Psalm 1
By Rev. Dr. Brent Russett – Asbury Free Methodist
October 20, 2024
Today, we are starting a new series titled “Psalms for Your Life.” I am not going to preach through all the Psalms because if we took one Psalm a Sunday, we would be wrapping up about this time in 2027. What I want to do is work through one Psalm each different kind of Psalm. There are Psalms of Wisdom that we are going to be looking at today. Next week, we will look at a Psalm of Lament. We will be looking at Psalms of Trust of Thanksgiving and so on.
I want to help orient you to the Psalms so that whatever phase of life you find yourself in, you will be able to find an expression for your heart.
Whether you are in the depths of despair or on the mountain of celebration, whether you have murderous hatred in your heart or overwhelming love, the Psalms talk about that. When I go to a hospital room, I often read a Psalm. When I conduct a funeral, I read from the Psalms. Often, the Psalms are quoted at weddings and in prayers of celebration because they are the expression of the heart.
That is what makes them so helpful. They can help you express your heart when you can’t. They help you to see yourself, but then they lift your eyes up to God. And that can be exceptionally helpful in times when your heart and life seem confused. The Psalms help us to orient ourselves to what is good and true and beautiful.
God, by putting these Psalms in his holy word, wants you to know that you can bring all of who you are before him. He wants you to know he can handle even the darkest recesses of your heart. In the Psalms, you will find this faith-based authenticity that allows the Spirit of God to take you from where you are to where you need to be.
The Psalms were originally written as songs or hymns. They were designed to be sung. Not only were they meant to be an expression of the Psalmist’s soul, but they were meant to be an expression of the people of God when they find themselves in the middle of the mess of life.
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We are going to look at Psalm 1 this morning. This is a Psalm of orientation. It helps us to know the ways of God. It is a Psalm of wisdom. It helps us to know how life works. It is a Psalm of affirmation for the people of God who understand that God’s way is the best way.
Psalm 1 (NIV)
1 Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
and who meditates on his law day and night.
3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers.
4 Not so the wicked!
They are like chaff
that the wind blows away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
6 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.
When we approach Scripture, we can view it through different lenses. I am not going to approach the Psalms not as a traditional Jewish person would. I am going to look at the Psalms through the lens of the New Testament – specifically through the lens of Jesus. For it is in Jesus that we discover what it means to live life well before God.
Come with me to verse 1
Psalm 1:1 (NIV)
1 Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
If you interpret this passage through just the Old Testament, you produce Pharisees. You get the kind of faith that I and many of you grew up with. There was a strong sense of us and them – Christian/Non-Christian. Growing up, most of my friends were Christians. I surrounded myself with Christians.
The holiness that I heard preached emphasized
2 Corinthians 6:17 (NIV)
17 Therefore,
“Come out from them
and be separate,
says the Lord.
Touch no unclean thing,
and I will receive you.”
Us and them. But if you look at Psalm 1 through the lens of Jesus, you will see something very different. Jesus had just called Matthew, who was a despised tax collector. Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his house.
Here is what Matthew records
Matthew 9:10–11 (NIV)
10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
The Pharisees question comes out of Psalm 1
Psalm 1:1 (NIV)
1 Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
Jesus, if you were really a prophet, you wouldn’t be eating with those people. You don’t walk in the path of sinners – and you are having supper with them.
Jesus heard the question, and this is what he said,
Matthew 9:12–13 (NIV)
12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Jesus is saying, I came for sinners – of course, I am going to eat with them. I am going to invite them to my table. I am going to enter into deep and substantial conversation with them.
So, what does it mean to view Psalm 1 through the lens of Jesus? This means that we can’t read this Psalm as we are against them. At first blush, you might tend to read it that way. But the way of Jesus won’t allow that. So, how can we read it?
He starts off – Blessed or Happy is the one. Remember, this is wisdom. If you want to live a blessed life, then there is a path where the wicked walk, and you cannot walk. There are places where sinners stand, where you cannot stand. There are scoffers and mockers, and you need to know that you cannot be counted amongst them when they engage in such activities.
One of the ways that the phrase “path of wicked” could be translated is, “advice of the wicked.”
Jesus hung out with sinners, but he didn’t take their advice. He sat in the house of tax collectors, but they were not his counsellors. He may have asked them about tax advice – but he did not ask them for advice on who God is or on how to live life in the kingdom of God.
When he hung on the cross, one of the thieves scoffed at him, but he turned to the other thief and interacted with him.
If you want to be blessed, if you want to be happy, there are some paths that you cannot walk on. There are some places you cannot stand. There are places where you cannot metaphorically sit.
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I get the opportunity to talk to a lot of people. Some of those people have some pretty messy lives. Not always, but most of the time, you can trace the messiness of life back to the path they walked on – where they chose the world’s advice but not God’s advice.
Advise like follow your heart. But sometimes your heart wants what is not good for you. Advice that makes life all about you. You will never be happy if life is all about you. Advice that plays into our greed or lust or unforgiveness or hatred. Advice on how to live out our sexuality as an image bearer of God. When you walk on these pathways for a while, you will find that they lead you to places that you do not want to go. This kind of counsel will not lead you into the blessed life.
Jesus hung out with disreputable people, but he didn’t walk on their path. He saw their pathway as making them sick. So, he hung out with them so that they could be healed.
What if we were more like Jesus and were not so much worried about other people contaminating us but rather hopeful that God’s Holy Spirit in us would rub off on them? We would walk with them, but we wouldn’t walk their paths. We would be with them but not take their advice on how to live life. We would pray for them and love them because that is what Jesus did.
How do we do that well? Come with me to
Psalm 1:1–2 (NIV)
1 Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
and who meditates on his law day and night.
The people who are blessed delight in God’s word, and it is God’s word that shapes them. Notice that it does not say that we meditate on his word all day and all night. It does not say that we should be reading the Bible all day. That is not God’s expectation of you.
The people who were first reading this Psalm would not have a copy of the Old Testament law in their home. They would hear it read at their version of church. But they would take what they heard and mull it over. That is what meditation means. It means to mull it over.
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We live in a world where a lot of information crosses our path every day. You probably have more information across your path in a day that the people in David’s time would have crossed their path in a decade. You know about the election in the country to the south of us. You know about what is happening in Israel and Palestine. You know what is happening in Russia. Not to mention what you can learn from the books you read and the YouTube videos you watch. We know a lot about a lot, but we think deeply about very little.
The people that the Psalm is talking about are people who have heard what God has said through his word and then have thought about it. They thought about it while they worked in the field or in the house. They thought deeply about what they had heard. If you do that over time, it will change you. It will lead you into a blessed life.
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You will notice that we have Scripture read most Sunday mornings by our scripture readers. You probably have noticed that I then read that same Scripture while I am preaching my sermon. I don’t do that because I think our readers did a bad job. I do it because if we are going to let Scripture form us, we need to think deeply about it, which means reading it more than once. I recommend that practice of Scripture reading at home as well. Read the same passage over two or three times. Let it settle into you. What phrase can you mull over during the day or as you go to bed at night?
Look at how the Psalmist describes these kinds of people.
Psalm 1:3 (NIV)
3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers.
These people don’t walk the paths of the wicked but they are formed by the word of God. They become like a well-nourished tree.
They bear fruit when it is time to bear fruit. They are full of life and don’t wither. They prosper at what they do.
We started off by calling Psalm 1 a Psalm of wisdom. Why? It tells us how to live in a way that’s blessed. It tells us how to live in a way that’s healthy. It tells us how to live in a way that allows us to bear fruit. It tells us how to live in a way where our lives can prosper. Don’t walk in the path of the wicked, but be spiritually formed by the word of God. That is wisdom.
Lynda and I often comment on how messy the lives of people outside of Christ are. Their souls are not healthy. Their lives are complicated. Their relationships are messy.
Of course, that is not true of every person who does not follow Christ. There are a lot of people in our world who unwittingly follow God’s ways. They try to live lives that are good. They tried to tell the truth. They are faithful to their spouse. They are the kind of people who we might call the salt of the earth. People like that still need to have their sins forgiven because all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But their lives are generally far less complicated because they have unwittingly followed what God has said.
I don’t think these are the kind of people that this next verse is talking about. It is talking about the wicked people talked about in verse one.
Psalm 1:4 (NIV)
4 Not so the wicked!
They are like chaff
that the wind blows away.
The righteous people are like a tree. They stand tall, and their roots run deep. They are solid and unshakable. The wicked people are compared to chaff. Chaff, as most of you who have a farming background would know, is the outer husk of a piece of grain that needs to come off for the grain to be used well. It is so small and unsubstantial that a breeze will blow it away. Chaff doesn’t have roots, nor is it solid. The Psalmist says such is the lives of the wicked.
Psalm 1:5 (NIV)
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
Jesus talked a lot about judgment. He taught us that this life is not all that there is. We will all have to give an account before God.
The gospel is clear – you are saved by grace. You will enter heaven because of what Jesus has done for you – and because you put your faith in what Jesus has done for you.
But that being said, we are all still accountable to God. Christian, non-Christian – we are all accountable to God after we live this life on earth.
This helps me sleep at night. There is so much injustice in the world. The world is broken and there are many wicked people who take advantage of that brokenness. Drug dealers get rich while destroying lives. Some crimes go unsolved, and the criminal gets away with doing wrong. Dictators rob their country while their country wallows in poverty. If this life is all there is, then it is completely unjust. But we believe that God will make all things right.
Psalm 1:5–6 (NIV)
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
6 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.
For those of you who are following Jesus – the Lord watches over you. He sees you. He wants to establish you.
Life might be hard, but his grace is sufficient for you. You may seem all alone, but you will find that God is watching over you. When you look back on your life, you will find the fingerprints of God on them. Through it all, God is with you.
If you are here today and have been wanting to change paths, You know that you are not living the blessed life. You have been walking on the path of sinner – I want you to know that Jesus has made an off ramp.
He comes to you and says, I have paid for all you have done wrong. You can receive my gift that will start you on the path of the blessed life by trusting he. I died for you, and in doing that, I took all that you have ever done wrong upon myself. Will you believe that and trust that. If you do, pray, “Lord forgive me,” and I will. I want to lead you into the blessed life so in order to do that will you follow me? If you will, you will have all that you need to move off the path you are on to the path that leads to life. Will you choose that path? If you will, then you will be saved from destruction.
You see, when you do that, here is God’s promise to you.
Romans 10:9–11 (NIV)
9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. 11 As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.”
If that is you, let me lead you in a prayer.
Lord, I trust you to pay for all that I have done wrong. Please forgive me of my sin. Lord, I choose to follow you because you will lead me to the right path. I am trusting you to lead me away from destruction and into the way of life.
Pray for Christians.