Psalm 1
Prayer: Father, You promise happiness for all those who seek You in Your Word, and that is why we are here today. So please open this Word to us so that we may truly drink this living water. Do not let anyone in this room come and not drink. Make us like fruitful trees today. Because we ask in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Introduction
This psalm introduces the entire psalter and establishes one of the central themes: those who seek God are happy but those who reject Him will fade away. And in particular, we have that happiness by seeking God constantly in His law, but those who do seek God’s law are blown about by the whims of men and their circumstances – which is miserable.
As the old hymn puts it: “Fading is the worldling’s pleasure// All his boasted pomp and show// Solid joys and lasting treasure// None by Zion’s children know.”
The Text: “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful…” (Ps. 1:1-6)
Summary of the Text
The word here for “blessed” means “happy,” and the Psalmist says that the man is happy who does not walk, stand, or sit with those who do not seek God (Ps. 1:1). If you are seeking God, you are going in the direction of happiness. Those are not seeking God are going a different way. Instead, that happy man’s deepest pleasure is in the whole Word of God – which is an explanation of God’s law – God’s way, and so it’s in his mouth day and night (all the time), which makes him like a fruitful and prosperous tree in every season (Ps. 1:2-3).
The wicked are like chaff driven by the wind – they are unstable, rootless, and therefore, they cannot stand anywhere for long – much less the final judgment or even sit with the congregation of the righteous (Ps. 1:4-5). They are restless in church. They are uncomfortable anywhere long. They have no peace. This is their misery. Of course it does not always look like the righteous are happy and the wicked are miserable, but regardless of all appearances, God knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will be destroyed (Ps. 1:6).
The Antithesis
From the beginning of the world, following the Fall, God has established an antithesis between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent (Gen. 3:15). This great war began when sin entered the world, and it will continue until the end of the world. It is a battle line that runs through every human heart, but it is also a battle line that runs through history between those who seek the Lord and those who reject Him. We call this the antithesis. This is the difference between light and darkness, good and evil, life and death, joy and misery.
But the serpent and his seed have always wanted to blur the lines of the conflict, appearing as an “angel of light” and false teachers (2 Cor. 11:13-14), wolves in sheep’s clothing (Mt. 7:15). In the Old Covenant, there were constant temptations to be like the nations: to marry them, to worship their gods, to have kings like them, and it always resulted in their harm and slavery and misery. And the same principle is taught in the New Covenant: what fellowship does righteousness have with unrighteousness (2 Cor. 6:14ff)? Christians must be determined not to fit in with worldliness (music, movies, fashion, politics). We have been called out and rescued from the world. We are going in a fundamentally different direction.
The Psalm outlines a progression of compromise: walking, standing, sitting with the ungodly world, which runs roughly parallel to secret faults, presumptuous sins, and great transgressions (Ps. 19:12-13). People do not decide to ruin their lives out of nowhere. Big weeds grow from little ones. Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God (Js. 4:4)? Obedience is a daily decision to seek God, to walk in His paths, to meditate on His word, to seek His happiness.
The cloying reply comes back: What about Jesus the friend of tax collectors and prostitutes? Aren’t we supposed to be friends with unbelievers? Aren’t we supposed to be ministering to them? Yes, a true friend is seeking to rescue those who are drowning in their sin, but the kind of “friendship” many are demanding is to let them drown (and if you’re really their friend, you’ll let them pull you down with them). But it is not true friendship to become like them. Christ did not become like them. He confronted their sin, offered forgiveness and told them to “go and sin no more.” We are on a path to God, and we cannot stop. We constantly invite them to come with us, but if they will not come, we must not stop. If they will not come, Christ does not want us to stop. And we love Christ more. The gospel says that following Christ will sometimes be interpreted as “hate” (Lk. 14:26).
We are not “friends” with the world and its cheap baubles and petty influencers because as Calvin says, the happy man of this Psalm is the one who not only studies the Word of God but finds it delicious.
Who Is Really Having Fun?
The problem is that many Christians secretly (or not so secretly) think that unbelievers are having more fun. This was the original temptation of the Devil in the Garden – are you sure God is not withholding some good thing from you? Are you sure there isn’t some other experience, some other knowledge that will make you happy? And this is where the fundamental question divides: is happiness found in the Triune God or is He not necessary?
Many unbelievers appear to be happy. They say they are happy without God. They are doing whatever they want. They are partying, sleeping around, doing whatever feels good to them. But this Psalm says they are not really happy, and here it describes their misery as rootlessness, uncertainty, insecurity – yes, they do whatever feels good or seems good to them but that is miserable because they are never sure of what they are doing. They don’t know if it’s good. They don’t know where they are going. They don’t know what it’s for. So Scripture teaches that they are miserable.
They are also miserable because they have sinned against God and their fellow man and cannot get rid of the awful weight of guilt and shame (Ps. 32). They are miserable because they are living lies: denying that they know there is a God when He is obviously right in front of them every day in His creation (Rom. 1). They are also miserable because they are trying to live in God’s world according to their own wisdom, but the way of transgressors is hard (Prov. 13:15). You keep doing it your own way, but how’s that working out for you? How’s your marriage? How’s your relationship with your parents, your kids, your friends?
But Scripture says that in God’s presence there is fullness of joy and at His right hand are pleasures forever more (Ps. 16:11). And Who is at God’s right hand? The Lord Jesus. He died, rose again, and ascended to God’s right hand. Jesus is the fullness of God’s joy and pleasures. And Jesus promises a joy to those who follow Him that no one can take away (Jn. 16:22). The center of this joy is the forgiveness of our sins, and the complete confidence we have to stand before God in the righteousness of Jesus Christ – all of this is based on the unchanging Word of God. His law is fixed. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He is always the fullness of goodness, righteousness, and joy. And He remained this goodness when He came in Jesus Christ to save us. And on top of His forgiveness and righteousness, He gives us all His gifts: creation, food, family, dancing, music, beauty, etc.
But What About Evil?
This Psalm says that those who turn away from the paths of evil men and seek the Lord will be happy and fruitful, but it does not always seem that way. Job was struck by the Lord. Jacob and David were persecuted. The apostles were rejected and hated. And many Christians have suffered from the effects of the Fall: disease, pain, loneliness, and many hardships – many of which we have in our congregation. And on the flip side, many of the wicked do seem to be prospering, healthy, and wealthy. What do we make of this?
Some Christians ignore the problem of evil and simply insist that you need more faith and then you will be more prosperous. We call this lie the “prosperity gospel.” The fundamental problem with this lie is that Jesus had perfect faith, and He was rejected and killed. Others shy away from the plain meaning of this Psalm: that the godly will tend to prosper in this world – and they spiritualize the whole thing. We can only expect spiritual prosperity and Heaven in the end.
But we need to hold the entire Bible together and embrace the whole message. We insist that the history of the world will vindicate the righteous. In general, those who seek God will prosper more than those who don’t. In general, if you follow God’s ways, you will have fewer STDs. God’s ways cut with the grain of the world He made: if you don’t spend more than you make, you won’t generally be in financial ruin. Wisdom will be justified by her children.
At the same time, God is not merely interested in our physical prosperity. He disciplines us so that we might share in His holiness (Heb. 12:5-11). In many places, Scripture teaches that God has determined to do this through hardships: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (Js. 1:2-4 ESV). God is determined to work in His people so that they will be perfect, compete, and lacking nothing. The Bible calls this holiness. Holiness is a deeper happiness and more fruitful than mere material circumstances.
What if you could run and not get tired? If you’re not ready for a marathon, and you are invited to run one, that sounds terrible and painful. But what if you could? Imagine a colony of cripples, a civilization that had forgotten how to walk. Maybe there had been many injuries, and so they had all decided it just wasn’t safe and muscles atrophied, and now no one walked. And you came along and told them that their legs were actually meant for walking — they were meant for running. That is what living in sin is like. It weighs you down, slows you down, but we were made to run. God disciplines us so that we might run with Him, so that we might be happy like Him.
Conclusion
Nietzsche mocked Christianity for what he called “slave morality,” accusing Christians of apathy, submitting to hardships and calling it “good.” But Nietzsche finished his days in an insane asylum, and according to legend, with his sister selling tickets to see him, and so are many of his cultural descendants in our day, destroying themselves with their “strong” delusions.
But we confess that Christ is the Happiest Man to ever live. He delighted in the Word of God day and night, and He was (and is) fruitful in every way. For this, they called Him insane and demon possessed, but after they killed Him, He came back from the dead and He has the fullness of life forever. And everyone who loves Him is given His happiness. Who is really having the most fun? The Lord Jesus Christ and those who follow Him. And it’s not even close.
Prayer: Father, we know that Your happiness and joy far exceeds the false joy of sin. But we are so easily distracted. So please give us a vision for your happiness, give us a hunger and thirst for your righteousness, for your Word, for Jesus Christ, and so make us a forest of faithful and fruitful trees. And we ask for this now in the name of the Son of Your Pleasure, and we pray, as He taught us to pray…
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