I realized I was not gonna be able to finish with the passage that I was preparing for today from Acts. There was just a lot there that I was investigating and struggling with and looking at. And so I thought about Psalm chapter one, which really in some ways, maybe I'll reference it next week, goes along with next week's sermon in which we see the laws of God now written upon our hearts. And even into the old covenant, For those, we look at in terms of the covenant of grace, the new covenant, even working out in the old covenant, prospectively, by promise, the psalmist had the laws of God written on his heart by the Spirit. And so we can see that here beautifully represented in Psalm chapter one. So that's what we're gonna look at this morning. The book of Psalms, is not just a random collection of 150 Psalms just kinda all thrown together. The Psalter actually went through lots of different editions over the years. It just didn't come out ready-made all of a sudden. So for actually several hundred years, it was being added to. There were different collections at different times. And all that information is on another sermon on our website if you wanna go back and investigate any of that. Until after the Israelites came back from exile, so this is after all the no more kings in Jerusalem, Ezra, Nehemiah, and even after that, we reached the final form that we have today. Of course, one of the most important things about editing or shaping a collection of Psalms is how you start it. Which Psalm are you gonna put first? And the Psalms, as we know, are divided, or maybe we don't know, are divided into five separate books. Or we could say five different collections of psalms that were then all collected together into one collection. So in Book 1, starting with Chapter 3, every psalm has a title. Some of them won't in your Bibles, but that's because the psalm is connected with the one that comes before it. But every psalm has a title and is connected with David. If you come to book two, every psalm has a title. Come to book three, every psalm has a title. The first 89 psalms all have titles. The only ones that don't are psalms one and two. And that's because they're placed here at the beginning of this book in order to serve as an introduction to the entire collection. Acts 13, 33 says, it is written in the second Psalm. I thought that's interesting, because nowhere else does anything reference the specific Psalm, like the 89th Psalm or the 23rd Psalm. But here's the second Psalm. You are my son today, I have begotten you. Now there are some Greek manuscripts that actually say those words come from the first Psalm. That's the second or the first, which one is it? Well, there are seven Hebrew manuscripts that combine Psalms 1 and 2 into a single psalm. So as we're going to see this morning, there are connections between these two psalms which show that you're not meant to read Psalm 1 by itself and Psalm 2 by itself. They're meant to be read together, each one informing the other. So I would encourage you, if you're reading through the psalms and you like a psalm a day, don't read Psalm 1 by itself. Just don't do it. Read Psalm 2 along with it. We'll see a bit of why that is this morning. So in your handout, Psalms 1 and 2 placed at the beginning of our Psalter is an introduction. So they help us understand how to read the rest of the book, how to sing the rest of the book. So briefly, Psalm 1 in your handout is a wisdom psalm. Meaning, it talks about the way of the righteous. The way of wisdom is a way. And then there's the way of the fool. So it's a wisdom psalm. It talks about the way of the righteous, the way of the wicked, and it focuses on God's word and God's law, which teaches us wisdom. Psalm chapter 2 is a royal psalm, and this is why I think sometimes we can read these two psalms and not see any connection at all, because they look at first glance very different. Psalm 2 is a royal psalm. It speaks of God's anointed king ruling from Jerusalem with sovereign authority over all the world, and no one can touch him, no one can rival him. So Psalm 1 begins, How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked. His delight is in the law of Yahweh. Psalm 2 ends, how blessed are all who take refuge in him, in Yahweh's Messiah, whom he has installed on Mount Zion. So this is the way we put it together. If you're in exile, you're not in exile anymore, you're returned out of exile, and yet you're a ragtag group of Jewish people living in the midst of mighty empires, and you don't know how you're gonna maintain your identity and not be absorbed into the cultures around you, this was their danger. It was, in your handout, obedience to God's law, Psalm 1, and faith and hope in God's Messiah, that marked them out as distinct, as a separate people in the midst of the mighty empires that surrounded them and threatened to engulf them and absorb them into their own ways of living. And isn't that always what's true for all of God's people living in the world? Isn't it faith and obedience that keeps us separate and distinct? Brothers and sisters, there's always the danger that we lose our witness, that we lose our light by being absorbed into the surrounding culture. And this was the danger for Israel, and this was why the Psalms, in a sense, reached their final shape this way. The two opening chapters asked and answer the question, how do we maintain our identity as a light in the pagan world around us? Obedience to God's law, faith and hope in God's Messiah. It is really very simple. The underlying message of the Psalms then is the blessedness of obedience to God's law in the light of the certainty that he is sovereignly ruling and reigning as king over all the world. I'm not gonna be so inclined to obey the law of someone who is not supreme, but he is supreme. He has installed his king on Zion, and now we can obey his law with confidence and with hope. So this morning we come to Psalm 1, seeing this connection, and we'll refer to Psalm 2 a little bit. Psalm 1 opens with these wonderful words, how blessed is the man? And of course, We can say how blessed is the woman, how blessed is the child. I just want us to see that this is to all here present in this room. How blessed is the man? The book of Psalms opens then with a beatitude. We think of the beatitudes that are famous certainly in Matthew chapter five, blessed are the meek, the poor in spirit, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the peacemakers, the merciful. Psalms begins with this beatitude and so with an invitation. to all of us. Oxford Languages says that beatitude refers to a supreme blessedness. And that's certainly the idea here in Psalm 1. The psalmist isn't saying, well, there's a higher blessedness I could tell you about, but let me start with the secondary one. No, he's saying how blessed, how fully, how supremely Blessed is this man. Blessed is plural in the Hebrew. I don't know how to do that in English at all, but the Hebrew word is plural when it uses this word blessed, so it's a way of stressing the fullness of joy. One translation reads, I love this translation, and I think it's quite accurate and good. Oh, the happiness of that one. Someone else says that the word blessed conveys the idea of happiness. And I think sometimes as Christians we're afraid to use the word happiness, and I think we ought to use it more, actually. Because I think sometimes joy has become so spiritualized in that bad way that we fail to realize it is actually a wonderful kind of a thing. It is happiness, but it's happiness rooted in the right thing. We say happiness is dependent on circumstances, and in that sense, that's not what we're talking about. But there is this happiness, a true happiness, that we can have as Christians in this reality we're gonna explore. This commentator says it's a happiness that flows from a life that's in proper order. A life, I would put it this way, that's ordered rightly. So by beginning with this beatitude, the one that's reading it or that's singing it, as we will in a little while this morning, we're being invited to come and share in this supreme blessedness. He's not gonna say, now how blessed is the man? And sorry, none of you guys can have this. How blessed is the man? And I guess it's probably beyond most of you. No, he's saying how blessed is the man as though to invite us in and to call us to experience and know this happiness for ourselves. So what is it that's ordered, what is this life that's ordered rightly? Who is this one who's so supremely happy? That's a great question, right? I would ask you, are you supremely happy this morning? No, I know we're up and down with life and the vicissitudes of life and the changing circumstances. But do you have a fundamental, underlying, supreme happiness? In the book of Psalms, well, in verse one, he says, how blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, and in the way of sinners does not stand, and in the seat of scoffers does not sit. Who are these wicked and sinners and scoffers? In the context of the Psalms, and especially Psalm 2, they are all those who are not in your handout rightly related to God. And what I mean by rightly related to God is humble trust and submission and obedience. That's what it comes down to. I mean, you're there, but there is God who is the center of all, the supreme being, the one, the only, the living and true God. And the question is, how are you in relation to him, right? And when my life is properly oriented to him and to his law, then I'm in right relationship with him. When I am not, and fundamentally so, that is the wicked and the sinner and the scoffer. So Psalm chapter 2 says, the kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against Yahweh. See, they're not in right relation to God. They take counsel against His anointed, His Messiah, saying, let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us. So now, O kings, show insight, take warning, O judges of the earth. Serve Yahweh with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son lest he become angry and you perish in the way, for his wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in him. You see, who's the scoffer and the wicked and the sinner? It's these people in Psalm 2 who are not rightly related to God. They're ultimately all who have not put their trust in Yahweh and submitted in glad obedience to his Messiah, to Jesus Christ. That's who they are. They're the people who've chosen to live their lives day by day without reference to God. It's just simple. And the question then becomes, do you live your life? Do I live my life day to day with constant reference to God? It explains why the psalmist can speak of the counsel of the wicked. He doesn't say you don't just walk with the wicked. He says the counsel of the wicked. He doesn't say you don't just go along with the sinners. He says the way of sinners, the seat of scoffers. So when we're not rightly related to God, it leads to a way of life. We can't escape that. This leads to this, right? The vertical impacts the horizontal, guaranteed. A life that ultimately ends in futility. to not be rightly related to God determines the counsels I take, the plans I make, and ultimately the whole, in your handout, the whole direction and course of my life. So who's the one who's so happy? Who's the one who's so joyful? Who's the one who's so blessed? Here's an ironic thing, at least, I don't know if I'm using that word rightly, but it's not what we would expect. He's the one who does, not walk in the counsel of the wicked, and the way of sinners does not stand, it's all negative right now, and in the seat of scoffers does not sit. It's counterintuitive. Our fleshly wisdom says that it doesn't make sense that the one who's truly blessed and happy is the one who goes against the flow. who is constantly swimming against the current. What's more enjoyable? Swim along with the current. Go with the flow, it's easier, it's more enjoyable. In the first four verses though, the blessed one is always only one. We have this picture, he paints this picture of this solitary individual. While the wicked and the sinners and the scoffers are always plural. So they're always in groups. They're always the majority, they're always more in number. Jesus said, few there are who find it, right? Many there are who find the broad way. So we learn first of all, we are born into this world with the desire to fit in, to go along with the path of least resistance. We learn first of all that the one who's truly blessed and truly happy is the one not afraid to stand alone. But here's an important qualification, because some people just love standing alone. I'm not convinced those people really are. We're not talking about standing alone with pride and condescension. toward others, we're not talking about moral smugness, but a humble self-denial that is willing to take up a cross and follow Jesus. that's willing to suffer for righteousness sake. And you would say, well, I don't know the psalmist. Did the psalmist really understand that? Yeah, of course he did. The psalmist understood it more than anyone else, right? He's the one who's writing in Psalm chapter 11, the wicked bend the bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string to shoot in darkness at the upright in heart. Psalm 119, the cords of the wicked have encircled me. The wicked have laid a snare for me. And we heard about the scoffers in Psalm 1. We also hear about them in Psalm 119, the arrogant, utterly scoff at me. So the question is, how can that be? Like so far, this doesn't necessarily fit. How is it that the one who stands alone, even with all the world arrayed against him, we see this lone, solitary person, all the wicked in groups and the majority and going along, and he's kind of trying to go the other way, right? And he's the one supremely happy. How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, in the way of sinners does not stand, in the seat of scoffers does not sit, but his delight is in the law of Yahweh. And in his law he murmurs day and night. Now look at this person, just look at this person. He's not just someone who knows duty and obligation, is he? And I would pray that, I think of sometimes in the preaching, and certainly in all of our Christian lives, I pray that our Christian life is not simply duty and obligation. There is duty and obligation. And some Christians don't know enough of that. But we combine duty and obligation with, here in this picture, one who delights, who loves, and enjoys, and finds pleasure and satisfaction. His delight is in the Law of Yahweh. And in His Law, He murmurs day and night. So He's not like the wicked and the sinners and the scoffers. He's not like them. He stands out. He sticks out like a sore thumb because He's all about the Law of Yahweh. Instead, this person has a genuine attraction To all that God has revealed, and I'm gonna quote from the Baptist catechism here, to all that God has revealed concerning what man is to believe concerning him and what duty God requires of man. I have a genuine attraction. God, what have you told me about yourself? And I'm drawn to know that. I have a genuine attraction to what he has told me about my duty and what I'm required to believe and what I'm required to obey, to do. The Hebrew word for law is Torah. We'll just say Torah. It can refer to specific laws. When we think of law, a lot of times we think in terms of the law of legalism, a lot of times, honestly. And that which only condemns. We can think of the Ten Commandments, certainly, as law. But it can also refer to the first five books of Moses. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. We know that those books though include more than just commandments. So when we speak of the law and the prophets, what are we talking about? The first five books and then the rest of the Old Testament. The first five books they referred to as the law. So when you read in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, what were you reading? The law, Torah, the books of Moses. Those laws then, those books included more than just commandments. What else do they include? They include the account of creation. and the fall, and the first gospel promise to Adam and Eve in the garden, and the judgment of the flood, and the salvation of the ark, and the promises to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and the redemption of Israel from Egypt, the 10 plagues, the crossing of the Red Sea, Israel's journeys in the wilderness, the giving of the covenant at Mount Sinai, all of that is contained in the law. Paul says that even these things were written down, he says, for our instruction. So Torah. Law, but law in the broader sense of Torah, is all of God's instruction that comes to us through his saving revelation of himself. When God reveals himself savingly to us, whether it's through 10 commandments or through redeeming a people out of Egypt through the 10 plagues, all of that is God's revealing himself to us and giving to us really instruction. It's all written for our instruction, Torah. For the one who then, rather than seeking to tear off the yoke of God's rule, and I pray that's not a single person here, but who instead has taken refuge in God's Messiah. That's Psalm 2. There's the people, I wanna tear off the yoke of God's rule, and then at the end, there's those who take refuge in God's Messiah. For all of them, this is in your handout, gospel law. It's the law of, as James says, the law of freedom. It's this Torah, it's this instruction of Yahweh that bears then fruit. It bears fruit in a way of living that is diametrically opposite. And I chose opposite instead of opposed because I don't wanna highlight the conflict and the antagonism. I just wanna highlight the difference. is diametrically opposite to that of the wicked and the sinners and the scoffers, two ways. It's this instruction and teaching from Yahweh that then shapes the counsels that I take, the plans that we all make from day to day, and the whole direction and course of our lives. I'm using the same words so that we see the two ways. The wicked and the sinners and the scoffers have a whole way and direction and course of their lives. And then those who delight in the Torah of Yahweh have another way and direction and course. This is so because God's Torah is something we delight in. It's something we murmur day and night. What's this murmuring? Many of you, it was eight years ago that I preached this message before, and I've done stuff to it and changed it up a bit, but we did talk about this murmuring. Maybe you'll remember this. In Isaiah 31, it describes the growling of a lion. In Isaiah 8, it describes the muttering of sorcerers. In Job 37, it describes the sound of God's voice. Listen closely to the thunder of his voice and the rumbling, that's the word for murmuring that I'm using here, the rumbling that goes out from his mouth. So the basic idea of this word is the making of a sound. Psalm 115 says, idols have hands but do not feel, feet but do not walk. They do not make a sound in their throat. That's the word that we have here in Psalm 1. So why do all of our translations without exception say meditate? That's not a bad translation. There's nothing wrong with it. In fact, it's quite good. One Hebrew lexicon offers this definition of the Hebrew word in this specific kind of a context. It means to ponder by talking to oneself. So you can't take away the idea of talking from this Hebrew word. It always means making sound, talking. But maybe it means that kind of more metaphorically, talking to myself. And when we're talking to ourselves, we're not always talking out loud, are we? We're talking to ourselves constantly, inwardly, internally. That's what the psalmist is talking about here. So in our deepest heart of hearts, we are all always pondering or meditating something. You are, you are. Your whole life consists of that. We're all always talking to ourselves, constantly. And I know we don't like to talk to ourselves out loud in front of people, because that's crazy people, but you are always talking to yourself, always within. It never stops. And if you actually stop and think about it, you'll realize that. Now we're not talking about you can't talk to yourself about what you got to do today. We're talking about the deeper down underlying conversation that we have. We said the basic idea Of course, the question is, what are we talking to ourselves about? The basic idea of the word is making sound, but we could add, it's making that sound that expresses what's deepest in the heart. That's why it's a muttering. It's a growling. It's a murmuring. In other places, it's a moaning, like the moaning we moan like the dove or something. They use that expression. So, it's not a proclamation, I'm going to speak to you. No, it's just, I'm talking to myself. It's this constant thing that's going on in here. So on the one hand, this murmuring, it's a choice we make. On the other hand, because it's the murmuring of what's deepest in my heart, it's something that's enabled by God's prior sovereign work of grace in my heart, which explains the emphasis on murmuring day and night. We might say, oh, day and night. But no, that's not what it is. Because I'm murmuring it, it just means it's coming from my heart. And so it's a joy. It's just what I do. It's just what we do. And that's why you see this all the time. Psalm 35. It says, my tongue shall utter, and I would question that a little bit, because when we think utter, sometimes we think, I am out uttering something to you. But no, the idea is murmur. It's not necessarily that I'm proclaiming something, but I'm just murmuring God's righteousness and His praise all day long. Why? Because His righteousness is praise, and praise is what's in my heart. Psalm 37 says, the mouth of the righteous murmurs wisdom. And the implication is that's what it does continuously. That's just the language it speaks. Psalm 38, there's the negative side of it. Those who search for my life lay snares for me. They murmur deceit all day long. And they're not complaining, oh, I got to murmur deceit today. I gotta do this. No, they're quite happy. It just comes naturally. It's coming from their heart. They murmur deceit all day long because why? Deceit is what's in their heart. Psalm 71, my tongue also will utter or murmur your righteousness all day long. What is deepest in my heart is what we'll always be talking to ourselves about. And so if our delight is in Yahweh's Torah, That's what we'll be talking to ourselves about. And I'm not saying, again, we're not talking about this super out-of-this-world spiritual person who only quotes scripture to himself all day long. No, I'm actually talking about, as I go through this and I enjoy this, there's a thankfulness, Lord, this comes from you. Or as I struggle with a feeling of resentment or wanting to be angered, to judge a person, I'm aware and I'm speaking to myself the law of Yahweh regarding that situation. Or as I'm struggling with this choice or that choice, there's this sense of, Lord, what does your words have to say about this? And I speak Torah to myself because it's beautiful to me. because it's something that we've learned to delight in. That's what we'll be murmuring in all the various circumstances and situations of life. In part two of this two-part introduction to the Psalms, Psalm chapter two, we read about the murmuring of the nations. It's the same word. The murmuring of the wicked and the sinners and the scoffers, plural, so the nations, and all the plural sinners and wicked and scoffers. Why do the nations rage and the peoples murmur a vain thing? And so what do you hear? You hear their hearts speaking, right? And their hearts are speaking as they're murmuring pride, and they're murmuring discontent, and they're murmuring rebellion. But here in part one, we have this completely different picture. We see a lone man, a lone woman, or a lone child. And I wanna invite the children here to set the example for all the adults around you. Children, set us an example of what this can look like. We see this lone child or man or woman talking to himself or herself about the goodness and the beauty and the delights of Yahweh's Torah. We hear in his or her heart the murmuring of humility, murmuring thanksgiving, murmuring obedience. Couldn't have a contrast more vivid than this. How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, in the way of sinners does not stand, in the seat of scoffers does not sit. He walks alone, swims against the current, goes against the flow, but his delight is in the law of Yahweh. And in his law, he murmurs day and night. He will be like a tree planted by channels of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither. And in whatever he does, he prospers. Okay, so once again, you have this vivid picture, the psalmist paints it, of this lone, solitary tree, pictured alone, like we sometimes see out in the middle of a cornfield. If you're driving down that country road and you just see all of a sudden there's a tree there, and we've talked to ourselves, how did that get there? And why is that there? But the reason the tree stands alone in this story is not because all the land is cultivated all around it, But because the land all around it, in that kind of a context that the psalmist is writing in, the land is hot, and it's dry, and it's arid, and just nothing else can grow. Why then is this tree doing so well? Why is it even flourishing and thriving? And the answer is that it was purposefully planted. So we come to the grace of God. It was planted by these channels of water and there's more to this grace than we maybe even see so far. As one person says, this tree is not simply a wild oak that takes its position by happenstance. It was planted as by a master gardener in the place where it can receive nourishment that it needs to flourish. Now here's the other beauty of this in the marginal note maybe of your Bible, you'll see that streams could be translated canals. I've translated it channels. So these channels, these canals of water, the implication is that they've been dug in order to bring the water to this place where God now plants this tree. They're irrigation canals that this master gardener has himself dug and in your handout prepared ahead of time. And so it's in this picture then that we see Yahweh's instruction. His Torah is pictured as a life-giving channel of water. It's very vivid. Which he himself has prepared for the one of his choosing because he's the one that planted this person right within those channels of water. on the banks of those canals and so that this person might grow and flourish and bear fruit even when all around is dry and lifeless and barren and hostile. That is the miracle of God's love and grace. He plants us next to the channels of water that he himself has dug and prepared. That should give us an appreciation for Torah. This is not just something that we, oh, I gotta go to it. No, it's like the waters that we're planted next to. Therefore, and this is where when I saw this, when I was considering this, Paul's words in Ephesians 2 just jumped into my mind when he's going along and he's writing. And then all of a sudden he just like, he interrupts himself and he just exclaims, by grace you have been saved. And so now as we are faithful to delight in Yahweh's law, he already planted us in it. He already dug it and placed it right next to us. And now as we then delight in his laws, we are careful to murmur his instruction day and night. It's in this way that our roots will always be drawing, drawing, drawing up the life-giving moisture, enabling us to bear fruit. unto eternal life. There's the eschatological hope. So the one who delights in Yahweh's law and murmurs his instruction is gonna be just like this tree. In whatever he does, he prospers. Which is to say, in whatever he does, he flourishes and bears fruit unto God's glory and his own joy. Brothers and sisters, I trust that we have experienced this and pray that we experience it more. The joy of bearing fruit. The happiness of knowing that God is at work in me. The one who delights in Yahweh's law bears fruit and this is the supreme happiness. How blessed is the man? This is the supreme happiness. The one whose pursuits in life are all determined and shaped by Yahweh's instruction is guaranteed the satisfaction and joy of this true success. If you want success, then shape your goals accordingly. If you want true prosperity, then shape your agendas accordingly. In Psalm 73, where it appears that only the wicked are prospering, it's interesting because we think, Yeah, and all that he does, he prospers. Later, the psalmist is gonna say, only the wicked are prospering. Well, that's how he feels, that's how it looks, but he knows the truth deep down. And so in that same psalm where the righteous are oppressed and the wicked prosper, the psalmist writes, whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. In that case, I must be prospering. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Lord God my refuge that I may tell of all your works. So the one whose delight is in Yahweh's law, murmurs, talks to himself all the time, day and night, his instruction, He's like a tree planted by channels of water which yields its fruit in its season, its leaf does not wither, and whatever he does he prospers, not so the wicked. And that's the effect in the Hebrew. It's quite violent. It's quite sudden. It's abrupt. Rather they are like the chaff that the wind drives away. It's interesting because he goes at length describing those who delight in Torah. like a tree planted by channels of water, yields fruit in its season, its leaf does not wither, and whatever he does, he prospers. And the wicked are then dispensed with in one short phrase, they're like the chaff that the wind drives away. Lord, take me not away with the counsels of the wicked. Let me not be afraid to stand alone, but let me not stand alone with moral smugness and superiority, which is not standing alone. Let me stand alone with that humble willingness, even if God should will, to suffer for the sake of righteousness. And in that, not in the suffering itself, but in the knowledge, in the knowledge that I have been planted by these streams of water, let me rejoice. Every single pursuit, we need to be reminded of this, this is wisdom. Every single pursuit of those who have not submitted to Yahweh, who do not stand in right relatedness to God, who have not taken refuge in his Messiah, in Jesus Christ, who have not delighted in his instruction, will in the end come to nothing. It will all be vanity and futility and emptiness. And so the psalmist concludes with verses five to six. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For Yahweh knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. Now two wonderful things I'm gonna just draw out of these verses. First, suddenly for the first time in this chapter, there's a whole congregation of the righteous. It's wonderful. I love it because it just sets us up to love the church. It's just wonderfully refreshing. I got to this and I was like, oh, oh, I was so looking forward even to this, this time when we're gathered. And so we learned that the one who is willing to stand alone in the world is not actually alone after all. The one who's willing to stand alone in the world is the one who finds sweet fellowship and encouragement in the congregation of the righteous. How blessed is the man, the woman, the child who knows this fellowship while living in a foreign and hostile world. And if you're trying to go against the flow, and you're trying to swim against the current, and you're doing that without the fellowship, and without the encouragement of God's people and of his church, the Bible doesn't present that as even a possibility. So I would ask those who do not value the congregation of the righteous, is that a sign that in some sense, even if we're all politically conservative and we have all our right views and hobby horses and standards, even if they're biblical, is it possible, nevertheless, we're still too at home in the world? Because we haven't yet valued and loved the sweetness of the time of public worship and being in the congregation of the righteous. It's important for us to see, too. Number two, that the emphasis here is not on the merits of our own righteousness. What does it say? The congregation of the righteous, right? And that's where we think, the righteous, okay. Or God knows the way of the righteous. Now, who of us would dare to call ourselves righteous? I am a righteous man. You are a righteous man or woman or child. Is it our right to do that? Well, it better be, it better be, or God doesn't know your way, right? But how does this work? The point here is not that our own righteousness is the ground of our blessedness or of God's reward. Neither are we talking about the imputed righteousness of Christ. We are talking about our righteousness, but we confess with, again, now I'm gonna quote from the Baptist Confession. This is just so wonderfully put. We cannot, by our best works, merit pardon of sin or eternal life at the hand of God. And why not? By reason of the great disproportion that is between them and the glory to come. Look at that glory. How do you think we could earn it by our works? That glory is so beyond all imaginings that no matter how righteous I could be, I couldn't merit that. Not only that, but there is the infinite distance that's between us and God, whom by our righteousness and best works, we can neither profit him nor satisfy him for the debt of our former sins. But when we've done all that we can, we have done but our duty and our unprofitable servants, and because as they are good, insofar as my works are good, they proceed from his spirit, And insofar as they are wrought by me, they are defiled and mixed with so much weakness and imperfection. Have you not felt that in your best works? Sometimes you look at your best works and you're like, oh, it's mixed with pride. It's mixed with selfishness. It's mixed with, now it's got a lot of, it's got other things that God's spirit produces, but it's mixed because I'm still sinful. Therefore they cannot endure the severity of God's judgment. So then we say, well, what's the good of doing anything? Can I actually be a righteous man or woman or child? I love how the confession answers so biblically here, yet notwithstanding the persons of believers. So it's not going to all your works now, it's going to your person, to who you are. You have been accepted through Christ. Therefore, your good works, your righteous deeds also are accepted in him. Brothers and sisters, don't delude, let us not delude ourselves into thinking that my good works now as a Christian can be accepted by God outside of Christ. It's not possible. But now that my person is accepted in Christ, therefore my good deeds are accepted in him, not as though they were in this life wholly unblameable. God could find fault with something, and even my best works, as though they were wholly unreprovable in God's sight. But now that he, looking upon my good works in his Son, is pleased. And that refers to his sovereignty of his grace. He is pleased to accept and even to reward that which is sincere. Although accompanied with many weaknesses and imperfections. Meditate on that at home. It's worthwhile. I think of Paul's words in Ephesians. We are God's workmanship. created in Christ Jesus for good works, which by the way, God himself prepared those good works beforehand for you and me. And now comes, after all that gospel and grace, comes this wonderful law of freedom, that we should walk in them. I think then here of how in Psalm chapter one, It is Yahweh Himself who plants the tree. Where does He plant it? Not in the desert. He plants it next to channels of water that He Himself has dug. What a gift is Torah. Gospel law. The emphasis then is not on the merits of our own righteousness, but on God's gracious initiative and his provision. Now I want, wait for it now, we're gonna see it here, right in Psalm 1. What ultimately sets the righteous apart? Because we say, what sets the righteous apart? What will you answer? The righteousness. That's the natural answer. What sets the righteous apart? Well, obviously, their righteousness. No, no, not obviously. That is not what sets them apart preeminently or fundamentally. What sets them apart is the fact that God knows their way. That's what sets us apart. And what is the way of the righteous? It's the way that he authors. When it says that God knows their way, it's not like this God is aware of it. It's not like, oh, there's a righteous man. Look at that righteous way. No, when it says God knows their way, it indicates his authorship of their way. It indicates that he perfects their way, that he watches over that way. He guards that way and he keeps that way. It is because of this then that we bear fruit. And that the fruit that we bear is unto eternal life. This is not some second-rate fruit we're bearing, brothers and sisters. This is a fruit that has its result in eternal life. Romans chapter six. And so the contrast that the psalmist has been building since the beginning of the chapter reaches its conclusion In these verses, there are, in your handout, two ways to walk in. These two ways are as different from each other, as opposite from each other, as life and death. Which of the two ways are you walking in? Now, if one of the most important parts of editing and shaping a book is how that book begins, what might that tell you about the rest of the book of Psalms? Okay, we've kind of done Psalm 1, but we've incorporated Psalm 2. I'm tempted to do Psalm 2 and incorporate Psalm 1 next week, but I think we're gonna go back to Acts. But I believe that this is telling us that the book of Psalms is a collection of God-breathed murmurings. So the Psalms were collected in order to give voice and speech to God's people. Not just his old covenant people, but all under the covenant of grace. All who have been grafted in by the new covenant. Not so we can selfishly vent our own feelings as often seems to be the case with the Psalms. Well, I feel a certain way I need something to vent my feelings. No, but so that we might have an inspired language with which to murmur Yahweh's Torah day and night in all the different circumstances of life. That's one reason that as a church we sing the Psalms together, speaking them to God and to each other and to ourselves. That's why the Psalms were given to us. So I like what one commentator says. He says, there is something about reading the Psalms from the beginning of the Psalter to the end, day after day, that does not allow us to master them. We can't then pick and choose which psalm suits me today, shaping them. And it's not that we can't read a psalm in particular. When I go to visit someone, I'll try to find a psalm in particular I think addresses the situation maybe that they're in. That's perfectly appropriate. But it's also good to read straight through. Not picking and choosing what suits us, shaping them to my will, fitting them to my perceived needs and moods. Instead, such daily continuing familiarity with these texts ultimately masters me and shapes me to the will of God, revealed in Torah, in ways we can hardly anticipate. I think maybe we could think of the Psalms beginning in a way similar to the book of Revelation. Revelation starts with a beatitude. If you remember, blessed is the one who reads the words of this book and does them. We could start here in Psalm 1. How blessed is the one who reads or who sings aloud the words of these Psalms. For by their murmuring, by speaking in this language to yourself, You will come to delight more and more and more in the law of Yahweh. Maybe you say to yourself, I just don't know that I delight like that. Well, pray to God and ask Him to help you. And then take the practical measure of coming to church and singing the Psalms and murmuring to yourself and hearing the word preached and reading the Psalms at home. How blessed is the one who reads or sings aloud the words of these Psalms, for by their murmuring he will come to delight more and more in the law of Yahweh. He will be like a tree planted by channels of water. Do you see the grace there? Do you see the love now in that? Which then yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither, and that's a fruit unto eternal life. And in whatever he does, he prospers. For Yahweh knows there's grace the way of the righteous. but the way of the wicked will perish. Or as the Apostle John reminds us, the world is passing away and also its lusts, but the one who does the will of God abides forever. All of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But Jesus walked in the way of perfect righteousness for us, so that having been cleansed by his blood through faith, we can now follow in his steps. I mean, this is something the psalmist couldn't even articulate yet, right? But because we live today, we look back and we say, okay, Jesus walked in the way of perfect righteousness. He took the punishment for all my failures and my sin and my rebellion on the cross so that now I can, through faith, follow in his steps, which is, the way that God knows. I pray that this morning that we are all of us walking in the way that God knows. That he blesses, that he keeps, that he guards, that he is authored, and that he perfects. This is the man. This is the woman. This is the child and no other. who is supremely, and I had blessed here, but you can put whatever you want. I'm gonna say he was supremely happy, supremely so. Let's pray together. Dear Heavenly Father, we are thankful for your word that washes us. We are thankful for your spirit. who takes the word and applies it to our hearts, who opens our eyes, who enlivens our often sluggish hearts to see and to believe and to grow and to rejoice. And I pray then that as we've heard your word this morning, that we would all of us count ourselves among those who are supremely happy, supremely blessed, Because we, by your grace and humility, have been equipped to walk alone, to go against the flow, to swim against the current. Because all the while, we've come to delight in your Torah, in your gospel law, your law of freedom. We thank you, Lord, that you are the one who plants us by streams, by canals, by channels of water, and that you are the one who yourself dug those streams, those canals, so that we might bear fruit unto you and to your glory and to our joy. Help us to be diligent in this then, help us to be diligent to murmur and to delight that we might always draw up this moisture and live lives that are full and contented. We pray, Lord, that you would also comfort us who are at times just maybe not delighting, maybe at times because of sin or because of just the weakness of our flesh. We struggle. We feel ourselves at times in places of despondency or discouragement. And though we pray that in these times, we again, we look not to our own righteousness, not to our own abilities, but to your grace and to who you have said and promised that you are. Lord, for those who have been too attracted to the world, who have been going along with the flow, we pray that not only would our hearts be convicted through this, but that through this, our hearts would be drawn and attracted to something better and to the ultimate fruitfulness of it as opposed to the futility of the way that we can be so tempted to walk in. Lord, if there's any here today who have not truly submitted to Jesus Christ, who have not trusted in you, but who are instead still seeking to throw off the yoke of your rule, we pray that you would work in their hearts even now by your Spirit. Bring them to repentance and faith. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.