Psalm 1 introduces us to two ways of being human, the righteous and the wicked, and invites us to ponder where our lives sit.
Sermon Text
Good Morning Cityview Church. It’s a such a blessing to be here sharing the word of God with you this morning and I pray that it challenges and encourages you this morning. Recently I’ve been reading through a lot of the Psalms and I quite often forget just how beautiful and important they are – I’m not by nature someone who loves poetry, and we all know I have no skill when it comes to singing, but the truth that lives within the psalms is incredible. If you’re doing your reading through the year bible plan, then you likely would have read this Psalm recently, in fact you would have read it on the 1st of January as it is Psalm 1.
Likely written by King David, this psalm has been placed first in the collection of the psalms, as it, along with Psalm 2, give a very clear introduction to the themes that permeate the psalms. On it’s own though, it reveals some beautiful truths regarding our lives.
Matthew Henry, a 17th century theologian, describes, it is “a psalm of instruction concerning good and evil, setting before us life and death, the blessing and the curse, that we may take the right way which leads to happiness and avoid that which will certainly end in our misery and ruin.” In other words, this psalm sets before us the two ways of being human and asks us to ponder where our lives sit.
This morning, I would like to take you through Psalm 1, looking at how beautifully put together it was by David, and hopefully we can all learn a little bit about these two ways.
Let’s pray.
Lord, I pray that this morning you would give us all eyes to see and ears to hear as we dig into your word. Let us see the beauty of your word and learn more about you and in doing so learn more about ourselves as well. Amen.
Alright, let’s have a read of Psalm 1.
Psalm 1
LSB
How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the way of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of Yahweh, And in His law he meditates day and night. And 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. The wicked are not so, But they are like chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not rise in the judgment, Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For Yahweh knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the wicked will perish.
What a beautiful Psalm this is. It is broken up into three distinct sections, the first of which is verses 1-3. These three verses describe the righteous or the godly man, the one who does not follow the wicked but who delights in the law of Yahweh. If you’re not familiar with this name, Yahweh is the name that God revealed to Moses for himself at the burning bush, which means “I AM WHO I AM” and can also be translated as Jehovah. In our bibles today you will quite often see the word LORD, in all capitals, used whenever the Hebrew scriptures use Yahweh. The second section of this Psalm contrasts the first and describes to us the wicked or the ungodly man, describing them as chaff which the wind drives away. The final section of Psalm 1 is a beautiful reminder that God is sovereign and in control, he knows the way of the righteous. As a whole, this Psalm puts forward a picture of the two ways, the way of the Righteous and the way of the Wicked and as mentioned before it asks us the question of where do we sit? So let’s jump in and take a look at all these key points.
The Psalm starts in verse 1 with “How blessed is the man…”. Blessed is a word that has become very overused and christianized, and is generally used very casually. There are two main words used in the Hebrew Scriptures that are commonly translated as Blessed. The first is the word “barukh” and this is used to describe a person who is experiencing God’s favour and abundance in their lives. It describes the act of blessing, such as God blessing Adam and Eve in the garden, telling them to be fruitful and multiply, or God blessing Abram and promising him to make him into a great nation. This word is used very regularly throughout the bible, especially throughout the first 5 books.
But here in verse 1 of Psalm 1 the Hebrew word used is Ashrey, which refers to what people say about a person who is barukh. It’s a way to describe how desirable and good it is when someone experiences God’s blessing. It can be translated as “how Happy” or “how joyful” or “how fortunate” or even “how good is the life” of the man and it seems that this is a good translation here. So verse 1 could be translated as “How good is the life of the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the way of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers” . This word Ashrey is used all throughout the Psalms and the rest of the Hebrew Scriptures to describe the righteous one who is cared for by the Lord, whose transgression is forgiven (Ps 32:2), who has made Yahweh his trust (Ps 40:4), whose strength is in Yahweh (Ps 84:5) and the list goes on. This word is also related to the greek word makarios used throughout the New Testament such as in the Beatitudes where Jesus shares the 9 “blessed are…” statements. Clearly this is an important word in the bible and it relates directly to the works of God in our lives and the effect that they have.
Everyone wants to have a good life right? Well David here positions the righteous person who has the good life as someone who has made some good choices. How good is the life of, or how happy or how blessed is the man “who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the way of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!” There is a very clear progression here when we look at these three choices. This progression is seen in the movement from walking, to standing, to sitting. When someone sins (which simply means to miss the mark of the standard that God has set. That standard can be summed up by the greatest commandment to love God and love your neighbour as yourself), it is very rare that they go from not sinning, to going deep into sin. For example someone who is not prone to anger or violence is highly unlikely to suddenly decide that today is the day they are going to attack and kill someone. However we know that instead we tend to slowly dip our toes into the sinful behaviours at first, testing the limits of what we can get away with (walking), then wade our way in a bit deeper (standing) until all of a sudden we are fully in, snowed under by our sinful choices and stuck (sitting). Does that sound familiar to anyone? It’s almost like going to the beach – at first you just put your feet into the water, because maybe it’s a bit cold, then you get brave and walk in to about halfway, before finally embracing the water and diving in head first. While this is a good thing to do at the beach, when it comes to sin, it’s the complete opposite.
Charles Spurgeon expands on this:
The Treasury of David, Volume 1: Psalms 1–26 Exposition
At first they [the wicked or unrighteous] merely walk in the counsel of the careless and ungodly, who forget God—the evil is rather practical than habitual—but after that, they become habituated to evil, and they stand in the way of open sinners who wilfully violate God’s commandments; and if let alone, they go one step further, and become themselves pestilent teachers and tempters of others, and thus they sit in the seat of the scoffers.
Yikes, the progression of the wicked is not something I want to be a part of.
So verse 1 teaches about the good life of the Righteous man by what he does not do (rather what the wicked do), but how about what the righteous man does do? Well let’s take a look at verse 2:
Psalm 1:2
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But his delight is in the law of Yahweh, And in His law he meditates day and night.
Did you pick up on the word repeated in this verse? Yeah it’s “law”. Did you also notice the symmetry the the righteous man delights in the law and in his law he meditates day and night. It’s almost like there’s an infinite loop here, as we delight in the law we will meditate on it more, and as we meditate on it more, we will delight in it all the more too.
But what are we talking about when we hear the word law here? Are we supposed to think about legal matters, maybe some rules or commandments? Well in the Hebrew, the word used is Torah, which should be somewhat familiar to most people. You’ve likely heard the word Torah used to describe the first 5 books of the bible – genesis, exodus, leviticus, numbers and deuteronomy. You might have also heard these five books described as the Pentateuch, which is what they are called in the greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. But the word Torah, while specifically referring to these 5 books, can also be translated as instruction, which means God’s teaching or wisdom, which is our whole bible. All 66 books of our bible are God’s teaching to us and as Paul reminds us in 2 Timothy 3:16-17.
2 Timothy 3:16–17
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All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God [the righteous man] may be equipped, having been thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Delighting in and loving the law (or instruction) of Yahweh is a clear sign of the righteous man and the beautiful poem that is Psalm 119 repeats this theme the whole way through. Here are just a couple of examples:
Psalm 119:16 “I shall delight in Your statutes; I shall not forget Your word.”
Psalm 119:92 “If Your law had not been my delight, Then I would have perished in my affliction.”
Psalm 119:174 “I long for Your salvation, O Yahweh, And Your law is my delight.”
Psalm 119:97 “Oh how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day.”
I recently heard a story of an American General, who clearly delighted in the law of Yahweh despite everything that was going on around him.
Lt. General William K. Harrison was the most decorated soldier in the 30th Infantry Division, rated by General Eisenhower as the number one infantry division in World War II. General Harrison was the first American to enter Belgium, which he did at the head of the Allied forces. He received every decoration for valor except the Congressional Medal of Honor – being honored with the Distinguished Silver Cross, the Silver Star, the Bronze Star for Valor, and the Purple Heart (he was one of the few generals to be wounded in action). When the Korean War began, he served as Chief of Staff in the United Nations Command – and because of his character and self-control was ultimately President Eisenhower’s choice to head the long and tedious negotiations to end the war.
General Harrison was a soldier’s soldier who led a busy, ultra-kinetic life, but he was also an amazing man of the Word. When he was a twenty-year-old West Point Cadet, he began reading the Old Testament through once a year and the New Testament four times. General Harrison did this until the end of his life. Even in the thick of war he maintained his commitment by catching up during the two- and three-day respites for replacement and refitting which followed battles, so that when the war ended he was right on schedule.
When, at the age of ninety, his failing eyesight no longer permitted his discipline, he had read the Old Testament seventy times and the New Testament 280 times! His closest associates said that every area of his life (domestic, spiritual, and professional) and each of the great problems he faced was informed by the Scriptures. People marveled at his knowledge of the Bible and the ability to bring its light to every area of life.
What an incredible example of delighting in the Word of God this man was. This story clearly shows that you must read your bible to be able to delight in it though right? As stupid as this may sound, for a lot of my life as a church goer I always wondered, why don’t I delight in the Word of God and yet I didn’t actually get into the word and start reading it. Does that sound familiar for anyone here or was I just being dumb? Reading the word is one of the most important things you can do as a Christian, because how else are we going to get to know God, when he has revealed himself to us through his word? Since spending regular and deliberate time in the word, my spiritual life has changed dramatically – you’d think that would be a no brainer right?
Well here’s another question for you, have you ever meditated on the word of God? When we hear the word meditation, most people immediately think about Eastern meditation, where the goal is to empty your mind and centre yourself, which can be done through breathing and repeating meaningless phrases. The meditation that David is talking about here is the complete opposite of this. The Hebrew word used here is Hagah, which depicts the sound of a pigeon softly cooing or a bear moaning as it chews its food or a person murmuring and muttering to themselves. The idea is that rather than trying to empty your mind, we should actually be filling it with God’s word and thinking on it regularly, thinking about how it relates to our lives, what it might mean in certain contexts, talking about it with other people and building your understanding of who God is! Have you ever had thoughts that you just can’t get out of your head and you keep looking at it in different ways trying to figure it out, well this is exactly what it means to meditate on the word of God. The bible is wisdom literature, it is designed to be read and thought about and reread and thought about again and again over a lifetime to make us more Christlike as we learn and grow. Delighting in the Word and meditating on it are key parts of this!
So we’ve looked at who the righteous man is, but David takes it a step further and describes to us what this man is like in verse 3.
Psalm 1:3
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And 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.
Through meditating and delighting in the Word of God, the righteous man is like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, he is sustained and bears fruit in season and he prospers. Now that sounds like the good life to me, don’t you think?
This verse has imagery that links to many other parts of the bible, but I think one of the key links is back to the Eden story (at the beginning of Genesis), where we see the tree of life and the streams of water, as well as abundant fruit and leaves that never wither. The Garden of Eden was a representation of heaven on Earth, it was the intersection of God and humanity before sin corrupted us and was full of abundance. This shows us that when we meditate on and live by the Word of God (or his instruction) we begin to get a taste of the abundance of the Glory of God, just like the garden of Eden was.
We are also told that the righteous man yields fruit in season. This should remind us of the Fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5, which are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-control. As we delight in the law and meditate on it regularly, these fruit are cultivated within us and are yielded in season as required.
Being firmly planted and rooted by the stream of water is so important for us in our sanctification, our growing more like Jesus. Would you say that you are firmly planted? If not we see in the next verse what that might look like.
David moves us into the second section of the Psalm in verses 4 and 5, focusing on who the wicked are:
Psalm 1:4–5
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The wicked are not so, But they are like chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not rise in the judgment, Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
Notice the difference here between the righteous and the wicked. The righteous are likened in verse 3 to a tree firmly planted by streams of water, but the wicked here are described as chaff which the wind drives away. The chaff is the outer husk or casing of seeds and grains and is considered worthless. When threshing the grain, the aim is to remove the chaff from the grain, as it is of no nutritional value and once threshed, you could throw the grain into the air and as the chaff was so light, it would just be blown away by the wind. There is nothing that it was connected to, nothing to provide for it or protect it, so it is just blown away. Using this illustration of the chaff, David is pointing out the instability and fleeting nature of those who are not anchored in God’s ways (the righteous man). They are blown left and right, up and down, with nothing to hold onto, no great purpose and eventually they will break down to nothingness.
David also emphasises that the wicked are the exact opposite of the righteous man and this is highlighted in the Septuagint (the greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures) where it is translated as “not so the ungodly, not so”. The repetition here of not so, makes it very clear that the wicked or ungodly are the ones who walk, stand and sit in the ways of evil.
He goes on to make it very clear that the wicked will not rise in the judgement, which is talking about the return of Christ. Living apart from the righteousness of Jesus gives only one outcome at the day of judgement and it’s not the outcome that I would like to have. David tells us that there will be no sinners among the congregation of the righteous, which is a beautiful image of the perfection of things to come, and a stern warning to the wicked all at the same time.
This then brings us to the final verse of this Psalm, which lays out for us The Two Ways:
Psalm 1:6
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For Yahweh knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the wicked will perish.
We end where we began, considering what the good life is, shown through these two ways of being human. Psalm 1 shows us very clearly these two ways, being the righteous or the wicked man. The righteous is like a tree planted by the streams of water, the one whose delight is in the Law of Yahweh and who meditates on it day and night and does not walk in the way of the ungodly, stand in the way of sinners nor sit in the seat of scoffers, whereas the wicked is the exact opposite and is blown around like chaff on the path to perishing.
It leaves us to ponder and meditate (funny that hey?) on what way we are on, whether we are among the righteous or the wicked. Is our life rooted and planted by the stream of living water and do we delight in the law of Yahweh, or are we like the wicked man that is blown around like chaff? There’s only one way that we can be considered amongst the righteous and that is not in our own strength, but through the sacrifice of Jesus. You see, every one of us humans is wicked, there is none righteous in and of himself. Romans 3:23 reminds us that all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God. But the good news is that through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we can be counted among the righteous and have our sins washed away. All you have to do is believe in your heart that Jesus died for your sins and confess that He is Lord and you will be saved and counted as righteous in God’s eyes. If you’ve never taken that step before, I want to encourage you this morning to leap out in faith and join the righteous ones who know God as their saviour – it’s the best decision you’ll ever make. If that’s you, I would love for you to come up to the front at the end of the service and we would love to pray with you.
I also want to encourage those of us here today who are considered among the righteous because we have put our trust in Jesus, to take a look at your own life in comparison to the righteous man shown in Psalm 1. Are you starting to flirt too closely to the line of sin, well stop it! Do not even walk in the counsel of the wicked! Or have you lost your delight in the law of Yahweh? Get back into the Word of God and I promise you, you will be amazed at what you learn and the love that grows for Him. Or maybe you’ve never meditated on the word before, why not give it a go this week? Take a passage from your bible reading with you throughout the day – maybe you memorise it or write it down somewhere you will see it regularly – and then think about it. Repeat it to yourself time and time again and let the Holy Spirit guide you in understanding it and applying it to your life.
Let’s pray.