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 in its season,
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;
or the LORD knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.—Psalm 1 

Introduction to the Series

Today we begin a new sermon series in the Psalms. We will journey through Psalms 1–41. In the August edition of the Star, I asked a question concerning what it is about the Psalms that so many have found so helpful throughout church history. Why have the Psalms been so deeply loved and cherished by God’s people? My answer in a nutshell was this: “the Psalms not only speak to us(like the rest of Scripture); they often uniquely speak for us.” The Psalms minister mightily to us in a unique way because they give us language for every season of the soul—joy, lament, thanksgiving, weeping, praise, etc.

Learning to Lament

I also mentioned in the Star article that Psalms 1–41 will take us into some relatively uncharted territory. As we study them, we will learn to lament together. Now let me be quick to say that we will do more than lament. Psalms 1–41 will certainly expand our vocabulary and our poetic ability to express joy, thanksgiving, and praise, but our greatest growth may come as we expand our underdeveloped vocabulary for lament. These Psalms speak for us when the wounds run so deep that we are at a loss for words. They speak for us when the darkness closes in and covers us like a heavy, dark, smothering blanket. Can anyone here today relate to this description?

Please do not draw the wrong connotation in your mind whenever I mention the word lament. A lament is not a grumpy gripe session filled with grumbling and murmuring. It is a cry to God in time of need. A biblical lament is not a lead balloon. It is a faith-filled cry that rises to God because it is filled with the helium of hope in God. It is the opposite of cynicism. Cynicism would say, “Why cry out? Nobody will hear, and nobody cares.” A lament is the opposite. It says, “I will cry out to the only One who truly hears and the only One who fully cares and the only One who is mighty enough to do anything about it.”

This series will help us know what to do with our weakness, which we heard about a lot in 2 Corinthians. You know who are experts at lament? Children. I don’t mean that they are always complaining. I mean that they know what to do when something goes wrong. They cry out, “Dad!” They run to you when they fall off their bike or scrape their knee. We need to learn to be more childlike. A lament is learning to be childlike with our weakness. We scrape our souls in a fallen world, and we cry out, “Father!” It helps to have an Almighty Father who is the King of the Universe.

Therefore, a lament is an essential tool in joy’s toolbox. It allows you to be authentic and not plastic in your fight for delight in God. A lament is inseparable from the fight for delight in Christ. A lament does two things: it clarifies, and it testifies. It clarifies that true light and life are found in Christ alone. When all other earthly hopes fail and all other earthly lights fade, we still have the true light—the light of Christ.

But a lament also testifies, even as it clarifies. A lament is a testimony spoken in the darkness. It declares that the true light shines in the darkness and that the darkness has not overcome it. The darkness tries. It comes on hard. The atmosphere feels cold, and the situation feels scary and uncertain, but there is still a light. We are drawn all the more to this light as our only lifeline. When the light of Christ is the only thing left shining, we testify that he is still here and that he is enough.

We are serious about joy at Bethlehem. We don’t have to force it to become a focus. In fact, it may surprise you to hear that I think the main point of the Psalms is joy in Christ. Learning to lament will serve the cause of our corporate joy in Christ.

Introduction to Psalms 1–2

Take note of something with me. Psalms 1–2 are called the Gateway Psalms. They are like the preface of the book, which alerts the reader to what the book is all about. It is no accident that Psalm 1 begins with the word for happiness and that the last line of Psalm 2 repeats the same word for happiness. The Psalms answer the question of where true happiness is found. The answer of Psalm 1–2 is that true happiness is found in following the way of the word of God (Psalm 1) which leads you to the Son of God (Psalm 2). 

If we only look at Psalm 1 and its message, the point is that God’s way in his word is the only way to everlasting joy. Psalm 1 has three stanzas that are each marked by a contrast. Perhaps the simplest way to walk through the text would be to state the three stanzas as three questions. 

These questions just happened to rhyme. It was not intentional, but we are in the genre of poetry, so I thought I would just go with it. Hopefully the rhyming makes it easier to remember. Don’t worry—I’m not going to rap it or do this every week.

Picture the points this way. First, what company do you keep (vv. 1–2)? This first point is the foundation or the beginning of the journey. Second, where do your roots go deep (vv. 3–4)? The two ways keep getting further apart as we see the results of following them. Last, what judgment do you reap (vv. 5–6)? This point is the conclusion, in which we see where each road ends.

1. What Company Do You Keep? (vv. 1–2)

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.

Here we are introduced to a singular “righteous man.” He is most clearly identified by the company he keeps. We start first with the company he does not keep. There is an emphatic note of separation between the righteous and the unrighteous. There are two ways—and only two ways. The righteous man does not follow the way of the wicked.

Take note of the poetic drumbeat here that describes the unrighteous—it gets louder and louder with intensity. The unrighteous are described with three terms: wicked (or ungodly), sinners, and scorners.

The first term is the most basic. The ungodly are fundamentally separate from God. They are not part of God’s people. They are outside of God’s covenant, so they are separated from his saving promises and thus have a guilty status before God.

The second word, sinners, refers to missing God’s mark or God’s way. Most often it refers to sinning against God by missing or falling short of God’s standards as revealed in his Law. Judges 20:16 gives us a word picture for what sin is when it uses this same word to describe stone slingers who do not “miss the mark.”

The final note of rebellion against God is found in the word scorners. They are outside of God’s people. They sin against God, and they also ridicule God, his ways, and the righteous who follow his ways. We will hear some of their mockery in the next Psalm and throughout this whole series.

The three verbs and prepositional phrases—walk in the counsel, stand in the way, and sit in the seat—also ring with rising intensity. The picture is someone who is on a journey and gradually begins to give attention or listen to the advice or counsel of the ungodly and then halts to stand and consider their way of life and finally sits down to join them and identify with them—to laugh when they laugh and ridicule what they ridicule.

Perhaps the best narrative word picture of this downward slide is found in the story of Lot in Genesis. Lot first pitched his tent near the anti-god city of Sodom. Then he moved into the town. Later, he was ridiculed by the people of Sodom as someone sitting in the gate like a magistrate who could now stand as judge over their behavior.

This question makes us look at our loves and our longings. Where do we pause and linger? Where do we take our stand? Where do we abide, where do we feel at home, or where do we find a settled seat of belonging? There are only two options: Are we at home with the thinking, living, and laughing of those in rebellion against God and his way, or do we delight in the way of the Lord in his Word?

That is the next point of contrast. Look at the company the righteous man keeps (v. 2). He is not only known by what he avoids or what he is against—he is known by what he enjoys, what he is for. The righteous or godly person has the happy blessing of walking with God through his Word. Two things stand out here in the relationship between the godly person and the word of God. The word of God is this person’s pleasure and preoccupation. 

Let’s look at pleasure first. The psalmist begins by describing his pleasure—his love and delight with the Word: “but his delight is in the Law of the Lord” (v. 2).Some people get tripped up on this phrase “the Law of the Lord.” In its most basic form, it refers to the instructions of the Lord. We will find the psalmist expressing his exquisite delight in the Lord’s word again in Psalm 19: 

More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.—Psalm 19:10 

It tastes so sweet that the righteous person cannot just eat and run. A righteous person keeps coming back for more. The things that bring you pleasure become your preoccupation. I see this with sports and fishing and hunting and gardening and shopping. It is a law of the soul. We see what we delight in by what we can’t stop doing.

Look at his preoccupation with the Word: “and on his law he meditates day and night” (v. 2). The word the psalmist uses to describe the process of savoring God’s Word is meditate. The word here means “mouthing or mumbling the words under one’s breath.” You have found instruction of supreme value, so you want to keep it by repeating it to yourself.

Here is another way to visualize what this means. One commentator said that meditating is like muttering in an undertone. He gives an example:

This ‘meditating’ might be similar to what I do when I (un-male-like) have to stop and ask directions. A service or petrol station attendant may give me directions, then I repeat them to him/her to confirm that I have them correct, mutter them to myself once or twice as I walk back to our vehicle, and then repeat them to my wife when I get in. One has to work it in, so to speak.—Dale Ralph Davis, The Way of the Righteous in the Muck of Life, p. 17.

You have to work in it to work it in. The righteous person knows he needs directions from God or he will get lost. This description goes further. He doesn’t just mutter them to himself for a few moments; he mutters them “day and night” (v. 2). This phrase does not mean only in the morning and at night—it refers to the whole day by referring to its beginning and end. That is why I called it a preoccupation; it occupies your thoughts from sunup to sundown.

Many people think of Christians as self-deniers. They think that the world pursues pleasure while Christians prudishly abstain. But that is a flat-out falsehood. We are all defined directed by our pursuit of pleasure.

What kind of separation is this? It is not a physical separation as much as a spiritual saturation from the Word. You are what you eat. If you eat enough cream puffs, you become one. What is the source of your nourishment, the source of your information? People are always asking for the source of some information or perspective. This righteous man is decisively defined by the counsel of God, the ways of God, and a settled sense of belonging to God. He walks with God. God’s counsel is what matters most. God’s ways matter most. A settled sense of belonging to God matters most.

Where do we find God and hear from God and walk with God? In the book that he breathed out! We delight in the book of God where we find his thoughts and his ways and his heart. God’s book is breathed out by God. God made the first man by breathing into him the breath of life. God has breathed out his breath of life into a book now. When we read it, we breathe it in. Unbelievers read the Bible and think that God has bad breath. Believers read the Bible and love the breath of God. It is our delight. We love to linger there. 

So let’s get practical here. Meditating can look like several different things that you do with the Word—or more accurately that the Word does with you. You may find yourself memorizing Scripture so you can have God’s word in bed, at work, in the car, on vacation, or wherever you are. You may find yourself speaking to God about the Word, turning over phrases and sections and then turning them into prayers, in which you say and pray these phrases back to God. You may even find yourself wrestling with the Word, which means you need to talk back to yourself and your own rebel thoughts. As Martyn Lloyd–Jones said, the Psalmist had to stop listening to himself and start preaching to himself. 

Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.—Psalm 42:5

You grab yourself by the collar and confront yourself . You ask yourself why your aren’t believing this. You remind yourself to stop already with the rebel thoughts, to go God’s way, and to hope in him.

The two ways are really about being rooted in one of two realities: the Word or the world.

2. Where Do Your Roots Go Deep? (vv. 3–4)

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

There are only two ways, and thus they are only two realities into which one can be rooted: the Word or the world.

The godly man is rooted deeply into the Word. The psalmist uses a spectacular image—which is the image we chose in our artwork to define this series—a tree with roots sinking down deep into well-watered soil (v. 3). If the tree represents the righteous man, then the streams of water refer to the waters of the Word. The righteous man drinks in the Word. His source of life and vitality is God’s word. 

The ESV misses a vital connection. In Hebrew, verse three begins with and. This highlights an important connection is made clear: when your pleasure and preoccupation are the word of God (v. 2), the result is a flourishing and fruitful life (vv. 3–4).

We don’t have time to look at all the phrases and take them apart, so let us see them together in their totality. One commentator described the picture using the words stability, vitality, productivity, durability, and prosperity. This righteous man is a picture of stability (“planted”), productivity (“yields its fruit”), durability (“does not wither”) and prosperity (“in all that he does he prospers”). This stability, productivity, durability, and prosperity all come from the vitality of rootedness in the waters of the Word.

I should take a moment to address a potential question here. In a series where lament will stand out so prominently, it may feel like a shock to read these seven words: “In all that he does, he prospers” (v. 3). Does that sound like your experience? Is that what we should expect?

As Dale Ralph Davis says, the psalmist is painting with broad brushstrokes here. He is not going to ruin a good summary by cluttering it up with howevers and neverthelesses. The discerning reader can already hear that the righteous man will be opposed because the Psalmist has already described the way that the ungodly ridicule the righteous in verse 1. We will get to some of the other nasty things like worldwide rebellion in Psalm 2 and the desperation of David in Psalm 3.

In contrast to the godly man, who is rooted in the Word, the only other option is being rooted in the reality of the world in rebellion against God. Psalm 2 highlights this contrast by showing that the ungodly also have a form of meditation. Psalm 2 uses the same word for muttering, but the content is very different. Psalm 2 says that the ungodly meditate upon rebellion against God. They murmur about breaking off the shackles of God’s rule so they can go our own way and be free to do whatever they want. Are you neck-deep in league with the world’s rebellion against God? 

If you are in rebellion against God, you may have roots in the world, but the world is going to pass away. You don’t have roots that sink into anything solid. You have built a house not on the rock but on the sand. That is the picture of the ungodly: “The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away” (v. 4). 

The picture the psalmist uses to describe the ungodly is very different than the picture he uses for the righteous. He takes us to the threshing floor. At a threshing floor, harvested wheat was crushed with a threshing sledge. Go to a breezy spot. Watch the farmer’s fork scoop up the grain and throw it into the air. The wheat has weight, so it falls to the ground, but the weightless, worthless husks are blown away by the wind and totally forgotten. Good riddance. Have you ever seen someone drop an important piece of paper and run after it while it is blown away? That is not the picture here. The farmer does not say, “O no, my chaff!” and then run after it. It is worthless.

It should be obvious that the wind here is a picture of judgment. Compared to a deeply rooted tree (which bends with the wind but stands firm), the wicked are like a tumbleweed that is blown across the desert. The judgment to come brings eternal clarity and instant perspective. 

3. What Judgment Will You Reap? (vv. 5–6)

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.

Perhaps the best way to decide whether a way is worthwhile or not is to trace out its end. The way of the wicked may seem popular, but it ends with God’s judgment. The wicked won’t stand—they will fall. Sinners will forever be separate from the congregation of the righteous. True happiness cannot be found on a path that leads to perishing.

The Lord loves his people and takes intimate delight in them. Verse 6 says that he knows their way. The word for knows is not a word that refers to mere intellectual knowledge. God knows everything. This word is sometimes used to describe the intimate way a husband knows his wife.

God carefully watches over his people. As Psalm 17 says, “Keep me as the apple of your eye” (Psalm 17:8). This is lavish language. What a contrast! The Lord has constant care over the righteous as the apple of his eye, but he neglects the wicked the way that a farmer does not run after worthless chaff.

Conclusion

You can see why Psalm 1 is Psalm 1—it brings crystal clear clarity right from the start. The Psalms are all about finding our eternal happiness. God’s word shows the way. Psalm 1 begins with the word for happiness and ends on the note of perishing. 

This is essential for us to see in a world that refuses to see reality in black and white. We have many choices and many possibilities. If we don’t like one product, we can buy another. Advertising caters to this sense of entitlement of finding whatever way works for us. “Have it your way” is a slogan that many people live out. Many people think that way religiously, too. They say there are many ways to God and that no way could be called better or truer.

Psalm 1 says all of this talk is sophisticated baloney. It calls a spade a spade. There are only two ways: one that leads to life and one that leads to destruction.

Notice that it is not just our choice that determines the end but our delight. We are defined by our delight. Delight determines destiny. Where is your source of delight? What we enjoy reveals the deepest truths about who we are and where we are headed.

What will you be standing on when the last day comes? Will you be able to say, “On Christ the solid rock I stand”? Psalm 1 begs that question.

You may have noticed that I have constantly referred to the righteous man. The text forces us to ask that question because a specific, godly individual is held up as an example for others to imitate. Who is this righteous man that Psalm 1 describes?

Someone could easily take the description in broad brushstrokes and say that the perfect form of the verbs here is just describing a characteristic of two different ways or two different categories of people. Other commentators note the perfect form of the verbs and take them as stunningly stark or almost absolute.

I used to read Psalm 1 as primarily describing God’s people in the plural—as a picture of Christians. But I never considered the starkness of the picture. The righteous man described in Psalm 1 never goes the way of the wicked. He always delights in the Word of God. Even if we follow the Word generally more than we follow the world, how much is enough? Are we talking about a certain percentage? More than half the time? Seventy-five percent of the time? What do we need to do to stand in the judgment? 

I can think of many times that I have listened to the world, stopped to ponder their ways, and even sat with them in sin and scorn. What about those times? Reading Psalm 1 with this starkness shows me my unrighteousness and my need for a Savior—the one truly righteous man. We can apply Psalm 1 to ourselves only after we see that Christ is the only one to fulfill it perfectly.

Harry Ironside told of a visit that a man named Joseph Flacks made to Palestine. Flacks had an opportunity to speak to a gathering of Jews and Arabs, and so he chose to talk through Psalm 1. After he walked through the text, he asked, “Who is this blessed man of whom the psalmist speaks? This man never walked in the counsel of the wicked or stood in the way of sinners or sat in the seat of mockers. He was an absolutely sinless man.”

Nobody spoke. So Flacks asked, “Was he our great father Abraham?”

One old man said, “No, it cannot be Abraham. He denied his wife and told a lie about her.”

So Flacks asked, “Well, how about the lawgiver Moses?” 

“No,” someone said. “It cannot be Moses. He killed a man, and he lost his temper by the waters of Meribah.”

Flacks suggested David. “No,” his listeners told him, “he committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband Uriah killed.”

There was silence for a long while. Then an elderly Jew arose and said, “My brothers, I have a little book here; it is called the New Testament. I have been reading it; and if I could believe this book, if I could be sure that it is true, I would say that the man of the first Psalm was Jesus of Nazareth” (quoted in James Montgomery Boice, Psalms, Vol. 1, p. 19).

Exactly. Jesus is the Word of God in the flesh. He is the one who stands at the door of the Psalter and greets everyone who enters. It is only through him that we can stand in the judgment. Without Jesus, Psalm 1 provides the categories of my condemnation. It reveals my rebellion. With Jesus, Psalm 1 provides the categories that show me the greatness of Jesus and adoration for what the Righteous One did for me in my place.

Matthew 7 says enter by the narrow gate.

For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.—Matthew 7:13–14

Psalms begins with the theme of two ways as an introduction to the rest of the book, and Jesus ended his most famous sermon with the same theme as the conclusion. Two ways, two trees, two confessions, and two foundations. There is a broad way that is heavily populated, but it leads to unspeakable darkness and destruction. There is a narrow way that is less traveled, but it leads to blessed joy and life.

Our measure for whether or not we love the word of God is not a legalistic time log. It’s not about how much time in the Word you have logged. It’s not about how many times you have read the Bible straight through. It’s about the Word who became flesh. Do you embrace or reject him? Neutrality is not an option. Neglecting something of ultimate value is the same as rejecting it. Neglect springs from failing to supremely value that which is supremely valuable.

Through the written Word, God will show you the incarnate Word again and again. It doesn’t show us a way so we can work our way to God. It reveals the Savior who is the way so that we can rest in his salvation. 

What is a Christians’ greatest delight? Our delight is what are we found meditating upon and muttering about all day long: “Hallelujah, all I have is Christ.” When I face the judgment, I will stand and sing, “Jesus is my life!” How happy is the man who takes refuge in him!

 

Sermon Discussion Questions

Outline

1. What Company Do You Keep? (vv. 1–2) 
2. Where Do Your Roots Go Deep? (vv. 3–4) 
3. What Judgment Will You Reap? (vv. 5–6)

Main Point: The Psalms answer the question, "Where is true happiness found?" The answer of Psalm 1–2 is that true happiness is found in following the way of the word of God (Psalm 1), which shows us the way to take refuge in the Son of God (Psalm 2). 

Discussion Questions

1. What is a biblical lament? How does a lament both clarify and testify? 
2. Verse 1 describes how the righteous person avoids a gradual slide of siding with the unrighteous. How does the Psalmist use a pattern of three to highlight a rising note of intensity?
3. How does the Psalmist define the relationship of the righteous person to the word of God in verse 2?
4. The Psalmist contrasts the righteous as a tree with the unrighteous as chaff in verses 3–4. Unpack the differences. 

Application Questions

1. Describe your relationship to the word of God. How does your relationship to it compare to the righteous person of Psalm 1? How can we as Christians grow in the practice of meditating upon the word?
2. Reflect upon the final judgment. If delight determines destiny, what does it say about where you are heading and what the end will look like for you?
3. Where do we find hope for the times that we have listened to the counsel of the ungodly or taken our stand with sinners or sat down with the scorners?

Prayer Focus

Pray for a grace of being planted and rooted in the Word, and that it would become a sweeter pleasure and a deeper preoccupation.