RECAP
Intro: What it Means to be Blessed
-
God gives us
blessings, produces blessings, and promises blessings.
-
We as people
tend to focus on material blessings more than God does.
-
God has given
us blessings, but how much stuff we have is not the best way for us to measure
God’s blessing in our life.
-
The truth is
that we ARE blessed— blessed with every spiritual blessing.
-
We have access
to the blessing of God.
- However, we must walk in them in order to experience His blessings the way He intended for us.
INTRODUCTION
One of the greatest inventions in my lifetime is the GPS. It is one of those things that greatly improves our way of life, but is taken for granted now. The truth is that it is an incredible blessing! We can type in almost any address in the country and within seconds, our phone can tell us exactly how to get there.
What GPS does:
- Tells us when to turn
- Warns us about upcoming traffic.
- Reroutes us if there
is an accident.
- Informs us when we are going the wrong way.
That is a blessing!
However, regardless of how amazing GPS is, it is only a blessing if you follow it.
You can have the route pulled up, you can hear the directions, you can even agree with the directions. But if it says, “turn right,” and you keep going straight, you are not going to experience the benefit of GPS. Why? Because the benefit of GPS is found when you follow the instructions given.
Similarly, the same thing is true with the Word of God.
God has given us His Word as a blessing. His Word gives us direction for how to live. It tells us what to do in every situation of life. But it is not enough to simply have the Bible. Nor is it enough to simply hear the Bible. The blessing comes when we allow His Word to direct the way we live. Why? Because the benefit of God’s Word is found when you walk in His ways.
That is exactly what Psalm 1 shows us. Let’s turn to Psalm 1 and read it together of what His Word says.
Psalms 1 contrasts a picture of two different paths, or two different ways of living. There is the way of the world and then the way of the Lord. The one who follows the way of the world brings a curse on his life. The one who follows the way of the Lord brings blessing on his life. The words “blessed is the man” refers to the person who does two things: what they avoid and what they embrace.
The Way of the World (Cursing)
Verse 1 begins by describing the way that blessed people refuse to go. It paints a picture of a man walks in the ways of the world.
V1 — “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…”
The person who is blessed is the one who avoids this path. This is the path of the world. Jesus says wide is the road that walks this road. However, this path leads to destruction. The person who is blessed is the one who refuses this path. He understands that not every voice deserves to be in his life. No one goes down this path without first being influenced. What is influencing you?
There is a progression here in verse 1:
Walks — Worldly Influences
•
Speaks of the
direction of someone’s life.
•
They are headed
in the direction of the counsel of the wicked.
•
To have counsel
of the wicked in your life is evident that the door has been opened to allow
the influence of the wicked in their life.
•
When we allow
those influences in our life, they begin changing the way we think.
•
Next thing you
know, you begin thinking the same way they do.
• Things the Bible says are wrong suddenly begin to feel they aren’t that bad.
Stands — Worldly Practices
•
Counsel of the
wicked now becomes what we practice.
•
We have now moved
from walking over to the way of the wicked out of curiosity to now
participating in worldly practices.
•
The counsel of
the wicked have now become the way of the sinner.
•
Something that
once bothered me now becomes something I practice.
• Standing reflects a pattern of compromise.
Sits — Worldly Comfort
•
I have gone from
wicked counsel, to sinful practices, now to worldly comfort.
•
Not just hearing
the wrong thing, not just doing the wrong thing, now you are comfortable with
it and you perspective has shifted.
•
Sitting in
something is becoming comfortable with a new reality.
•
A scoffer is
someone who mocks, ridicules, and rejects the things of God.
• They refuse to accept correction and make fun of people who try to live right.
The progression here in verse 1
is:
1.
I listened to
what was wrong.
2.
Then I started
doing what was wrong.
3. Eventually I stopped thinking it was wrong.
The blessed person refuses to allow the world to become the primary voice shaping their life.
The Way of the Lord (Blessing)
Then the writer continues to verse 2 to show what the blessed person embraces. He says that the blessed person refuses to go the way of the world. Why? Because his delight is in the Word of God.
V2 — “But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.”
The blessed person…
1.
Delights
in the Word of God
Delight means to enjoy, desire, and be satisfied with His Word.
There are things that we all delight in. When we delight in something, people
don’t have to tell us to do it. We delight in:
• Checking our phones
• Watch our favorite tv show
• Eat our favorite dessert or snack
•
Nobody has to
tell us because we create time for the things we enjoy. Now that doesn’t mean
that we wake up every morning fired up and ready to read Leviticus. It means
you value what God has to say to you and you desire to know it.
•
When we delight
in something, we enjoy it. What we enjoy, we naturally give our
attention to. What we give our attention to, we want more of.
•
There is a
difference between reading God’s Word and delighting God’s Word. It’s not just
something that we do. It becomes something that we enjoy and look forward to.
•
Delighting in
God’s Word is about valuing its wisdom and its potential in your life.
•
Psalm
119:72 — “The law of Your mouth is better to me
than thousands of coins of gold and silver.”
•
This is what it
looks like to delight in the Word of God. The writer is saying that “What God
has to say to me is incredibly valuable.”
•
The more you
value God’s Word, the more you desire it.
2.
Meditates
on the Word of God
v2 — “On his law he
meditates day and night.”
It is possible to read the Bible and then walk away forgetting what you just
read. Ask Jesus or His brother about it, they can tell you all about it.
Meditating on God’s Word is what keeps us from doing this very thing.
Meditation of God’s Word is different than meditation in the world. Meditation
in the world is emptying our minds. Meditation in a godly sense is filling our
minds with God’s truth.
Meditate (Hagah) =
Thinking on, dwelling on, mulling over truth.
To meditate means to murmur. It means to speak to oneself about the truth and
mull it over. It is what we choose to think about. Meditation is thinking about
God’s Word, dwelling on it, speaking it to yourself and so that you will be
successful in doing what it says.
Whatever you think about the most, consumes you the most. Whatever consumes you
the most, will control your life.
3.
Obeys
the Word of God
Luke 11:28 — “Blessed rather are those who hear the
word of God and obey it!”
There is a major difference between knowing what God says and doing
what God says. We can read the Bible, hear sermons, memorize scriptures,
know all the right answers, and still choose to do the opposite in our life.
Knowing what God says is not enough. Even the devil knows what God’s Word says.
Jesus doesn’t say “Blessed are those who hear the Word of God,” but those who
“hear and do” what it says. The key that unlocks the blessing of God on our
life is obeying His Word. When we walk in God’s ways as He designed it, we will
be blessed in all of our doing. This is why obedience is such an important
theme in the Bible, because it unlocks the blessing of God on our life.
John 13:17 — “If you
know these things, blessed are you if you do them.”
Revelation 1:3 — “ Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of
this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in
it, for the time is near.”
God desires for us to walk in His ways because of the blessing that comes with
it.
WHAT IS THE BLESSING
This is the blessing that is promised on our life when we walk in His ways:
V3 — “He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.”
•
Stable — “He
is like a tree planted…”
- The person who is rooted in God's Word has something
holding him steady.
- Life may shake him, but he will not have to be
uprooted by everything that happens around him.
•
Sustained — “…by streams of water…”
- Even as life tries to suck the love, peace, joy,
patience, it is unsuccessful.
- Why? Because his source is not found in what’s around
or within himself
- Instead, you have a continual supply of God’s Spirit that is sustaining you.
•
Fruitful — “…that yields its fruit in its
season…”
- Spiritual fruit is produced in your life
- Even as you walk through seasons that make no sense,
you are growing the fruit necessary for that season.
- It means that you are always growing.
•
Enduring — “…and its leaf does not wither…”
- Regardless of the season you are in, you develop roots
that remain strong as you are sustained by the flow of steady streams of living
water.
- Even when the circumstances around it are troubling,
its leaf does not wither because it is planted by streams of water.
- No matter what you are walking through, you will make
it through because God is with you. You are rooted and built up in Him.
•
Prosperous — “In
all that he does, he prospers.”
- Prosper = Succeed going the direction that God called
you to go.
- You succeed in walking in God’s ways and walking in
His wisdom.
- The blessing is you succeed in following God’s path.
- That is the closest thing to heaven that you and I
will experience here on earth.
- One day when we are in heaven, there will be no more
sin, no more deception, no more hurt and pain, no more temptation. We will be
made new. We will perfectly walk in the plan God intended for us.
- Until that day, living out God’s Word is the closest thing to experiencing heaven on this side of it.
TAKEAWAYS:
I.
Refuse
to listen to the voice of the world
II.
Value
the Word of God
III.
Fill
your mind with His truth
IV. Do what it says
When we do this, we unlock the blessing of God that He
intended for our life. We will be walking in His ways; the closest thing to
heaven on this side of earth.
