Show Notes
"Legal Meditation" Psalm 1:2
Covenant OPC, Tucson AZ. August 16, 2026 5pm
Pastor Stephen Lauer
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Have spoken. And as yous spoke the Word, your Son came forth into the world, so that as Jesus came, we might come to know youw.
[00:00:16] Lord God, we thank youk for this precious word which leads us to repentance and to turn and receive the salvation that yout give us.
[00:00:28] We thank you too, for the great power of your Word, powerful to change the hearts of sinners, and so powerful that the devices and plans of men to persecute it and to silence it do not avail.
[00:00:45] You win. And your Word continues to go forth.
[00:00:49] And we thank and praise you for that.
[00:00:52] Because it is because of that almighty power that that Word has reached our hearts and drawn us out of darkness and into light, out of sin and misery, into faith and forgiveness, to your grace and mercy. Oh, how we thank and praise you for that.
[00:01:12] We are reminded too, that as that Word goes forth, it does face great opposition.
[00:01:19] And we know, Lord God, that your Word has been proclaimed in many places today where society has banned Christianity and where the government and the people around are persecuting your saints.
[00:01:34] Lord, we ask that you would be near to them, that you would protect and preserve them, and that you would use their witness and their proclamation of your Word to bring your kingdom to yet more places and more corners of this dark world.
[00:01:55] Turning now, O God, to the word that we are about to hear and meditate on, we ask that our hearts would be opened by your spirit, that we might feed upon your Word a like bread from heaven, and that doing so we might receive Jesus and His saving life giving power.
[00:02:16] In his name we pray. Amen.
[00:02:21] We're going to read together the first Psalm.
[00:02:25] We're going to focus on verse two, but we'll read the whole Psalm now. Psalm 1.
[00:02:32] This is God's word for you and for me.
[00:02:35] So listen.
[00:02:37] 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.
[00:02:47] But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.
[00:02:54] He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither, and in all that he does he prospers.
[00:03:07] The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
[00:03:12] Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
[00:03:20] For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
[00:03:26] Please be seated.
[00:03:38] All of us have things that we think about and that we think about deeply, things that we focus on.
[00:03:47] Sometimes it's deliberate, intentional, that we focus on those things.
[00:03:53] Other times it's perhaps the circumstances of life that are sort of pressing in on us, and we can't help but ponder those things.
[00:04:04] But as we meditate on or chew on, mentally chew on certain ideas or things going on around us, it has an effect on our lives.
[00:04:17] Here's an easy example.
[00:04:20] Good students study well. They study hard, they think hard and meditate on, memorize the things they're supposed to study.
[00:04:34] And bad students, they skip all of that and they walk right into the test, right? And whether they've studied and memorized and thought about and come to understand the material they're supposed to be studying, biology or math, whatever it is, it has an effect, right? That you see in the test. The good student does well on the test, and the bad student probably doesn't do so well, right? That's an easy example.
[00:05:02] You can take it other places. If you have a career, you're a doctor or whatever it is you happen to do, whatever your job is, you can do that job well or do it poorly. And often a big part of whether you do that job well or you do it poorly has to do with whether you study your craft.
[00:05:21] You think about, how can I do this job better? How can I be more efficient? How can I have a better attention to detail? How do I memorize people's names? Whatever the work is that you're doing, if you think about and you work hard at getting better at your job, well, there'll be an outcome there. And if you don't, you'll just keep cruising along wherever you're at.
[00:05:44] Those are some easy examples. But there are harder examples, right?
[00:05:50] If we have difficult things in life, a tragedy, maybe you lose your job, and maybe things aren't going well at your job. Maybe that's an easier example. Things aren't going well at your job, what do you tend to do? Those circumstances, they're pressing, weighing on your mind and your heart. And when you go home, you begin to think about it and worry about it, and it tends to affect your demeanor, right? Maybe you're sad, maybe you're anxious, you're worried. And when you go back to work, it may affect your performance at your job, right? The things that we ponder, think about deeply tend to affect us.
[00:06:30] And there's a principle there that's very biblical.
[00:06:34] Whatever your heart is holding onto, whatever it's meditating on, fixated on where your treasure is there your heart will be Also, Jesus says the life flows out of what the heart is holding onto.
[00:06:52] Here in this first psalm, we're told about the blessed man, the righteous man, that he delights in God's law and that he meditates on God's law day and night.
[00:07:07] I want to look with you this evening at the idea in this verse particularly of meditating on God's law.
[00:07:17] Here's your three points if you're taking notes. First, we'll look at this legal meditation. What does it mean to meditate on the law?
[00:07:27] Secondly, I want to look with you at Jesus meditation.
[00:07:31] And thirdly, the blessing of meditation or the blessings of meditation.
[00:07:38] So first, this legal meditation, meditating on God's law.
[00:07:46] The first two verses of this psalm describe the righteous man over against the ungodly or the wicked man.
[00:07:53] The righteous man is described in two parts. First, verse one.
[00:07:58] Basically, he avoids sinners and sinful things.
[00:08:02] He avoids the wicked. He doesn't go near them, he doesn't listen to them, he doesn't do their things. He's not friends with him, he avoids the wicked.
[00:08:12] On the positive side, we're told that he delights and meditates on God's law.
[00:08:19] And there are action ideas to describe both aspects here, both sides of things. He does not walk, stand or sit relative to wickedness.
[00:08:31] He avoids evil things and sinners, their advice, their ways. He stays out of their way, he doesn't find himself in their way and getting caught up in their things.
[00:08:45] And he even avoids their table fellowship. He won't sit with them.
[00:08:51] So what does he do all day long and all night long, all the time, round the clock? The righteous man pursues and ponders God's law.
[00:09:07] I think we're meant to take both of these together, take each idea, each verse and kind of put them together.
[00:09:17] Everything he does, walking, standing, sitting, is all devoted to God's law. That all the time he's pondering and meditating on the actions in the life flow out of the fact that his heart is caught up in God's law, which he meditates on.
[00:09:40] So what does it mean to meditate on God's law?
[00:09:44] It's probably not that hard. This isn't describing something that Buddhist monks do with silence and gong sitting in painful positions and all of that. This isn't talking about painful, I'm sorry, pagan practices of meditation.
[00:10:01] It's talking about thinking carefully about God's truths that he has told us about in his word, particularly in his law.
[00:10:12] To think deeply about the truths of His Word, to Memorize them so that you can carry them around with you all day long. And having memorized and repeated those words of God back to yourself, then to probe them, what do those ideas mean and what do they mean in relationship to each other? And as I ponder them and roll them around in my mind and carry them in my heart, how do I relate to those ideas?
[00:10:49] Are they a reflection of me? Are there things in me that need to change relative to God's law?
[00:10:55] It means to focus intently on the truths of God's law, become so familiar with them that they're like a very familiar tool. I don't know if you have that. Most of us have a tool we're very familiar with that we could use hardly without thinking of it.
[00:11:11] And it's a pencil or a pen.
[00:11:14] You hold it. You don't even think about how you hold it, but you have that way that you hold it. And some of us are able to write beautiful handwriting with it, right? Some of us, not me.
[00:11:25] And some of us are able to use that tool to draw beautiful pictures.
[00:11:30] We become intensely familiar with that pencil or pen. You can probably think of other tools that you become familiar with. You've spent so much time with it, so much time using it, that it's become second nature to you.
[00:11:46] You've been shaped by. By it.
[00:11:50] As you meditate on God's law, it becomes a part of you and you are changed by it.
[00:11:59] What's in view, though, when he says God's law? There's something about describing this idea of meditating.
[00:12:05] You can keep thinking about that, trying it every day. How do you meditate on God's law? When's a good time to be pondering God's law? You can go home and think about that. Work on that. Try it out.
[00:12:17] But what is the law of the Lord, the law of Jehovah that's in view in verse two, that he delights in and meditates on day and night? What do you think about when you hear the word law or God's law?
[00:12:33] Maybe you think of a list of rules of bad and good, right?
[00:12:37] This rule tells me what to do and what not to do. Morality, perhaps. You think of certainly any of us who've spent any time in the church or reading our Bibles. We're very familiar with the Ten Commandments, and that probably pops into a lot of our minds when we read this verse. Oh, he's meditating on something like the Ten Commandments, a code of right and wrong.
[00:13:01] So let's ponder. Meditate on The Ten Commandments for just a minute. What's in them?
[00:13:07] What happens when we ponder them?
[00:13:11] Let's take the first commandment, Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
[00:13:19] Ponder that.
[00:13:21] What truths are embedded in or flow out of or connected with that one simple commandment.
[00:13:32] Certainly, if you, God's people are to have no other gods before me, God is telling us that there is a God, that he is that God.
[00:13:45] He's telling us that he's the true God and that he's the only one worthy of our worship and service.
[00:13:54] You can see how meditating, even on a simple commandment like that, you begin to see how the, the ideas flow out of it. And you can begin to connect those ideas with other Bible ideas, other truths and truths of our own lives.
[00:14:11] How about another one? The sixth commandment, Thou shalt not kill.
[00:14:17] Chew on that for a minute.
[00:14:20] God's putting a boundary, a protection around life.
[00:14:27] God is protecting life.
[00:14:30] God has created and given life and he wants it protected, preserved.
[00:14:37] He wants life to be cherished and nourished.
[00:14:42] He wants us to nurture life in ourselves, in our loved ones.
[00:14:51] As you ponder God's law and you meditate on it, you begin to connect it with other ideas and different parts of the law. You begin to realize that you're not just dealing with a set of rules, that I should follow these ones and do these things and not do these other things over here.
[00:15:10] But in God's law, you have to do with God himself, that God's laws are a reflection of his own righteous character, his goodness and his holiness.
[00:15:26] But it tells you something more. Even the reflections we've already made on tells us not just something about who God is in terms of what's right and what's wrong.
[00:15:38] It also tells us that God is a God who has a concern for his creatures.
[00:15:44] He wants to protect them. He cares for his creatures.
[00:15:49] You may even begin to see that in the law of God there's something of God's love for his creatures, that God's not just and righteous and holy, but also there's something of his love there.
[00:16:07] So as you begin to ponder, meditate on the law of God, you hopefully pretty quickly begin to see that it's a deep thing, something worth spending time on, worth pondering, worth turning over in your mind and meditating on.
[00:16:24] Because as you do so, you begin to learn about this righteous and good God.
[00:16:32] But is it just his justice and holiness and a little bit of his care for his creatures?
[00:16:38] Think about the Ten Commandments. There's More there. Even just in that brief summary, there's far more than just his justice and his holiness.
[00:16:50] Think about that commandment where he says he's so concerned for his name that he's going to judge those, hold them accountable, who take his name in vain. But he also says that he shows mercy to thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.
[00:17:08] The law of God also unveils the mercy and kindness of God.
[00:17:16] And if you expand beyond the Ten Commandments, other parts of God's law, you find God's mercy all over the place. This morning we were looking at God's care for widows and the kinsman Redeemer that was a part of God's law, showing that he required his people to care for widows.
[00:17:38] There's lots of laws protecting the widows, the orphans, the poor.
[00:17:43] There's relief from those who are strapped with crippling debts. All over the place you find not just the justice and righteousness, but also the mercy and compassion of God.
[00:17:54] Here in God's laws, you meditate on it. You begin to learn about God and his character and our relationship to him.
[00:18:06] But as you meditate on God's law and you think about this psalm, you should run into a problem.
[00:18:17] Everything you do, walking, standing, sitting, all the time, day and night, everything, all the time.
[00:18:27] Do you delight in God's law and meditate on it?
[00:18:32] And does that life you live all day long reflect a heart that's enraptured, delighting in God and His law?
[00:18:43] You keep reading in the psalm and you start to ask yourself, well, now, wait a minute. Am I that perfect tree that bears fruit in every season and its leaf doesn't wither?
[00:18:58] Do you prosper in everything that you do?
[00:19:04] And then you read a little further in the psalm and you say, now wait a minute. If I'm not that tree that has life, that's fruit bearing, that doesn't wither, then I'm like that withered chaff that the wind blows away.
[00:19:20] You've only got two options. See, you're either the righteous that's blessed like the tree, or you're the wicked that's going to be blown away by God's fire on the judgment day.
[00:19:35] There's a problem with meditating on the law of God and a problem in this psalm. And we need to get a better grip of this meditation business.
[00:19:46] Secondly, we want to look at Jesus meditation.
[00:19:52] Many of us, I don't know. I haven't done a poll. Many of us are not too familiar with what the psalm calls the Law of the Lord. Maybe we've heard the Ten Commandments.
[00:20:03] We have a basic understanding of that summary of the law of God.
[00:20:09] But in order to understand the psalm, we need to understand a little bit more, actually a lot bit more about what the psalmist is talking about when he talks about meditating on the law of the Lord.
[00:20:23] I think it's fair to say that a lot of us read this psalm, hear statements about the righteous man being blessed because he meditates on the law of God and he doesn't do evil, but instead he practices righteousness.
[00:20:38] We hear those statements, we hear this about the law, and we think maybe that God is telling us here.
[00:20:45] If I learn the do's and don'ts, and I meditate on those, I do all the right things and I live a good life and I'm fruitful, then I'll stand in the day of judgment.
[00:20:58] Now, that's not what he's saying.
[00:21:01] That's not what the psalmist is saying.
[00:21:05] We are not capable of the righteousness described in this psalm.
[00:21:10] We are incapable.
[00:21:14] We do not have the capacity for this. The Bible is very clear.
[00:21:19] We, in our righteousness, however meager that is, whatever the good things, you add them all up your whole life long. All of the fruit that you think you can pick up that's fallen off the tree that you are, that you've produced, if you were to pick all of that righteousness up, you still would not stand in the day of judgment.
[00:21:39] Paul says it this way. All have sinned.
[00:21:43] All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
[00:21:47] He's saying that in the judgment day all of us have not borne sufficient fruit and been sufficiently righteous that we will stand in the day of judgment.
[00:21:59] To put it in the psalmist terms here, Jesus gives us a clue to understanding this psalm. If you were to go back and read the five books of Moses carefully and then come back to this psalm, do your homework, you could figure out what he's saying. But we're going to cheat and go forward to what Jesus says.
[00:22:19] He says the same idea in several different places. But in John 5:39, he says to the Jews that he's talking to. He says, you search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life.
[00:22:35] And it is they that bear witness of me.
[00:22:40] Jesus says, the Old Testament Scriptures and the law testify to me. They are about me. Elsewhere, he tells the disciples that the law and the prophets and the Psalms, the whole Old Testament that he fulfilled was all about him.
[00:22:59] He came and he fulfilled it.
[00:23:03] And that's true of this psalm too.
[00:23:06] To meditate on the law According to Jesus principle that he gives us for reading the Old Testament, to meditate on the law is to be led to Jesus, not to be led to your own works and your own law keeping. To meditate on the law Jesus says is to be led to him, the fulfiller of the law.
[00:23:30] Well, let's look at Jesus.
[00:23:33] Did Jesus meditate on the law of God?
[00:23:37] That's an important question.
[00:23:41] You might ask it another way. Is he righteous such that he can stand in the day of judgment?
[00:23:49] The answer is that Jesus most assuredly meditated on the law of God day and night. He was born into a godly household. He was raised going to synagogue.
[00:24:02] He learned the law of God from an early age. He was born under the law, circumcised on the eighth day. He was bound to kill. Keep the law.
[00:24:15] We read in Psalm 48 where the Psalmist prophetically speaks as Jesus. It's prophecy of Jesus speaking.
[00:24:25] Here Jesus says in Psalm 48, I delight to do your will, O my God.
[00:24:32] Your law is within my heart.
[00:24:38] Jesus fulfilled Psalm 48. He came and he meditated on the law of God and fulfilled it, delighting to do it.
[00:24:47] Where do you see this? You see it all over the Gospels. But as a 12 year old Jesus parents took him up to Jerusalem and maybe you remember the story, they thought he was with them and. And they went home and they realized a day's journey that they left Jesus behind. And so they went back to Jerusalem and there they found that for three days while they were gone, Jesus had been in the temple discussing and debating God's law with the Jewish scholars, in other words the Pharisees, the scribes who were the teachers of the law. And they were astonished at 12 year old boy Jesus and his knowledge of God's law.
[00:25:32] As a 30 year old man, Jesus told the devil, man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
[00:25:44] There was Jesus 40 days and 40 nights delighting in and meditating on the law of God.
[00:25:52] And if you read Jesus teaching of the Gospels, you know it is full of the law of God.
[00:25:58] Now we're somewhat familiar with this teaching that Jesus must have meditated on the law of God because we know he fulfilled, he perfectly fulfilled the requirements of the law.
[00:26:11] He is the righteous one. The New Testament says he's the spotless Lamb of God, perfectly kept the law in our behalf. He was sinless, never broke a single law of God, day and Night, meditating on God's law. Walking, standing, sitting, Everything he did devoted to His Father.
[00:26:32] John 4:34. Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.
[00:26:41] Yes, yes. Jesus meditated on the law of God. He knew the righteousness of his heavenly father and he fulfilled it perfectly.
[00:26:54] But he didn't stop there.
[00:26:57] Jesus meditated on the law of God.
[00:27:00] As a boy, Jesus was taken to the temple.
[00:27:04] And there he watched the priests slay the offerings, drained their blood out, sprinkle it on the altar, and then burn the sacrifice on the bronze altar.
[00:27:20] What did the law say to do if a man sins?
[00:27:24] He's to take his bull or his ram or his sheep up to the temple, take it to the priest, and there have the priest make atonement for his sins.
[00:27:38] You see, the law made provision for the breaking of the law.
[00:27:44] God told his people, here's how I'm calling you to live. But I know you're not going to do it.
[00:27:49] Here's the way of forgiveness and salvation.
[00:27:53] Take the sacrifice to the priest and there make atonement for your sins.
[00:27:58] The law testified that the sinner was guilty.
[00:28:01] But God, through the law, also made a way for the sinner to be forgiven, to once again enter into God's presence, forgiveness free.
[00:28:12] And what was that way? He would take his lamb or his ram, he would take it to the priest, he would place his hand on the head of the animal, and he would confess his sins before God over the animal with the outward drama, the actions of the sacrifice, the Israelite man.
[00:28:36] Jesus, watching the Israelite man was saying, God, I deserve death because of my sin.
[00:28:47] I deserve my blood to be poured out because of my sin.
[00:28:52] And I deserve to be burned on that altar, facing the fiery judgment of God because of my sin.
[00:29:02] But God, I trust that you have made a way for me.
[00:29:06] That you will accept a sacrifice in place of me, that you will provide a priest and a lamb so that I may be forgiven and I may be accepted in your presence again.
[00:29:20] See, Jesus knew the law of God.
[00:29:23] He knew about the sacrifices and the atonement of sins.
[00:29:28] And from his earliest of ages, he meditated on God's law every day, morning and evening.
[00:29:38] The priests sacrificed two lambs. Two lambs in the morning, two lambs in the evening. Every Jew knew this, that continually, every day, morning and evening, day and night, atonement was being made for the sins of of God's people all his lifelong morning and evening, two lambs, two lambs slaughtered Blood drained, blood sprinkled, burned on the altar.
[00:30:11] And there Jesus meditated as a little boy, as a teenager, as an adult, pondering, turning over in his mind, what I have come to do your will, O God.
[00:30:29] My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to finish his work.
[00:30:39] Hebrews 10:5.
[00:30:41] Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, sacrifices and offerings. You have not desired, but a body. Body have you prepared for me.
[00:30:54] The writer of Hebrews saying that Jesus said the words of Psalm 40, verse 8 and 9, you didn't want lambs and rams.
[00:31:07] You have prepared a body, my body.
[00:31:12] As he meditated on the law of God, he was learning that his body was the lamb.
[00:31:23] He was the sacrifice that the Father would provide for the sins of his people.
[00:31:31] He meditated on the will of his Father, that he would be the suffering servant. He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities.
[00:31:46] He meditated on the reality that his body he was the mercy of God for sinners.
[00:31:56] And his heart was prepared to go to the cross.
[00:32:00] He delighted to do the Father's will as he meditated on the Father's law.
[00:32:08] He tells us as an adult, going around calling his sheep to himself, he says, I am the good shepherd.
[00:32:19] The good shepherd lays down his life.
[00:32:26] When Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
[00:32:39] He delighted to do the will of his Father, even as he said, father, as fit as possible, take this cup from me, he said, but not my will be done, but yours.
[00:33:02] There are blessings to meditation meditating on the law of God.
[00:33:08] If the problem of this psalm is how can I be the righteous man?
[00:33:13] The fruitful tree that bears fruit in season, that stands straight and tall in the judgment day, with the congregation of the righteous not withering and being blown away in judgment.
[00:33:28] The answer is in the law that the Israelite was called to meditate on day and night.
[00:33:36] Place your hand on the lamb, The Lamb that God would provide.
[00:33:49] In New Testament terms, we would say, put your faith in Jesus.
[00:33:54] Lean on Jesus. The way, the truth and the life. The way into the holy of holies is not through a lamb and a sacrifice. It's not through your righteousness and your law keeping. The way is through Jesus.
[00:34:09] He is the way, the truth and the life. He is the Lamb of God, the Lamb that God provides who takes away the sins of the world.
[00:34:22] Say in faith to God.
[00:34:26] See, Father, my Lamb, The Lamb that you provided, look on him.
[00:34:34] Receive me for his sake. I have no other lamb, no other way.
[00:34:40] Only your Son and his flesh that was torn for me.
[00:34:46] What's the promise of the Gospel? Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.
[00:34:52] That promise was there in the Old Testament law that Israel was to read and to meditate on. They were looking forward to the coming of the Lamb. And he's come.
[00:35:06] You see, Jesus is the righteous man of Psalm 1.
[00:35:12] He kept the law perfectly, day and night. In everything that he did.
[00:35:17] He is the righteous one.
[00:35:20] He is the tree that bears fruit in season and his leaf does not wither.
[00:35:27] What does he tell the disciples? I am the true vine and you are the branches.
[00:35:35] Abide in me and you will bear fruit.
[00:35:39] Fruit comes from Jesus, the one who himself bore fruit all his life long.
[00:35:49] Jesus, in his righteousness has already passed through judgment. He died, and the Father raised him from the dead to vindicate him. We're told he was raised for our justification. But the Father raised Jesus to show that he accepted Jesus and his sacrifice for us, that Jesus was truly righteous, that he did pass the judgment for us.
[00:36:18] Yes.
[00:36:19] Meditate deeply on the righteousness and justice and mercy of God revealed in the law and fulfilled in Jesus.
[00:36:31] Meditate on it and you will be drawn to Jesus.
[00:36:39] Everything that the law talked about that the law required, that the law called us to, all of that comes to us in Jesus.
[00:36:50] Because of Him.
[00:36:52] You are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
[00:37:05] If you are in Christ Jesus, then you are righteous in Him. If you are in Christ Jesus, then you have sanctification in Him. That is, through your union with Him.
[00:37:21] You see, the blessings of this psalm do not come because of what you do, because of your righteousness. Day and night, the blessings of this psalm come to those who are united to Jesus, those who place their hand on him in faith, who lean on him and say, jesus, I need you. You're all I've got.
[00:37:48] If you meditate on the law and you're drawn to Jesus, then, because you are united to him, because you abide in Him.
[00:38:01] In him you'll be that branch grafted into the vine, into the true vine, the true tree.
[00:38:10] And you will bear fruit in season and your leaf will not wither because of what you do, because of what he did and because of who he is.
[00:38:22] Because he promises to live in you. He promises to empower you. He promises to pour out His Spirit on you so that that spirit will Become like a well in your heart, springing up to eternal life.
[00:38:36] Trees planted by streams of water. How about the Spirit, indwelling and eternal life springing up from his power, working in your soul.
[00:38:47] Jesus says, I did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.
[00:38:53] In context of the Sermon on the Mount, he's talking about the fact that he is the one who will baptize his people with the Holy Spirit and cause them to be fruitful, cause them to obey his law.
[00:39:07] If you're united to Christ, he is making you fruitful.
[00:39:12] So meditate on Jesus. Meditate on his mercy. Meditate on his death and resurrection. Meditate on him and his saving power.
[00:39:22] You will be led to the source, the source of SAP that makes the tree fruitful.
[00:39:33] And then the other blessing. If you are united to Jesus by faith, you will stand in the judgment.
[00:39:40] You will not be blown away. Your leaf will not wither. Why?
[00:39:46] Because he's already passed through judgment.
[00:39:49] God has already vindicated him. And if you are united to him, then God has declared you righteous. He's already judged you and said, I've forgiven you and I treat you like my son.
[00:40:01] You're righteous in him because of him. You are in Christ Jesus, who became to us righteousness.
[00:40:13] The blessedness of meditating upon the law of God is that we are drawn to Jesus to meditate on him day and night. Will you pray with me?
[00:40:28] Our gracious God and our Redeemer, we thank you that your Word gives life, that it's like a lamp shining in the darkness, points us in the way of life because it points us to Jesus and He is eternal life.
[00:40:48] O Lord our God, we thank you for this great mercy, and we ask that you would confirm it to our hearts.
[00:40:54] And what is more, we ask that you would drown out the chorus, the buzz, the hum, the loud noise that all day long is trying to pull us away from Jesus.
[00:41:10] Lord, everywhere we look, this world has its messages, its things that would distract us, things that keep us from deep pondering about Jesus and his mercy and love.
[00:41:27] O Lord our God, we ask that you would push all of that away, that you would quiet that noise, that you would help us to find a peaceful, quiet place every day.
[00:41:37] That there we might think upon Jesus our Savior, that we might pray to him, call on his name and commune with him, and that we might be drawn to him and abide in him and find in him the source of not only fruitfulness, but eternal life. In Jesus name we ask Amen.
