We're gonna read the entire psalm. We'll take our text from verses one through three. Psalms 1, beginning of verse 1, How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scoffers. But his delight is in the law of Yahweh, and in his law he meditates day and night. It will be like a tree firmly planted by the streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither, and in whatever he does he prospers. The wicked are not so, but they are like chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore, the wicked will not rise 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." This evening I want us to consider verses 1 through 3, and we're going to look at the blessed man, the righteous man of Psalm 1, the way that the Psalter opens up here in this Psalm with these words, as John Trapp, the old Puritan, put it, the psalmist saith more to the point about true happiness in this psalm than any one of the philosophers, or all of them put together. They did but beat the bush. God hath here put the bird into our hand. Charles Spurgeon said that this psalm may be regarded as the preface psalm, having in it a notification of the contents of the entire book. It is the psalmist's desire to teach us the way to blessedness and to warn us of the sure destruction of sinners. This then is the matter of the first Psalm, which may be looked upon in some respects as the text upon which the whole of the Psalms make up a divine sermon. And so he begins. He begins here in this text, These are the words of God here, but we know that this is a psalm that was written by the psalmist, and he opens it up. How blessed, how blessed that is this man. The one who is described in Psalm 1 has a happy or a desirable condition. And then this psalmist here, in this God-breathed text, he tells us, first of all, what it is that he does not habitually do. How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked. This This man, this blessed man of Psalm 1, he's not walking in the counsel of the wicked. He's not influenced by the godless. In the Scriptures, when we read a text like this, and he uses this word, to walk, he's talking about a manner of living. He's not following after certain principles, living the way of the wicked. You don't have to be out in the world for very long to know that there's a way of the wicked and there's a way of the righteous, that there's a difference in this world. The blessed man does not follow after the counsel of the wicked. He's not, he's not walking in that manner. Solomon put it this way over in Proverbs chapter four, Proverbs chapter four in verse 14. When he said, do not enter the path of wicked men, do not step into the way of evil men. He goes on, he says, avoid it, do not pass by it, stray from it and pass on for they do not sleep unless they do evil. And they are robbed of sleep unless they make someone stumble for they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. And so the psalmist here in Psalm 1, he says, blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked. Dear saint of God, child of God, church, he says, avoid the way of the wicked. Don't walk in that way." Getting ahead of myself, the blessed man of Psalm 1 is not seeking advice or counsel from wicked men, but as we'll see in verse 2, he's delighting in the Word of God. And so, as he continues there in verse 1, Not only is he not walking in the counsel of the wicked, but he's not standing in the way of sinners. The word sinners properly denotes those who fall short of the standard of duty, missing the mark, if you will. If you can imagine that I had a Nerf gun, The target was Jill. And I aimed for Jill, but I instead hit Josiah. I missed my mark. I missed the mark. I messed up. Although Jill would probably laugh because I got Josiah with the Nerf gun. That's what sin is, is missing the mark. The mark is not a person or a thing or a place in this world. We've all fallen short of the glory of God. We're all sinners. The standard is Christ. The standard is God's Word. And you say, well, this is kind of repetitive. He says, how blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked nor stand in the way of sinners? Well, that word sinners denotes those who fall short of the standard of duty. The wicked would denote those who positively violate a rule by disorderly conduct. And when we put them together, They express the whole idea of the ungodly or unrighteous men that we find in this world. And we know how it is in the world, don't we? We know there are some ungodly men who, hard as they try, they're still sinners. We also know there are some wicked men who are in pure-out rebellion against God. And there are many things that the Bible calls sin. And the world will stand in these dark places. But the child of God, the blessed man, he's not going to be found there. He's not going to be walking in the counsel of the wicked. He's not going to be standing in the way of sinners. but he's also not gonna be sitting in the seat of the scoffers. So now we have three verbs denoting the three acts or postures of waking man. We have walking, we have standing, and we have sitting. Walking, standing, or sitting. Most everybody's doing that all day long. Walking, standing, or sitting. All day long. And all through life, you're either walking, standing, or sitting. And this is given to us so that we may see the whole course of life. As you go through life, where are you at? You're walking, you're standing, or you're sitting. The blessed man does not walk in the counsel of the wicked. He doesn't stand in the way of sinners. He doesn't sit in the seat of scoffers. This also shows us the deterioration of life. First, occasional conformity, walking in the counsel of the wicked. You know how it is, you're in a place, you don't like it very well, and so maybe you're walking, but you're in that place, and so you're walking, maybe even walking fast to get through it. Maybe a neighborhood you don't like or maybe it's getting dark and you know that the sun is going down and you know you need to be getting out of there. You know you're in a bad spot in your life and you need to move on. But yet you're in that place, aren't you? And so you're walking. If you're a girl, you've got your purse close to you, but yet you're in that bad place. But then there's other times in life where you stop and you stare. You stop and you look, you gaze upon it. You take a second look. Whereas when you're walking, maybe you're in the bad spot and you're moving through, but you're there. You're standing, maybe you're listening to the dirty jokes, maybe you're looking at the porn, maybe you're seeing the half-naked women and you're just staring at them or whatever the case may be. You're standing in the way of sinners. But then sitting. Sitting, first occasional conformity, then fixed association, and then established residence. You sat down amongst the wicked, not as a mere spectator or companion, but as one of themselves. As the songwriter, preacher, Once put it, sin will take you further than you ever want to go and cost you more than you'd ever want to pay. To be sitting with the scoffers, oh, how terrible this is with the wicked, the sinners, those who will openly blaspheme the name of God, Yahweh. This is when you sit down and without flinching, watch a two-hour movie full of blasphemy, cursings, pornography, adultery, homosexuality, and all the like. There's no blessings to be found in these places. There's no blessings to be found walking in the council of the wicked. There's no blessings to be found standing in the way of sinners. There's no blessings to be found sitting in the seat of the scoffers. To be walking the way that they walk, to be standing the way that they stand, to be sitting where they sit. No blessings to be found there. But the blessed man of Psalm 1, he's not there, you see. He's not there. You look around, you say, where is that man? Well, he ain't there. He ain't there. Be careful the counsel that you get from others, the advice you get from others. Be careful what you take from others. Be careful the places you go, the places you stand, the places you sit. Be careful of those things. But his delight, verse two says, but his delight, is in the law of Yahweh, and in His law He meditates day and night. Now, having shown what the blessed man does not do and what he is not, where he is not found, the psalmist introduces a positive trait about the blessed man. His delight is in the law of Yahweh, And in his law, he meditates day and night. To delight in the law of Yahweh does not mean he's sitting there looking at the Ten Commandments saying, oh, this is really a good delight. He's not at Mount Sinai and thinking what the law is that was delivered there. That's a narrow-minded view of what the psalmist is talking about. This is the view of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and that's not the right view. The blessed man of Psalm 1 is not a hypocrite like those fellows were. The blessed man of Psalm 1 is rejoicing. He's delighting. in all of the law of God, all of it, all of the written law of Yahweh. And what was the psalmist writing about there? He was meaning the first five books of the Bible. He was talking about Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. in particular. That's what he was meaning when he spoke of those. He was meaning the written Word of God. You say, well, preacher, those are all kind of boring books. They're at the beginning of the Old Testament. We're New Testament people. Let me tell you, don't ever think that. Don't ever think that. Because over in the book of Luke, chapter 24, Luke chapter 24, verses 25 through 27. And he said to them, O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into his glory? Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things concerning himself in all the scriptures. So Jesus took the Old Testament scriptures beginning with Moses, the law of Yahweh, and he opened them up. He interpreted to them the things concerning himself in all the scriptures. In context then, Psalm 1, the blessed man, he is delighting in the law of Yahweh, meaning the first five books of the Bible. But in application, as we take it and apply it to our lives, we ought to be delighting in the whole of the written word of God, all 66 books, Old Testament and New Testament. We need to be delighting in all of it and meditating on it day and night. meditating on it day and night. Oh, to have God's word on our minds and our hearts so much so that we are constantly either in it physically, meaning that we're reading it, or we're thinking about it and considering it even when we're laying on our pillows at night. We all have a habit in our day, I think, that we get up in the morning and the first thing we grab is our phone, and a lot of times that's because that's our alarm clock. But a lot of times, at least for me, when I hit my alarm clock to snooze, first thing I do is I start looking up, you know, see what's going on on Facebook and Instagram and whatever, and check my text messages, all those things. And before I know it, a bit of time has passed. Wouldn't things be so much better? How much more blessed we'd be if the first thing we grabbed is the Word of God. So that's the first thing on our mind. Over in the 119th Psalm, Psalm 119, verses 14 through 16. Let's start with verse 9 here and just read it all the way down to verse 16. He says, How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to your word. With all my heart I have sought you. Do not let me stray from your commandments. Your word I have treasured in my heart. that I may not sin against you. Blessed are you, O Yahweh. Teach me your statutes. With my lips I have recounted all the judgments of your mouth. I have rejoiced in the way of your testimonies as much as in all riches. I will muse upon your precepts and look upon your ways. I shall delight in your statutes. I shall not forget your word." And so the psalmist was rejoicing in the word of God constantly. And then that's the way of the blessed man of Psalms and certainly how much more at peace we would be in this world rather than spending all our time and energy being focused on what's happening in the world. We live in a 24-7 news cycle world. And it all started with CNN, and then it's even gotten worse because of Twitter and those things. X, I guess it's called now. But it seems like there's always breaking news and always something going on somewhere. how much better we'd be to get into God's Word, to be focused there. Rather than thinking all the time about our problems and the things that are going on in this, and there's always some fire somewhere, emergency at work, or a problem here, or a problem there, and all the problems do need to be dealt with, don't get me wrong, spending all our time and energy always thinking about those things when we ought to be in God's word. Most of the things we get our blood pressure all up about and get all worried about, they don't even happen the way we think they're going to happen anyway. But oh, there's blessings to be found in God's word. And so the blessed man, he is not walking in the counsel of the wicked. He's not standing in the way of sinners. He's not sitting in the seat of the scoffers. His delight is in the law of Yahweh. In His law, he meditates day and night. And in verse 3, The Bible tells us, he will be like a tree, firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither, and in whatsoever he does, he prospers. The description here of the happy man, the blessed man, this man of Psalm 1, the righteous man, is that he will be like a tree. Not a wild tree, but a tree firmly planted by the streams of water. And I like that, streams, plural. That means if one stream dries out, there's other streams. He's not gonna be troubled by times of drought and all that sort of thing. He's gonna be okay. If one stream fails, others will provide. A tree that will yield his fruit in his season, his leaf will not wither. And this is, beloved, this is the doctrine of preservation and perseverance. God's people, God's people will be planted firmly They're going to grow, they're going to be fruitful, and they're not going to wither and die. They're going to be all right. And so I know sometimes it doesn't look like it. Sometimes it seems that things are so terrible, but don't worry. Don't worry. The blessed man of Psalm 1, in the example that's given here, You want to be continuing in the word. He's going to keep going and there's going to be fruit. There's going to be green leaves and in whatever he does, he'll prosper. Now don't get upset. Don't get upset if your bank account is low right now. Don't get upset if it's in the negative. Don't be upset if you don't have, a big house or fancy car or expensive clothes. It's not what he's talking about here. See, prosperity in the life of the righteous is a bit different than prosperity the way that the world looks at it. Go over with me to Mark chapter 10. Mark chapter 10, and let's start with verse 25. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. They were even more astonished, saying to him, then who can be saved? Looking at them, Jesus said, with people it is impossible, but with God, for all things are, but not with God, for all things are possible with God. Peter began to say to him, Behold, we have left everything and followed you. Jesus said, truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms for my sake and for the gospel's sake, except one. who will receive 100 times as much now in the present age, houses, and brothers, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and farms, along with persecutions, and in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first. You see, prosperity in the kingdom looks differently than what it does in the world. And he says, he says, yeah, you may lose, you may leave houses and brothers and sisters, mothers, fathers, children, farms for my sake or for the gospels, but you'll receive others. Along with all these other things he'd list along their persecutions and and and so on and so forth you see Over in Matthew In Matthew chapter 5 Begin verse 1 and when Jesus saw the crowds he went up to the mountain After he sat down his disciples came to him and He opened his mouth and began to teach them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the lowly, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God. Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you Because of me rejoice and be glad for your reward in heaven is great For in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you You see, the blessings, the prosperity is much different looking at this from a spiritual standpoint. In fact, some several years after Jesus ascended into heaven, Paul wrote to Timothy, and this is what he said. To bring us to a close, I want us to look at 1 Timothy 4. 1 Timothy 4. In verse 8, well, let's start with verse 7, but refuse godless myths fit only for old women. On the other hand, train yourself for the purpose of godliness for bodily trainings is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life, and also for the life to come. So Paul, he was beat up, persecuted and all those things, but he says, he says, bodily training, it's of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things. I would have loved to have seen Paul, all his bruises and scars and all those things, and he said, this is profitable, Timothy, profitable. I'm blessed, I'm blessed. Sometimes it may seem like it, And we may not see it sometimes. The world certainly doesn't understand it, but the man in Psalm 1 is truly blessed. And so I ask you today, are you such a person as what we find in Psalm 1? As we close this out, let me tell you, not everybody's this blessed. There is another type of person in the world. The psalmist talks about him, verses 4, 5, and 6, as he says, the wicked aren't so, but they are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore, the wicked will not rise 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. May God add a blessing to the preaching of His Word. Do we have any questions?