Father God, we thank you for this glorious Lord's Day. We thank you for time to spend in your Word, to meditate on your law. We pray that it would be our food day and night, Lord. We pray that you would bless our time, bless this time of our just meditating through Psalm 1 and 2 together, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, well, after analyzing our travel guide and studying out our maps of the Psalms, if you will, and all our charts and all that, today we finally arrive at our destination. But as we enter into the campus, there's over 150 buildings, right? All individual, yet they're all part of the same grouping of buildings, all their own. We see that there is a gateway, and in this gateway, there are like two vast pillars. Imagine just two vast pillars that lead into the entirety of this complex. Throughout time, architectures have inscribed words on buildings or even gateways and whatnot to describe what's going on. One example, Harvard University campus, one of their gates built in 1890 reads, enter to grow in wisdom. I don't know if that's still true today, if you can enter those gates and still gain wisdom from there, but at the time, I'm sure that was happening. Our own state capitals, the University of Texas at Austin's library, dons the inscription, you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. trying to encourage you to read books and gain benefit out of them. In one of the most famous books ever penned, John Bunyan's The Pilgrim Progress, the main character, Christian, he's told to go to a gate, and it has the inscription that reads, quote, the entrance to the road that leadeth to the celestial city, and over the portal is the inscription, knock, and it shall be opened unto you. These inscriptions seek to tell us something about where we are, give us information as to what we will face as we enter this portal, this gate, this doorway, this pathway to whatever building we're leading to. And we're gonna find that that's true, as I've argued, Psalm 1 and Psalm 2 are the prologue to the entirety of the Psalms. They're gonna have summary and themes that are gonna be all throughout the Psalms. These Psalms, I would argue, are strategically linked together. They are twin Psalms, if you will. Why do I say that? First off, throughout the Psalter, whenever we have what we would refer to Psalm 1 as a Torah psalm, a psalm that's primarily about the Bible, about God's word, it's always linked with a king psalm, a psalm about God's kingdom, the Davidic dynasty, something like that. We have those psalms in Psalm 1, in Psalm 19, and Psalm 119. In Psalm 1 and 2, we'll see that today. In Psalm 19, that's that famous psalm, the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. And it's surrounded by kingship psalms. Psalm 119, of course, very familiar, biggest chapter in the Bible, all about God's word. And right before it, we have Psalm 118, which declares, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. That wording used when they say, oh son of David, come, Hosanna, glory to God in the highest, this was spoken of. These were the people, in Jesus's time, declaring Christ as their king. It's on 1.18. Furthermore, Psalm 1 and 2 are the only Psalms of the 40 or so Psalms in Book 1 of the Psalms that have no inscription. So no superscription rather, nothing like a Psalm of David or a Psalm on the occasion when David was hiding in a cave or a song for this purpose. These are the only two in Book 1 that have no inscription. And looking at the poetic structures of this pair, the first stanza, so you have Book 1 and you have Book 2, And at the beginning of book one, you have blessed, and at the end of book two, you have the last stanza also starts with blessed, forming an inclusio, kind of linking these two together, showing that they are a grouping. Really, they have a symbiotic relationship. And there's entire books written about the various alphabetic techniques, the poetic structures, linking these songs. There's a lot of key words that are only used in these two songs that time together. We'll see some of them as we go through it. very briefly. But if you're interested in that, I mean, again, there's whole tomes on this stuff. So this brings us to our outline. Psalm 1 is where we're going to spend most of our time in because I'm going to argue that Psalm 1 is kind of like Genesis 1 and Genesis 2. Those who don't really know the Bible very well will say, oh, Genesis 2 is just a contradiction of Genesis 1, the creation story. But really what Genesis 2 is doing is it's filling in some of the details, it's explaining some of the parts. In Psalm 1, what we're gonna see, we spend most of our time in, we're gonna see two people, two paths on two different prospects. So two people, two paths, two prospects, that's gonna break up this Psalm. The Psalm cuts to the quick and explains how things are really a binary fashion. It's black and white. There's no third way. Psalm 1-1, let's go ahead. If you haven't already turned there to Psalm 1, chapter one, go ahead and turn there and let's read verse one. It reads, 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. As we know, every good story starts with its characters, explains to you the characters. And here we see two types of people, the blessed and the sinner, the righteous and the wicked, the godly and the ungodly. The first is marked by blessedness. And you'll see some translations say, oh, how happy is the man? And technically, those are correct. There is actually another Hebrew word for blessed that's typically used. One reason I'm okay with the ESV, for example, and all the other translations, still saying blessed instead of oh, how happy, is if you're like me, when you think of happiness, you think of kind of its root, like happenstance, generally like, oh, we're about to have a potluck, I'm gonna have some great food and desserts, and that will make me happy. It's very conditional, it's based on a circumstance that comes to me, where blessed still has a good connotation of this comes about through grace, something like that. And we're gonna see that all throughout the Psalms. For example, in Psalm 2, we're gonna see Christ is our refuge, that is a blessing that we have. Psalm 21 says that we are made most blessed forever because God makes us glad with the joy of his presence. So there's something more deep-rooted about this blessedness. We can obtain it in good and in bad times, in valleys and peaks, you know, dark times, happy times, happy, happy times. There's a variety of graces that God still brings to us. Psalm 32 will explain, blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity. And if you don't see the grace in that, I mean, that's basically explaining the gospel. In fact, that verse is gonna be used in the New Testament to explain the gospel. Psalm 97, blessed is the man whom you discipline, O Lord. So even tough times like receiving the Lord's fatherly discipline is still seen as a blessing. And on and on we could go. Again, I think the word blessing is totally fine, still understood in our culture, when rightly understood, better than using happiness. But happy is an okay translation. It's the more technical one, really. More woodenly technical one, I would say. Anyways, interestingly also, this word blessed here is in the plural, and the word man here is in the singular. So this is not saying that these blessings belong to a group of people, or these blessings are for a congregation or a nation. It's actually saying that this one individual receives multiple blessings, a multitude of blessings, a plurality of blessings. So what is this lifestyle that this blessed man is living? It's marked, as you see, by him not doing three things. So there's kind of three negatives. He doesn't do this, he rejects this, and really only doing one thing. He doesn't do three things, he only does this one thing. As we read in that second half of that verse, he does not descend into this threefold downward spiral. He first does not walk in the counsel of the wicked. Walk here, of course, just being a metaphor for life, how you live, right? When you go about your day, the blessed man does not heed their counsel. And that could, it could be, I mean, there's a thousand examples we could think of. It's whatever is going to tempt you and lead you to some kind of temptation, lead you to some kind of sin, some kind of lawlessness, whatever that may be in your life. We are constantly bombarded with alternate ways of living as opposed to godly living. You turn on the TV, the internet, it's not gonna encourage you to live godly. It's gonna have every other path for you out there. But we still see this blessed man is not heeding that counsel. I like how Luther would say of temptation, you can't keep the birds from flying over your head, but you can keep them from making a nest in your hair. And this is part of the practice of taking every thought under the obedience of Christ. Once we start wandering to ourselves and kind of murmuring like, well, you know what, maybe that pathway isn't so bad, and I'm not going to go all the way down this path. I mean, that's when we start getting more stagnant for not fighting against that sin. And this leads to the way or path on a life that we don't want to go. The following one, the path of sinners, where there is no blessing. There is no blessing that lies in this path. And to make matters worse, this state, as you see, it's starting to get more and more stagnant. It goes from walking to standing, ultimately to sitting in the seat of scoffers. Now, not just heeding their advice, following their lifestyle, but it's full-blown scoffing. These are like those guys who start blogs, or they're gonna comment on every kind of social media out there, or start some video, whatever, of how all Christianity is wrong, and they got it all figured out. They're trying to bring others along their way, trying to bring others on this broad path. And it's sadly not untypical for brand new kind of converts out of Christianity to fall right into the scoffing. It looks like that to us instantly, but there has already been that. They've started to seek the counsel of the wicked and walk in the paths of sinners. Maybe that part we just didn't see until it becomes full-blown outside scoffing. As commentators have pointed out, it is noteworthy that wicked sinners and scoffers, these three we see here in verse one, are different classes of fools that you find throughout Proverbs. Generally, it's people who oppose God in their attitude and their behavior. So though we see a downward spiral from the wicked, the emphasis here is on the godly. These are things that the godly man, that this blessed man, rejects, wherever it is and whenever it is. Spurgeon would say of this, quote, it is a rich sign of inward grace when the outward walk is changed and when ungodliness is put far from our actions. So the blessed man does not do those three things, but he is marked by doing one in particular. He does not walk, stand, or sit with the wicked sinners or scoffers. So what is this one thing that he positively does? There again, let's go to verse two. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night." Doesn't do three things, does this one thing. This is starkly contrasted with what the wicked does. He is delighting in this. This is his delight. It really starts off showing the motivation of this person. He delights. He takes joy in this. Another word that we're gonna run into a lot here that we should work on defining is that word law. What do we mean by law? I'm sure you've heard of the term Torah. What does that mean exactly? Throughout scripture, it's used in multiple ways. It could be talking about one particular precept of God's law. So like a Torah, for example, do this one thing. It could be talking about the entire Pentateuch, right? The first five books of Moses. It could be referring to the entirety of the Bible, or at least the canon up to that point. One example in Joshua 24, 26, it reads that Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God, and there it was referring to the book of Joshua itself, and even what he was dealing with at that time. And we see that as the canon of scripture grows and expands, as Revelation is expanding, throughout redemptive history at all, all of scripture will fall under this umbrella term of Torah. This flows even into the New Testament with Jesus in John 10, 34, quoting from Psalm 82, declaring it as something, quote, written in your law. So again, Jesus would include even the Psalms as part of Torah. So we can define it simply as all of scripture at this point. But to be a little more specific about it, I like how Opama Robertson describes it. The word Torah, he says, derives from a term having the basic meaning to teach. The Torah of Yahweh is the teaching, the instruction, the wisdom for life that comes from God. I love that, the wisdom of life that comes from our Lord, from Yahweh. A legalistic view of life is the furthest thing possible that this understanding would have of Torah. Indeed, there are rules for life involved. But Torah is so much more. It speaks of a wholesome approach to life that comes from a full apprehension of the will of God for the well-being of humans made in the image of God. This brings us back to verse 2, so we see his motivation. His delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. That is the one thing he does. On his Torah, he meditates day and night. Meditating more literally is a mumbling to yourself, a repeating it after yourself. It's very different contrast from what you see in cartoons of meditation or guru ads of people trying to clear their mind. This is a filling up of your mind with the words of God. You're not trying to empty it, you're trying to fill it up. filling it up with his teaching, his instruction, his wisdom for life. It's that picture of the cow chewing the cud, getting all the nutrients out of it. It takes a lot of time. Even when we are going to enjoy the potluck here in a second, as soon as we put the food in our mouth, we don't get the nutrients. I mean, it's going to go through a process. We have to chew it. It's going to digest. Our body's going to work on pulling out the good stuff, making sure it goes to where it needs. We get all these various different benefits from it. and it takes time to digest. And this is what that picture of meditation is. It's taking time, it's chewing on it, it's really thinking through it deeply. As one pastor has said, what digestion is to the body, meditation is to the soul. And this here really isn't a call specifically to a certain quiet time or hour, nothing wrong with that. Rather, it's a call to think about these things all throughout the day, not just at one particular time, but throughout all of our life, reflecting on God's word throughout our daily activities. What is one way that we can fulfill this? Consider Moses, right before his death in Deuteronomy 31, there's two things that he composes. He composes a song, and then he composes the book of the law. As one author points out, quote, the reciting of the song involves the observation of the book of the law as well. In other words, Deuteronomy 31 through 32 identifies law contemplation or meditating on God's law day and night with song singing. So meditating on Torah can be done by singing. It is the song which is forever known by the people. And that's actually what's recorded in the very next chapter in Deuteronomy 32. It's not the book itself because there is one copy of that book. I mean, it's very recent history that we're able to have our own copy of God's Word. And so on its most basic front-facing point, it's telling you to sing these words, to memorize them, because that's the way that you could meditate on them. People didn't have the privilege of just flicking their thumb a couple times and boom, there's God's Word. And as good as that is, there is still something about working on memorizing, because when you're memorizing, you're doing this mumbling to yourself, this saying it over and over, this cow chewing the cud. It goes from our head, we're working on it, getting down to our heart, and that eventually is gonna overflow into what we do, our actions. That's the way God works with his word. We see that all throughout scripture. So we can, based on Psalm 1, apply this concept to singing psalms or psalmody. For psalmody serves as a means of Torah meditation. So application, very simply, sing psalms. This is part of meditating on God's word day and night. So on our service, we're gonna be singing Psalm 23 today. That is gonna be a part of fulfilling this meditating on God's law, most literally day and night. All right, continuing on in Psalm 1, this blessed man does not do these three things, but only does one thing. I keep bringing that up because this pattern is also found in Israel's future king. Way before the Davidic covenant, in the Deuteronomic law, God knew that his people wanted a king. However, God said, it's gonna be on my terms. You guys are gonna desire a king like this or like that. I'm gonna tell you how it's gonna be. I'm gonna choose the king, and I'm gonna tell him to not do three things, and only do one thing. The three things he was not going to do was he was not to acquire many horses, not to acquire many wives, and not to acquire excess of silver or gold. And this is really upside down as to what you would think a kingdom would have. You could think any other nation, its advisors would say, hey king, we need more land, let's fight some stuff, we need horses. Horses there, that's your military power. Get lots of horses. But Israel's king was supposed to rely on the Lord to fight Israel's battles for them, rely on the Lord for that. They might think, hey, you should have lots of wives. Then you'll have lots of sons, lots of heirs. I mean, any good kingdom is going to have, the king should have lots of wives and lots of heirs. But since the beginning, God created them male and female. only for marriage, he never condones polygamy, they were to be faithful, no excuse for that. And lastly, the plenty of wealth, silver and the gold, still, the king had the same requirements, he should rely on the Lord for his daily bread, just like everyone else. All these things were temptations, they were actually the downfall of King Solomon. Right after we read about all his vast amounts of horses and wives and riches, 1 Kings 11.4 tells us, when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods. So not only did he break that 10th commandment of coveting, it also led him to break that first commandment, seeking other gods, not worshiping alone the one true God, and thus the whole tapestry of the law was broken at that point. God's chosen king was not to do three things, only to do one. What is the one thing he's supposed to do? In the Law of the King, Deuteronomy 17, it goes on to explain, they were to write for themselves a copy of God's law. Keep it with them, read it all the days of their lives. It's really that simple. It's almost exactly the same as Psalm 1. Meditate on his law day and night. And that had some practical application. There was gonna be some fruit born out of that. This one thing, writing, meditating, memorizing, applying God's Torah, his instruction, his wisdom for life, was a means of grace that would bear fruit, leading him to fear the Lord, which is the beginning of all wisdom, keeping him humble, helping him to lighten God's law, and thus fulfill it. It's a really interesting parallel that we have there. Unless you think, of course, that this is just for kings, we know the Deuteronomy 6 Shema, hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. What Jesus would say is the greatest commandment, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, right? And the second like it, love your neighbor as yourself. On these, the entire law and prophets hang, loving God, loving others. The very first command God gives, He says, okay, I want you to remember these things. He says this in Deuteronomy 6, 6, 9. And these words, I command you today, shall be on your heart. Right? We see this all throughout the New Testament. We're not just supposed to be hearers of the word, we're supposed to be doers. We need it to get from our head to our hearts. How? and you shall teach them diligently to your children. You shall talk of them when you sit in the house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as signs on your hand, and on and on and on it goes. In other words, it's going to fill up your whole life. Again, it's not a call for just have this one special quiet time. Nothing wrong with that. It's saying all of your life, all your daily activity, there should be some kind of reflection on God's law, on God's word. on his wisdom for your life because you're there living life and you need his help in all those times. This too, talking with your children, discussing it in your comings and goings, is meditating on God's word, thus fulfilling this first psalm. All right, so we've seen the two different people. Now let's look at their two different paths. What flows from their life? We've already seen some of the fruit of it, but this will bring us to verses three through four. So let's read those. Psalm 1, three through four reads. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, here talking about the blessed man, that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither, and all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Here we see the different fruits that proceed from the different paths that these two different people are on. These two verses paint a very simple illustration for us. The blessed man is like a tree that was not originally prospering, wasn't in green, wasn't by waters, probably in a dry desert area. That would be very common for an Israel. They would understand the dry desert and what effects it would have on a tree. Instead, now he's planted. It's a picture of a tree that is transplanted. Notice the wording is that this tree is planted. It's moved from one place where it was not thriving, probably, again, very common dry desert area, to a local with, to a locale with moving water, with fresh streams, you could even say living water. where its roots can go down deep now and absorb those nutrients, and in time, bear fruit. Fruit, of course, used all throughout Scripture to talk about your works, what comes about through your life. Jesus would use the same illustration in speaking about false prophets who come as fellow sheep, but really and really are ravenous wolves. They're truly diabolical. Matthew 7, 16, he would explain, you will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? No, there's a children's song that covers this parable and it describes, it says, do apples grow on pear trees? No. Only pears grow on pear trees. Do bananas come from apple trees? No, only apples come from banana trees. I mean, and it's, when I listen to it, I go, yeah, Jesus is being so clear cut. This is plain, a child can understand this concept. Christ goes on, a healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. It's often that the word uses plants to refer to people. There's multiple examples we can go through. One I'll give is Psalm 92, 12-13, which also has similar terminology to Psalm 1. It reads, the righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar, big and strong in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of Yahweh. They flourish in the courts of our Lord. This is temple language, in the Lord's courts, in his house. They still bear fruit in old age. They are ever full of sap and green, to declare that the Lord, that is Yahweh, is upright. He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him. This is that picture of an evergreen, no matter how bleak the winter gets, no matter how the seasons break into maybe there's a drought, whatever it is, this tree is always green, always bearing good fruit in season because it is planted by the Lord in his house, receiving life from that living water. And I also love how that section in Psalm 92 explains the purpose behind it. It leads to praise. They do this so that they can declare that the Lord is upright, praise his name, et cetera. Jeremiah 17, seven through eight, the prophet would nearly quote this psalm verbatim saying, blessed is the man who trust is in Yahweh, whose trust is in the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water that sends out its roots by the streams and does not fear when heat comes for its leaves remain evergreen. And he is not anxious in the years of drought for it does not cease to bear fruit. And this language, again, reminding us of this garden temple, like we learned about in Genesis, foretelling of Israel's prosperity when they're entering the promised land. Numbers 24.6 reads, like palm groves that stretch afar, like gardens beside a river, like alloys that the Lord has planted, as Yahweh has planted, like cedar trees beside the waters. All these images, especially that temple imagery in Psalm 92, talking about the flowing waters by the stream, have reminded commentators throughout the ages that this is really a picture of Eden. This is like an Eden-like fellowship we have with God himself. One commentator, James Hamilton, for example, in his commentary points out here, quote, The Psalm 1-3 picture of trees planted by streams of water yielding fruit in season subtly evokes trees Yahweh planted in the Garden of Eden in the East, where the four rivers ran through the fruit growing. The poetic effect suggests that meditating on Torah mediates the presence of God, so that those who walk with God in the Word experience a renewal of what life would have been like in Eden. Similarly, those who learn the Torah, and this is found in Proverbs 3, Proverbs 3 starts the same way, that wisdom crying out, they find wisdom to be, as Proverbs 3, 18 will say, a tree of life. Again, just vivid imagery from Eden. And in both Proverbs 11.30 and 15.4, it indicates that the fruit of the righteous are even a tree of life to others. It's like this garden can grow and expand out through the righteous congregation as well. This brings us to the last phrase in verse three, in all that he does, he prospers. This is interesting because it has a lot of the same wording that God directly gave to his people's conquering champion. Yahweh's chosen warrior would lead God's people into the promised land, and in Joshua 1, 6, he tells them these same things. Be strong and courageous, et cetera. You will inherit the land. And he goes on saying, be careful to do according all to the Torah that Moses, my servant, commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success. That's that same word in all that he does. He prospers wherever you go. This book of the law, that is Torah, shall not depart from your mouth. You shall meditate on it day and night, exact same wording and phrasing from Psalm 1, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Success, same wording as, in all that he does, he prospers. Again, it's an encouragement to not just hear these things, not just be hearers of the word, but to be doers. And in all that we do, according to Psalm 1, we will prosper. So again, we see that this path leads to success, a prosperity. This is, of course, prosperity according to God's worldview, not necessarily the world. So in God's economy, that may mean, as Paul would say, we suffer with him in order that we may be glorified with him. So at the time, it may not feel like prosperity and success, but in the ultimate end, it will be borne fruits of that. That's why Paul could say, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed to us. All right, well that brings us to verse four, which reads, the wicked are not so, but are like shaft that the wind drives away. There's really no positive description here of the wicked. It basically is saying, everything we just said of the righteous, that they are, that blessed man, delighting in meditating on God's word, enjoying that Eden-like fellowship with God, ultimately prospering like an evergreen, no matter the season. It's not so, in fact, it's a double negative, not so, not so for the wicked, not so for the ungodly. Their stands, their walk, their way of life, even the seemingly lofty seat they have of being scorners, it's all vanity, the wind drives it away. And again, the focus here is on the blessed man, but it takes time to remind us of the contrast, the wicked, No, they don't get this. Again, this is very black and white, very binary, one way or the other. Jesus would remind us of this when he would say, whoever is not with me is against me. Again, there is no neutrality. It may seem odd for us to say, well, you know, we see the category of scoffers, like that's pretty bad. We think of Richard Dawkins or some vile atheist just spewing hatred towards God, vitriol hatred towards God. But you know, I have some coworkers that are, they're not that, like yeah, they're not worshiping God, they don't care for his law. But according to Psalm 1, they would still fall on the side of the wicked. And we really shouldn't be surprised. There has been this conflict since Genesis 3.15 when Satan caused Adam to fall and God declares this cosmic war that the head of the serpent would ultimately crush the seed of, I'm sorry, the head of the serpent would ultimately be crushed by the seed of the woman. And as Christ says, if you're not gathering with me, you're scattering. There is no neutrality. You are either in Christ or you are outside of him. It is that plain, that black and white as scripture makes it here and throughout. But what of this picture of shaft? That is just the worthless husk that covers a worthwhile piece of grain. I get the picture of, I know when my kids were toddlers, they would pick up those little dandelions, a simple breath, you know, they're not very strong, but a simple breath would make them puff away. And at least those dandelions have a purpose. You didn't realize there was a breeze, but you would see those things floating along, and that's gonna bring about more dandelions, whether that's your yard or your neighbor's yard, whether you want that or not, that's what's gonna happen. Shaft, though, it's worthless. When a farmer is doing that threshing process, they care not at all about the shaft. They want the grain, they want the good stuff, all that stuff. The wind blows it away. They don't try to collect it. They don't try to clean it up. It is futile. It has no purpose. That brings us to the final point of this chapter. We've seen the contrast between the two people, the righteous and the wicked. We've seen where their two paths lead. The godly live by God's wisdom, leading to an Eden-like fellowship. And in all that he does, he prospers. The ungodly, though, have none of this. They live out and obtain only vanity, nothing of worth. Two people, two paths, two prospects. So what are the prospects, the destination of these two paths? How does their story end? We'll pick up in verse five through six, which read, therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. Verse five picks up with the same character that he was dealing with at the end of verse four, the wicked. There's one, I guess, positive thing it tells us. It tells us what their destination is, though it is not positive. It is the broad road. It shows us where the broad road ultimately leads. And though in verse one, we saw the wicked were standing, you know, they took their stands, At this point, there is not going to be any standing. Two people with two different prospects following the same agricultural illustration. At the end of one of Jesus's parables, he explains in Matthew 1330, at harvest time, I will tell the reapers, gather the weeds first and bring them in bundles to be burned. but gather the wheat into my barn. Again, the wheat, the good portion that is needed, it stays, and it is, as Psalm 92 describes, planted in the Lord's house, if you will. John the Baptist foretold of Jesus' ministry in Matthew 3, 12, his winnowing fork is in his hands, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn. Right, they'd be planting in that house. But the shaft will be burned with unquenchable fire. Revelation 6 15 and following will show what the wicked will be saying during the time of the opening of the sixth seal let's see There it reads Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful and everyone Slave and free hid themselves in caves and among the rocks of the mountains calling to the mountains and rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb for the great day of their wrath has come and who can stand? Their path began with standing, but now at the end when they're confronted for how they've lived and for what they have done to the Lord, they ask, who can stand? And so what the prophet prophesying with the same event would say, Malachi 3.2, but who can endure the day of his coming? And who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire. Back to verse five in Psalm one, the second phrase there. For the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. But what of this congregation of the righteous that sinners are not going to be identified with? That brings us to Psalm six, one six. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. One of the many blessings they have is the Righteous Congregation. Standing on Christ's righteousness with the congregation of the righteous is eternal blessedness with their great, glorious, and gracious covenant God. In this final promised land, a new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness and righteous ones dwell, here will be a state even better than that of the Garden of Eden, for there will be no chance that a serpent can enter and tempt you. There'll be no stain of sin even found. I really love how that 18th century Baptist pastor, Samuel Stinnett, phrased it in one of his hymns. He wrote, no chilling wind or poisonous breath can reach that healthful shore. Sickness, sorrow, pain, and death are felt and feared no more. Or all those wide extended plains shines one eternal day. There God the sun forever reigns and scatters night away. Back in verse six, that opening phrase, for the Lord knows the way of the righteous. Whenever we have God's covenant name like that, Yahweh, Yahweh knows it's not talking there about His mere knowledge of what future events are going to take place. No, it's Yahweh's foreordained wise plan for His people. This is Yahweh's, I would actually word it like this, this is Yahweh, dear saints, your covenant God leading you in paths of righteousness, guiding you by his spirit. For God knows the path of the righteous because he predestines it and is ensuring that it happens by way of his providence. Last part of verse six, but, again, another contrast, but the way of the wicked will perish. Perhaps this is what Jesus had on his mind when he spoke about those who would not enter the kingdom of heaven in Matthew 7, 23. I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. Contrast to the blessed man who delights in the law of the Lord, you have those who the Lord did not know, They were only workers. The only dealings they had with Torah was that they did not follow it. The only dealings they had with His law is that they practiced lawlessness. Their lifestyle revealed what path they were on, how they dealt with God's Word, revealed their ultimate destiny, their final destination. Very clear with how you deal with God's Word. They became those who as, you know, worst case, 2 Peter 3, three through four talks about scoffers will come in the last days. You know, one of these categories here we have is scoffers. Scoffers will come in the last days following their own sinful desires, right? Not following God's law, following their own sinful desires, their own lawlessness. They will say, where is the promise of his coming? They're assuming they're gonna not have to give an account for their life, what they've done. But this is a huge contrast with what Christ says, with every word that comes out of your mouth, you will give account. Nothing is to be hidden from the eyes of our Lord. This virgin here would say, the seat of the scoffer may be very lofty, but it is very near to the gate of hell. Let us flee from it, for it shall soon be empty, and destruction shall swallow up the man who sits therein. So in Psalm 1, that's where it ends. There's really, it just tells you, this is how the blessed man, this is what his path is, this is his prospect, here's the wicked one, his path and his prospect. It doesn't really hold out any hope or explain anything. And that will actually bring us to Psalm 2. And even though Psalm 2 is twice as long as Psalm 1. Since we already did a lot of the heavy lifting, a lot of the work, I think we can actually go through Psalm 2 rather quickly because, again, I do think they are twin psalms, one kind of giving some more detail, kind of like Genesis 2, filling in the gaps, giving more detail, focusing on certain parts, like Genesis chapter 1. So let's look at Psalm chapter 2 now. Why do the nations rage and the people plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves and rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us. If you look at Psalm chapter one, it's kind of broken up where you can kind of see three big paragraphs. The main point of Psalm chapter one, again, if we have that chiastic structure, that poetic pyramid, its main focus is on the blessed man being like a tree, bearing fruit. In fact, the center part of the center is the blessed man. What we're gonna find in Psalm chapter two, it's also broken up ultimately in three parts. The first part is gonna talk about the way of these kings, these nations, and really we're gonna find out, this is just giving some detail as to what the counsel of the wicked is. These are gonna be some of the scoffings. It's gonna explain it to us, and it explained it to us right there. Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us. They want lawlessness. They don't want the Lord's law. They don't want to be under his rule, under his counsel. I mean, we're at a point right now where people don't want to agree with how they were born and want to try to decide those things on their own. This is not something archaic. We're still doing this. Maybe we put some different wording on it, but ultimately it's we want to burst their bonds apart, cast away their course from us. We don't want to be led by them. But this is the way of the kings, of their wicked counsel, of the nation. This is worldly wisdom, if you will. Their way is ultimately against Yahweh and against His Anointed One. The next section, verses 4 through 9, should really all really be together. That is going to talk about, so kind of like in the middle of Book 1, I'm sorry, Psalm 1, verses 3 through 4, we saw the attributes, if you will, of the Blessed Man. Verses four through nine, we're going to really see the attributes of this anointed king. It reads, starting in verse four, chapter two, he who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord holds them in derision. I mean, why is this? This is that ant who has a beautiful ant hill and he's complaining to this construction crew that's going to make a parking lot. He's sending them a formal letter. He's saying, no, you will not destroy my ant. I mean, it's laughable because they're going to pour concrete. That thing is going away. There's no hope for him. It's vain mutterings. There's actually key words that are exactly the same, in the same way the blessed man is meditating on God's law. In verse two, when it says the rulers take counsel together, it's the same word for meditating. And they're saying this, they're muttering, they're saying these things to themselves. Their meditation is cast off God's law for us, cast off his rule, cast off his king. Instead of saying, like a Christian would say, no king but Christ, they're saying no king but me, myself, and I. That is what they're meditating, that's their mutterings. And the Lord laughs because they're not going to stop him. We already know how the story ends. And so the Lord holds them in derision. Let's pick it back in verse five. Then he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury, saying, as for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill. So we had an Eden-like location in the middle of chapter one. The location we have here is Mount Zion. This is like Isaiah would say, this Mount Zion that fills up the entirety of the earth, where it's all the way. There is no spot where his kingdom is not filled and he is not ruling and reigning as king. Because Yahweh has set his king on Zion, his holy hill. Verse seven, I will tell of the decree. The Lord said to me, you are my son. Today I have forgotten you. That language there, we'll get more into this when we start in Psalm chapter 3, because it's going to be one major theme we're going to see all throughout the Psalms. That is language precisely used in the Davidic covenant. When God is instilling a king, he says, you are my son. He is crowning him as king. He is his representative. Here, though, we have Yahweh doing this to an anointed one. And as we've seen in the New Testament, Acts 2, Acts 3, we'll talk about this. This is ultimately talking about Christ. He is that Son anointed. He is the fulfillment of that Davidic line, ultimately the King of kings, the Lord of lords, as we will see. And just like we saw the blessings of the blessed man in chapter 1, where in all that he does, he prospers, we're going to see the fruit of this king, what he is going to obtain, what he is going to gain. Verse 8, ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession. He's going to have it all, right? The meat shall inherit the earth. "'You shall break them with the rod of iron "'and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. "'Who will be able to stand?' Verse 10, this brings us to the last grouping, the last section in Psalm chapter two, which just like we saw the outcome in chapter one of the righteous and the wicked, now we're gonna see the outcome of the kings and the judges of the earth. No surprise, it's gonna be very similar to chapter one with one small exception here. Now therefore, in verse 10, O kings, be wise. Be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son, lest he be angry and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. So though we saw clearly the way of the wicked perishes in chapter one, even in God's wrath, even his fiery anger, we see him holding out mercy. We see him still, we see still that gospel call, serve the Lord with fear, rejoice with trembling, kiss the Son, pay homage to the Son. You haven't bowed the knee yet, bow the knee while there's still time, lest he be angry with you. Of course, if they don't, they will ultimately go to that destiny like chapter one talked about, perishing. But still, it's incredible to me, amongst his fiery wrath, he is still showing them the gospel like this. In New Testament language, we would just tell them, repent of your sins, turn to Christ, trust in Him. And that brings us to the last and final phrase in verse 12, which is the exact same way that verse 1, that Chapter one, verse one started, showing that inclusio, blessed are all those who take refuge in him. So lest we think this is something by work, something we can conjure up ourselves, it is us taking refuge in him. You can kind of even see this, how in one, verse five, chapter one, verse five, there is now a congregation of the righteous. It was talking about a blessed man, but they identified themselves with the blessed man. And again, chiastic structure of chapter two, that poetic pyramid, its center there is also the anointed king. And so you have the blessed man, the anointed king, Christ is that blessed man. This anointed one of God is the blessed king. And how are we saved from this fiery wrath? How can we not perish in the way? It's what that end says. Blessed are those who take refuge in him. Most basic illustration of this comes from Noah's Ark. When God was going to bring down his judgment with water, everyone was going to be wiped out unless you found refuge in the ark. There was one safety and it was in the ark. So too with us, if we find refuge in Christ, we will be saved from this fiery blast of God's wrath. Why? Because Christ already took the punishment for all of those in him. And two, Christ is the one who has fulfilled God's law perfectly. And so he has positively fulfilled God's law and is able to grant to us his own righteousness. I really like how the heritage Bible commentary in Psalm 1 concisely showing that Jesus Christ is supremely the man who is blessed. Psalm 72, 17. May his name endure forever. His fame continue as long as the sun. May people be blessed in him. All nations call him blessed. Jesus is the ideal king who is separated from sinners, just like that blessed man, right? Hebrews 7.26, Jesus is holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. Jesus keeps God's law. Psalm 47, Christ also, of course, quotes this of himself. Then I said, behold, I have come. In the scroll of the book, it is written of me. I delight to do your will, oh my God. Your law is within my heart. Accordingly, Jesus becomes like a fruitful and flourishing tree, nurtured by the Holy Spirit. That prophecy in Isaiah 11 reads, then shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit, and the spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, and his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. Fear of the Lord, as we'll see later, it's also throughout the Proverbs, a synonym for saying God's law, His Torah. So, in union with this blessed King Jesus, by a spirit-worked faith, we too can become fruitful, but it's only out of His fullness. This is true prosperity. This is true blessedness. So this really kind of brings us full circle. We have now, if you will, through Psalm 1 and 2. Those are the pillars of the gate that kind of bring us into the entryway of the Psalms. And this is all just summary stuff because the Psalms are full of this. These are some of the main themes of the Psalm. Blessedness, God's law, God's king, right? God is looking for a dynasty and an ultimate dwelling place. Those are the promises of the Davidic covenants. And lastly, we see that it's going to, again, just glorify God, explain the paths of the righteous, of the wicked, and all of it, of course, is leading and ending to a life of praise. That's why the book five is just full of praise. Praise God for this, and this, and this, and this. The hallelujahs, they all come at the end. This is what it's all leading to. So with that, we have now entered the gate. We will be in the Psalms, and I cannot wait to dive into them more next time. So with that, let's go ahead and pray. Well, Father, we thank you, and we do pray, just like Psalm 100, I read, that we would enter your gates with thanksgiving. Today, we enter into the gates of your psalm, Lord, and we indeed have so much to be thankful for, for seeing that blessed king as our refuge, Lord. We give thanks to him. We enter your courts with praise, God. We pray that these words would not fall on deaf ears, Lord, but help us to be hearers of your word, and to be doers of your word most especially, Lord. especially in this upcoming hour. Please bless our time of worship. For your name's sake, in Jesus' name we pray, amen.