For those of us who are at mid-life or way beyond that point often
there are times that we wish we could stay at a young and vibrant age. These
longings conjures up the idea of the "fountain of youth"—hoping for a place or a tonic which would
enable us to return to vibrancy. How we can long for the things or the way of life that will lead us
into blessed joy and constant abundance!
What if I told you that there is a secret to having a great life?
Would you want to know about it?
As Biblical Christians we find incredible truth in the Word of God
for matters such as these. We can find that in God's Word are hidden in plain
view the keys to living a great life. Some of those keys can be found in the
Psalms. One commentator put it this way:
"Here at the very center
of the Bible are songs, rising up like a tune from its heart. They capture the
innermost thoughts and prayers of Old Testament people and they still speak
directly to our needs.
"For every emotion and
mood you can find a psalm to match. The psalms wrestle with the deepest sorrow
and ask God the hardest questions about suffering and injustice. Their voice is
refreshingly spontaneous. They do not tip flowery compliments toward God: they
cry out to him, or shout for joy before him.
"After you read these
poems, you can't think of the Old Testament as dry and rule-bound. Nor is the
Old Testament God distant and impersonal. In almost every psalm you find the
presence of God, not as a
philosophical principle, but as an active, strong,
and loving ruler—a God who makes a
difference in life."[1]
Let's read Psalm 1.
Blessed
is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or
stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
but
whose delight is in the law of the LORD,
and who meditates on his law day and night.
That
person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and
whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers.
Not so the wicked!
They are like chaff
that the wind blows away.
Therefore
the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the
righteous.
For the LORD watches over the way of the
righteous,
but the way of the wicked leads to
destruction.
In this Psalm rest some of the keys to a great life. Most of us
understand what blessing means. It encompasses the idea of favor, approval,
gifts from God, enjoying happiness and provision. It is from God that all blessings flow.
And then we need to understand what righteousness means. There are
numerous references to righteousness throughout the Bible. Let's consider just two
of them.
Proverbs 4:18
The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining
ever brighter till the full light of day.
I John 3:6-9
No
one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either
seen him or known him.
Dear
children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is
righteous, just as he is righteous. The
one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning
from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the
devil’s work. No one who is born of God
will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on
sinning, because they have been born of God.
A righteous person is filled with God, wants to do things the way
God does them, and then actually does the things of God. In addition, Psalm 1
spells out some of those same activities—both positively and negatively.
Look at the first verse again. A blessed righteous person
does not walk, stand or sit with wicked
people. What does it mean to walk, stand
and sit? Does this mean that we should completely avoid any contact with
unbelievers? Does this mean that we are to completely withdraw from the world
and live in communes in the mountains? I think not.
As Christians we believe in the whole revelation of the Word of
God. So, when we go to the Gospels and see that Jesus sat down and ate with
drunkards and prostitutes, we have to ask the question again—what does it mean to not walk, stand or sit
with the wicked?
The original Hebrew of these words all indicates a more
progressive activity. They imply an intentional participation with the wicked,
sinners and mockers in their activities. Jesus certainly intended to participate
with such folk, but with an entirely different motivation than what the
Psalmist is trying to point out. Jesus
wanted to heal and evangelize.
Unrighteous people stand or sit with the wicked folks for full
participation in their activities. They
want to learn how to be sinful or to find the means to more self-gratification
or to learn how to ridicule others. That is fundamentally different than evangelism of the
Jesus sort. Righteous people want to engage with their world for the sake of
salvation of the lost, not to learn more ways to be unrighteous.
The psalmist shows us what a righteous person seeks out. In fact,
the psalmist tells us that a person who loves God takes delight in God’s ways.
We who follow God find delight, pleasure, happiness, gladness and joy in this
open secret to life.
What is that open secret? It is the Law of the Lord. When an ancient Hebrew referred to "the
Law" he wasn't talking about the Supreme Court or the policeman on the
corner or the thousands of law books on a lawyer’s book shelves. The Hebrew
people understood the Law to include the first five books of the Old Testament,
which just happened to include the laws handed down by God to Moses. It was the whole sweep of God's great hand in
giving direction and guidelines.
In Joshua 1 we see that Moses wanted to make sure that the leaders
and people understood that God's law was for future generations as well. We can
read how he stood as a weak, old man ready to die making this incredible
statement: Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day
and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you
will be prosperous and successful.
There is something wonderful and miraculous about God's law. It is
designed to keep us and guide us into all truth. This is not subjective idea
about what is good or right, but it is a lifestyle of peace and truth based on God’s Word. When we take the time
to study God's Word he will put his law into our hearts, heads and hands so
that we will not end up like the wicked. That is why we meditate on it. We eat
it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We dwell on it in our daydreams. We might
think thoughts like this, "Oh, God, if I follow you into this area of
ministry I know you have promised to help me." Or "Lord, I need your direction,
give me your insight and wisdom. You Word says that if I ask for wisdom from
You I will get it. Thank you!"
Have you heard
the phrase "You are what you eat"? It's quite like that. If you spend all your time thinking about
where to get your next thrill or how you're going to pay the next bill or how
you can get more stuff—that's
what you will become. Like the little girl in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory who just could not resist eating
blueberry gum. She ate it and suddenly she began turning blue and her body
started expanding and she eventually, and quite rapidly, became an enormous
blueberry! That's
what it is like with the wicked things of this world. You will become consumed
by them if you consume them only. So,
why not consume God’s Word and Law, which will help you to become more like a
fruitful tree than a piece of rotting fruit!
Poetry is filled with
similes and metaphors. It is in the next verse of Psalm 1that we see a
beautiful picture of a blessed-life righteous person.
That
person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and
whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers.
Wow, now that's my kind of life! I recall watering the lawn some
time back in the middle of a blistering summer.
I walked across a hot parking lot heading toward the sprinklers when all
of the sudden I stopped. There was a remarkable change that had just come over
me. I felt immediately cooler and I had stopped squinting. What happened was
that I had walked under a tree with beautiful leaves spread out. It seemed as if it was there just to protect
me from that summer sun. Somewhere deep in the earth beneath me that tree’s
roots had found water and it decided to stay right there and live a healthy
life because it was tapped in to an underground stream of water. If it had not found what it needed so
desperately in the heat, it would have dried up and fallen to the ground. Those deep roots were the life source for
that tree.
Let's say that that tree was completely dependent upon me for its
water. We have these little rain bird sprinklers that attempt to mimic rain.
They are good and do a fairly good job—when I turn them on. But I'm not always here. Sometimes I forget
to turn the sprinklers on. Sometimes I'm unable to be there. But when the tree
is drawing
from the stream that never dries up, it will never
suffer and die. Now that is prosperity! That's the good life—so unlike how the wicked, sinners and mockers
define prosperity!
Trees seek water by design. They send roots down as fast and as
deep as they can. But we sometimes pull
up our own roots and then we wonder why our leaves are withering and there is
no shade. And then, worst of all, we discover that we produce no fruit—there is no evidence of God in our lives.
Sometimes it's the people around us that notice this first. They wonder why we
lack the joy we used to have, why we are disgruntled and angry all the time,
they wonder why we have taken up with those mockers and they see and know that
very soon we will come to nothing.
In this Psalm we see the reason that God gives his Law and the
reason that we need to follow it. Let’s dwell on verses 4-5 for a moment.
Not so the wicked!
They
are like chaff
that the wind blows away.
Therefore
the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the
righteous.
These are striking and harsh words. No matter what the mockers
say, the outcome of life for them is nothing more than something that can be
blown away by the very wind that blows against a tree that is rooted and firm. Cast in theological terms, the Psalmist
doesn't cut any corners here! There is a terrible outcome for these people who
refuse God's ways. They won't even be
able to stand when God judges them! What a terrible day! When God's goodness
and righteousness shines on them directly they will dry up and blow away as
dust. Even the righteous people will stand in that great courtroom and watch
them be blown away. How sad. How very
sad.
The Psalmist closes this psalm with a short and concise stanza in
verse 6.
For
the LORD watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked leads to
destruction.
My dear friends, in this short and wonderful Psalm we have found
some of the essential open secrets to having a great life.
What if we took this psalm seriously? What if we wanted to be
righteous every day? What if we wanted to be like a tree planted by streams of
living water?
If we really want this, we can have this by meditating on God's Word
and love day and night. We
can let the Living Water and his Word transform us into his righteous
people. Then we will have the way of
life that will lead us into blessed joy and constant abundance. Our challenge is to let our roots grow more
toward the deep and wonderful streams of God’s everlasting waters. Then we will be able to stand firm as a
tree—being fruitful until he comes again.
What a blessed life!
Amen
Copyright M.R. Hyde 2013
