July 22, 2005

Reading through the Bible in one Year: Nehemiah 10:1-12:47; Acts 14:8-8:28

Good Afternoon Brothers and Sisters,

Psalm 1 (NASB95)
¹ How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! ² But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night. ³ He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers. ⁴ The wicked are not so, But they are like chaff which the wind drives away. ⁵ Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. ⁶ For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the wicked will perish.^[1]

It is commonly held that Psalm 1 is the introduction to Psalms, while Psalm 2 is the introduction to Psalms 1-41.  This makes sense when you read through this Psalm.  Yet it is more an introduction to Christian life that I am interested in.

Picture in your mind a man standing between two groups of people.  This man stands between the righteous people and the common people.  He stands choosing between the people who live according to the world’s standards and those who do not live according to the worlds standards. 

Look at the description of the happy man, (blessed) who does not "walk, stand or sit".  The unhappy man considers the way of the world, stands to talk with them, and eventually sits with them in fellowship.  Ecclesiastes speaks to this very problem as it talks about the futility of life.  When you look at the tremendous lifestyles of the rich and famous, compared to the devastating ways that they kill themselves with drugs and suicide, it brings this verse into perspective.  The way of the world may be appealing and pleasing to the ear, but in the end it does not bring happiness.

The happy man delights in the law of the Lord.  The Old Testament word for law is "torah", which both speaks about God's commands and about the first five books of the Old Testament.  The happy man will immerse himself in the word of God, meditating on it day and night.  Compare that to the unhappy man described in verse 1, the unhappy man is immersed in the ways of the world. 

Jeremiah 17:8 (NASB95)
⁸ “For he will be like a tree planted by the water, That extends its roots by a stream And will not fear when the heat comes; But its leaves will be green, And it will not be anxious in a year of drought Nor cease to yield fruit.

Ezekiel 19:10 (NASB95)
¹⁰ ‘Your mother was like a vine in your vineyard, Planted by the waters; It was fruitful and full of branches Because of abundant waters.

Jeremiah 17:13-15 (NASB95)
¹³ O Lord, the hope of Israel, All who forsake You will be put to shame. Those who turn away on earth will be written down, Because they have forsaken the fountain of living water, even the Lord. ¹⁴ Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed; Save me and I will be saved, For You are my praise. ¹⁵ Look, they keep saying to me, “Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come now!”

Zechariah 14:8 (NASB95)
⁸ And in that day living waters will flow out of Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and the other half toward the western sea; it will be in summer as well as in winter.

John 4:11-14 (NASB95)
¹¹ She said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water? ¹² “You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?” ¹³ Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; ¹⁴ but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

John 7:37-39 (NASB95)
³⁷ Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. ³⁸ “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’ ” ³⁹ But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Revelation 7:17 (NASB95)
¹⁷ for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes.”^[2]

Verse 3 ties one and two together, the Psalmist speaks about the benefit of living according to the Word of God.  Look at the other references regarding living water that we see in the scriptures.  Jesus spoke about the living water and how that it applies to our lives, I copied a few verses regarding this concept. 

Note though, the fruit does not come right away, it comes "in its season".  As the son of a farmer I know that before the season of harvest comes, a crop has to endure all different kinds of weather, dangers from bugs and disease.  In other words, even though we may spend all of our days and nights in the Word, we are not exempted from the trials of life that come our way.  Yet our happiness is not hinged upon the standard view according to the world.  Our happiness is hinged upon God in our lives.  Whatever we do, we will prosper spiritually and gain spiritual happiness if we immerse ourselves in the word of God.

Verses 4-6 are a sharp contrast to this promise.  Be careful with this verse though, the wicked do not experience any ill effects that separate themselves from the believers.  They grow together with the believers until the harvest.  At that time, they are separated from the righteous like chaff from the wheat.  They simply are not allowed to stand in the assembly of the righteous.  God knows who are his people.  Jesus also spoke about this concept when He was teaching on earth.

Matthew 13:25-30 (NASB95)
²⁵ “But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away. ²⁶ “But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also. ²⁷ “The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ ²⁸ “And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’ The slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?’ ²⁹ “But he said, ‘No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them. ³⁰ ‘Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ”^[3]

The righteous and the unrighteous look very similar as they are growing in life.  Contrary to popular belief, all men will stand before the Lord in judgment.  According to Psalm 1, we have the choice of living in this world experiencing the happiness of the Lord, or we live out our lives with the mundane way of the world.  The end of all men will be the same, all of us will die and all of us will stand judgment.

Another aspect that is hinted at in this Psalm is that we are built for relationship with God.  The happiness that we experience is directly dependant upon the restored relationship between ourselves and our God.  Righteous indicates that the relationship that we have with God has been made right, therefore we are living as designed.  Consider Adam for a moment, he broke relationship with God and moved to live in unrighteousness because he was designed to have a relationship with God.  In order for us to live in true happiness, we have to restore our relationship with God.  The Psalmist had the law to direct the way to patch up the relationship between man and God, we have a much better way.  Through Jesus we have the opportunity to have our sins forgiven and draw very near to God.  He promised us that through the Holy Spirit, we have access constantly to the river of living water.  Therefore Christian, if you are not happy in your life, if you are not satisfied and happy in your walk with the Lord, then something might be wrong.  What happens when bad things happen to Christians?  Does that mean that they are living in sin and out of fellowship with God?  I hardly think so, rather, there are times of trouble that we go through, just like the thunderstorms that attack a farmers fields.  The end result will be happiness, a joy that is given by God. 

John 15:16 (NASB95)
¹⁶ “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. ^[4]

One last note on this chapter, the tree firmly planted is actually better translated as firmly "transplanted".  God transplants us beside His stream of water, that gives a little different perspective.

I am going to close here, all comments are welcomed.

Father, as we consider Your word today, I pray that each of us will learn to draw from your living water to bring your peace and joy in our daily lives.

In Him,

Joe Turner.