Two Kinds Of People, Two Kinds Of Ends (Psalm 1)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.760 --> 00:00:05.839 Psalm one. This is the word of the Lord. Blessed is the man 2 00:00:05.879 --> 00:00:10.269 who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path 3 00:00:10.349 --> 00:00:15.310 of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his delight 4 00:00:15.589 --> 00:00:19.070 is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day 5 00:00:19.109 --> 00:00:23.140 and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water 6 00:00:23.780 --> 00:00:28.660 that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither, 7 00:00:29.219 --> 00:00:34.460 and what he does shall prosper. The ungodly or not so, but 8 00:00:34.579 --> 00:00:39.729 are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore, the ungodly shall 9 00:00:39.770 --> 00:00:43.689 not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the Righteous, 10 00:00:44.329 --> 00:00:47.929 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the 11 00:00:47.969 --> 00:00:53.479 ungodly shall perish. Thus far this reading of God's holy word, the grass 12 00:00:53.600 --> 00:00:57.439 withers in the flower fades, but the word of our Lord endures forever. 13 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:04.750 Now, this morning we looked at the fourth be attitude, and of course, 14 00:01:04.870 --> 00:01:10.469 the the word be attitude comes from the Latin word for a blessing. 15 00:01:11.189 --> 00:01:15.349 So it's the it's the the beatitudes are really the blessings. That's really what 16 00:01:15.469 --> 00:01:21.859 it means, because each one starts with blessed is or blessed are, and 17 00:01:22.019 --> 00:01:26.819 this evening we have before us, as it were, David's be attitude. 18 00:01:26.579 --> 00:01:32.019 Blessed is the man, he says. So I thought that this would be 19 00:01:32.060 --> 00:01:34.730 a good way to kind of add a little bit into our study of the 20 00:01:34.810 --> 00:01:42.849 beattitudes. This morning we talked some about the importance of trusting in God's promises, 21 00:01:42.489 --> 00:01:47.200 and the best way to trust in God's promises is to read God's word, 22 00:01:47.239 --> 00:01:51.920 and that's really what this psalm is about. It's about making sure that 23 00:01:52.079 --> 00:01:59.079 scripture reading and scripture memory and focusing on God's Word is such a blessing to 24 00:01:59.239 --> 00:02:06.989 us. So let's see how many of us know our catechism. I bet 25 00:02:07.069 --> 00:02:19.740 everybody's got this one. What is the chief end of man? That's pretty 26 00:02:19.780 --> 00:02:22.979 good. That's pretty good. I guess Y'all got to be plus on that 27 00:02:23.060 --> 00:02:27.460 one. There's a little mumbling going on, but yes, man's chief end 28 00:02:27.580 --> 00:02:32.849 is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. And if you stop and think 29 00:02:32.889 --> 00:02:38.569 about it, that really is a definition of worship, isn't it? To 30 00:02:38.729 --> 00:02:43.689 glorify God and enjoy him forever, as or as John Piper famously wanted to 31 00:02:44.319 --> 00:02:50.800 amend the first answer. Our chief end is to glorify God by enjoying him 32 00:02:51.400 --> 00:02:57.039 forever now, in this this salt, in the Psalter we have here this 33 00:02:57.199 --> 00:03:00.430 morning, the are this evening. Excuse me, it's the worship book. 34 00:03:00.469 --> 00:03:06.430 It's the hymnal of the Old Testament Church, and it was thought that the 35 00:03:06.509 --> 00:03:10.669 very best thing to start this with, just like the the first question of 36 00:03:10.710 --> 00:03:15.699 the catechism, grounds us in what worship is, as the Old Testament Book 37 00:03:15.900 --> 00:03:22.939 of worship starts. Right here we find this Psalm and it tells us that 38 00:03:23.060 --> 00:03:27.729 if we're going to worship God, we have to know his word, because 39 00:03:27.770 --> 00:03:32.009 it's as we know his word that we come to know him and his person 40 00:03:32.090 --> 00:03:38.490 and his attributes and, as I said this morning, his promises. And 41 00:03:38.689 --> 00:03:45.319 this first psalm is categorized as a wisdom psalm because it teaches us something of 42 00:03:45.400 --> 00:03:50.680 wisdom, and the Hebrew word for wisdom means skill and living. If you've 43 00:03:50.680 --> 00:03:53.759 ever wondered, like, what is wisdom and how is it different from knowledge? 44 00:03:53.800 --> 00:03:58.349 Where knowledge is knowing stuff, wisdom is knowing how to do stuff. 45 00:03:58.949 --> 00:04:04.110 It's to live skillfully in God's world. So the main theme or the main 46 00:04:04.229 --> 00:04:08.550 thing that I want to communicate to y'all this evening is that if we are 47 00:04:08.669 --> 00:04:14.460 going to live skillfully in God's word world and if we're going to worship God 48 00:04:15.099 --> 00:04:19.420 God properly, which is our primary purpose in life, then we have to 49 00:04:19.579 --> 00:04:25.610 know God by knowing his word. And so I'd like us to look at 50 00:04:25.689 --> 00:04:29.850 this psalm and two parts. You can see it in your bulletin insert. 51 00:04:29.850 --> 00:04:32.490 It's in there. And I'd like us to see that this psalm describes, 52 00:04:32.649 --> 00:04:39.040 first, two kinds of people and secondly, that it describes two kinds of 53 00:04:39.720 --> 00:04:46.560 ends. So our psalm begins by telling us about the ungodly. Blessed is 54 00:04:46.600 --> 00:04:49.519 the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in 55 00:04:49.600 --> 00:04:56.350 the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scoffer. The 56 00:04:56.509 --> 00:05:00.069 first word of the Psalm is blessed and, as I've noted in our mourning 57 00:05:00.269 --> 00:05:06.699 sermons that I've been doing like on occasion, the word blessed means supremely happy. 58 00:05:09.379 --> 00:05:14.060 So supremely happy, he says, is the man who doesn't do this, 59 00:05:14.300 --> 00:05:19.180 that and the other. And as we've seen in the our study of 60 00:05:19.220 --> 00:05:24.290 the beattitude, Jesus picks up on this word in those be attitudes where he 61 00:05:24.370 --> 00:05:28.290 describes the sort of person who inherits the Kingdom of Heaven. So this is 62 00:05:28.370 --> 00:05:31.490 sort of the flip side. Jesus says blessed are the poor in spirit. 63 00:05:32.129 --> 00:05:36.319 Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are the meek, blessed are those, 64 00:05:36.399 --> 00:05:41.959 as we saw this morning, who hunger and thirst after righteousness. But here 65 00:05:42.040 --> 00:05:46.040 in our psalm this evening, the psalmist tells us that those who are complete, 66 00:05:46.199 --> 00:05:54.949 those who are supremely happy, are those who have void something before the 67 00:05:55.269 --> 00:06:00.029 psalmists tells us what the character of the blessed is. First he tells us 68 00:06:00.069 --> 00:06:04.579 something of what the character of the blessed is not, and he does that 69 00:06:04.860 --> 00:06:13.660 in three steps. Here he describes the ungodly and three parallel lines and they 70 00:06:13.779 --> 00:06:21.769 descend from bad to worse to worse than that, and his point is that 71 00:06:21.850 --> 00:06:29.529 there is a progression in sinfulness. I Love Charles spurgeon in his his series. 72 00:06:29.569 --> 00:06:31.879 Are His too, book volumes, two volumes on the psalms. I 73 00:06:32.079 --> 00:06:36.759 really commend it to you. It's very good devotional reading and in this he 74 00:06:36.879 --> 00:06:41.759 says something I want to read the y'all. He says, when people are 75 00:06:41.920 --> 00:06:47.149 living in sin, they tend to go from bad to worse at fear. 76 00:06:47.310 --> 00:06:53.149 At first they merely walk in the council of the careless and ungodly who forget 77 00:06:53.269 --> 00:06:59.670 God. They're evil is rather more practical than habitual. But after they become 78 00:06:59.790 --> 00:07:04.660 habituated to evil and they stand in the way of open sinners who willfully violate 79 00:07:04.779 --> 00:07:10.339 God Commandments. And if left alone, they then go one step further and 80 00:07:10.500 --> 00:07:15.970 become themselves pestilent teachers and tempters of others. And thus they sit in the 81 00:07:16.050 --> 00:07:20.889 seat of the scornful. They have taken their degree in vice and, is 82 00:07:21.050 --> 00:07:27.089 true, doctors of damnation. They are installed and looked up to by others 83 00:07:27.689 --> 00:07:34.480 as masters in bullial you have to love that nineteen century language. But his 84 00:07:34.680 --> 00:07:43.279 the progression here that he's describing is threefold, of course. First the sinner, 85 00:07:43.480 --> 00:07:47.029 the ungodly person, that the fellow who is not blessed. First he 86 00:07:47.189 --> 00:07:54.509 sort of just walks with morally bad people. This fellows not really thinking about 87 00:07:54.550 --> 00:07:58.069 what he's doing, is just sort of going along with the flow. He's 88 00:07:58.149 --> 00:08:03.779 just doing what the crowd does. But next the Psalmist says what we see 89 00:08:03.819 --> 00:08:09.339 is that people take a stand in their sin. They say this is what 90 00:08:09.500 --> 00:08:13.610 I want to be, I like this, this, this is what I 91 00:08:13.889 --> 00:08:20.490 want to do. And finally we find that they start to wallow in their 92 00:08:20.649 --> 00:08:24.529 sin, thinking that that, you know, this is what life is all 93 00:08:24.610 --> 00:08:31.439 about. In people in this stage will often mock or deride those who seek 94 00:08:31.519 --> 00:08:35.440 to live differently from the way the crowd does. They have, as it 95 00:08:35.559 --> 00:08:39.879 were, gotten so far down that broad way that leads to hell that they 96 00:08:39.919 --> 00:08:46.110 can't even remember where they made the turn on to that road anymore. And 97 00:08:46.230 --> 00:08:52.269 you know, you can almost watch people make this progression. I think we 98 00:08:52.389 --> 00:08:56.980 see it pretty clearly. You know, when when you confront somebody about something 99 00:08:56.019 --> 00:09:01.460 or when they're rebuked or when their sin is exposed, you know, when 100 00:09:01.500 --> 00:09:05.340 your sin is exposed your you're faced with a choice, aren't you? Either 101 00:09:05.659 --> 00:09:09.620 choose to keep going that way or you choose to stop and turn around. 102 00:09:09.620 --> 00:09:13.409 And before people are exposed in their sin, yeah, they just sort of 103 00:09:13.889 --> 00:09:20.649 go along, they're just sort of doing their thing, but when that sin 104 00:09:20.850 --> 00:09:26.000 is pointed out, if they don't repent, they will take a stand. 105 00:09:26.120 --> 00:09:31.960 They won't be forced to call good what is evil. And then, because 106 00:09:33.000 --> 00:09:35.519 people generally like to hear that sort of thing. People who do that will 107 00:09:35.559 --> 00:09:41.470 start to gain an influence and and they'll start to make fun of people who 108 00:09:41.470 --> 00:09:48.549 don't sit, that is, who don't live in their sinful, hardened way. 109 00:09:48.590 --> 00:09:54.899 As spurge and said, they take their degree in vice, and is 110 00:09:54.019 --> 00:10:01.059 true. Doctors of damnation are installed as professors of sin. You See, 111 00:10:01.059 --> 00:10:07.100 what we find here is that the ungodly person is defined by those with whom 112 00:10:07.100 --> 00:10:11.009 he associates, that is, the wicked, the sinners, the mockers, 113 00:10:11.730 --> 00:10:18.889 those people with whom he associates in form his thinking and thus for arm his 114 00:10:18.049 --> 00:10:26.799 character, and ultimately they draw him into hell with them. And the Psalmist 115 00:10:26.879 --> 00:10:31.840 says that the blessed man has no fellowship with these folks and their unfruitful works 116 00:10:31.879 --> 00:10:39.149 of darkness. But the blessed or the righteous person, that the supremely happy 117 00:10:39.269 --> 00:10:43.590 fellow, isn't just marked by what he avoids but by what he embraces. 118 00:10:46.190 --> 00:10:52.899 The righteous person is defined by his association with the Lord, but verse two. 119 00:10:54.100 --> 00:10:58.539 But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his 120 00:10:58.860 --> 00:11:09.049 law he meditates day and night. See, the righteous man or woman isn't 121 00:11:09.129 --> 00:11:15.850 defined by having spiritual or godly friends, or by church membership or or by 122 00:11:16.009 --> 00:11:20.320 being good or anything else that he or she may do. Rather, the 123 00:11:20.799 --> 00:11:26.799 godly person is defined by her relationship with the Lord. And notice that it 124 00:11:26.960 --> 00:11:33.070 is isn't because she meditates on God's word. Is a duty. Time spent 125 00:11:33.230 --> 00:11:37.830 with God isn't a box for him or her to check. Rather, it's 126 00:11:37.870 --> 00:11:43.149 a meditation, a steeping, if you will, like tea in God. 127 00:11:45.710 --> 00:11:50.259 And it comes as the hearts delight. When the Psalmist says that we delight 128 00:11:50.580 --> 00:11:54.539 in the word, the word that's used, there's a word that's used of 129 00:11:54.620 --> 00:11:58.700 our response to the truest joys of life. It's not just something you like. 130 00:12:00.500 --> 00:12:05.570 It's the joy of the newly wed, the joy of the best of 131 00:12:05.730 --> 00:12:09.850 friends who haven't seen each other in a long time, the joy of seeing 132 00:12:09.009 --> 00:12:13.169 your child come into the world. That's the kind of delight he's talking about. 133 00:12:16.759 --> 00:12:18.600 But I don't know about you all, but when I think about that, 134 00:12:20.120 --> 00:12:22.559 my gut feeling is to look at this and say, but how can 135 00:12:22.639 --> 00:12:28.399 I delight in the Law of God? I mean it, isn't that just 136 00:12:28.559 --> 00:12:35.149 a bunch of rules? Well, actually it's not, because the word for 137 00:12:35.309 --> 00:12:39.029 law and the Old Testament is tolera. We think of law from a Roman 138 00:12:39.149 --> 00:12:43.340 perspective, of the Statute Book. You know, the law is don't spit 139 00:12:43.500 --> 00:12:48.740 on the sidewalk, don't walk your dog in Sabino Canyon, don't drive on 140 00:12:48.779 --> 00:12:52.940 the wrong side of the street. That's what we think of the law as. 141 00:12:52.179 --> 00:13:00.529 But the word Torah doesn't just refer to law, it refers to all 142 00:13:00.649 --> 00:13:05.450 of God's word, because the word for Tora means law, but also it 143 00:13:05.529 --> 00:13:15.919 means teaching or instruction. And so to delight in Tra is to delight in 144 00:13:16.200 --> 00:13:26.230 meditating on God's word, is to delight in God's character. It's to delight 145 00:13:26.710 --> 00:13:33.429 in God's ways. To delight in reading his law is reading about God. 146 00:13:33.669 --> 00:13:39.269 That helps us understand him. And you remember in Luke, Chapter Twenty four, 147 00:13:39.509 --> 00:13:43.860 on the Amais road, that Jesus says that the whole of scripture is 148 00:13:43.980 --> 00:13:50.820 about him, right from Genesis one one through all the begats and through all 149 00:13:50.899 --> 00:13:54.980 those sort of confusing minor prophets and and through the whole thing, all the 150 00:13:54.019 --> 00:14:00.370 way to the very last page of revelation. All of scripture, Jesus says, 151 00:14:00.409 --> 00:14:03.409 is about him. And so if you think about it, that means 152 00:14:03.490 --> 00:14:11.840 that all of scripture is his gospel, it's good news about Jesus. All 153 00:14:11.120 --> 00:14:16.720 of scripture is Tolerah, it's instruction in his good news. It's for this 154 00:14:16.919 --> 00:14:22.039 reason that a really good friend of mine he when he whenever he gets up 155 00:14:22.120 --> 00:14:26.549 to preach, when whatever book of the Bible he's reading from, he says, 156 00:14:26.750 --> 00:14:33.870 listen to the Gospel According to Moses or the Gospel according to Daniel or 157 00:14:33.950 --> 00:14:41.460 the Gospel according to first Peter, because it's all good news. And we 158 00:14:41.539 --> 00:14:48.299 see that the blessed, I said, person meditates on the word day and 159 00:14:48.419 --> 00:14:52.779 night. Now, the Hebrew word for meditate, I think, is it 160 00:14:52.929 --> 00:15:00.009 really interesting word. It literally means to mutter or to growl, to mutter 161 00:15:00.049 --> 00:15:03.490 or to growl. And so when the PSALMIST says, as he's talking about 162 00:15:03.490 --> 00:15:09.519 someone who diligently studies his Bible, it's someone who is repeating it to himself, 163 00:15:09.639 --> 00:15:16.039 somebody who's reflecting on it, someone who's considering scriptures meaning and application for 164 00:15:16.200 --> 00:15:20.679 his life. It's like, if you imagine, it's like someone who's got 165 00:15:20.720 --> 00:15:24.789 a puzzle piece. You know when you're working on one of those two thousand 166 00:15:24.870 --> 00:15:28.629 piece puzzles and you can't figure out where this one piece goes and you're sitting 167 00:15:28.669 --> 00:15:31.710 there and you're going, well, where does this is it? They're right 168 00:15:31.710 --> 00:15:33.830 here, and that is for right there. It's very here, as it 169 00:15:33.909 --> 00:15:37.179 fit right there, and you're kind of mumbling to yourself. You know you're 170 00:15:37.259 --> 00:15:43.100 turning it this way and that you're looking for the right fit. And so 171 00:15:43.259 --> 00:15:52.090 the meditative person literally is a mutterer. He's mumbling to himself, so fixated 172 00:15:52.250 --> 00:15:58.129 on what he's doing that he doesn't even realize he's doing that. And in 173 00:15:58.210 --> 00:16:03.409 the same way, the person who meditates on God's word reflects on how it 174 00:16:03.490 --> 00:16:08.399 applies or impacts his or her life. You know, you sit there and 175 00:16:08.480 --> 00:16:11.919 you know you come away from church. Perhaps he said, well, what 176 00:16:12.039 --> 00:16:15.440 is it? What did that sermon mean for? What did he mean by 177 00:16:15.759 --> 00:16:19.149 that's how we love our neighbor as our self? What? What? What 178 00:16:19.350 --> 00:16:22.269 is? What is this meditating, this mumbling thing? What does that have 179 00:16:22.350 --> 00:16:27.710 to do with my daily devotions? HMM, he's cogitating, he's Mumblings, 180 00:16:27.750 --> 00:16:37.460 murmuring to himself, he's he's meditating, and the psalmist says that the godly 181 00:16:37.580 --> 00:16:41.740 person does this day and night. When your first get up in the morning 182 00:16:41.860 --> 00:16:47.649 you're thinking about the word. As you're going through the day, you're thinking 183 00:16:47.730 --> 00:16:52.970 about the word. Is You're laying down at night, you're thinking about the 184 00:16:53.049 --> 00:16:56.090 word. And and if you stop and think about it, isn't that just 185 00:16:56.289 --> 00:17:02.080 natural? I mean, you know, when we when we really reflect for 186 00:17:02.159 --> 00:17:08.920 the Christian when we really reflect on what Jesus has done for us, isn't 187 00:17:08.920 --> 00:17:14.599 it natural to meditate on him day and night? I mean, look at 188 00:17:14.680 --> 00:17:19.670 how he loves us. When the disciples saw Jesus has sacrifice and later saw 189 00:17:19.829 --> 00:17:26.710 his resurrection, the love of God that he gave to them so changed and 190 00:17:26.990 --> 00:17:32.059 riveted those fellows that they were never again the same. The good news of 191 00:17:32.180 --> 00:17:38.700 Jesus Christ was so good that they spent the rest of their days meditating on 192 00:17:38.779 --> 00:17:45.329 it and telling others about it. And so this evening I want to ask 193 00:17:45.410 --> 00:17:52.329 you what it is that you meditate on. Do you steep yourself like tea 194 00:17:52.569 --> 00:17:59.200 in God's word when you rise up in the morning? Do you try to 195 00:17:59.279 --> 00:18:04.319 train yourself to start with thanks to God for a new day and remember is 196 00:18:04.640 --> 00:18:08.759 his word? What I often did for Benjamin, our son, when he 197 00:18:08.839 --> 00:18:11.039 was little, as I would, I still kind of do it sometimes just 198 00:18:11.160 --> 00:18:14.509 to annoy him but I would go into his room and I would sing, 199 00:18:14.869 --> 00:18:19.230 this is the day, this is the day that the look it's a so, 200 00:18:19.390 --> 00:18:26.069 you know, you start the day thinking about God. When we're laying 201 00:18:26.190 --> 00:18:30.700 down at night, are we pondering our worries or do we stop and think 202 00:18:30.779 --> 00:18:37.539 about his promises? And one big one for me is I'm A. I'm 203 00:18:37.579 --> 00:18:41.289 an anxious, nervous, depressive basket case. And so what what I have 204 00:18:41.450 --> 00:18:47.450 to do is to remember every day be anxious for nothing, but in all 205 00:18:47.569 --> 00:18:51.650 things, through prayer and supplication, with Thanksgiving, make your request known to 206 00:18:51.730 --> 00:18:55.289 God. In the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard 207 00:18:55.329 --> 00:18:57.880 your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus, Our Lord. I repeat it like 208 00:18:59.000 --> 00:19:06.720 a mantra. What do you do? Do you meditate? Do you mumbled, 209 00:19:06.799 --> 00:19:14.269 you memorized, you repeat? Do you apply, or does the counsel 210 00:19:14.390 --> 00:19:18.829 of the ungodly and the way of the sinner and the scorn of the scoffer 211 00:19:18.869 --> 00:19:22.990 run around in your head? What do you expose yourself to? More God's 212 00:19:23.069 --> 00:19:30.500 Word or the world's wisdom? Remember that this threefold progression that we see in 213 00:19:30.579 --> 00:19:36.779 verse one, this is the fruit of just meditating on the counsel of the 214 00:19:36.819 --> 00:19:41.690 ungodly. So I want to do something tonight. I want to give all 215 00:19:41.769 --> 00:19:48.970 of Y'all UNASSIGNMENT, and here it is. Try to find some sin problem 216 00:19:49.130 --> 00:19:56.279 you have or some weakness, some foible, and memorize a promise from scripture 217 00:19:57.200 --> 00:20:02.440 that's particularly meaningful to you about that. Memorize it and then, when you 218 00:20:02.519 --> 00:20:06.319 when you feel tempted, are you, you feel like whatever it is, 219 00:20:06.480 --> 00:20:08.950 it's creeping up on you, meditate on that word, turn it over in 220 00:20:10.069 --> 00:20:12.829 your mind, think about it, reflect on it, and if you do 221 00:20:14.109 --> 00:20:18.630 that, I promise you it will be good. It will make you blessed, 222 00:20:19.390 --> 00:20:25.259 and that's because this sort of thing is indescribably wholesome to the soul. 223 00:20:26.259 --> 00:20:30.660 In fact, that's what you were made to do. That is what godly 224 00:20:30.779 --> 00:20:40.170 worship is. That glorifies God as you enjoy him. And so we see 225 00:20:40.250 --> 00:20:44.769 that in the first two verses, starting in the third verse, we see 226 00:20:44.809 --> 00:20:48.809 that there are two kinds of ends that correspond to these two kinds of people. 227 00:20:48.170 --> 00:20:52.880 And in verse three we see the blessed end of the person whose delight 228 00:20:52.119 --> 00:20:57.880 is in God and in his word, and that blessed ends is that he 229 00:20:57.960 --> 00:21:04.269 has a has a health and a wholeness in his soul. Listen, he 230 00:21:04.390 --> 00:21:08.710 shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its 231 00:21:08.789 --> 00:21:14.950 fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he 232 00:21:15.190 --> 00:21:22.579 does shall prosper. The meditative, godly person is like a tree that draws 233 00:21:22.819 --> 00:21:30.500 spiritual nurt nourishment from an abundantly flowing stream. The idea of the word picture 234 00:21:30.859 --> 00:21:37.529 is of a person sinking his or her roots so deeply into scripture that he 235 00:21:37.650 --> 00:21:44.410 drinks continually from Christ's well. James Boyce, in his commentary on this, 236 00:21:44.569 --> 00:21:49.240 said this. The land around might be quite dry and barren, the wind 237 00:21:49.279 --> 00:21:55.119 might be hot, but if the tree is planted by the stream it will 238 00:21:55.240 --> 00:22:00.630 prosper and yield fruit. It's the very thing we see here in riparian areas 239 00:22:00.670 --> 00:22:06.630 out in the desert. Yeaman can be bleak, but if there's a creek 240 00:22:06.710 --> 00:22:10.109 bed, even if there's no water in it, there's water under the surface 241 00:22:10.829 --> 00:22:14.190 and you see these big cottonwood trees and what have you growing up and they 242 00:22:14.230 --> 00:22:21.099 give shade. That's the idea that the PSALMIST has. They prosper and they 243 00:22:21.140 --> 00:22:25.740 yield their fruit, and of course Jesus said that. You will know people 244 00:22:25.940 --> 00:22:32.650 buy their fruit. Our hearts desires percolate up into a lifestyle, into fruit, 245 00:22:33.490 --> 00:22:37.369 whether good or bad. If we delight in what is wicked, we 246 00:22:37.490 --> 00:22:41.730 know that the fruit of our life will be nasty. But if we delight 247 00:22:41.930 --> 00:22:48.000 in the Lord, our lives will be marked by blessed fruit and, the 248 00:22:48.039 --> 00:22:56.200 psalmist says, our leaf also will not wither. The righteous meditative person is 249 00:22:56.279 --> 00:23:00.430 someone who becomes a source of shade and refuge in a dry and a weary 250 00:23:00.430 --> 00:23:04.309 land, like a shade tree. People will come to you. You may 251 00:23:04.509 --> 00:23:12.259 you may feel like you're a great big mess, but other people will resonate 252 00:23:12.380 --> 00:23:15.259 with Christ and you. They may not know why they're coming to you, 253 00:23:15.579 --> 00:23:19.579 but they find that as you meditate in scripture, people come and they find 254 00:23:19.859 --> 00:23:27.529 shade from the harshness of life in your presence. But though we long to 255 00:23:27.650 --> 00:23:33.650 bear fruit and though we long to be a blessing, we can't just look 256 00:23:33.690 --> 00:23:37.289 at God as some sort of divine vending machine right. We can't say to 257 00:23:37.369 --> 00:23:41.039 ourselves, well, I want people to feel shaded by me or whatever, 258 00:23:41.160 --> 00:23:45.079 however you want to talk about it, and think that if we just put 259 00:23:45.119 --> 00:23:49.200 the right coin into the right spiritual slot, that will get the blessing we 260 00:23:49.400 --> 00:23:55.160 want. That's not how things work with God. You can't set your eyes 261 00:23:55.319 --> 00:24:00.309 on the blessing as what your goal is. You have to set your eyes 262 00:24:00.630 --> 00:24:04.549 on God, is your goal, and the blessings will follow, because otherwise 263 00:24:04.670 --> 00:24:11.380 what we're doing is we're seeking stuff from God, and if we seek stuff 264 00:24:11.380 --> 00:24:15.619 from God, will discover in the end that we find nothing. Seek first 265 00:24:15.700 --> 00:24:22.140 the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and then all these things will be 266 00:24:22.259 --> 00:24:30.529 added unto you. So we can't seek stuff because if we're delighting in stuff, 267 00:24:30.930 --> 00:24:36.730 we're not delighting in God, and stuff is whatever we want more than 268 00:24:36.809 --> 00:24:41.519 we want God. Happiness, peace, security, a nice home, family, 269 00:24:42.640 --> 00:24:47.720 whatever it is that we delight in more than Christ, in him crucified, 270 00:24:47.880 --> 00:24:52.440 that is stuff. But on the other hand, if we're delighting in 271 00:24:52.559 --> 00:24:56.829 God and we're seeking him first, then, as I quoted a moment ago, 272 00:24:56.869 --> 00:25:00.789 Jesus says, all these things will be added, unto you. But 273 00:25:04.549 --> 00:25:08.220 with all of this said, we have to make the caveat, or the 274 00:25:08.700 --> 00:25:17.579 reminder that there's only one person who ever really and truly exemplified what the psalmist 275 00:25:17.660 --> 00:25:22.490 says here, and that, of course, is the Lord Jesus. But 276 00:25:22.569 --> 00:25:26.609 then the objection may come up. They we may say, will wait a 277 00:25:26.690 --> 00:25:27.609 minute, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait a minute. 278 00:25:27.650 --> 00:25:32.210 Preacher, you just said that Jesus exemplified this, but he didn't live 279 00:25:32.250 --> 00:25:37.240 a very blessed life, did he? I mean Jesus is life here on 280 00:25:37.400 --> 00:25:41.440 earth wasn't so great. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. 281 00:25:41.480 --> 00:25:47.200 I memorize that one right. But if we think that way, what 282 00:25:47.319 --> 00:25:52.549 we're doing is we're forgetting something very important, and that is that Jesus did 283 00:25:52.789 --> 00:25:57.029 everything that he did with a larger goal in view. He suffered, yes, 284 00:26:00.069 --> 00:26:03.549 but did that not give him the blessing of having you and I as 285 00:26:03.630 --> 00:26:08.140 his friends? He died, to be sure, but his father raised him 286 00:26:08.140 --> 00:26:12.299 up to rule over all creation and he gave us the church, to be 287 00:26:12.700 --> 00:26:19.009 Jesus his bride. And in the same way, though it may sound a 288 00:26:19.089 --> 00:26:25.369 little odd, the trials of the Christian life for very often the way that 289 00:26:25.609 --> 00:26:30.170 God uses to help us to see his love and his faithfulness to us. 290 00:26:32.880 --> 00:26:37.319 So through the crosses and the losses and the sorrows of this life, at 291 00:26:37.759 --> 00:26:42.920 though, they will come even to those, maybe particularly to those who is 292 00:26:44.000 --> 00:26:47.150 shoe evil and delight in what is good. Yet in the end, the 293 00:26:47.390 --> 00:26:53.309 hardest of times help us to become that tree that bears fruit in its season. 294 00:26:55.430 --> 00:27:02.059 Through those hard times, God uses our circumstances to make us drive our 295 00:27:02.220 --> 00:27:07.980 roots ever more deeply into Christ, to cling ever more resolutely to Jesus, 296 00:27:08.579 --> 00:27:12.779 so that through those Chrises, through those trials, as we cling to the 297 00:27:12.900 --> 00:27:18.930 Gospel, we become more like Christ. And is that happens, we will 298 00:27:18.970 --> 00:27:27.210 find that people see Christ in us. But the Psalmist says that the ungodly 299 00:27:27.329 --> 00:27:33.000 are not so. The ungodly are not so. They are like the chaff 300 00:27:33.240 --> 00:27:45.309 which the wind drives away, the chaff withered, useless, dry. And 301 00:27:45.470 --> 00:27:49.269 really, isn't that what life is like apart from Jesus? Withered up, 302 00:27:51.750 --> 00:27:56.789 when we live our lives delighting in anything more than Jesus, it's a life 303 00:27:56.910 --> 00:28:03.500 that's separated from him who brings us life and that abundantly. It is a 304 00:28:03.700 --> 00:28:11.740 withered up, dry, worthless existence. And I want you to notice as 305 00:28:11.819 --> 00:28:17.289 well. Right here he says this and verse for the ungodly are like the 306 00:28:17.369 --> 00:28:22.970 chaff. Look back to verse one. Remember he has the ungodly who walk 307 00:28:22.130 --> 00:28:26.650 in the Council of this are the people who walk in the council the ungodly, 308 00:28:26.970 --> 00:28:29.359 then, the people who stand in the path of sinners, than the 309 00:28:29.400 --> 00:28:33.519 people who sit in the seat of the scoffer. He's not talking about the 310 00:28:33.720 --> 00:28:37.039 sinner or the scornful, he's talking about the ungodly fellow, that is, 311 00:28:37.119 --> 00:28:44.630 the guy who's just walking along. This is the fellow who's just going with 312 00:28:44.789 --> 00:28:48.109 the flow. He's not even thinking about being bad. He's probably not really 313 00:28:48.230 --> 00:28:53.910 thinking about much of anything. He's just going through life not thinking about God. 314 00:28:56.700 --> 00:29:03.180 That's the withered up life, and in fact sometimes the saddest person is 315 00:29:03.339 --> 00:29:08.420 the fellow who is neither hot nor cold and finds that he goes to destruction 316 00:29:08.579 --> 00:29:15.650 for absolutely nothing. It's the ungodly, he says, that are like Chaff, 317 00:29:17.769 --> 00:29:23.920 as Solomon said, their vanity empty without substance, and in verse five 318 00:29:25.440 --> 00:29:29.799 we see that because they are like the chaff, they're swept away from God's 319 00:29:29.880 --> 00:29:33.400 presence. At the last day, therefore, the ungodly shall not stand in 320 00:29:33.480 --> 00:29:38.029 the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the Righteous, for the Lord 321 00:29:38.190 --> 00:29:42.069 knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish 322 00:29:42.349 --> 00:29:48.069 on the last day when all of humanity is raised up again at Christ's returning 323 00:29:48.230 --> 00:29:53.339 to stand in the judgment. Those who have chosen to delight themselves in worthless 324 00:29:53.380 --> 00:30:00.859 vanity and sin and godlessness will be cast out of the congregation of those that 325 00:30:00.940 --> 00:30:07.809 stand before the judgment seat. But, by contrast, those who've delighted themselves 326 00:30:07.930 --> 00:30:14.849 in the Lord will remain before the Lord at the judgment and they will not 327 00:30:15.089 --> 00:30:19.170 remain in God's presence because they're better than the other people or because they've been 328 00:30:19.329 --> 00:30:25.359 good boys and girls or because they've deserved it somehow for all of their Bible 329 00:30:25.440 --> 00:30:30.480 memory program that's not what he's saying. Rather, they will stand in God's 330 00:30:30.519 --> 00:30:33.640 presence because Jesus will look at them and he will say, Father, I 331 00:30:33.880 --> 00:30:41.029 have known these people. I've taken all of their punishment, for all of 332 00:30:41.190 --> 00:30:45.470 their sins in my own body. For them, I've been pierced and striped 333 00:30:45.549 --> 00:30:49.420 and nailed to a cross. For them, I have taken your full and 334 00:30:49.579 --> 00:30:59.859 complete wrath. I have known these people, but as for them, I 335 00:30:59.980 --> 00:31:06.089 have not known them. And for those who've hated God in this life, 336 00:31:06.970 --> 00:31:11.690 whether passively or actively, whether by walking in the counsel of the ungodly or 337 00:31:11.769 --> 00:31:15.890 by standing in the way of sinners or by sitting in the seat of the 338 00:31:15.930 --> 00:31:19.119 scornful. The Lord will look at those people and he will say be gone, 339 00:31:19.599 --> 00:31:27.160 for I never knew you. And though we don't, that can make 340 00:31:27.200 --> 00:31:33.390 us uncomfortable. We don't really like the doctrine perhaps of judgment and hell. 341 00:31:33.589 --> 00:31:37.029 It may offend us. Yet if you stop and think about it, that 342 00:31:37.150 --> 00:31:41.390 really is the best verdict upon people like that. Want you to listen again 343 00:31:41.470 --> 00:31:45.910 to what spurgeon has to say, because he says it better than I. 344 00:31:47.500 --> 00:31:52.819 Sinners cannot live in heaven. They would be out of their element. Sooner 345 00:31:52.940 --> 00:31:57.819 could a fish live upon a tree than the wicked in paradise. Heaven would 346 00:31:57.819 --> 00:32:02.289 be an intolerable hell to an impenitent man, even if he could be allowed 347 00:32:02.329 --> 00:32:07.170 to enter. But such a privilege will never be granted to the man who 348 00:32:07.250 --> 00:32:15.569 perseveres in his iniquities. You See, if you've hated God in this life, 349 00:32:15.559 --> 00:32:20.559 then to live with him and his glory and blessedness forever would be a 350 00:32:20.640 --> 00:32:27.240 living hell to you. But, and as Solomon said, this is the 351 00:32:27.319 --> 00:32:31.269 conclusion of the whole matter, though the way of the ungodly shall perish. 352 00:32:31.349 --> 00:32:37.109 Yet the Lord knows the way of the righteous. His eye is on the 353 00:32:37.190 --> 00:32:40.829 righteous, like the hymn we sang when you pick that. His eye is 354 00:32:40.950 --> 00:32:45.220 on the spare. I was like, I was going to mention that tonight, 355 00:32:45.700 --> 00:32:49.460 because his eye is on the sparrow. And if his eye is on 356 00:32:49.579 --> 00:32:54.059 the Sparrow, this small, Insignificant Bird, how much more is he concerned 357 00:32:54.140 --> 00:33:00.049 with you, for whom he died? He sees every step, he sees 358 00:33:00.250 --> 00:33:06.769 every breath, every hair is numbered, and his care and confir concern for 359 00:33:06.890 --> 00:33:10.730 those who love him is never ending. And at the end of the day, 360 00:33:10.769 --> 00:33:20.759 there is no greater joy, no greater fulfillment, no greater blessedness then 361 00:33:20.920 --> 00:33:23.880 to know that, for the sake of his great love for us, our 362 00:33:24.039 --> 00:33:30.309 Abba, our father in heaven, watches over us and knows US completely with 363 00:33:30.470 --> 00:33:37.269 a deep and abiding compassion and invites us to spend time in his word to 364 00:33:37.430 --> 00:33:43.700 read about his wonderful, endless, boundless love for us. And that, 365 00:33:44.500 --> 00:33:50.980 friends is good news. Amen, let us pray