Psalm 1. Our text this evening is Psalm 1. In the Pew Bibles, you can find that on page 528. You might be tricked if you're looking for 528 because that page number actually doesn't exist. So look for 529 and then go to the left. I know this because I tried that this morning to make sure I had the page number. But page 528 and we'll be reading Psalm 1. Hear now the word of the Lord. 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. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit and its seasons, and its leaf does not wither in all that he does. He prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. And that concludes the reading of God's Word this evening. The world we live in preaches that there are many ways to live, and that in those many ways, There's also many more ways. In all of this, there's this attempt to find meaning, truth, and or happiness. You see that in those that hold the belief that all religions are the same. Another path for meaning or truth or happiness is through material wealth. For others, it's being in power, not necessarily as those in power, but being on the right side of power in the culture. Still for others, they find their ultimate truth in their identity, along with those they identify with. The most easy and obvious example of that is what we see in the ongoing sexual revolution. Now, to everyone, this may seem like there are many ways, and there's other things that I could have cited. But the truth of the matter, not just for us as Christians, but also for those individuals, is whether they want to believe it or not, there are only two ways in this life. That is the way of the wicked and the way of the righteous. It is comforting then for us as God's people to know that God's people have always known this. One example is the early church document, the Didache. It's one of our earliest non-canonical Christian texts that we have. And it opens up speaking of this two-ways doctrine. Bluntly speaking, it says that there are two ways. The way of life and the way of death. Going back into the New Testament, Christ himself teaches this very teaching. We will look at that a little bit later. But know that he teaches this teaching. It's embodied in his teachings. Lastly, though, when we come to God's people before the time of Christ, they also knew this. They also had this very basic understanding as people of God. And it is with this in mind that we come to our passage this evening, Psalm 1. Now, the Psalms as a whole speak to the totality of life. They speak to all the experiences that every man has, whether they're God's person or not. Now add in this concept of the two ways, and we see that Psalm 1 is more than just a sentimental text. It's not just a wisdom psalm for us. No, Psalm 1 is the most fundamental point for understanding not just the Psalter, but all of life. That fundamental point being that there are only two ways, the way of the wicked and the way of the righteous. This psalm, though, speaks of the blessed man. But no man apart from one has ever fulfilled what is written in this text and in this psalm. And so this psalm, as we study it, we come to realize that the blessed person is actually the one who is in Christ. Because Christ is the epitome of the blessed man. To unpack this and see this this evening then, our three points will be the way of the wicked, the way of the righteous, and the way, the truth, and the life. Now when it comes to the wicked, one of the first marks that we find with them is that their lives are marked by human autonomy. They run the show themselves. The counsel of the wicked, which we read about here, it takes on one of two forms. There is one form that is completely devoid of God and then there is the form that is more syncretistic, that is, it tries to incorporate God in it. For the form that is devoid of God, the way this plays out is by the fact that morality and truth are all based on human experience and feeling. And as such, it's constantly in flux. It's changing over time. This is so painfully obvious, as you know, in our hedonistic culture that we live in. Stop and ask yourself, who's making the rules? What is the standard of man? What's the rationale for not only our existence, but any sort of existence ever? What we find with the way of the wicked, especially when it comes to what they put their counsel in, is that without God, it's utterly meaningless. And yet they persist in this way. now when we look at those that would be considered of the syncretism or trying to incorporate God we see that God is still not in charge he's subservient to the culture or to their own hearts specifically we can see that in apostate churches or churches that have gone wayward they bear this mark where culture defines the truth, not God or his word. Their desire is to be approved by the broader world. It's what drives them and their existence. In both these cases, though, we find that these individuals also are sitting in the seats of scoffers. For these people, God's law is a burden and a barrier to them. Now, what do we mean by God's law? In this text, when we say God's law and throughout the sermon, if I make mention of God's law, it's referring not to a singular law and it's not referring to just the Ten Commandments, but rather it's God's instruction for all of life. It's God's way, essentially, the way of righteousness, we could say. As such, then, the wicked make no attempt to even consider why God's law is what it is, let alone why it is good and why it is right. Rather, in contrast to the righteous, they meditate on their own pleasures constantly. That's what drives them. That's what fuels them. But again, they also sit in the seat of scoffers. What I mean by that, and you know this, they look down upon God's law, and they look upon God's people with derision. One simply needs to look at the headlines. It might not be in our local paper, but it might be in the national paper, but it seems like every day there is some sort of article or peace written that is knocking against God and his people. Even more plainly, look at every movie and TV show that seems to come out. If there's a Christian that's involved in it, what is the characteristic of that character in such movies and TV shows? It is usually in a negative light. But this derision or this looking down upon God's law is also making its way, as we see, into the political sphere. The clearest example, perhaps, that we can see in our time might have been what we watched in the fallout of the shooting that happened in Nashville a few months ago, where the Christians who were murdered were not the victims. The victim was made out to be the person who was living in a sinful lifestyle. There was this derision against God and his people. But there's more about this wicked way. The way of the wicked is wide and it is easy. Now many commentators have pointed out that when it comes to verse 1, there is a singular versus plural nature that exists. We have the blessed or blessed is the man, singular, who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, that's a plural, stands in the way of sinners, plural, sits in the seat of scoffers, plural. This is intentional. We're supposed to feel the wickedness that is abounding and how the wickedness or the wicked ones outnumber the righteous. Jesus himself picks up on this very thing. in a most basic way, explicitly, in Matthew 7, 13. In the well-known passage, he says, the gate is wide and the way is easy that lead to destruction. And those who enter by it are many. Jesus points out what you and I have all experienced and known. The wicked way or the wicked life, it's an easier life. There's few, if any, rules. Again, I ask, stop and think about it. beyond conformity to everybody else. What rules exist? But not only that, it's easier because there's plenty of company. Everyone seems to be going in the same direction. Even if you have differences, there's this tolerating attitude that exists. And so no one is at odds or no one seems to be out of step there's plenty of company but despite all this this psalm teaches us that the way of the wicked is temporary and that they will perish if you look down with me to verse 4 it says the wicked are not so but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Anyone who has grown up around farms, around fields, you know during harvest time when the harvesting is going on what this passage is talking about. You understand this imagery as the harvester goes along in the fields. You see the haze that is rising around him. As someone that grew up in farm country Pennsylvania, this speaks very clearly to me. But not only that, when a breeze comes along, that haze seems to move across the land. That's the imagery that's being spoken of here. But it goes a little bit deeper. Why does that chaff blow? Well, the chaff blows because it has no substance or weight to it. Nothing is holding it down. So the slightest breeze moves it along. Is that not very indicative, then, of the wicked? Who are moved along to and fro, side to side, by every wind and breeze of the culture? But going back to Jesus and his teaching that is picking up on this idea, we think again to what he says about the wide way and what the broad gate means. It leads to destruction. Now, one way that we can see how this plays out is perhaps considering things that have gone on in the church level, especially in the main line. If you don't know, the United Methodist Church is going through a pretty significant split right now. On the one half, you have those that are trying to, within the Methodist system, adhere to God's word. but on the other half, you have those that have been increasingly more and more driven and led by the culture. Perhaps closer though to our circles, we could think of what is going on in the PCUSA. I'm not sure if you've seen this or not, but it's made headlines in the last couple months about how in the last 20 years, this church has declined by nearly 1 million members. Now, this is not to speak down on other denominations. This is not to demonize those people. But what it's pointing out to us is this way of destruction. It's illustrating that when God's counsel is not the basis, but rather the counsel of the wicked is the basis for what guides you, it has a negative end. But still further, we can think and look at this on the individual level. perhaps this speaks closer to me because it's more prevalent in my generation but you've heard of the deconstruction or the ex-evangelical movement where people are giving up the faith or they're getting looser on what they they use to define what it is to be a christian in almost every case that you read about though there is a constant that seems to be there there's this component in them or this element in them where they want to be approved by the culture and so they will side with the culture in matters that go up against god and his way in that we see how this psalm is speaking truth this psalm that was written 2000 almost 3000 maybe years ago we see that it speaks this basic truth that has always existed in the history of the world. But contrast, though, this psalm also teaches us about the way of the righteous and what that life looks like. In contrast to the wicked, the blessed man is humble. He's submissive to God. He finds his counsel in God, in God's word alone. We also see in him that there's a consistency. There's a consistency that can be marked out in the righteous lives of believers. Why does scripture continue to hold such a place amongst God's people and sustain them throughout history? Well, we know obviously that in God's word that is revealed to us, we know that it teaches us about salvation in Christ. We know that it teaches us about God himself. And we also know that it gives wisdom from God's perspective on how to live a holy and prosperous life. With all that said, though, what has changed throughout time? Empires have risen and fallen. Cultures have drifted again, to and from, back and forth, one extreme to the next. There's the constant flux. There's this constant change. Oftentimes, taking the forms of the same thing, but in a different nature. All that to say, though, is in the history of the world, there's been one constant that's always existed. God, his revelation, and the obedience to that revelation by his people. That's always been the same. So when we think then about the righteous ones, or those that live in the way of righteousness, we also see then that their meditations are on God's ways. They're constantly on his mind. Again, that's where this consistency comes from. For the blessed man, God's law is also his delight. He finds joy and pleasure in it, not a burden, and it's not a barrier. It's not that he has to obey God. No, it's his joy that he wants to obey God and follow his ways. As we think and consider the righteous person or the blessed man, I ask you to stop and think about some of the godliest people you've known in your life and what has been characteristic of them. For me, I think of my youth pastor growing up who was a personal mentor of me and the things that stuck and that were impressed upon me about who he was as a Christian. I think about his zeal for worshiping God. I think about his committed prayer life and communing with God. I think about his love for God's word, which was a huge factor in my love for studying God's word. But not only that, his love for God's people and people in general and wanting to share this joy that he had as God's Son. Now another characteristic of the blessed person is that they also walk in the council of saints. Going back to this idea of who they mingle with and where they get their advice from. See as human beings we are all relational. Even the most independent person is influenced by someone else or someone else's. That is plural. there's always an influence. In this psalm, one of the things the psalmist is trying to teach implicitly is that the more we walk among the godly, the stronger we will be in our Christian walk. And on the flip side, what he's pointing out is that when you gravitate to being around the ungodly, it's a dangerous game. It's a very dangerous game. Now, having been someone that worked in youth ministry for a while, that felt at times like it was the biggest battle to try and convince the teens that I was working with why their group of friends was not necessarily the best group to be hanging around. Now, I'm not saying that we should shelter ourselves and live a hermetic life and not talk to non-believers or anything like that. But what I am saying is that as Christians, one of the things that should mark our lives is that our closest friends or those that we go to and find companionship with should also be fellow believers for the very reasons that we're looking at this evening. Biblically, we can see this example play out, especially in the Old Testament. This past year, I had the privilege of teaching the fifth grade Sunday school class, and we went, we were in the Old Testament, we started in Genesis, now we only got halfway through the Old Testament, so we got up to King Saul. But one of the things that God instructed his people at this time was that he did not want his people to be marrying people of other nations or other peoples. Now the skeptic might say, well he did that because the Jews, they're just inherently better than the other people. The skeptic might say that's a bit restrictive. But there was wisdom in it. God knew what he was doing. It wasn't that the Jews were inherently better. He says that himself in various places. He reminds them of that very fact. No, the reason that he gave this instruction to them was because if they mixed themselves up with other cultures that had no regard for God that were into things that were very wicked it was going to lead them astray and anyone who's read through the Old Testament you know the story time and time again this goes on Israel gets themselves mixed up with foreign nations and people and their gods and their religions it's that same concept at a very basic level God calling his people to not walk in the counsel of the wicked. But the blessed man, he doesn't entertain this. He doesn't find himself being entertained with the wicked. No, he does the opposite. And on top of that, he also is a man of humility. See, unlike the wicked, who are scoffers, he's very humble before his God. Now, he may question God. He may complain to God. You read the Psalms, and you see that play out. But what is their attitude of whoever the person speaking is? What is their attitude to God? Is it from a place of, who do you think you are towards God? Or is it from a place of, I don't understand but I know you are God and I know I can take this to you and I need your help in this and even if I don't understand I'm going to trust you in this. It's a humble place understanding who they are and it's with that idea coming from a place of lament or even questioning God about things we can also then realize that the blessed do walk a narrow and harder path, touching again on what Jesus' teaching was. For us, as we think about the culture we live in right now, we feel that tension every day. You feel it. You and I both know that compared to the broader culture, we're outnumbered. You and I both know that our beliefs are disregarded or even derided. Now that's hard enough, but we haven't even considered another aspect of why it's hard. It's the struggle against our own flesh and sin. See, the reason the easy, or the wide path is easy, is because it's easy to fall into the way of the wicked. One of the things that is very subtle, but that you can pick up in this psalm, is if you look at verse 1, there's a trajectory from walking to standing to sitting. In that trajectory, we can think about walking as being maybe tasting the wicked life. Standing, as in spending a little bit more time in that wicked life. To sitting, which is being completely ensnared and trapped. And even going to the place of being a scoffer where you've just given up or where the person has just given up being God's follower. But the blessed man, this is not true of him. No, he's sustained and he's known by his God. And he knows he will enjoy everlasting life. As we read in verse 6 here, For the Lord knows the way of the righteous. Now this phrase, and some Bibles note this, the word known by God, or God knows, carries with it this idea of favor. God favors the righteous. He has regard for the righteous. And by that, he is, going back in the psalm, he is like a tree that's planted by streams of water. He is sustained because God is knowing him. He's looking after them. Now, with the basic teaching laid out for us here, on all of this considered, if you're like me and you read this psalm, you might feel a tension as well. You might feel a weight on your shoulders. See, there's a problem here. No person has ever completely obeyed God, nor has any person truly in every moment fulfilled what this text is talking about or fulfilled God's law completely. And if we're honest, we have all probably, at one point or another, or we may experience this more frequently, we have more in common with the way of the wicked than we do the way of the righteous. We toil, and we try to move along in our daily lives in this narrow and hard way but we find we fail daily. We say with Paul, wretched man that I am, who will set me free from this body of death? But thanks be to God, Jesus Christ, the one who is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the embodiment of this blessed man here in Psalm 1. Now we know that Jesus taught his disciples that all the scriptures, and in his context he was referring to the Old Testament, all the scriptures point and speak of him. When we read this at face value, we see this passage and we wonder, where is this talking about Christ? Now most translations have potentially changed the word for man, or they put a note in for man, and that it is just a representative term for a godly person in general. And there is truth in that. We just went over that. There's truth in that. But we know that this psalm is fulfilled by Christ because he is the man who walked this earth and embodied all those things. This is the basis for your forgiveness. The truth is that this way of righteousness, God still demands. That has never changed. You and I still need to be righteous. But because of this blessed man, in spite of our failures, we are made to be righteous. We are made to be like this blessed man in God's eyes. See, when Christ went to the cross, his righteousness was credited to you and I, just as he took on our sin. It was his obedience to the point of dying on that cross that has become the source of life for you and I. for those who believe. But it's not just about salvation. Obviously, that's the greatest part of this. But this psalm also teaches us that by nature then of our connection with Christ and being then considered the blessed man or the blessed person, we are known. We are known by God. We are known in his eyes as a blessed person of righteousness. an example of this is the simple fact that you and I have been called to him in John 10 Jesus says his sheep follow him because they heard him and they know his voice they heard he called more specifically in verse 14 of that same chapter he says I know my own referring to his people and my own know me you're not just some number in god's eyes you are known it's more intimate than that or than what we think of but because you're known and because as we have established that we have this salvation you are like a tree planted by streams of water because of your union to this blessed man You will bear fruit. And you also know that eternal life is yours. So as we conclude this evening, in all of mankind's history, in the history of the earth, there are only two ways a person can live. There's the way of the wicked and the way of the righteous. And for the wicked, it may seem like their life is going well. they're enjoying the pleasures but it's meaningless and the fact is they're following pretty much their own hearts they might be following other people but they're doing what they see is right in their own eyes and as we read again in verse six but the way of the wicked will perish they will perish but for those of us who are in christ the one who's the epitome of the blessed man. They too are blessed and continue in the way of righteousness. They do so because of Christ and what he's done for them. Put it another way, because of Christ and what he's done for us. We delight in God's law and we long to know him more and more. We are like the tree planted by streams of water bearing fruit that doesn't wither and we are known by the Lord and we live with him both now and forevermore. Let's pray. Father God, graciously grant that your word which we have just heard may be sealed inwardly on our hearts this teaching can be somewhat simple to us we can feel like we know it all and yet when we stop and think about all that it contains we realize that there's much more depth to this and we realize that even though we can't be righteous on our own we have been forgiven and that we can be righteous by the power of your Holy Spirit because of the work of your Son. As we receive your word meekly with pure affection, may our hearts be filled with love and reverence for you. Cause us to bear the fruit of the Spirit and to live in holiness, diligently following your commandments. And may it please you to use us to lead those who are lost wandering and confused into this way of truth, into this way of righteousness. All this we pray for the honor and the praise of your name through Jesus Christ our Lord and the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.