Psalm chapter 1, as many of you know, we are in the midst of a sermon series through the Gospel of John. That's where we've been for the past year, and we are about halfway through that book. But we are also in the midst of a brief break these last few weeks, as we're kind of taking a step back to consider a few things more particular to where we're at as a church plant. where we're at individually right now in this phase. And actually, today we're beginning another little series of sorts, a periodic one. In our Sunday evening prayer meetings, we're going to be using the Psalms to guide our corporate prayers when we come together. So we're going to be studying Psalm 1, Psalm 2, Psalm 3, and so on. And so for the next, I don't know, A couple of years. Every six weeks or so, I'm going to preach on another psalm. So, we're going to start with Psalm 1 today. Maybe in six weeks, we'll come back to Psalm 2. Another four to six weeks, Psalm 3, and so on, to kind of give us a little bit of the Old Testament, kind of give us a break from our regular series through the Gospel of John. So this morning, Psalm 1. This is a wisdom psalm. It's a psalm in which calls us to kind of lean in. and listen to a wise man, to contemplate what it says, and to discern our way in light of the truth revealed here. So by God's grace, let us do just that. Hear now the wisdom of God in His Word, Psalm 1. 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. Amen. May God give us ears to hear and eyes to see what the Spirit says to the church. Well, as I mentioned a few moments ago, this is in some respect a monumental Sunday. On Monday, we celebrated our one-year anniversary as a church plant, kind of turning the corner to year two now with this Sunday, the first Sunday in our second year. But also, of course, with the beginning of a school year, many of you have returned from summer break, and you're facing that second year, or third year, or fourth year, or first year. Regardless, you're facing that prospect before you. of another school year. With it in mind, I thought, what better passage to look at this morning than Psalm chapter one. There's a reason why this Psalm heads the Psalter. Many see it as a summary of all of the Psalms, a summary of all of the wisdom of God as revealed in the wisdom literature in the Old Testament. Many see it as a summary of the entire message of Scripture entirely. So when we talk about new beginnings and we talk about the start of another year, this psalm really encapsulates all that we could ever hope and dream of for the future. Blessed is the man it opens with. And blessed, of course, means happy. Happy is the man. Highly favored is the man. And it goes on to paint this picture of this highly favored man who's steadfast. He produces fruit in all seasons. It paints a picture of a man who's at peace, who's at rest, who's envied by others. Of a man, here in v. 3, that in all that he does, he prospers. This is a portrait of a man who is Living the dream. The most interesting man in the world in many respects. And it paints this portrait of this man and the implication is who doesn't want to be like this man? Who doesn't want to be happy? Who doesn't want to be favored? Who doesn't want to be at peace? Who doesn't want to prosper and be like this tree? which produces fruit constantly in all season. So in this respect, isn't this part of what we all long for as human beings? Isn't the pursuit of happiness one of the chief endeavors of our life? So this morning, as we kind of turn the corner and we look ahead to the future, Don't we want this kind of favor from God in the year that lies before us? Without a doubt, this psalm is relevant to us today because it lays out the kind of ideal life that we all long for. But as we consider this this morning, and we kind of look ahead to what lies ahead of us in the next year, I want to ask you a question. Why is this man so blessed? Why is he prosperous? Is it because of something that he does? In other words, we might all agree, of course, that this psalm sets before us the ideal life. But in doing so, is this psalm telling us how we might also obtain this blessing as well? That's certainly what it sounds like. And it's certainly the popular perspective in our world today. What do we hear constantly from a barrage of voices all around us in the world today? You are the one who makes or breaks your life. Fate is in your hands. Success depends upon how hard you are willing to work. And if things don't work out, you have no one to blame but yourself. Now, I'm sure you've heard that from your parents, you know, as an exhortation to get good grades. Or you've heard it from your boss as an exhortation to work harder in your vocation. But sadly, so many We hear this from the church today as well. We hear things such as God helps those who help themselves. We hear that as long as you tithe, you'll receive God's blessing. We hear that if you will just be diligent to read your Bible and to pray, God will give you that great purpose in your life. And He'll work everything out. And you will be happy and prosperous. My friends, I'm here today to tell you that this is not exactly what this psalm is saying. Not only does this kind of idea, this mindset turn grace upside down and kind of distorts the mercy that God gives us in the sense that He never gives us what we truly deserve. But even when we come to this psalm, a psalm that so many use to kind of inspire them for new beginnings, to kind of lay the groundwork for the blessed life, even when we come to this psalm and we pay attention to it, it ought to begin to make us feel more than just a little uncomfortable. Who in the world, for example, meditates on the law of God day and night? I mean, not only does this sound a little bit impossible, but it sure sounds a lot like a Pharisee, doesn't it? Not a blessed man. Is this really a Psalm that is telling us to do something in order to obtain a blessing? If so, when we pay attention, I hate to break it to you, but you're going to fall woefully short. And you're going to fall back on, well, maybe I'm just not trying hard enough. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. But this is not the proper way to look at this psalm. That's what I'm going to argue today. That's what I hope to show you today. We are not to look at this psalm as if it provides the secret key to the blessed life. There's something much more profound going on here. As far from this psalm showing us how we might earn this blessing, This is actually a psalm that shows us how impossible it is to obtain this blessing on our own. Because at the end of the day, no matter what we ever do, we will never perfectly live up to the definition of this blessed man. And yet, even in this, there is great, great hope and great assurance to be found here in the grace and favor of God that's poured out upon us through the Lord Jesus Christ. So I want to answer this question this morning. Why is this man blessed? Why is this man blessed? Perhaps a secondary question is who really fits the description of this blessed man? I want to make three observations to answer this question. First, true blessedness is an inward disposition. It is an inward disposition. Secondly, true blessedness is the result of a prior act of another. It is the result of a prior act of another. And thirdly, true blessedness receives the reward it has earned while the wicked are cut off. Three observations to answer the question why is this man so blessed. So first I want to point you to the fact that true blessedness is an inward disposition. It is an inward disposition. We see this in the first kind of contrast here in verses 1 and 2 of this blessed man who walks not, stands not, or sits not, but who delights in the law of the Lord. Now, I pointed out already that the term blessed is best translated as happy, as favored, of good fortune, And upon introducing this idea of this man, the psalmist immediately goes into detail to describe him, to describe this blessed man. But notice how he begins here by describing him by a way of contrast. In fact, I should say begins. All three of these couplets, verse one and two, three and four and five and six, are all contrasts. He describes this man by way of contrast. But what's interesting is, He begins by describing this man, not positively, by what he does do, but by negatively, by describing him by what he does not do. He walks not in the counsel of the wicked. He stands not in the path of sinners. He sits not in the seat of scoffers. Three negatives are used to describe this man before he ever gets around to talking about anything positive. Well, why is this? You might wonder, why does he start in this way? Well, I believe he does this because he wants to highlight just how exceptional this man truly is. He is exceptional. Think, for example, of how we might describe a good athlete. You know, we might say something like, this guy is the best basketball player who has ever played the game. You know, it might be one way to highly praise somebody, but that's far different from saying, this guy never misses a shot. He never misses a shot. You see, by using that negative, he does not miss, we're communicating something far greater and far higher than just, well, he's really, really good. We're saying, in a sense, he's perfect. He's exceptional. He never messes up. And this is what the psalmist is doing here with this impeccable man. This man here is not someone who just avoids the counsel of the wicked some of the time. Or even most of the time. The psalmist is saying that he avoids the counsel of the wicked all of the time. Without exception. He's leaving no room for us to consider or assume that this man ever occasionally wanders off into these paths of ungodliness. This is the highest commendation of this man's character. So he starts with a negative and he starts to illustrate how just truly exceptional this man is, but also I want you to notice how he illustrates the wickedness that this man avoids. He doesn't walk, he doesn't stand, he doesn't sit. And this coincides with three terms for the wicked. Wicked, sinner, and scoffer. And the point that we must see here is that using this metaphor, this way of speech, he's not laying out three different types of evil and three different types of sinners as if this man is blameless in all three of these areas. But what he's trying to communicate is a progression. There is a progression being illustrated here. The progression is in how men go from bad to worse. C.S. Lewis, in screw tape letters, said it this way, the road to hell is a gradual decline and not a cliff face. It's exactly what we see here. This truth, this wisdom being conveyed. That wicked men do not just come out of the womb and immediately advance so far in their evil that they openly deny and blaspheme God. Instead, they're led astray little by little. The writer of the Hebrews called it drifting. Be careful lest you drift away. And this is what we see in this progression here. Wicked is a very general term. It could be used simply to refer to someone who is an unbeliever. And this is somebody who simply begins walking a little down the road of ungodliness. But sinner's more specific. Sinner is referring to someone who willfully disobeys a stated law or maxim. He doesn't just occasionally walk down the path of ungodliness, but he learns to stand there. It becomes his path, a way of life. Habits are formed. It's a lifestyle. But finally then, you have scoffer. Scoffer isn't just one who sins. A scoffer is one who openly mocks God and His Word. And so after a little walking, and after a little standing, the sinner finally becomes so comfortable that he sits down. He's fixed and satisfied in his lifestyle. He's now sitting in the teacher of ungodliness, never to change. And he's openly defying God and the things of God. So the point here is the psalmist is clearing this man of ever even starting down that path of progression towards evil. He never even sets his foot in that direction. But instead, this man is directed constantly by the law of God. The direction of his life isn't based upon the popular opinions of ungodly men. His life isn't directed by the inclinations of his own heart. Instead, it is directed by God's law and God's instruction. And He doesn't just do it occasionally, or some of the time, or most of the time. But here, the idea is day and night, He meditates on it. He mules it over in His mind, over and over. And it becomes His guiding light in all areas of life. And so here's where we find this inward disposition of blessedness. We've seen what he's rejected, this progression of evil, but positively, we see here in v. 2 that his delight is in the law of the Lord. And delight refers to what? An inward disposition. Think about what it means to delight. It's not just something you do on the outside. Rather, for this man, God's instruction is his source of joy. It's his source of pleasure. It's his source of deep satisfaction. It is his greatest delight. This is a deep love for the guidance and direction and truth that comes from God alone. And this really is where we should start to feel a little uncomfortable. We ought to ask the question, what path have we occasionally wandered down? What source of wisdom has guided our lives? What is our greatest delight? It's so easy just to skip over this little word, delight, and think, oh, okay, if I want God's blessing, then I've got to read my Bible more. That's what this man does. This is a great psalm, then, to put on the wall as an inspiration for me to read my Bible more. But really, when we come to delight, it hits on something so much deeper than that. And if we understand what the Bible says about sin, then we know that the source of everything that is wrong with us doesn't simply lie in what we do and what we don't do, but it lies in our desires. James 4.2 says, you desire and you do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. The foundation for all of our sinfulness is often in these unspoken lusts and desires and inordinate delights of the human heart. And none of us can stand up today and say, I have rid my heart of these things. This is a major problem that this psalm puts before us right up front. The tension that we see right away. Because ultimately, if we're honest with ourselves, this does not describe something that we can do on our own or something that we have done. How then are we to ever obtain this blessing with these types of standards? Well, let's keep reading. We've seen this inward disposition. Blessedness is an inward disposition of delight. It's not something external. But there's another aspect here that helps us understand why this man is so blessed. Secondly, we see true blessedness is the result of a prior act of another. It's the result of a prior act of another. Here, in verses 3 and 4, we see this second couplet. This contrast. We see a blessed man being described using the metaphor of a fruitful tree that has been planted by streams of water. And at the end of v. 3, we see the result of this. In all that he does, he prospers. He is a blessed man, thus he is a prosperous man. But when we come to this and we seek to kind of wrap our minds around what this means, I want to warn you about, of course, reading modern, western, 21st century notions into this idea of prosperity. You know, what comes to your mind when you think of what it means to be prosperous in all things? Generally, we tend to think of it as financial prosperity, right? Or maybe talented people, popular people? I think maybe even in Christian circles we can think of who is the prosperous Christian? Well, it's those who have everything all together, right? They have the perfect marriage, the perfect home, the perfect job, the perfect children, at least from the outside. But the Hebrew word and the idea for prosper doesn't mean what we might think it means at first glance. In other parts of the Old Testament, this same word is used to describe a warrior. A warrior was prosperous if he was good at killing the enemy. It's also used to describe, for example, a fire. A fire that spread out of control was called a prosperous fire. It's used to describe a weapon. If a weapon was a handy weapon, a favorite weapon, a useful weapon, it was a very prosperous weapon. So basically, the idea here, the Old Testament notion of prosperity, especially when we come to this Psalm 1, is this. It literally means to fulfill the purpose for which it was intended. to fulfill the purpose for which it was intended. A vine is a prosperous vine if it produces fruit. If it's not, it's worthless. A weapon is prosperous if it's useful in killing, taking life. And so here, this tree is prosperous because it fulfills the purpose for which it was created, which was to bear fruit worthy of consuming. Here, then, let us see the picture that is being painted. And let us note that true blessedness and true prosperity is not found in our own ideas of blessing and prosperity. You are God's creation. You didn't create yourself. And God's idea of prosperity is not independence, self-seeking, and material gain. True biblical prosperity lies in fulfilling His purposes for your life. For He is your Creator, and He is your Recreator in Christ. This is something I wish I would have learned when I was much, much younger. Life will never, ever make sense to you until you understand that God has fashioned you for Himself and for His purposes. And as long as you seek horizontally in the things of this world what can only be found vertically as coming from God as a gift, you will never experience blessing. You will never experience the prosperity and peace that is spoken of here. You were fashioned for God and for His purposes. And so this is where we begin to see that the psalmist is showing that true blessedness is the result of a prior act of another. Notice even the language here, this idea of a tree planted by a constant source of nourishing water. Here the psalmist is very specific with this word planted tree. It's in the passive tense. Now if you're fuzzy on grammar like I am, that means that the action of planting has been performed by someone else. And truth be known here, the idea in this word is more commonly used and closer to the idea of something being transplanted. In other words, this is just no wild tree that just happened to sprout up right by the water. This tree was transplanted in the sense that it was removed from its natural habitat and planted in a very specific location. A location carefully chosen by a loving master who had its prosperity and fruitfulness in mind. Because of the care of this master, this man has every need taken care of. He has no reason to fear lack of nourishment. He's got this constant source of living water. And He prospers and endures through all seasons, whether it's famine, whether it's winter, whether it's trial, whether it's rejoicing. He yields fruit appropriate to every season because of where His Master has planted Him. What a picture this is of the original creation and the intention of God by planting man in the Garden of Eden. This illustrious garden at the head of three rivers where every need was cared for. If you're thinking of Old Testament Israel, what a picture of the promised land. A land where God planted Israel as a vine, He calls them continually. A land flowing with milk and honey. And He promises them, I will defeat all of your enemies. You'll have nothing to fear. Think well of your salvation. And how God has sovereignly chosen a people for Himself, transplanting you out of this world, planting you where? In the church. giving you all the gifts and graces and sacraments that nourish and sustain you, and the Holy Spirit, the living waters, everything that you need to prosper. What a helpful perspective on a church plant as well. Most of you, if not all of you, are not native to Lookout Mountain. I'm certainly not, I've only been here a year. But God has moved us and planted us here and brought us together out of His love and care for our spiritual nourishment. This is why this man is so blessed. He was not blessed as a reward for something that he did in his own power, but it's because God Himself planted him in the streams of the blessed life. And the same is true for you and me as well. But before we turn to the third point, we've got to briefly consider this contrast. Here's this planted tree with deep roots. What's the contrast to this? In v. 4, the wicked are not so. The language is emphatic in the original Hebrew. Not so heads the sentence. Not so are the wicked. Without even a hint. In every way, the ungodly are the complete opposite of this righteous man. Instead of being rooted, instead of being nourished, instead of being fruitful, the imagery of this ungodly is that they are chaff. which is the useless part of grain that flies away in the wind. It's worthless. It's dead. It's without substance. And the wind is what drives them. Here, the ungodly are exposed for their wonderings. Instead of being grounded in wisdom, instead of being grounded in God's instruction, they're driven to and fro by every wind and wave of doctrine and opinion of man. Instead of being firmly planted, they're like wild seed left to itself. This is a sobering picture of men and women apart from God's revelation. Man, if left to himself, despite what this culture tells you, does not drive himself. He is driven. He's driven by the shifting opinions of other people. He's driven by Satan and his schemes. He's driven, even worst of all, by his own lust and ignorance. Don't you see that despite everything else, that this culture is constantly telling us true freedom, True blessedness is not found in following the whims of your own heart. It's not found in the shifting values and opinions of pop culture. True freedom, true blessedness, true prosperity is found in a source of truth outside of you. It's found in a being far greater and far more majestic than you can ever imagine. And it's found in the joy and the rest and the comfort and the sustenance to know that you are in His hands. And He will meet your every need. To have this blessedness, God must rescue you from yourself and from the influences of those around you. And this is not something that you can do on your own. God must uproot you. God must plant you in the streams of His grace. And only then can you begin to experience this blessedness, living for something far greater than yourself. Well, we've seen blessedness as an inward disposition, delight. We've seen how it's also the result of God's prior action, planting us by those streams of living and prosperous water. Finally, let's conclude this by considering the end of the matter. What is the result? And the end of the matter is this, true blessedness receives the reward while the wicked are cut off. It says here that the Lord knows the way of the righteous in verse 5. Excuse me, not in verse five, verse six. That's kind of the conclusion here. The Lord knows the way of the righteous. He's intimately aware of the way of the righteous. He approves of them because he's acquainted with the way of the righteous. And this is covenantal language. In fact, we've talked about this the last few weeks in our series in John, as we looked at the good shepherd, Jesus, who knows his sheep. And the idea here is that their entire way, their entire life, and by extension, even their afterlife, is carefully watched over and cared for by a loving God. An ever-present Master. This is the picture here of the result of this righteous, blessed man. But the contrast is what? The wicked will not stand in the judgment. They are cut off. They're cut off from the congregation of the godly, and ultimately their entire way of wickedness will perish in the end, of course. But what I wanna stress here in these last two verses is that we need to pay attention to the broader imagery of what's really going on in this passage. Remember I told you earlier that this, many people see this as a summary of the entire message of Scripture. And why is that? Because what should stand out in these last two verses is that the psalmist is placing this wicked and righteous contrast in the context of the final judgment. That day when God calls and brings all of His creation to stand before Him, and He separates the wicked from the righteous. That's what the psalmist is talking about here. That's why so many see this as a summary of the teaching of Scripture. The wicked do not stand in the judgment. Sinners are cast out into the lake of fire from the congregation, while the righteous here endure forever. So in this, what we must realize as we bring all this together is that in the context of the final judgment, this term righteous specifically refers to man's legal standing before God. It refers to his legal standing before God. He is blameless before God. He is without sin. And only the blameless and the righteous will stand in the judgment. Don't you see here the tension? If only the righteous will stand, who here among us can say that we are righteous? Are you going to stand before God and say, I am righteous because of what I've done? Even in the Psalms, if we keep reading, in Psalm 14, we read, none is righteous, no, not one, which Paul picks up in Romans 3. If only the righteous will stand, but then it goes on to say that none of us are righteous, not even one of us. This is the problem that this psalm presents us with. And as we've seen all along, as we've made our way through it, there's much more of the wicked man to be found in us than the righteous man, no matter how good we think we're doing in the Christian life. And so at the end of the day, truth be known, we must admit, at the end of the day, these last two verses in the execution of justice is the last thing we should ever want. There are only two ways to live here. Haven't you noticed? There's no mention of mercy for the wicked. There's no mention of grace. There's no second chance in this judgment. It is strict justice. Far from being an enlightening and inspiring passage as our life verse as we look ahead to the next year, if we really pay attention, this is frightening. Of course, I'm not going to leave you here with this. There is some good news to be found in this text today. The good news, of course, is not that with a few practical changes in your life, you can begin to walk in the blessed life. and things are going to turn out for the better. No, that misses the point. We might be able to make some of those applications, right? Where's our counsel of wisdom? Is it in the Word of God? Are we delighting in the Word of God? We need to come and confess and repent and change. Yes, those are some of the applications, but that's not the main point of this passage. It's not simply a passage to help you better your life. Rather, the main point of this passage is to point you to a man. The language in verse 1 is emphatic in the original Hebrew, and it is specific. Blessed is the man. Not mankind in general. Not just anyone who happens to walk down this path and follow these principles, but blessed is the man. There is one man in view here. And if we come to the New Testament, we see that Psalm 1 is written all across the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Luke 24-44, Jesus says that everything written in the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms speak of Me. In Matthew 4-3, He's faced with temptation by Satan in the wilderness. Right? The counsel of the ungodly. And what does He say? Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. He did not even enter that path of ungodliness. His constant delight, His food and His drink was the Word of God. Even in John 4.34, He talks about His purpose is, My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work. He came to earth and prospered in fulfilling the purpose of His Father in sending Him to the fullest extent. Brethren, see here how this song isn't pointing us to how we might earn a reward, but it first and foremost points us to how we have failed to earn the reward so that we might look outside of ourselves and look to someone else who perhaps has earned that reward in our place. Jesus Christ is the blessed man here of Psalm 1. This is what gives us hope today. This is the channel by which all the blessings and prosperity come down to us. But you know, there's one last thing here, ironically. If we come to admit that Jesus Christ is the man of this psalm, we still haven't resolved all the tension of this passage. for there's something here a little shocking as well. Remember that this psalm contrasts the blessed man and the wicked man. And it says that the righteous will stand in the judgment, but what happens to the ungodly? They're cut off. Cut off from the congregation. Cast out into the darkness. So, if we say that Jesus Christ is the blessed man spoken of here, which He is, and we're faced with that reality, that the blessed man actually received the penalty of the wicked man. Jesus Christ, although He fulfilled to the letter of the Law in His entire life everything that God laid before Him, though His delight was constantly in the Word of God and the instruction of His Father, He experienced punishment on a cross. He experienced the punishment of the ungodly. The Bible says that He became a curse for us. The Bible says that He was cut off and cast outside the camp just like the ungodly in this passage. And this is where we come and we see the Gospel here in Psalm 1. The blessed man became the wicked man on the cross so that you might experience the blessing and prosperity and favor that you do not deserve. The only way to escape the judgment in this passage is for Christ to be cut off in your place. And the only way to experience these blessings in your life is if they are mediated to you through Jesus Christ in your union, vital union through faith in Him. Friends, this passage screams that blessedness is not found in us. It's not found in anything that we can earn for a reward. but they're only found in Jesus Christ and what He has earned for you and freely gives you in the Gospel. So the call today to you is to give up your own wisdom. Give up your own strength and cast yourself upon Him. The call today is to turn from the sources of worldly wisdom and turn to the Word of God so that it becomes your delight. The call is for you to endeavor to give up, defining life according to your own terms, your own wisdom, your own dreams, and your own hopes. And instead, focus and rest in where God has placed you today, in what God has provided today in the gospel, thus fulfilling His purposes for you today. But ultimately all of this desire for blessedness is in vain unless we constantly and daily cast ourselves upon Him and derive that strength and sustenance from that mystical union that He is the vine and we are the branches and apart from Him we can do nothing. Well, as we look forward to another year, and as we look forward to another school year, let us know that your hope and your peace and your prosperity And your blessedness does not lie ultimately in your obedience. And it isn't found in wise principles for living, or the strength of your spiritual disciplines, as helpful as they may be, or even the strength of your own faith. But your hope, and your peace, and your rest, and your blessedness are found in a person. In a man. in a loving Creator and Redeemer who rules with your good in mind, One who has provided you with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, and the One who will enable you to endure every season, thick and thin, bearing fruit to the glory of His great name. Let us put our hope and our trust in this blessed man today. Let's pray.