INTRODUCTION
A. I hope this doesn’t surprise you, but believers with an active faith have a greater chance of being more positive, generous, and socially active than those who consider themselves to be atheists or agnostics. A George Barna study found this to be the case as reflected in these behaviors:
• Likelihood to vote:
Active-faith Americans: 89 percent
No-faith Americans: 78 percent
• Being active in their communities:
Active-faith: 68 percent
No-faith: 41 percent
• Personally helping homeless or poor people:
Active-faith: 61 percent
No-faith: 41 percent
• Yearly donations to charitable causes:
Active-faith: $1,500
No-faith: $200
• Feeling of being at peace
Active-faith: 90 percent
No-faith: 67 percent
"Study Sizes Up Gaps Between Christians, Atheists, and Agnostics," www.Christianpost.com (6-12-07)
B. The Psalms help us understand why this would be true – because in the Psalms we find over and over how people’s lives are strengthened, when things go well in their lives and when things go very, very bad.
1. There is no book like the Psalms to meet the need of the heart when it is discouraged and defeated, or when it is elated and encouraged. The Psalms are helpful because they teach us how to find our way through many types of problems.
2. The whole book is a collection that was put together by the ancient Hebrew in order that we might understand what the people of God have gone through and how they found their way out of their troubles.
• The Psalms are songs of praise, worship, thankfulness, and repentance. Each one of them is complete by itself.
3. Of the 150 Psalms, there are 100 for which we are fairly certain who the author is. David wrote 73; Solomon wrote 2, and Moses wrote 1. The other 24 with authors attached to them were written by four lesser know individuals. The remaining 50 have no recorded author.
4. The Psalms are divided into five books, which are similar in theme to the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
a. Book 1: Chapters 1-41 echoes the theme of Genesis, an introduction to human life and a revelation of the needs of the human heart.
b. Book 2: Chapters 42-72 corresponds to Exodus, a book of redemption, the story of God’s moving in human history to change and redeem people and save them from themselves.
c. Book 3: Chapters 73-89 is similar in theme to Leviticus, the book in which Israel learned how to draw near to God, how to worship him through the provision God made for his people, the tabernacle.
d. Book 4: Chapters 90-106 goes along with Numbers, the book of wilderness wandering, of testing and failure.
e. Book 5: Chapters 107-150 expresses the theme of Deuteronomy, the second law, which describes how God finally accomplishes the redemption of his people and brings them to the Promised Land.
C. This brings us to the Psalm 1.
1. This is one of the most familiar Psalms. Psalm 23 and perhaps two or three others may be better known.
2. It is a good Psalm to open with because it suggests to us how we may obtain God’s blessing, and warns us of not walking with him and seeking his counsel.
3. The Psalmist certainly does not mean that everything will go well for those who obtain God’s blessing. In fact, at the heart of the Psalms is the theme that God can bless a person even in the midst of tragedy and difficulty because at those times the person who walks with God finds his or her greatest strength by walking with God.
4. The Psalmist tells us what determines whether we received God’s blessing on our lives.
KEY STATEMENT
Obtaining God’s blessing on your life is determined by whether you live a God-centered life or have no time for God.
I. LIVE A GOD-CENTERED LIFE – Vss. 1-3.
• The first three verses of Psalm 1 describe the life of the person whose life is centered in God.
• Dr. Larry Osborne calls this The Crowd and the Compass.
A. First there is The Crowd.
1. The Psalm describes this mostly in the negative, but we will also examine the positive.
• Nur Malena Hassan illustrates the negative:
Rising mortgage rates had nothing to do with Nur Malena Hassan moving into a glass box. The 24-year-old Malaysian woman’s residence was temporary, as she tried to break the existing world record of 32 days, held by a woman from Thailand. The catch? Hassan’s glass home included 6,000 scorpions.
On August 21, 2004, the crowd at a shopping mall witnessed Hassan step into the box, showing no outward signs of fear. This was her second attempt. The first attempt, a few days previously, had failed due to a lack of scorpions. This time the glass box was filled with 6,069 volunteers who quickly covered Hassan’s body. Allowed to leave the box for 15 minutes each day, Hassan made the box home for 36 days.
She emerged on September 25, 2004 with the new world record. Not surprisingly, Nur Malena Hassan suffered 17 stings. That’s what happens when you lay down with scorpions.
John Beukema, Western Springs, Illinois; sources: "Woman Moves in with Scorpions," Reuters (8-23-04) and "Malaysian Woman Reclaims ’Scorpion Queen’ Title," CHINAdaily.com (9-28-04)
a. Those who live a God-centered life do walk in the counsel of the wicked.
• The righteous person does not make the habit pattern of his life to take the advice of the wicked. In fact it should he our practice to never take the advice of the wicked.
• The wicked may be those who are guilty of crime, but primarily they are those who are guilty of sin, sinners who have little or no time for God. The psalmist is not referring to murderers, rapists, adulterers, or dope pushers. He means the person who has little or no time for God in his life; someone who has ruled God out of his affairs and his thinking. Do you see that there are a lot of good, moral people in our world who fit this category? We are not to listen to their advice in business or our personal affairs.
• That is what the N.T. means when it tells us not be bound together with unbelievers. Yet how often do we go to our banker, our lawyer, our school counselor, and many others for advice who have no place of any kind in their lives for God to work.
• Our son-in-law has needed some legal counsel for a professional matter recently. Dave and Nancy have a friend who is a lawyer, and he asked her to work on this matter with him even though it is not her legal field of expertise. They may bring in someone else, but they told me he went to her because they know she shares their value system.
b. Those who live a God-centered life do not stand in the paths of sinners.
• This word “sinners” means to make a loud noise, that is to provoke a riot, create a disturbance, make trouble. The Psalmist is saying the godly man does not cause trouble and so does not miss the mark of life that they do.
• There is more there, though, for the psalmist says the righteous person does not even stand in their path, i.e., he does not identify with them.
• If we are to live God-centered lives, a part of our righteousness is not associating with sinners, i.e., we do not go to the places they go.
c. Those who live a God-centered life do not sit in the seat of mockers.
• The scoffers are those who blame everyone but themselves for what is wrong. It is easy for us to have that kind of attitude, but we cannot live a God-centered life if we do for we are unhappy with everything around us.
• When something goes wrong it is some¬one else’s fault. Parents blame the children, the children blame the parents, and they both blame the schools. The schools blame the parents and the government. The government blames big business. One nation blames another nation. Everyone is blaming everyone else. Is not that the philosophy of the world.?
• The godly man has found true joy, though, because he has rejected that attitude. Instead he is characterized by positive things, thus finding true joy.
2. Here is why you have to avoid this crowd of people that the Psalmist describes:
Fallon, Nevada, is the arsenic capital of America. According to the Chicago Tribune, the Environmental Protection Agency found that Fallon’s water system delivers more arsenic to its customers than any other large town water system. Folks there even joke about it: "Arsenic? It only bothers you if you’re not used to it."
Tim Miller, who has lived in Fallon all his life, jests, "Arsenic is no biggie. I’ll die of something. It’s called life. Once you’re born, you start dying."
The arsenic levels remain high, not because people like drinking arsenic, but because they don’t want to pay for the solution—a $10 million treatment plant. Said one official, "This is Nevada. They don’t want to feel government is intruding in their lives."
Talking about sin often gets about the same response. It’s not that we wouldn’t like to get rid of it, but we don’t like anyone—even God—telling us what we have to do. "Sin is no biggie," folks seem to say. "I’ll die of something. It’s called life."
Lee Eclov, Lake Forest, Illinois; source: Chicago Tribune (4-18-01)
3. On the positive side, instead of associating with the wicked, sinners, mockers, we should associate with people of faith who will help us grow in Christ.
a. Among the Christian disciplines that will keep us from associating with the wrong people are regular worship and fellowship through a small group.
b. We have a great deal of difficulty in accomplishing this in America, because the star of many TV shows and movies is the anti-hero. Elesha Coffman wrote about this in the Chicago Tribune:
Shows like HBO’s hit "The Sopranos" and FX’s stark cop drama "The Shield" have introduced TV viewers to a new kind of protagonist. It’s tough to call him a "hero." He kills his enemies (they were bad guys anyway), rebels against legitimate authorities (the authorities don’t know what’s really going on), and grabs whatever he can (stealing from a criminal isn’t a crime, is it?). But he also shows flashes of humanity: he cares for his family, takes risks for his friends, and occasionally bursts out in honesty. Apparently, the writers and producers want us to root for these guys.
John Furia, Jr., a TV professor at the University of Southern California, isn’t so sure these new flawed heroes are good for us. Speaking of the brutal and corrupt lead character on "The Shield," Furia recently told the Chicago Tribune, "We say, ’Well, he did a bad thing, a corrupt thing, an evil thing, a cruel thing. But on the other hand, he loves his autistic son and devotes himself to him diligently.’ That is a very human thing, but I think it tends to push us as an audience to not only forgive the errant ways of these characters, but to consider the things that they do when they’re behaving badly to be OK. I would decry that."
Elesha Coffman, editor, Christian History; source: "Cop Shows up the Ante for Anti-heroes," Chicago Tribune (6-03-02)
c. Instead we should cultivate real heroes, people from history and the present who have demonstrated their faith in God.
B. Then there is The Compass.
1. The Compass is the Word of God, which we search diligently in order to find the treasure that can direct our lives.
2. There is a relatively new activity going around the world called Geocaching. I have a ministry friend in Milwaukee who geocaches, and he told me about it. People hide caches of “treasure” in public places anywhere in the world. They enter the GPS coordinates on a web site. You look up the coordinates for caches in an area that you live or visit, use your GPS to locate the place where the cache is, and then locate the cache. The caches are not always easy to find because even though you have the coordinates, you have to find the cache which is hidden. When you find it, you take something from the cache, leave something that you have in the cache, and complete the log telling the date and time you were in the cache, who you are, what you took, and what you left. Geocaching is treasure hunting of a new kind.
3. We should seek such treasure in the Word of God.. Here is how:
a. Delight yourself in God’s Word. The Christian who is blessed by God will find time to seek out the treasures of God’s Word and determine to live by them.
• Dietrich Bonhoeffer said this on the Study of Scripture:
Because I am a Christian, therefore, every day in which I do not penetrate more deeply into the knowledge of God’s Word in Holy Scripture is a lost day for me. I can only move forward with certainty upon the firm ground of the Word of God. And, as a Christian, I learn to know the Holy Scriptures in no other way than by hearing the Word preached and by prayerful meditation.
—Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945)
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Meditating on the Word, translated and edited by David Mel Gracie (Cowley Publications, 1986); submitted by Ted De Hass, Bedford, Iowa
b. Meditate on the Word of God day and night.
• This passage echoes Deuteronomy 6:4-9 – The Israelites were to ponder the Word over and over again, and do so with the children, so that practicing it became second nature.
• J. I. Packer wrote this on meditation:
Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, thinking over, dwelling on, and applying to oneself the various things one knows about the works and ways and purpose and promises of God.
It is an activity of holy thought, consciously performed in the presence of God, under the eye of God, by the help of God, as a means of communication with God.
Its purpose is to clear one’s mental and spiritual vision of God, and to let his truth make its full and proper impact on one’s mind and heart.
It is a matter of talking to oneself about God and oneself.
It is, indeed, often a matter of arguing with oneself, reasoning oneself out of moods of doubt and unbelief into a clear apprehension of God’s power and grace.
J. I. Packer, Knowing God (InterVarsity Press, 1973), pp. 18-19; submitted by Bill White, Paramount, California
• The person who seeks out the Crowd and lives by the Compass has a firm well-grounded life – vs. 3.
• Pat Summerall, the sportscaster, brought the Crowd and the Compass together in telling about how he had learned to walk with Christ:
Pat Summerall, the well known sports announcer, overcame alcoholism and became a follower of Christ in his late sixties. He said this about water baptism: "I went down in the water, and when I came up it was like a 40-pound weight had been lifted from me. I have a happier life, a healthy life, and a more positive feeling about life than ever before."
About prayer meetings and Bible studies Summerall comments: "It’s like an alcoholic looking for a drink. If he wants it bad enough, he can find it—no matter what. I’m like that when it comes to finding prayer services and Bible studies. No matter where I am working, I know that they’re out there and I can find them."
Art Stricklin, Sports Spectrum (Nov/Dec 2001), p. 27; Terry Mattingly, Washington Bureau (2-27-02)
II. SOME PEOPLE HAVE NO TIME FOR GOD – Vss. 4-5.
A. The Character of those who have no time for God.
1. Those who have no time for God are like the chaff that the wind blows away.
2. How many of you have ever taken part in a wheat harvest? If you want to know why you cannot be happy and wicked at the same time, contact some farmer and help him harvest his wheat this summer.
3. I remember the two summers I spent on my grandfather’s farm and the wheat harvests I took part in. As the combine cut the wheat and then emptied its load into the wagon and the wagon emptied its load at the elevator, there was chaff in the air everywhere. It was the worse stuff you ever saw. It stuck to you skin wherever you were sweating, which was most everywhere - on the back of your neck and down your shirt, and created the worst itching. I understand wheat harvests were even worse in the days of the old threshers and are even better today with air conditioned combine cabs, but the chaff is still there. It is and always will be totally worthless.
4. The Psalmist would understand this idea clearly. He knew what wheat chaff was like as they pounded the grain by hand on their threshing floors, tossed it into the air, and watched the wind blow the chaff away as the grain fell back to the floor. All they could do with the chaff was let the wind blow it away.
• The threshing floors of Palestine are on hills that catch the best breezes. Grain is brought to them, is crushed by animals or by threshing instruments that are drawn over it, then is pitched high into the air where the wind blows the chaff away. The heavier grain falls back to the threshing floor and is collected. The chaff is scattered or burned.
• Even today, we cannot find anything useful to do with the chaff.
5. The person who has no time for God may look impressive on the outside, in the eyes of the world. He may have great possessions and even be considered an important person, but he no foundation in life, nothing to ground him.
B. The Destiny of those who have no time for God.
1. The Psalmist is very straightforward here: The wicked will not be able to withstand the final judgment; sinners will not able to stand with the righteous in the final assembly.
2. In the end, those who have no time for God will perish – vs. 6.
CONCLUSION
A. This Psalm clearly sets out for us a choice in life: Will you live a God-centered life or will you have no time for God?
B. Joseph Flack’s teaching of this Psalm, as told by Harry Ironside¸ a great Bible teacher:
A number of years ago, Joseph Flacks visited Palestine. He had an opportunity to address a gathering of Jews and Arabs and took for the subject of his address Psalm 1. He read it and then asked the question: “Who is the 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 said, “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.”
“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. It was not David.
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.”
C. Jesus is that man, of course. He is the only perfect man who ever lived, and he is the sinner’s Savior. It is he who stands at the portal of this book to show us the way to live and help us do it. It is he who enables us to obtain God’s blessing on our lives.
