Psalms 1; 150

The 2016 Summer Olympic Games are now behind us. I always love watching the best athletes in the world competing in their sports. I especially am thrilled when I hear athletes like sprinter Allyson Felix, winner of two gold medals and one silver, say things like this:

I feel so blessed that God has given me the talent of running. But track doesn't define me. My faith in Jesus defines me. I'm running because I have been blessed with a gift. I am so blessed to have my family and the upbringing that I did...

Allyson Felix, Olympic Athlete, Sister in Christ

When I hear athletes use the word “blessed”, I often google their names to find out if they are Christians. Almost always, they are. Blessed is a word that almost only Christians use. It’s a beautiful word. It’s a word that speaks of something that happens in life that seems to be right in every way, e.g., the joy of having supportive relationships, the freedom to pursue our dreams, the opportunity to experience justice when accused of something... There are so many kinds of blessings. If we have eyes to see them, we find there are many blessings every day of our lives.

There are two sides to a blessing: A blessing is both a gift given to us as well as a stewardship to be nurtured by us. We often don’t deserve the blessing. But, when we have it, we are responsible to utilize it well. That’s why Allyson Felix would say that running, on one side, is a blessed gift from God – but, on the other, we know she worked hard personally in order to win her races!!

Although most people who are not Christians do not use the word “blessed”, I find they understand deep down what it is to feel blessed. It’s what all human beings long to experience each day of our lives. It’s what people often mean when we use the word “happiness”. As we begin today a series of messages called “Heart Cries”, I think that “blessing”, a life of happiness, is probably our most basic daily human heart cry. Human beings want to be happy, they want to be blessed.

And the word “blessed” is the very first word in the Book of Psalms, the worship book of the people of God in the Bible. It was Jesus’ own worship book, one that he quoted again and again.

Psalm 1 and Being Blessed or Unblessed; Happy or Unhappy

It’s not coincidental that Psalm 1 is the first psalm, the opening overture to the entire book of Psalms. Jewish rabbis have often made note of the fact that the Book of Psalms is not a random collection of poems and songs. No, it is a carefully planned worship book with a clear intent. That intent is to teach us how to live blessed lives, i.e., lives of deep happiness, contentment, substance and flourishing even in this imperfect, sin-filled and pain-filled world. This brief Hebrew poem that opens the Psalms pronounces God’s unquenchable blessing on all who are faithful to the Lord thought-by-thought, day-by-day and decision-by decision.

What the Bible tells us in this first Psalm about being happy is very counter-cultural. In our world, we constantly are told that you should pursue happiness. In the US Declaration of Independence, we declare that an unalienable right of every human being is the right to pursue happiness.

But, the Bible says something very different. The first Psalm basically tells you that the more you try to become happy, the unhappier you will be. One of my first pastors, Pastor Green in Beckley, WV, once made this clear to me in a sermon. I have never forgotten it. He said, “Write this down and never forget it: ‘You don’t become happy by trying to be happy.’” Happiness does not come from pursuing it – but is derived from from something very different from what the world says.

I find that most people in the world live with the thought, “I want to be happy. I deserve to be happy.” So, what flows from that is a way of life that makes us think -- “I’ve go to get that job to be happy.” Or, “I’ve got to win that medal to be happy.” Or, “I’ve got to get into that certain school to be happy.” Or, “I’ve got to marry that person to be happy.” Or, “I’ve got to get out of this marriage to be happy.” But, when you go after happiness by pursuing it in those ways, you will never find it. Oh, you may find some fleeting pleasure or enjoyment but it will not last. Psalm 1 says that the kind of happiness gained by pursuing happiness will soon blow away like wind blows chaff away.

Happiness is one of those wonderful realities that you derive from something else – not from seeking it on its own! “You don’t become happy by trying to be happy.”

So, what does this Psalm tell us about our quest for happiness. It declares quite simply that there are only two possible ways to go after happiness – and one of those two ways will always let you down. Psalm 1 is what the people of Israel called a wisdom song. By that, they meant that it speaks to us of the two fundamental paths that we might walk down each day, either with God at the center or without God. What does Psalm 1 say?

Two Ways (and only two) to Live Life

Path 1 (1:1-3): A Life Lived with God. The first way to live is found in vv. 1-3. It speaks of a person (not just a “man” – the Hebrew is “ha’ish, a word for any human being) who lives life knowing God’s blessing;

• The blessed person walks seeking God’s counsel – “not in the counsel of the un-godly”. We all make countless decisions every day. But, how are we to make wise ones? Psalm 1 says that blessed people do not make moral decisions, set priorities, make decisions about school, decisions about business by the way the world thinks about things. No, we seek to make each one in ways that are consistent with God’s ways. Jesus talked about this often. When Peter told Jesus in Mark 8, “You can’t go to the cross to die, Jesus. You won’t gain anything by that!” Jesus said, “Get behind me, you Satan. You are thinking the thought of the world – not of God.” The blessed person seeks God’s counsel about all decisions. The blessed person asks, “Lord, how would you have me to live right now?”
• The blessed person stands with God and his people – “not in the place of sinners”. This Hebrew phrase, “stand in the place”, is a statement of identity. It meant, “I belong to this group I am standing with.” So, the blessed person takes a stand and says, “I am a child of God. I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I am still alive. But the life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loves me gave his life for me (Gal. 2:20).” Psalm I says you will be blessed when you live in such a way that you let people know, “I am a child of God and his people are my people!
• The blessed person determines things from God’s perspective – “not in the seat of the scornful”. The language here is courtroom language. It’s about judgments we make about people – and about our world. People always make judgments about people, often determined on exterior things, like skin color. As I’ve preached about so often over my years here at LAC, when you begin to be changed by your faith in Jesus, one of the first things that changes is the way you see people – the way you treat people. Your judgments about people begin with the fact that every human being is an image bearer of God, a person so valuable that Jesus died for him/her.

Let me give you one example that I think is so relevant to issues happening in our world. Dr. Ruth Bentley, psychologist, Executive Director of the National Black Evangelical Association, and a member of the Wheaton College Board with me, tells me at times of research she has been conducting on what she calls “the Giant Young Black Man Syndrome” she has identified in our nation. She points out that research is showing that when people see young black men in our society, they tend to see them as much bigger, and therefore as much more dangerous, than they really are. She says this is not usually intentional but is learned behavior. But, she insists that it is behavior that followers of Jesus must unlearn intentionally. The Psalmist insists that the more you see the world and people in the world as God sees, the more blessed, the more deeply happy, you will be. You will not sit in the seat of being a scornful and always condemnatory person. You will know there is hope in Christ for all people.

Summing Up This First Path: Pursue happiness in this world and you won’t find it. Pursue God and you will be happy. Walking, standing and sitting every day of your life “practicing the presence of God” -- living with the awareness of God always being with you -- that is the way to happiness. Fearing God only – nothing else. Seeking to please him above all else. It is to that kind of life that I call you today on the basis of this word from God.

Path 2: (1:4-5) A Life Lived without God

The language of vv. 1-3 is about blessed people – but it clearly lets us know that it’s possible to walk, stand and sit as if there is no God at all. Do you see that in the text? This is like Solomon gave testimony to in the book of Ecclesiastes. He said that life without God is meaningless. Here, the Psalmist lets us know that, although living life without regular counsel from God may seem to be natural and even to bring temporary happiness, leaving God out of the center of your life will end up being empty.

The Psalmist speaks directly about life without God in v. 4? “The wicked are like chaff which the wind blows away.” This is a sober warning, isn’t it? The Bible tells you that, leaving God out of your life and living only according to your own desires may seem at times to be the happiest kind of life. But, at the end of the day, you will eventually see that what you’ve lived for will be like chaff.

The idea of separating wheat from chaff has little meaning to most of us in Southern CA. Chaff is the husk around the seed in cereal crops like wheat, rice or barley. Chaff is the part of the wheat that had no real value. When wheat farmers sorted out the wheat from the chaff, they threw both grain and chaff up into the air, a process known as “winnowing”. The wind blew the chaff away because it had no real substance, no weight, and no lasting value. What was left behind was the grain, the thing that brings blessing to hungry people.

Summing up the second path: If you try to find happiness with reference to God, your life will end in emptiness and judgment. When you stand before God, you won’t be able to stand.
Today, I ask you: Which path are you on? Which way are you living? You can’t be on both paths.

The Practical Key to Blessedness – It Begins with Your Mind (1:2)

This is the thoroughgoing message of the Bible. And this first Psalm will not let us miss the truth that blessedness begins with our minds. And it uses two words to drive the point home: delight and meditate:

#1: Delight in God’s Word and His ways –

The thing you “delight in” is the thing you desire the most. It’s what you have a passion for. What you delight in will almost always direct what you do. When you “delight in” a person, you want to be with that person. When you delight in a song, you want to sing that song. When you delight in a sport, you want to play that sport – or watch it. And when you delight in God’s ways, you want to live God’s way.

Beautifully, and counter-culturally for us, the Psalmist says that living a life directed by God is a delight. Instead of chafing under following someone else’s directives in your life, when you meet God through faith in Jesus, you find you actually come alive to God’s Word – you delight in hearing what it teaches you. One of the surest signs that you really are alive to God is that more and more, you will love to receive instruction in His ways.

Do you? Do you delight in learning how God would have you to live?

The Apostle Paul makes this point again and again in the New Testament. The way Paul puts this matter of “delighting in the law of God” is this: What do you “set your mind on”?

This is a call to you to discern what that “want-to mechanism” inside you really delights in. Do you really want to live for God? What do you dream about when you dream of? What do you wish for the most? Do you have a delight right now when I tell you that God is ready to speak to you about how you should live? The one who is blessed will delight in God and his Word.

#2: Meditate on God’s Word and ways day and night –

The Bible’s word for meditation is not like “New Age” meditation in which you are to empty your mind by chanting “om, om” or some content-less mantra. Meditation is to fill your mind with the teaching of God.

Meditation begins by being very focused about understanding the meaning of God’s Word. You can never live according to God’s Word if you don’t know what He’s said. You cannot apply what you’ve never learned!
But meditation is more than just learning. It has to do with allowing the Word of God to fill your inner being. That means, when you hear God’s Word taught or you read it on your own, you ask questions like these:

• Is there an example that I should follow in this Biblical story?
• Is there a promise in this text that applies to my situation?
• Is there a warning to me about a direction I’m headed or a command that I need to obey?

This kind of meditation is focused, intense, ongoing... It’s hearing the word with a deep desire to have it change your life.

When you meditate on God’s Word this way, you learn how to walk and talk with God. When a child is learning to speak, the child listens to its family speaking and learns to speak back. The beginning speech of a child is precious – but it’s not so precious when an adult still speaks like a one-year-old. In that way, meditating on the Word of God will teach you how to speak with God.

I find that the Psalms teach us how to talk to God in all times in our lives. When Psalm 1 begins with the word “blessed”, it’s not saying that it will now teach you how to never be sad or never to feel pain. The Bible never glazes over the hardships, evils and injustices in this world. But, it tells us how to live a life that is blessed even when times are tough.

The way the Psalm Book is put together is profound. It begins in Psalm 1 by telling us there is a way in this world to know day-by-day blessing, a deep and ongoing happiness. It ends in Psalm 150 telling us that, when God is done, everything will be filled with the praise and glory of God. And, in between, it deals with the real issues of all of our lives that happen in this world. It speaks of issues like anxiety, injustice, depression, and sickness as well as of times of success, and friendship and joy. It tells us how God would have us to live, how to pray, and how to be blessed no matter what life throws at us.

Psalm 1 tells us that the main mark of blessed people is that we delight in knowing the ways of God. The blessed person loves to have God tell him what to do. How counter-cultural is that? We who follow Jesus delight in him being the Lord of every part of our lives.

Psalm 1 tells you that when you walk in step with God instead of with those who deny God and when you seek first God’s righteousness instead of settling in and living as the world lives, then you will be “like a tree planted by streams of water, which yield fruit in season and whose leaves do not wither.” Indeed, your life will prosper and flourish. You will be blessed. And you will bring blessing to your world.”