Blessed Is the Man - Psalm 1

I. God Loves You 00:00

Asking you to refresh us, refresh our hearts, refocus our eyes on the things of you, and that you would lead us from this place, Lord, that we might build your kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. In Jesus’ name, amen.

I only have 19% [battery], so it’s not going to be a long sermon today. No, we’re going to have a good time.

God loves you. I don’t know why, but I felt that I needed to say that one more time: God loves you. I don’t know why I’m saying it, not “I don’t know why he loves you.” Okay, let me be clear with my words. I understand now why everybody was laughing. So I do think that it’s important to remind ourselves of that. In fact, there’s this spiritual practice that’s as old as the church, where you sit around and you think about the fact that God loves you. And it feels weird at first, because all I can think of when I try this practice is all the reasons why he shouldn’t. Hence the reason for the practice. I encourage you. I know we tell you to do a lot of things here, but man, if love is not the center, then we’ve done it wrong. Not just our love for him and our love for our neighbors, like we were talking about today, but his love for us. We love because we were first loved (1 John 4.19).

And today we’re going to talk about our psalm, which is a message from God to us about how to live in the light of his love. Because real love has boundaries. Real love actually requires something of us. Real love is not free in the way that pamphlets are free in New York City. If you walk down a street in New York City, you might get 25 pamphlets. You’re rich in free pamphlets. And we often think of love that way, like God’s just trying to shove it in our hands: “Receive my love.” No. In fact, his love is like a fire, and we are likened to gold that has to be melted down and pounded into the proper shape. The fire of God’s love is transformative.

II. What "Blessed" Means 02:41

And so when we read about this in this psalm, and it’s talking about “Blessed is the man,” we’re talking about how to be someone who lives in God’s love. The blessedness here is more than we typically think of with the word “blessed.” I’ve made these jokes before, but on social media you’ll see the person: “Oh, they accidentally upgraded my Starbucks mochaccino. Blessed.” No, that’s not what we’re talking about here. We’re talking about something so much better, so much deeper, so much richer. If you need a large Starbucks to feel happy, I will pay for a large Starbucks, but that’s not the point. “Blessed is the man” in this passage is actually talking about the fullness of God’s goodness. It represents something that’s talked of God as often as it’s talked of man. We say, “Blessed be God.” That’s the same word. God is a blessedness beyond our comprehension. And yet, once again, a mystery: he wants you to be as blessed. He only uses his blessedness to pour out goodness on you and on the world. He is ordering all things that we might be with him, blessed beyond measure.

And so when I start saying this word, and we talk about “Blessed is the man,” we’re talking about something that means more than happy. We mean somebody who is in alignment with God in their life, somebody who has a fullness, somebody who can walk through the valley of the shadow of death and fear no evil, for God is with them (Ps 23.4). Now, let me just pick that apart for a second. We talk about walking through death and fearing no evil, for God is with them. Did you know that anytime you in this room walk through the valley of the shadow of death, God is with you? Every time. That doesn’t mean we are the type of people who are walking around saying, “Well, I fear no evil, because God is with me.” There’s actually a transformation that has to happen within us to be the people who not only have God with them but are also rid of fear. We actually have to be in alignment. We have to be transformed to be blessed the way that this passage talks about, in order to experience the fullness of God’s love. And so all of this is connected here.

So when we say in the beginning of Psalm 1, verse 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” (Ps 1.1), the reason why there are contextual elements to this, the reason why he’s telling you how to be this way, is because when you start, you’re not. There’s this message that goes around in our culture: “You are enough. You are worthy. You are great. If you could just know how good you were, your whole life would unfold itself with lilies and rainbows and waterfalls.” That is not the truth. You are not enough. But (and it’s a big butt) you are loved. You are chosen. You are saved by the power of God. And the real truth that the counterfeit is trying to blind us to is: God is enough. God is worthy. And that God who is enough, who is worthy, has chosen you. And so with God, we don’t have to fear anything. With God, we can be blessed.

III. The Carrot and the Stick 06:42

So let’s talk about this here. One more thing I will say about this psalm. One of the ways they title this psalm, they say Psalm 1 is the comparison between the wicked and the blessed, the godly and the ungodly. All of that to say, we happen to have proved through science that you need both a carrot and a stick to get the best out of people. I’m going to tell you about a quick experiment that one of these guys I love to listen to, Jordan Peterson, talks about all the time. Basically, they have these mice, and they put them in a maze, and they put cheese on the other end of the maze, and they time the mice. They say, “Okay, how fast do the mice get to the cheese?” And they go a certain speed, and it’s great. Then they did another experiment. They put this mouse in the same maze with the cheese at the end, and then they wafted the smell of cat behind the mouse. And don’t you know, the mouse went faster, because he was not only hungry; he was afraid of what was behind him.

And in the same way, we see this structure in Scripture: the promises for the goodness, the blessings, and the warnings about what happens when you go against it. There are actual consequences to our actions. There’s a reason for heaven and hell. It’s worked into the nature of reality that if you do the things that God calls you to, you will be blessed, and if you turn away from them, you will be cursed. And so, all of that to say, in your life it would be helpful to consider (at least it has helped me) not only where I’m heading but what I’m avoiding. What am I running from? I know in our culture there are many examples that you can point to, to say, “I don’t want to be that.” I don’t want to be a father of a broken family. How many families in our world are broken, and we see the devastating effect on everyone involved? I don’t want to do that. I want to have a full, rich family, rich in the ways of God. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord (Josh 24.15). And so when I have those twin pictures, it motivates me to do what I’m called to do. And holding those things in your mind is helpful, because God’s love is inviting us into a new reality, out of darkness and into light.

IV. The Counsel of the Wicked 08:56

And so he makes this clear. We dive in here, and we start with “Blessed is the man,” and this is what the blessed man does not do:

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; Ps 1.1

Now, the classic way to talk about this is you imagine this guy. He’s on the straight and narrow path. Let’s just imagine for a second: he’s walking along, but you know what? He starts listening to the counsel of the wicked. Then he gets off the path, and now he’s on the way of sinners. He’s standing in the way of sinners. And then through his sin he’s become the type of person who is sitting in his evil. He’s sitting and scoffing at those who are passing by. This is a tragic situation. It’s meant to show you a progression of how sin can work in our life.

You can start with the way that the battle begins in our mind. And you can make it really simple. Imagine you had a four-year-old child sitting in a room, and there was a lollipop in the center of the table (there have been many versions of this experiment done), and the father or the mother said, “Johnny, don’t take the lollipop,” and then left the room. Where does the battle start for that four-year-old? In the mind. Where is the battle lost? In the mind. Because as soon as the decision is made, “I’m going to take that lollipop,” then you’re acting out. You’ve stepped off the path.

And so when we think about this, we need to remember that the weapons of our warfare are actually for the destruction of those arguments. In fact, in 2 Corinthians 10, starting in verse 4, it says:

4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion (another translation says “every vain imagination”) raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, 2 Cor 10.4–5

So if you’re wondering, “How do I get this blessed nature?” Well, it starts in the mind. Who are you listening to? As Father Powell told us last week: who told you that? Who told you that it would be better to have that lollipop against the wishes of your father and mother? Who told you that? Who told you that you needed to earn the love of God? Who told you that the person that you’re encountering, who’s making you angry, is not worthy of the love of God? Who told you all of the various lies that enter into our brain to convince us to go our way instead of his? It all starts up here. But we are called to take every thought captive to Christ.

Let me just tell you this: it is a hard thing to do. I don’t know about you, but when I’m in my own thought process, and I have reasoned out and justified my behavior, the idea of then stopping and asking God what he thinks about it is not appealing. I’ve got it figured out. So what do we do with that, then? I encourage you: if you have an inkling that maybe you’re on autopilot, you’re doing it your way, you’re not asking him, slow down. Slow down. Take the time. Because not only does that give you the opportunity to ask God what he thinks, but God is waiting to empower you to overcome that battle. What’s the worst that could happen? He saved you from the way of sin and death. Sounds okay to me. Why don’t we do this? Because we are convinced that our way is better. That’s the battle we have to fight in our mind every day. We’ve got to wake up and remind him and ourselves that his way is better.

One way to do that is to wake up and spend some time thinking about how much God loves you. I [heard] this great phrase, and it says people will listen to you insofar as they believe you care about them. We often want people to just listen to our advice, because we are geniuses and everybody else should just follow our opinions. What God does is so much better. He loves us, and he pursues us, and he whispers to us, “Listen, I love you. Do it my way.” He cares infinitely. So when you get that solidified in your mind, how much the love of God is for you, it’s a heck of a lot easier to listen to him.

Okay, we’ve got to keep moving here. So that’s walking in the counsel of the wicked. It’s that little voice. It could be your own counsel. It could be your own argument that you’ve set up. If you’re anything like me, I’ve got a judge, jury, and advocate in my mind who are making all of these decisions for me. I have set it up. I know what I want to do, and I have my reasons that I’m allowed to do it, and I’ve declared it good. We have to rewrite the voices in our brain if we don’t want to walk in the counsel of the wicked. There are a lot of ways to address that, but keep that in mind.

V. The Way of Sinners 14:53

Then it moves to action. So now they’ve left the path of righteousness. That little four-year-old has taken that lollipop. He’s not on the path anymore. And there’s a problem with actions: when you start acting out that sin, when you take your steps off the path, it can be hard to find your way back.

I went hiking once. It was a ten-day hike in the Adirondacks, a school program, and we had a sherpa, a guide, who was going to lead us. But it was her first time leading a troop by herself, and we had like seven people with us. And we started walking the first day. It was supposed to be like a four-and-a-half, five-hour hike, something pretty mild: get to a base camp, show everybody how to set up camp. It was more teaching than it was supposed to be a long journey. Well, about six hours in, we’re getting a little worried, because we don’t know where we are. And so she starts sharing, like, “I don’t know what happened. We must have taken the wrong path.” Do you know it took us an additional six hours after that to find the right path? We couldn’t even find it that night, because you know what? There was an infinite number of ways to go wrong and only one way to go right. And so that night we just had to call it. After ten hours of walking around, and it’s pitch black, she’s like, “Okay, we’ve got to stop.” You’re not even supposed to set up your own campsite; you’re supposed to use the designated places. And she’s like, “No, we just have to stop.” We set it all up, we put up the bear bag. It was a really fun trip. But long story short, the next morning, a few hours in, we come to a junction, and we find, “Oh, it’s on the map. This is the way forward.”

So what happens when we start acting out sin? We lose track of where we are. At least that’s been my experience. That’s what it seems to say: basically, sin will blind you. Because if you start acting out sin, following this wicked counsel, then you will start justifying yourself in your mind. Our human nature does this. We start talking about why that was the right decision. Well, guess what? If you’ve decided that was the right decision once, and acted it out, the next time it’s going to be harder to tell yourself it’s the wrong decision, because now you’ve got to take apart that whole structure that led you to do it the first time. And we entrench ourselves. I’m talking about this maybe very logically; this is how my brain is organized. But this is spiritual. This is emotional. We have a thousand methods for justifying our misbehavior, and we don’t want anybody telling us we’re wrong. It’s just natural.

God wants to set you free from that by the power of his blood. You do not have to be chained to those systems, those reinforcing systems of self-destruction. Because don’t fool yourself: that’s what sin is. It’s drinking poison. It’s destroying yourself. It’s building on an unsure foundation. It’s disaster waiting. All of this to say, there’s a better way, and God wants to lead you to that path.

VI. The Seat of Scoffers 17:45

Okay, next: sitting in the seat of scoffers. Well, when you’ve decided that you’re going to walk on the path of sinners, when you’ve left the path and you’re in the path of sinners, you become cynical. One becomes cynical. Not you in particular, but you in particular too. Anybody who does this becomes cynical, becomes jaded. You think about somebody sitting and scoffing at people. Man, it just drives me up a wall when people do that. I want to scoff right back. No, maybe not the best way.

So think about it. There’s this study that they did about the causes of divorce, or indicators of divorce, and it’s this famous guy who studies couples. The number one worst thing in a marriage, as far as the highest indicator of divorce out of any trackable behavior that they could find, is when one partner responds to the other by rolling their eyes. Now, they have several other things in the same category that they call contempt: when you mock your partner, when you dismiss your partner, when you roll your eyes. What are you saying? You’re communicating contempt. You’re scoffing at them. There’s something deep about love and connection that is built on trust, and nothing breaks trust faster than contempt, because you have now relegated that person to less than: “She doesn’t know what she’s talking about.” “Man, he always gets this way.” I don’t even want to live like that. That attitude is so against love, which says, “Tell me more. I want to know you. I want to serve you.” It’s completely the opposite. And when we start sinning, we do that to God. We scoff at the idea of purity.

Okay, this is a sidebar, but I’m going to jump into this pretty complex and difficult issue. Let’s go there for a second, because I think it matters, and I think it’s simpler than we make it. There are a lot of people out there who argue that in this culture you cannot avoid sex before marriage. And I’m not using this because this particular topic is the important point for you today. I do think that God has an opinion on this, and it is more than an opinion; it is a moral law. But I think it’s a great way to talk about what happens when we become scoffers, when we become contemptuous of what God has told us to do. We start doing the act because we’ve convinced ourselves it’s a good thing to do, and once you’ve done that, then you get led to be jaded. And I’ve literally had this conversation with one of my friends, where they basically said, “It’s impossible. God’s standard, that’s so 1800s.” And the contempt that was rolling out of this person about the idea that God would call them into a life of purity and service and chastity: it was absurd. They were sitting in the seat of scoffers.

And I use this kind of lightning-rod topic because it’s everywhere right now. People are struggling with this all over the place, in the church, out of the church, and I love those people, and I want them to know that God has a better way. But that happens with so many things. Man: “Oh, those people, they won’t even drink alcohol.” And we scoff at the idea that they’re trying to hold themselves to a higher standard. I’m not saying you can’t drink alcohol, but I am saying you can’t scoff at people who are trying to love God and their neighbor by avoiding it. And we could just go down the list.

This is the path that the devil wants you to walk. He wants you to justify your actions, listen to the counsel of the wicked, get that mindset correct for him. Then he wants you to do them, and that will lead to further justification. And the pathway leads to a point where you can’t even see what is right and wrong anymore, and you scoff at somebody who tries to show you or tries to live it out. You could even document psychological studies that can show this pathway. It’s about making sure that you think of yourself as a good person. In order to think of yourself as a good person, you’ve got to justify your actions. You’ve got to make sure that anybody who lives differently from you is dismissed, treated with contempt.

All of this to say (thank you for going on this more tangential point), all of this to say: blessed is the man who doesn’t even leave the path, who doesn’t even listen to the counsel of the wicked, who submits every thought to God, to Christ. There’s a better way. We should take our sin seriously, because it matters, because it’s destructive, because there’s nobody in your life that’s benefiting from it. And we matter. God chose us to love and to bring life to those who are sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death. Everyone in our life deserves us to manifest Christ to them. There’s a plan in place for us to grow the glory of the Lord till it covers the earth. Don’t get off the path. Don’t listen to those voices.

VII. Delight in the Law of the Lord 23:44

Now let’s go to the good side, because I feel heavy right now. So let’s go to the good side, because all of this is to remind you that there’s a better way. So let’s look at this better way. Verse 2, believe it or not:

2 but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. Ps 1.2

We had a great collect this morning that talked about loving what God commands. What is this about? When you give every thought to Christ, when you invite him into your life and follow his way, he will delight you. We sometimes think of God as the prep school master, and the goody two-shoes is like, “That’s the good Christian.” He just does all the work, doesn’t have any of the fun, and it looks boring and awful. That is not God. That is not what he’s inviting you into. He’s inviting you into a place where you can enjoy a fantastic glass of wine beyond anything that you did when you were abusing alcohol for your own gain. He’s inviting you to a place where you can enjoy your wife beyond anything that you enjoyed when you were abusing the sexual desire and need that he gave you. He’s inviting you to a place where you can love those around you and enjoy community beyond anything you could have done when you were using people to get what you wanted. It’s all these substitutes that the enemy is offering us. My delight should be in the law of the Lord, in the goodness of God, and in the way that I live towards others.

And the law of the Lord is not a list of rules. It is a lifestyle. That’s a common thing: it’s not this, it’s a lifestyle. No, this is the lifestyle, the only style that leads to life. The only life that can be stylish is this. I see the people around me who are doing it; I want to be like them. I want to be like Father Victor and Casey, who’ve been together for countless decades and love each other and are just full of joy every time you encounter them. But that took a heck of a lot of not walking in the counsel of the wicked, and finding their delight in the law of the Lord.

Okay, it’s a weird formula, but basically: when you listen to lies and you do lies and you do sin, you become scoffers who love sin. Now let’s just flip that around. When you listen to the truth, and you do things that are born of truth and goodness and love, you love the law. It’s only good. Really, really, it is only good. It hurts, but it’s good. You take up your cross and you get crucified over and over and over again, sometimes, so that you can live in the resurrection.

VIII. Like a Tree Planted by Streams of Water 27:17

Let’s move on. Verse 3. I have to mention this verse, because it’s like a theme verse this fall:

3 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. Ps 1.3

God really wants us to be trees, if you haven’t gotten the message. But not just trees who whittle and wither away. He wants us to be trees who are firmly rooted, grounded in the word, in the Spirit, flourishing. And if you didn’t like anything I’ve said so far, “In all that he does, he prospers” should be piquing your interest. I want to be that guy. I want my family to be that family. And I will say, this is a long game we’re playing. You don’t become a tree overnight. You will be like a tree; you’re not yet like a tree. I mean, there are some trees in this building, let me say that. I was calling out Father Victor and Casey. They have done some work to become planted and flourish, and they’ve seen the goodness of God.

But I’m calling out to you today to say: go through the fire of God’s love, that transforming fire. Let him burn away everything that’s not of him, and become the tree that does not wither. When the storms come, you’ll be standing there. When the drought comes, the famine… We know about drought in California. We see how the foliage reacts when it’s drought in California, and we see how it is when the rain comes. We will just have a constant supply of water, forever, eternally, when you plug into God, when you delight in his law. That doesn’t mean you won’t go through your own crucifixion, your own desert, your own difficulties. It means that you won’t die when you do. It means that he will sustain you, and he will give you goodness and newness of life. And guess what? If you do die, there’s resurrection. That’s good. It’s all good.

IX. Like Chaff That the Wind Drives Away 28:30

Okay, I do want to hear about the wicked, because I like this verse. In verse 4 it says:

4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Ps 1.4

Everybody who’s been here for a while thinks of Father Powell’s example. It is the example he talks about, when they’re in the barn, and he uses all this descriptive language: you throw the wheat in the air, and the chaff just gets blown away. As our resident farmer, he loves that. And I love it too, because what does it say about the wicked? They’re insubstantial. We look around and we’re like, “The wicked are ruling the earth.” And God goes, “They’re like the chaff that the wind drives away.” The only people of substance are the blessed people, God’s people, Jesus. These are of substance. “How long will the wicked prosper?” we say. And God says, “They’re like the chaff the wind drives away.” When you throw that wheat up in the air, it’s heavy. It has substance. It’s real. It falls to the ground again. But the wicked, the chaff, just flies away in the wind, never to be seen again. How many people in history have decided to be wicked, and nobody knows their name? But everyone who has followed God, their name is written in the Book of Life eternally, and when we get to heaven, we get to celebrate them. Praise God.

Augustine put it beautifully: the blessed man is stable in a flood of temporality. The chaos, the swirls of time, do not shake the blessed man.

X. The Lord Knows the Way of the Righteous 30:43

Okay, let’s read the ending here, verse 5:

5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; Ps 1.5

I’m going to pause there for a second, because I know some of us in here, in the congregation of the righteous, are thinking, “But I am a sinner.” This is the great already-not-yet promise of the Bible. Every sin that you have committed, will commit, think of committing, is covered by the blood of Christ. You today are not a sinner. You are a saint: called, chosen, purified, glorified. All of that is true of you. And yet he’s still doing that in your life from now till eternity, because you’re hidden in Christ. You are washed in his blood. So no, you are not a sinner in the congregation of the righteous. You are the congregation of the righteous today. He’s just inviting you to be more of that, to walk out that path, and to see the goodness of God. It’s all invitation, no condemnation. If anybody here feels a burden, like, “Oh man, I suck, I’m terrible,” that is not God. God’s word for you is: you are good, now come live that way. It’s an invitation. It’s not condemnation.

And we’re ending with this verse here, because it’s the end of the psalm:

6 for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. Ps 1.6

What does it mean, “The Lord knows the way of the righteous”? Well, in Ephesians 2:10 it says:

10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephes 2.10

Not only is there a path to walk, but God’s made the way for you. He’s looking for us to cooperate with what he’s doing. We’re not trailblazers. He set it up. He knows our way. But the way of the wicked will perish. It’s the dichotomy I set up with the mouse, the scent of the cat behind you. The way of the wicked will perish. I don’t want to walk on the perishing way. I want to last for eternity. And so I’m following Jesus, and I’m hoping that I can serve my family and love them well and lead them, so that they in turn serve the Lord. Because that is the way that God knows, and that is the way to life everlasting. That’s the way to be blessed. Amen.