. How does He do that? By the gospel of Jesus Christ. God calls you, gives you a new nature, a new life, a new heart through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He plants you into union with Christ and before you know it, your affections change. You are treasuring God above all and you’re delighting in who God is and in His Son, Jesus Christ. You are growing and producing godly fruit. God plants His trees by His grace.
Third, you’re planted by irrigation canals. Trees need water, lots of it…gallons of water every day. God plants His trees by streams of water or irrigation canals to make sure you have plenty of water all the time, even in a drought. God irrigates you with His nurturing, sustaining, empowering, fruit-producing grace every day. You won’t get any of this water from the mud puddles of this world. It only comes from God’s fountain of living water, who really is Christ who by His Spirit lives in us. Spurgeon writes, “The rivers of pardon and the rivers of grace, the rivers of the promise and the rivers of communion with Christ, are never failing sources of supply.”
Fourth, your leaves do not wither. Regardless of droughts or storms, your leaves are drawing on the sunshine of God’s love and power. God will not let you dry out and die. Even in old age!
Psalm 92:12-14, The righteous man will flourish like the palm tree, He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon. [13] Planted in the house of the LORD, They will flourish in the courts of our God. [14] They will still yield fruit in old age; They shall be full of sap and very green,
Fifth, your fruit will be consistent in its season. As the Word of Christ dwells in you richly, your life will produce beautiful fruit. No fruit is more beautiful than the fruit of the Spirit.
Sixth, your life will bring glory to God. Whatever you do, you’ll prosper. With God’s Word flowing through you, you’ll be producing the very character of Christ. You’ll be treasuring God as your heart’s delight.
The Chaff
Now for the striking contrast of comparing the strong tree with its roots extending to the stream to this worthless papery chaff which the wind blows so easily away. Martyn Lloyd-Jones points out the differences between a tree and chaff.
Chaff is empty. It’s the waste after the grain is removed by winnowing.
Chaff is formless, unlike a tree.
Chaff has no roots.
And here is the most striking…
Chaff is lifeless. The tree is full of life; chaff is lifeless.
Chaff produces no fruit. It’s waste.
This is the lost man. What a pathetic picture God gives us. “Many a man who has lived through this world and thought he has achieved a great deal, finds at the end that he is nothing but a heap of chaff.” Imagine that epitaph on a gravestone. Yet how true.
God reminds us right here in verses 5-6 of the final separation of these two kinds of people. What happens to the chaff people? Not only will they not have a leg to stand on in the final judgment (v.5), but they will perish (vs.6). Instead of being supremely and joyfully happy in our glorious, beautiful God, they will perish forever. They pursued their own counsel and pleasures that never did bring them true happiness, and now they will have to live with themselves, forever, totally alone, in outer darkness, weeping and gnashing teeth, in everlasting destruction away from the presence of the Lord.
But look at those trees in verse six. The Lord knows them. He planted them and nourished them and brought them supreme happiness now and forever. He opened their eyes to see the glory of Jesus Christ and they bowed their hearts in faith and submission to His Son. They stand on the Rock. “On Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand.” They refuse to let the world set their agenda.
So, do you treasure God’s Word? Do you delight in it? Do you treasure God? Do you find joy in meditating on the truth in His Word? I hope you do. I hope you respond to your Bible reading with, “Mmm, that’s good!” The Psalm One man does.