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Psalms 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.
We’ll begin reading through the Psalms on Sunday mornings in a few weeks. Since we’re at the beginning of the new year 2025, I decided to preach on the first Psalm. Psalm 1 has been called the grand entrance or magnificent gateway into these God-inspired Psalms with 150 rooms of a grand temple of God-focused worship. The Psalms take the great truths of God and His providential work in this world and bring it into daily, personal living. You hear from David, Solomon, Moses, the sons of Korah, Asaph, and others their songs of joy and hope, but also the heartaches of God’s people living in this world of woe. In the face of every conceivable life struggle, trouble, trial, insult, rejection, fear, guilt, and enemies, God is the treasure and hope of the Psalmist’s soul.
Now, let’s open this front door into the Book of Psalms, Psalm 1. Here God gives us His prescription for true and complete godly happiness.
GOD’S PRESCRIPTION FOR TRUE HAPPINESS.
“How blessed is the man…”
The word blessed is in the plural ashre, from the word Asher. Leah got excited when her maid Zilpah gave birth to a son and she declared, “How happy am I. Women will call me happy. So she named him Asher” (Genesis 30:13). Asher means happy, blessed. And the plural form intensifies it, so the NASB translates it “How blessed is the man.” The New Living Translation reads, “Oh, the joys of those who…”
Most people want to be happy, not miserable. The question is, what is your happiness based on? What makes you happy? The world depends for its happiness on favorable circumstances, like money, good health, she said “Yes,” or you won the lottery. Have you ever seen the response of people who realize they just won ten million dollars? But God intends for His people to know inner happiness and joy in spite of what is happening to you. In fact, God’s people are blessed even when they are facing tough times. Just ask the apostle Paul. He’s in prison when he tells us, “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice!” (Phil. 4:4)
Some people think happiness is a worldly idea, based on certain happenings giving a sense of inner joy and delight. Are you happy? Are you miserable? Remember those Israelites in the wilderness. God brought judgment on them when they acted miserable and complained and grumbled. Even the Puritans were all about believers being happy. Thomas Watson wrote, “God has no design upon us, but to make us happy.” Augustine put it well, “Man’s happiness is God Himself.” So we don’t need to think a serious Christian should look like he’s walking on tacks and sucking lemons all day long.
We’re told we have an epidemic of depression and anxiety and even suicidal thoughts in our nation. That’s not happiness. Back in 2022 a professor named Ben Shahar began the world’s first master’s degree program in Happiness at Centenary University in New Jersey. I happen to have a prescription for true and lasting happiness…right here in God’s Book, the Bible. “How blessed or happy is the man who….”
So what is God’s prescription for true and lasting happiness? What are the requirements to God’s kind of genuine happiness? There are three parts to Psalm 1, the negative, positive, and the results.
SEPARATE FROM THE ENEMIES OF YOUR SPIRITUAL HAPPINESS.
Psalms 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!
God warns you right here of three things to avoid. These are the enemies of your true happiness. If these make you happy, you have fallen into a deadly trap. First, there’s the counsel or advice of the ungodly. The world is broadcasting and propagating ungodly counsel every day. We saw this in the Garden of Eden shortly after God gave Adam counsel to enjoy the fruit of any tree except that one tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That was God’s counsel. God created us to need His counsel. We’re not to lean on our own understanding. Of course, the devil came along with another counsel, an ungodly counsel. “Has God said…? Really? That’s ridiculous. God’s holding out on you, limiting your freedom, your happiness. Freedom means following your own desires. You’ll be happiest by ignoring what God said and eating that beautiful fruit.” Satan knows how to make ungodliness appear attractive, alluring. “You don’t have to listen to God to be a fulfilled person. We don’t even know if God exists, but even if He does, you have the right to follow your own way. You have the right to make up your own mind about things. Don’t let that old book limit your freedom and happiness.” Don’t listen to words like that. Psalm one is great counsel for young people who are exposed to worldly counsel every day. Actually, that includes most of us.
Ungodly counsel exalts man, appeals to your natural sinful desires, and denies your need for Scripture, that you are a sinner and need to be saved. The world’s counsel is designed to make you feel happy without God. That thought is embedded in godless philosophies and psychologies in every university. The world’s counsel will often sound convincing or reasonable to you, but if it isn’t coming from somewhere between Genesis 1 and Revelation 22, it isn’t coming from God. It’s coming from the enemy of your soul, so quickly reject it, don’t walk or live based on it. Be careful to whom you listen for advice. There are only two counsels in the world, God’s and all the others. Psalm 33 distinguishes the two.
Psalms 33:10-11, The LORD nullifies the counsel of the nations; He frustrates the plans of the peoples. 11 The counsel of the LORD stands forever, The plans of His heart from generation to generation.
Then God says in Psalm 1:1 don’t stand or hang out with people who have no reverence for God. Standing is more deliberate than walking. You were walking; now you’re standing, being a part of them. We’re all sinners needing to be saved, but these committed sinners live for their own pleasures. They have no fear of God or ear for God’s truth. They are lovers of self, money, and pleasure rather than lovers of God.
What’s the last warning? Don’t sit in the seat of the scoffers. There’s progression here. Once you’ve bought into ungodly counsel, teaching, philosophy, and direction, it won’t be long before you’ll be standing with those who have no regard for God’s standard of right and wrong. And then you end up sitting down with scoffers and mockers of God’s Word. Spurgeon calls these scoffers “Doctors of Damnation.” They’ll make fun of biblical Christianity or godly moral standards, and you’ll laugh right along with them. Whether they gossip or slander or speak profanity or march for women’s rights to their own bodies or make fun of the Bible, creation, the need for salvation, reject the doctrine of eternal punishment and whatever God says, you’ll laugh right along with them. Be aware. Beware. Warren Wiersbe wrote, “When laughing at holy things and disobeying holy laws becomes entertainment, then people have reached a low level indeed.”
So here’s God’s prescription for true happiness, a warning really. Separate from the enemies of your spiritual happiness. Twice Proverbs warns us, “There’s a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Prov. 14:12, 16:25). Refuse to follow the counsel of people who have no reverence for God and His ways. Refuse to stand with those who sin without a care. Refuse to sit with those who scoff and mock and belittle God and His truth.
FIND YOUR GREATEST JOY AND DELIGHT IN GOD’S TRUTH.
Psalms 1:3, But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night.
This blessed man, this happy believer in Christ, finds great delight in God’s Word. He’s like 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.
Of course, Jeremiah didn’t literally eat Scripture. King Menelik 2 of Ethiopia made that mistake. He thought literally eating pages of the Bible would heal him. He died in 1913 as a result of eating 2 Kings. Jeremiah ate God’s words in the sense of feeding his heart on God’s truth.
Why is Scripture such a delight to a believer? It is Truth. It is accurate, reliable, and actively powerful. It is the source of your knowledge of God and your eternal salvation. It is the source of your spiritual life. We delight in it because it tells the truth about God, eternity, creation, what is man, marriage, family, Satan and sin, redemption, God’s promises to Israel and the church, about how Christ was God who became a man through the incarnation, the cross, salvation, godliness, spiritual fruit, the second coming, and eternity future. It is your treasure trove of everything you need for life and godliness. Jesus said, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” One of the early evidences of a true believer is his finding joy in reading and studying God’s Word. First Peter 2:3 says, “As newborn babies, desire the sincere milk of the Word.” It fulfills our hunger for God. It tastes good, like a delicious ribeye with a dash of horseradish. Mmmm, Mmmm.
And then, “in God’s law he meditates.” As you find great joy and satisfaction in your Bible, you think about what it says. You don’t just take a sip and spit it out. You talk to yourself about it, even in the night watches (Psalm 63:6). You meditate in God’s Word day and night. The difference between memorizing Scripture and meditating on it is like food on a plate – that’s memorizing and eating that food – that’s meditating. Meditation means murmur, mutter, talking to yourself. It’s rolling a truth or verse around in your heart with the purpose of changing your life. It is careful thinking about what the verse or passage means and how can I apply it in my life. What is God telling me here? How should I be thinking, speaking, or doing? Philippians 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Memorize it and then chew on it in your mind. How does God want me to think and act differently with that verse in my life?
GOD’S TREES.
Psalms 1:3, 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.
God loves to picture His people as trees. We’ll see the great contrast in verse 4. The lost person is like chaff, but here’s this sturdy tree. Not a pansy or petunia or dandelion or just a bush, but a tree. Trees are wonderful. We couldn’t live without trees. Trees provide shade and protection. The mature tree provides 274 liters of oxygen a day, half of what a person needs in a day. Trees provide fruit. Jeremiah lays it out beautifully.
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. (is that where you want to live?) 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.
God’s people are like trees. God firmly planted you; the idea is transplanted. God transplants His trees out of the Adamic line into the line of Christ. You didn’t plant yourself. You’re like a tree because God made you like a tree. You have the life of Christ in you. God plants you by streams or irrigating canals of water where you can get all the nutrients you need. He provides a church, a teacher, along with the Spirit of God. We can’t nourish and support ourselves. We need to be rooted in Christ to draw up His spiritual power into our lives. God provides the fountain of living water! God sees to it that you, like a tree, produce fruit which includes the fruit of the Spirit. His life in you will feed others. His leaves don’t wither; they stay fresh, regardless of the trials and opposition. And God makes you productive and prosperous. Like trees, you fulfill God’s will and purpose in this world. And this is exactly what the Lord told Joshua when preparing him for leadership after Moses died.
Joshua 1:8, “This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.
This blessed, spiritually happy man or woman who refuses to follow the world but feeds on God’s truth, delights in God’s truth every day and brings glory to God. Your life will be producing the fruit of the Spirit, the character of Christ. Prosperity isn’t getting all your human needs met. Prosperity is magnifying the sustaining grace of God, regardless of what you’re going through or even how old you are.
Psalms 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,
This is our Psalm for 2025! Separate from anything that dulls your spiritual life. Then as you delight in and meditate on God’s Word, you will produce Christlike fruit. Not necessarily big fruit, but some fruit will be hanging through your life. Your wife will notice how patient you’ve become. Your kids will say you don’t yell as much as you used to. Your husband will appreciate how joyful you are. You’ll become aware of having more self-control. You’re fighting those fleshly sins more than ever. You used to watch anything on TV, but now you are quick to grab the remote and hit the off button when appropriate. You’re a fruitful, God-glorifying tree for the Lord!
THE END OF THE LOST MAN.
Psalms 1:4-6,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.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones describes the chaff as empty, formless, rootless, lifeless, and fruitless. This is the picture of the lost man, the man who finds no delight in God’s Word, in Christ, in salvation. His life is all about this world. He refuses to bow to the Lordship of Christ. What a pathetic picture God gives us here. Like chaff, the lost man is blown around by all kinds of godless teaching and counsel, false teaching and the thoughts of worldly men. Wrong thinking can even come from friends and your own family.
Here’s the tragedy. Instead of having the exquisite, supreme happiness of God’s people, these lost souls are chaff with no standing before the judgment seat of God. Martyn Lloyd-Jones adds this gripping thought, “Many a man who has lived through this world and though he has achieved a great deal, finds at the end that he is nothing but a heap of chaff.”
Instead of “how blessed,” their end is “to perish.” Notice the two ways for humans here. Not three or four, but just two: blessed or wicked, trees or chaff, saved or lost, heaven or hell, sheep or goats, wheat or tares. The wicked live as if they will never face God in judgment. In their hearts they despise the whole idea of giving account to a God and facing consequences. They are like that fellow at the wedding feast in Matthew 22 who refused to wear the wedding garment, which we could say represents the perfect righteousness of Christ. The king goes over and asks, “How did you get in here without wedding garment?” The man was speechless. He had no words. And he was cast into outer darkness, with weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth. Hell is the exact opposite of true happiness. God says in Psalm1:6, “The way of the wicked will perish.” Thankfully, the door into salvation is not eternally shut yet. Now is not too late; tomorrow may be. But now at this moment forgiveness is available through acknowledging your sin and placing your trust, your faith in Christ to give you His righteousness. Assurance of eternal life comes as you believe what God says in His Word. “The gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).
THE END OF THE BLESSED MAN.
Psalm 1:6a,The Lord knows the way of the righteous.
What about that blessed person who delights in God’s truth and meditates in it? The Lord knows their way. Know doesn’t mean aware of. It means what Christ said in John 10:27, “I know my sheep.” It means God knows His people in a loving, cherishing, personal way. The Lord knows the way of the righteous. That’s a loving knowing, a spiritual intimate knowing. He knows our every step. He knows our every thought. He knows us and loves us still. He gave us a heart to know and delight in Him. He opened our eyes to see our own sin and the glory of Christ. We bowed our hearts in faith and submission to His Son. Oh, how blessed we are, how happy the righteous are.
Here’s a good description of the eternal joy and happiness of heaven.
Psalms 16:11, You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.
SO WHAT?
Are you chaff in the wind, or a tree planted by the waters? Chaff will be blown away and not be able to stand in the judgment. If you are chaff, there is still hope. Christ can take chaff and turn it into trees. Can you honestly say you have turned from the world’s counsel and submitted yourself to Christ as your Lord and Savior? When you do, He will remove your sin and guilt and replace it with His perfect righteousness and fullness of joy forever. Are you trusting Christ for forgiveness and eternal life? Believe in Him and you will be saved rather than perish.