Let me ask you to turn with me this morning to the first psalm, Psalm 1, which is the psalm that we sang. Remember, Dr. Barrett used to comment on some of the Psalms that he'd grown up familiar with their obviously English translation, spent his life and career studying the Old Testament in the original language, and then singing out of the Scottish Psalter. So when he started to quote a Psalm, keeping it on the same track wasn't always easy. I guess that's in a sense a good problem to have. Some of us have the other problem of getting just one of those three tracks down. But I want to read together from now our Bibles and not the Psalter itself. Psalm 1. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Therefore, the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous. but the way of the ungodly shall perish." We'll end our reading. And again, we trust the Lord's blessing to be on the public reading of His inspired Word. And let's bow our heads again in our hearts together. O gracious Heavenly Father, we pause again to acknowledge Your presence among us. Lord, You're omnipresent. Every moment of our lives, every moment of history, eternally present. But yet you've promised in particular ways to make your presence known as we gather in the name of Christ. as we would corporately and we trust individually seek to sense something of that presence, to be impacted by the knowledge of your presence. And so we pray that you'll give us the help we need to focus our thoughts and our hearts upon your Word. Lord, in the busyness even of holiday travel at times and all the extra events, some so very precious, Lord, let us again focus our thoughts on eternal things, that we might in these moments set aside in your day, be drawn again to those truths. And so grant us help as we would come around this psalm together, We pray it in Jesus' worthy name. Amen. We gather today the last Sabbath of this year. Before we meet again, the new year will be upon us. For old people like me that write checks, that means the first about two months of the year, there's a little slash, the correct year is written in and an initial above it. I don't know, perhaps it won't be that bad. Occasionally, I've started a check, even in recent years, and the first number was a one. Think about that. But as always, the new year brings thoughts of change, resolutions, Opportunity. Some of these thoughts come of necessity. We have to conclude, I don't know, bookkeeping, record keeping, paperwork. It's a few months of the year that my folders that I use for receipts and the bills that we write those checks for every month, they always ask me if I'd be interested in online. Nah, I enjoy sitting down writing checks, not really. But for a few months, the folders fit in the drawer. And then as we get into the year, then some of them have to find a spot on the floor. And it's good when we finally do the taxes and all of those folders are tucked into the box and put in the attic for my kids to go through someday. But they're necessary changes, necessary parts of turning the calendar to the new year. So I say some of our newness at the new year comes of necessity. And some of these things come of desire. We desire to improve some things that need improvement. Weight and exercise usually head the list at this time of year. And perhaps we make use of the calendar to put forward some worthy goal. Read so many books this year. You know, those are the things that are hard and open and sit in your lap and go on shelves. Right. Of course, Bible reading is a worthy goal to read through the scriptures once in the year. Make that a practice early in life, young people. You will not regret it, I promise. So sometimes we think of, well, maybe save some money. Maybe finish up that pesky last little bit of painting on the house remodel that needs to be done. My wife might smile at the thought and mention of that by such a one as myself. I say it's not uncommon Even in these thoughts, to then bring alongside of such desires for change and improvement, spiritual elements, spiritual resolutions. Personally, and at times even corporately, such resolutions are made. I know of many churches, I have many ministerial colleagues that are pretty eager and zealous every year to put forward a theme verse for the year for their congregations. Nothing wrong with that. We've had occasion to take themes in the past here ourselves. These things, I say, can all be well and good. We may indeed benefit from particular seasons of emphasizing certain things. But there are also many constants. Things that cannot be reduced to the isolation of a single year. their theme verses, their theme texts, their psalms such as the one before us that are worthy of constant remembrance. Not to focus on for one year or for the early part of a year and then set aside for another long season. Well, such is the psalm that is before us today. A psalm which was obviously chosen, if not purposely written, to be the opening psalm of the Psalter. Not surprisingly, when we come to our catechism, the first question of the catechism reflects upon the themes of this very psalm, as it speaks of our chief end being to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. These, I say, flow out of the very essence of this psalm. This is a psalm that's worthy to be committed to memory by every child of God. Perhaps you could make that, if you have not already done so, a resolution for the year. Here, it is a psalm that clearly forces us to look past the appearances to the reality. Past the fleeting and erroneous opinions of men to the steadfast and eternal Word of God. past the professed happiness of those in the world who are truly miserable, to the true blessedness of the man who's reconciled to God. It is a psalm that is worthy of reflection at the dawn of the new year. because it is a psalm that is worthy of reflection at the dawn of every new day. So I want us to look at this psalm today. It is the psalm of the blessed man. And when I say today, it's my intention to look at the first part of the psalm or an opening theme, if you will, of the psalm this morning and return to the psalm again for our meditations this evening. It is, I say, the psalm of the blessed man. As we've rehearsed it in the past, that opening phrase and description is plural. It is perhaps better, O the blessednesses of the man. Or O the happinesses of this man. And when you think of that foundational aspect of the truths of this psalm, we're not surprised as we turn the page to the New Testament We begin reading the Sermon on the Mount, that central focus of our Lord's earthly ministry. What are the opening Beatitudes? But a description of the blessed man. The man that is, as the psalmist speaks of this man, reconciled to God. J.A. Alexander in his classic commentary on the Psalter speaks of the man in this psalm in this way. He is described both literally and figuratively. Both positively and negatively. He is described directly and by way of contrast. He is described with respect to both his character and his condition. He is described with reference to here and now and with reference to the hereafter. So as I said, I want to take both messages this Lord's Day and look afresh at this familiar psalm. And if we can borrow from Alexander's words, we'll look first this morning at his character, or perhaps better, his characteristics, and then this evening we'll come to consider something of his condition. But in the characteristics of this happy, this blessed man, these are negative and positive. And it begins with a negative because we see this man doesn't do certain things. There is a trio of phrases that describe him in this way. Did you come even to structure? Look at the structure of the psalm and even seek how to unfold it and unpack it. There are many, and I think perhaps rightly, that look at this trio of phrases as somewhat progressive. You can focus then on the verbs there of walking and standing and then sitting. Now, we might can take too much and overemphasize the metaphors. But yet there is something of progression here. As Alexander himself sees it, we see in the first phrase an occasional conformity to these unworthy things and people. Secondly, there's a fixed association with them. And then thirdly, there's an established residence among them. We could also dwell, as we look on these three phrases, for a while in the terms that are used for the contrasted people. These that are contrasted with the happy man, the blessed man, are described first as the ungodly. They're described secondly as sinners. They're described thirdly as the scornful. And if we were to take those descriptions, we see in this spectrum that first, the blessed man doesn't seek to be loosed from God. He doesn't seek to be cut off and detached from God. He's not ungodly. You can see secondly, he's not one that is a habitual sinner. And that's a theme, a chord that has to be struck regularly among the Lord's professing people. It's one that, well, I was about to say a quarter, but getting close to a half century ago, that there was almost a thunderbolt in the evangelical world as John MacArthur preached, published and preached his gospel according to Jesus. So burdened for the open antinomianism that had crept into the conservative, Bible-believing church. That, in many cases, by profession and not understanding and possession. The blessed man, the true child of God, is not a habitual sinner. And then thirdly, looking again at these phrases, he doesn't openly reject the Word of God. Because the third description of the ones that are contrasted with the blessed man is those that are scornful. Here the psalmist borrows from the words of Proverbs. Solomon's description there of the different layers, as it were, of rebellion against God. He doesn't openly, as the scorner, reject God's Word. He doesn't openly. Announce He wants nothing to do with this God. But I want to focus as we look at these three phrases of negative description, more today on the central word in the phrases. Not the position of walking or standing or sitting. Not the words used to describe the ungodly ungodly and sinners and scornful. But to focus on the central word. The words counsel and way and seat. Because I think as we consider these, and I borrow again from a precious volume of Derek Kidner, these realms that are put before us in the life of the godly, blessed man. When it's said that the godly man does not walk in the way of sinners, or walk rather in the counsel of the ungodly. See, I boasted on committing the Psalm to memory and then misquoted it. But the counsel of the ungodly. The first realm, what we see in this first phrase, is in the realm of thinking. The counsel. The thought processes. And this we'll understand will fashion everything else. Because our Lord tells us, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. The blessed man doesn't walk in the counsel of the ungodly. His thinking is different than the lost. And consider that. Where did the serpent choose to challenge Eve in the garden? He challenged her thinking. Would she base her thinking? Would she rest her thinking, her counsel, upon the Word that God had given? Or would she entertain counsel from another quarter? Would she weigh the counsel of others equally or perhaps even more heavily than the counsel of God Himself? Satan is described in Scripture as the father of lies. We have had occasion a year or two ago to pause in our Sunday evenings and just ponder some giant text with regard to truth. And one of those being the fact that there are seasons in which truth is fallen in the streets. Right thinking is absent. Right thinking is rare. The blessed man doesn't follow the counsel, the thinking of the ungodly. of those who seek to be cut off from God. We must guard our thinking. We must then consider all the avenues of influence that would come upon us. And I want to pause and do something that I don't often do here, and that is get down into the trenches as it were and deal with certain specifics. Maybe I'll generally deal with specifics. But where do we have our thinking influenced? What things do we pay attention to that will impact our thinking? Where is the counsel of the ungodly going to be found? Well, it's found among the ungodly. It's found out in the world. The world is a theme. It's a truth that Scripture alludes to constantly. Those that are outside of Christ. Those who are not reconciled to God. There's something that binds lost people together. Their thinking is wrong. It's part of the state of natural and total depravity. It doesn't mean, as we've studied that doctrine often, that every man that's unsaved is as evil as he could possibly be. That he engages in every possible sin that he could engage in. And that as he pursues every possible sin, he pursues it to the nth and ultimate degree. That's not what the doctrine of total depravity means. But it does mean that the natural man in his unregenerate state is alienated from God. He, as described in Romans 1, suppresses the truth in unrighteousness. There is a consistency. There is a unity to the thought processes of the lost. They're cut off from God. And so they're drawn in particular directions away from Him. And away, obviously, from what is described in His law. Because his law is the reflection of his character. And as the ungodly go in that way, they walk in that path. They produce things to promote, to entice toward that way of thinking. Obviously part of that thinking is excusing themselves. saying that their sins don't matter. Or perhaps, some admitting the presence of sin, blaming that sin on others. It's a kind of common vein of thinking once sin entered. Adam said, the woman, she gave it to me. Serpent. Where's the heart that says, I have sinned? the heart of the penitent David, against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in Thy sight." That shows a man who is obviously a sinner, but his thinking is different now. He's not seeking to excuse himself. He's not seeking ultimately to justify his sin and say it doesn't matter. He's penitent. His thinking is different. And you think of, I say, all the avenues of influence. Our thinking is being assaulted every day from a multitude of directions. Think of the media. Different forms. Movies. Television. Social media. Music. If I ever come to it again in the topic, the pulpit, there's a great quote. It's been ascribed to a lot of different people, so I don't know where it originally came from. But it goes something like this. Let me make the ballads of a people, and I care not who makes their laws. What are people singing and humming in the streets? Where's their mind going? What's influencing their thinking? And you might say, well, preacher, these things you mention, media, television, movies, news, music, I mean, these are part of life. Yes, they are. And if I could even suggest a Venn diagram. Sorry. All you homeschoolers know what Venn diagrams are. Public schoolers, whoever. I think I'm remembering correctly. You know the intersecting circles. Well in those circles sometimes there are pieces of the circles that overlap. There's a little bit of territory where one circle and the other circle and maybe the third circle or whatever share something in common. Well, there's a lot of, can we say, thinking that we might share in common with the world. There are some universal truths that even the unsaved recognize and pursue and even give acknowledgement to. We still live, thankfully, in days where pretty much everybody agrees murder is bad. Now, you press that a little bit And there are some circles today that aren't quite so sure of that anymore. They're even willing to let that go. You know, it's interesting when a culture begins to look at God's law and say, well, this one doesn't matter anymore at all. We can throw that one away. Just consider maybe the fourth commandment. The seventh commandment needs a little tweaking. What is adultery and what constitutes it? How far can we go in our entertainment and then our actions and still not be guilty of this? Or let's just throw that one all out too. It doesn't matter. Let's destroy the family and destroy lives. with our throwing that out. But we'll keep this. Stealing is still bad. Well, wait a minute. Stealing might not be quite so bad. Well, I guess the Venn diagram is not having as much overlap as it used to even. But there are times where the ungodly touch on truth. Touch on things that are good. Paul tells us in Philippians, Whatsoever things are true, honest, just, lovely, of good report, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things. But you'll find that that's an ever increasingly smaller part of the overlap in worldly thinking and Christian thinking. And the happy man doesn't walk in the council of the ungodly. He doesn't engage in their thinking because I say what unites the world, what's the definition really of worldliness, is that all of its pursuits are pursued in the absence of the presence or seeking the presence of God. For a blessed man, a happy man, That's the foundation of his thinking. He's created in the image of God. He sadly has rebelled against that God. But graciously, God has found and provided a ransom and reconciled us to Himself. And one of the key points of that reconciliation of what changes in us, what does Paul say? The renewed heart, renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created Him. Our thinking is different from the unsaved. And yet we're bombarded with the thought processes, the excuses, the rationalization of the unsaved all the time. And we need to be mindful of that. Perhaps in this new year, you might reexamine the influences that you give place to in your thinking. And bring every thought, as Colossians says, into captivity to the obedience of Christ. The righteous man, the blessed man, is changed in the realm of his thinking. He doesn't walk in the counsel of the ungodly. He's also secondly changed in the realm of behavior. He doesn't stand in the way of sinners. That path. That concerted effort. That chosen position. And of course, we see that this flows out of the first, the realm of thinking, because as we read in Scripture, bad thinking ultimately results in bad living. Or to put it in the terms Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 15, evil communications corrupt good manners. Bad doctrine leads to bad practice. And the happy man doesn't stand in the way of sinners. He is not a habitual sinner. He guards his actions as well. And this is a necessary point of emphasis today because there are many professing the name of Christ that are happy to say, yes, the Gospel is going to change my thinking. I'm a new man. I'm a new person. I'm a child of God. But that doesn't impact my living. And some have the convenient excuse, as it were, of poor teaching and even poor emphasis in the evangelical church, that somehow Christianity has been reduced to a list of external standards. Well, that's obviously wrong. It's obviously not the teaching of Scripture. It is out of the heart that our actions proceed. But you see, the point is, is if the heart is changed, The actions are going to be changed too. I was tempted in our Bible reading this morning, I'm always taken back with, or I should say quite frequently taken back with the parallel between our successive reading of New Testament chapters and the message for the day. The last three Lord's days, actually four. If you've been paying attention, there have been particular parallels. I mean, Lot showed up in the New Testament and in our message from Genesis recently. Well, this psalm, the Apostle John reflects pretty clearly in that opening chapter. And actually, that's one of the unfortunate chapter divisions in our New Testament because there's a little trio of statements that John makes there. If we say such and such, then... Well, there are three ancient and modern heresies. that the apostle is wrestling with. One of them is the heresy of antinomianism. And of course, the psalmist speaks of that here. The blessed man doesn't stand in the way of sinners. He's not a habitual sinner. The ungodly who abandon themselves to thinking poorly, to suppressing the truth, do habitually sin. Again, they may not all follow sin ultimate and most depraved manifestations, but they suppress the truth in unrighteousness. And thus their lives are filled with bad practice. When I think of the realm of behavior, not standing in the way of sinners, think about some of the admonitions of the New Testament. Neither give place to the devil. There's a word there for the base of operations. It's kind of like letting an enemy have a military base right in the middle of your country. It's not usually a good idea. A base of operations to take us out. Well, to profess to be a child of God, to not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, and yet give ungodliness a base of operations in your life. A place where it has a grip that it can reach out from. Or as Paul says in another place, to make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof. How many Christians and professing Christians in their reaction against external standards in the bondage theology of the mid-20th century to the present, in casting off standards, make provision for the flesh? They give a place for the flesh to have opportunity to express itself Sometimes I think the church needs to go back to Galatians and read the listings there. The fruit of the Spirit. Such a wonderful set of three. Three sets of threes in that, but a more extensive list of the works of the flesh. Many of those aren't tangible. They're not something you wear on your t-shirt to say, yeah, I engage the flesh in this way. But think of the attitudes. You know, we can focus on the things our hands do, the places our feet are allowed to go, the stuff our ears are enabled to listen to. We should revive that little song for the children, be careful little eyes what you see, be careful little ears what you hear. There's a lot of wisdom in that. But the actions flow forth from the heart. You can't have a changed heart and have actions that are unchanged. The blessed man is greatly impacted in the realm of behavior. Quickly, we come to the third realm, and that's the realm of belonging. He doesn't sit in the seat of the scorners. This has reference to an assembly. The psalm will speak later of the congregation of the righteous. There's a community to which the blessed man, the happy man, belongs. And he doesn't sit in the seat of the other community. One of the things that Kidner does in his treatment of the psalm is he talks about the two ways. I think it's in the last phrase of his treatment, his very brief treatment of the chapter says, and there is no third. So often the flesh wants to suggest a third. Well, I'm not there, but I'm not here either. No. He that is not with me is against me, the Lord says. But the realm of belonging the seat of the scornful. That one that openly rejects God and His Word. The world, Christ said, knows its own. There's an identity and the world will pick up on it. It's interesting how often the church in its delusion at times, sometimes even a supposedly well-intentioned delusion to get the world's attention, to become more like the world in order to bring this message that doesn't change anything anymore. I still need to put pen to paper and get out the little volume, Life, Change, and Grace. How many times a church has tried to present change of life and it's devoid of grace, both theologically and practically? And then in reaction, how many times does a church want to put forth grace? Friends, saving grace is not devoid of a change of life. Read Romans 6. But let us come quickly now to the positive characteristics of this blessed man. These are described more from a singular perspective than the three-fold refrain that we've just witnessed with regard to the negative There is a two-fold witness to be sure, but the singular focus is upon the Word which will shape our thinking and of course then it reflects on who we are. So as we read verse 2, This happy man doesn't walk in the counsel of the ungodly. He doesn't think like the unsaved anymore. He doesn't stand in the way of sinners. He doesn't act like the unsaved anymore. He doesn't sit in the seat of the scornful. He doesn't identify with the unsaved anymore. But, what is true of him is his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law doth he meditate day and night." the positive characteristics. Notice that he delights in the law of the Lord. This is not mere conformity. He delights in the law. He actually enjoys living differently than he used to. He actually enjoys living differently from the unsaved. We examine our outward actions. The happy man examines his outward actions. Again, this is not mere conformity. But he does so because they manifest the heart. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. Well, he delights, this man, in the law of the Lord. Consider the man that is thus finding pleasure in the Lord and in His law. Many comment, and I think rightly so, how much of the Scriptures were written. How much of the Scriptures would have been tangibly possessed by God's people at this time. Scarcely more than the Pentateuch is written. The psalmist speaks as one delighting in the law of the Lord. I dare say for many Christians today, when we think of our favorite text and we rejoice in God's Word, we might be other places more frequently than the Pentateuch. But the fact that God has revealed grace, revealed the Gospel to us, yes, even the Pentateuch so plainly. We considered the last Lord's Day of all the lambs. Lamb after lamb after lamb testifying of the love of God that He sent His Son But this happy man delights in the law of the Lord. How is his delight manifested? Again, this is not coercion. This is not self-righteous legal pursuit. I'm going to read and study this stuff. I'm going to commit it to memory like the Pharisee. I'm going to compile a host of external standards that I might lift up to God that I might be accepted and feel better about myself. You wonder sometimes where the joy is in the professing church. Can we say that your level of joy might be directly connected to your level of understanding the grace and power of the Gospel? God, again, not constrained by anything in us, look down and saved us who were undeserving. Or as we love to sing here, preserved by Jesus, when my feet made haste to hell, and there should I have gone. But Thou dost all things well. Thy love was great, Thy mercy free, which from the pit delivered me. You can't delight in that. Something's wrong. Thinking hasn't been redirected yet. But not only does he delight in the law of God, he meditates in it day and night. The word to meditate here has the idea of humming. It can be used of moaning. We might use the word muse What do you muse upon? What do you mull over in your head? I always like to put it this way as a personal challenge and even a point in preaching. Where does your mind normally go in the downtime? You know, the lunch break or the quiet evening. I was about to say the quiet morning, but often mornings are hectic. Got to get there. Got to not be late. But where do we go? What do we dwell on? What do we muse upon when we have opportunity? Think again of the Venn diagram. Worldly popularity, whether that's a desire to be popular ourselves or if it's a bad pattern of thinking that I'm going I'm going to go see what the world's interested in and what the world's all excited about. Of course, that'll change very quickly. Ecclesiastes tells us that. Fame is a fleeting thing. You're left to the fickleness of depraved, pleasure-seeking hearts. Top of the world. Top of the charts. Billionaire. Nobody knows me anymore. It's sad indeed, isn't it? We can't have our meditation just flow out of what's popular. We can't even have our meditations flow out of what we see in the professing church. The changeable seasons of the professing in the visible church. The inevitable pendulum swings when things other than the Gospel captivate the thinking. You know, the people that gripe about the previous generation emphasizing externals. Guess what? They still emphasize externals. They just change what the rules are. We can't even have our meditation flow from a strong local church. The temptation of the flesh there is to place our confidence and maybe ultimately our pride in some visible, even good, assembly of God's people. Still, maybe I should make it a resolution. I've got the list of the sermons I need to preach. One of these days, to thoughtfully deal with the theme, the sin of looking for a perfect church. It presupposes one could exist. It presupposes I'm competent to figure out which one it is. Obviously, there are fundamental truths. There's an obligation to align ourselves with assemblies and or denominations that are faithful to Scripture. The key, clear, main doctrines of the faith. But I can't even let a good church be the focus of my meditation and of my hope. I don't want to be... Can I say this carefully? I don't want to be church-centered. I want to be Christ-centered. Now if I'm Christ-centered, church is going to be like huge in my life. But it's not because of it. It's because of Him. Now I meditate on the unchanging Word of God. This makes me different. than the world. But what's the psalm about? The miserable guy that has to do the right thing all the time? That's not what the psalm's about. The psalm's about the blessed man. The man that is happy. A man that is distinct from the unconverted, who for whatever professions, whatever signs they hold up, I'm living the good life. I'm pursuing pleasure. The misery that follows sin. No, the blessed man, the happy man delights in the law of the Lord. And in His law, He meditates day and night. He finds something worthy enough, something big enough to satisfy His soul. The world that believes the lies chases all this stuff that not only can't satisfy, it brings misery. Because we'll never be happy when we're cut off from God. Well, let us pause. We'll return to the psalm this evening and see the condition of this man that's characterized in these ways. Let's bow our heads and our hearts together. Our Heavenly Father, we ask that You will help us At the turn of this year, Lord, help us in the middle of this coming year to be mindful of this basic truth, of this fundamental opening psalm of what it really is to be a happy man. So prosper Your Word to us. We ask it in Jesus' name, Amen.