Introduction

Blessed

Right away, in this passage, David addresses an issue that is high on everybody’s priority list. It is an issue that is high on my priority list. This is an issue that consumes the hearts and minds of most people – including myself. He addresses an issue that affects the decisions we make constantly. Here is the question he’s going to address: (are you ready) How can I be happy?

Blessed is the man… How can I be a man who is blessed?

Psalms was originally written in Hebrew. The Hebrew word translated “Blessed” (Esher) can also be accurately translated as “Happy.” The word (Esher) is plural in the original language and it can be understood to mean not just one blessing, but blessing after blessing after blessing or happiness on top of happiness on top of happiness. One old time theologian (and Hebrew expert) translated the word as “blessednesses.” – Ainsworth (If you type that into your spell checker, it has no clue what that word is)

“Happy” is a good translation as long as we understand it is not just referring to a momentary feeling of bliss. When feelings fade, the righteous person is still blessed. God still multiplies His gifts in a righteous man’s or woman’s life regardless of their feelings. Sometimes I’m facing a very difficult situation, and there are absolutely no feelings of bliss, but I am still blessed by God.

Already this psalm relates to me because I face some trials, but I don’t want to let those trial turn me into a miserable person. God’s intent is for His children to enjoy blessed lives for now and for all of eternity. When we are talking about being blessed or happy, we are talking about being content and having deep, meaningful joy in the Lord:

• Regardless of how little or how much is in our bank account
• Regardless of our being in perfect health or having a terminal illness
• Regardless of the severity of the trials that we’re finding ourselves in

Being blessed happens within our circumstances right now and is independent of our health and our wealth. However, God’s word is very clear that He wants to give us good gifts. It brings Him delight when we are thrilled with His gifts. . Jesus said,

If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

Once a person is in a relationship with the living God, happiness and joy and blessing and peace are the natural byproducts of that relationship. If you come across a person who is truly happy, that person always has a vibrant relationship with God. (there’s no other secret)

For those of us who might struggle with finding happiness in our lives, the natural question for us no ask is: How do we get some of that blessing? Instead of telling us how to get blessings, the psalmist turns down another road. Instead of telling us how to attain happiness, the psalmist tells us what to avoid.

Application #1 – Be directed by the Word and NOT by the World

Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,

It is a very popular practice today for believers to gather council from a number of conflicting sources. I’ve seen people in the church face a trial and begin to call up all their friends – both Christian and non-Christian – in order to figure out what they are going to do.

Sometimes believers turn to secular counselors or radio psychologists or popular blogs that are offering opinions only based on the world’s wisdom and not on God’s Word. The world’s wisdom is like the boot they put on your car when you are parked illegally somewhere. These believers have a boot on their spiritual lives and wonder why they are constantly spinning in circles and not getting anywhere. If you or I find ourselves receiving the council from the secular culture, we’ll stall out spiritually and eventually find ourselves running with the wrong crowd… Look at the next line…

Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,

The Hebrew word for “stands” (amad) means to make a stand, or to hold your ground. If you or I are taking a stand with sinners and linking arms with the ungodly, we have just joined forces with the weakest imaginable ally. It is like taking a pool noodle to a sword fight.It’s not going to work. We’re going to get hurt. Our alliance doesn’t stand a chance. A believer who joins forces with sinners is easily overwhelmed. God’s Word is telling us that if you take a stand or maintain a firm position with sinners, you will be robbed of blessing. You will be miserable.

Not only that, but standing with sinners ultimately leads to a fellowship with the enemy.

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;

There are 3 levels of association here. When you and I are living in sin, things tend to go from bad to worse.:

• The first level is to walk with the wicked. We begin to walk in the council of (or to value the opinion of) those who do not care about God.
• The second level: Taking a stand with sinners. Sin is no longer as offensive as it once was, but it is familiar enough that we begin making a defense of sin in our lives.
• Now the third level: sitting down with scoffers. Sitting with scoffers is where this sinful path leads. A scoffer is a person who mocks the things of God. I’m not going to include myself here, because I hope you and I don’t do this one. These are believers who have joined the ranks of the ungodly and have become so deceived by the world’s philosophy that they are teachers, advocates and proponents of sin.

It happens all the time when Christians follow the shifting winds of the culture, depart from God’s word and become outspoken advocates for things like abortion, gay marriage and legalized marijuana. If sin gets a foothold in our lives and it goes unconfessed and unchecked, then after time, that sin becomes familiar and we begin to use the world’s philosophy to excuse our sinful practices. Before we know it, we are no longer excusing the sin, but we are demanding our right to live in that sin. That’s the progression of sin and God says that progression is not where you find blessed men and women.

Nobody walks or stands or joins the sinners out of duty. We walk and stand and sit because we want to. It appeals to our flesh. We find ourselves there because the way of the world is so attractive that we have begun to conform to it rather than to God’s word.

This verse says that this progression will rob you and I of blessing and it will erode our happiness. If you and I don’t want to be miserable, then we can’t allow this progression to continue in our lives! When you and I face a trial, let’s run to God’s Word and seek godly council so that even in our trials, we will know God’s blessing!

Application #2 – Be Delighted in God’s Word and not in the World

but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.

The pleasures of this world are very enticing. The psalmist is not calling us to duty here. We don’t ignore the pleasures of the world just because we shouldn’t do them anymore. We don’t follow God’s commands out of duty. The psalmist is saying here that the pleasures of God are far superior to anything you’ll find here in this dark, broken-down, sinful world. You don’t want to miss them!

It reminds me of one of my favorite quote by CS Lewis. He says:

“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

I’m not proposing that we rob ourselves of pleasure. What I’m saying is that the man who is content with the broken things of this world is far too easily pleased!

You can delight in the things of this world that will destroy your life or you can find your deepest needs met in Jesus and the Living Word of God. God wants to give you good gifts, but you have to let them in! People who live blessed lives don’t just avoid evil, but they find their greatest treasure, their greatest delight in the Word of God.

If fact, it is so thrilling to them that they meditate on it. The fallen man-made religions of the East stole that word from us and I want to take it back. It is Biblical to meditate… on God’s Word. The Hebrew word “meditate” (hagah) means to mutter. It refers to the thing that is under your breath.

I’m a mutterer. I’m always thinking about something. Something is always being processed in my mind. You can tell a lot about the heart of a person by what they mutter underneath their breath. The God-follower mutters scripture. He takes a text and he carries it with him all throughout the day. It is muttered underneath his breath. When he can’t sleep, that text is at the forefront of his mind. He’s looking at from every possible angle. He is pondering the text day and night and extracting from it a little more and a little more and a little more of its inexhaustible supply each time.

What happens to that kind of person?

Result #1 – He is Blessed in All Circumstances.

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.

He’s not like a wild tree, but like a tree that has been carefully planted. He is like a tree that has been chosen and placed and considered the property of the owner. He is watered and cultivated and fertilized and ultimately he is secured from the last terrible “uprooting” that Jesus talks about in Matthew 15:13

“Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up.”

He’s not like that plant, but he is a tree that is planted by the Father and is constantly nourished by His Word. Notice that this tree is not just fed by one stream, but fed by multiple streams. Although the multiple sources of nourishment are not defined here, from other places in God’s Word we might suggest what those streams might refer to. Water represents several things in scripture:

• Water for drinking is a picture of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit
  ³⁷ On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. ³⁸ Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said,‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” ³⁹ Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. John 7:37-39
• Water for washing is a picture of the Word of God
  ²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, ²⁶ that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word… -Eph 5:25-26
• A river or a stream is a picture of God’s provision for His people
  They feast on the abundance of your house,
  and you give them drink from the river of your delights. – Ps 36:8

Just like a tree, we can’t nourish ourselves. Spiritual nourishment comes from Christ and drawing on His spiritual power.

What is interesting about this tree is that it is pictured as both fruit bearing and evergreen. No trial or winter’s season can destroy the leaves of this tree, yet unlike the evergreen here in Arizona, every one of the Lord’s trees, bears fruit in it’s season

• that yields its fruit in its season,
• and its leaf does not wither

The implication is the man who abides in Christ never withers but remains green. He is fruitful in season. There are seasons for every believer. In certain seasons, he will be fruitful. In other seasons, he may need to draw on nourishment while he endures a trial and prepares for future fruitfulness. Here are some examples:

• You are here listening to a teaching from God’s Word. In this season, listen to the explanation of God’s will as it is explained from His Word
• Perhaps later today you find yourself in the presence of a wise and godly man. In that season, draw knowledge and council from him. Feed on his wisdom.
• When you find yourself in a place of temptation this week, then that is a season to draw on the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit to deliver you out of that trial
• When you find yourself in a position of influence or authority, in that season, consider what God would require of you in order to bear godly fruit and be an influence for Christ

Just like a tree goes through various seasons, we go through various seasons too. In each season, draw on the Lord for proper nourishment and ask the Lord how to bear appropriate fruit. In doing that, you remain strong. Unlike the chaff.

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

When it was harvest time in Israel, The wheat and the dry, scaly casings of the seeds called chaff would all be mixed up together. The farmer would take the grain and throw it up into the air and the breeze would blow the inedible and worthless chaff away from the wheat. That’s a symbol of the ungodly in scripture. In contrast to the healthy tree, the chaff (or the ungodly) is dead, worthless, and unusable. The ungodly tossed about by every changing wind of the culture and eventually, destined for the fire pit.

I’ve never had to separate wheat from chaff before. However, I’ve seen some worthless things blown about by the wind. When I lived in Phoenix, on a couple of occasions I experienced what they call a haboob. A haboob is a huge wind storm. The haboob will pick up all kinds of worthless things – dust, trash, kiddie pools – and blow them everywhere. The wicked are like that. They are tossed about my every wind of change and then when the big storm hits, they are destroyed. The dust and the trash picked up by these winds are eventually swept up and thrown in the dumpster.

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

The righteous stand strong. They can endure the storms. They are rooted deep and not easily moved. AND, they are known by God.

Result #2 – The Righteous are Blessed to the Highest Degree

Look at verse 6

for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.

The word “knows” does not just mean that God is aware of their existence. It means that God is constantly looking their way. He has chosen them and he providentially watches over them until He finally hand delivers them home to heaven.

The greatest blessing here on earth is to be under the protection, provision and watchful eye of an infinitely loving heavenly Father. The ultimate blessing will be the day when He calls us home to dwell in His presence and be face to face with Christ our savior.

Blessed is the man who delights in the law of the Lord!

Teaching Outline

Delighting in God’s Word

Application #1 – Be directed by the Word and NOT by the World – Psalm 1:1

Application #2 – Be Delighted in God’s Word and not in the World – Psalm 1:2

Result #1 – He is Blessed in All Circumstances. – Psalm 1:3, Matthew 15:13

. Water represents several things in scripture:

• Water for drinking is a picture of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit – John 7:37-39
• Water for washing is a picture of the Word of God – Eph 5:25-26
• A river or a stream is a picture of God’s provision for His people – Psalm 36:8

Result #2 – The Righteous are Blessed to the Highest Degree