Let's take our Bibles out, shall we, to Psalm chapter 1. Psalm chapter 1. The doorway to the Psalms. Psalm chapter 1. We're going to continue from Psalm chapter 1, our study, the pathway of a blessed man. We had seen the practice of the blessed man in verses 1 and 2. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night." We are looking at the practice of the blessed man. We had seen negatively It had been stated, and then last week we had looked positively at two aspects, two things that the blessed man practices. First of all, we saw last week the concept of assimilation. His delight is in the law of the Lord. And we had looked in the Scriptures at four areas where the word delight was found. You recall last prayer meeting service, So therefore, there should be assimilation, where we're taking in the Word of God and making it part of us. We're delighting in the Word of God. But now I want us to look at the second aspect of the concept of the practice of the blessed man. Not only does he practice assimilation, but he practices meditation. Meditation. Notice, the Word of God continues, and it says in verse 2, "...and in His law does He meditate day and night." I like that word, meditate. I always think of the concept of a cow chewing its cud. You can say the word, meditate. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm You know, a cow has four stomachs. First of all, he has the rumen, which swallows the grass whole. It's the first stomach. And then regurgitates it, and then chews it a little bit more. Then it goes into the second stomach, which is known as the reticulum. And it sits there, and then it's regurgitated again. chewed a little bit more, assimilated a little bit more, as it were a picture of meditating a little bit more, then it goes into the third stomach, known as the amasum. And there, once again, it stays, then it's regurgitated, chewed a little bit more, and then finally placed into the fourth stomach, the abamasum, which works like our stomach does, it adds acid to the grass to break it down more what a picture of meditating upon the Word of God not only is his delight in assimilation where he spends time studying the Word of God but then he meditates on it day and night we are going to meditate on something folks sad to say I've had counseling sessions when individuals have told me, Pastor John, I'm trying to get rid of the garbage dump in my mind. I've been involved in seeing the wrong kind of movies, the wrong kind of magazines. And you know, Pastor John, when I close my eyes to pray, it's almost like the devil has short-circuited my thinking. When I close my eyes to pray, I have filthy pictures going through my mind constantly. Now, is that the work of the devil or isn't it? You bet it is. But you see, we need to meditate upon the Word of God. It's a cleansing factor. It's cleansing our spiritual system when it comes meditating upon the Word of God. So we've seen the practice of the blessed man. Now I want us to go to verse 3. verse three we're going to see we've seen the practice of the blessed man and it's taken taken us two weeks to get through verses one and two so now we're gonna look at the power of the blessed man and it's stated in verse three where's the power where's the strength notice it says here he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bring it forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither, whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." You know, the greatest need in the church today are dedicated, planted Christians. When I say planted, I'm not talking about dead and buried planted. I'm talking about grounded, rooted, with a deep root system that is able to withstand the winds and the erosion that is all around us morally and spiritually and in every single way. You know, there are three results. Notice it says, it talks about our power being here like rivers of water. The word rivers of water here is referring back to verse 2. The rivers of water are actually the law of the Lord. God's word is like a living water. that nourishes and refreshes and give strength you see and we need to be in the word of god if we're going to be planted notice now here three results of being in the law of the lord first of all we're going to be planted now when something is implanted very well it has a strong root system its roots go deeply into the soil it's gone deeply Oftentimes, through arid periods of time, it's able to withstand the difficult, arid climate because it's able to tap into the deep sources of the water of God's Word. The first result of being in the law of the Lord is that we're planted. That implies stability. It implies strength. But then also, not only does being in the Lord indicate being planted, But it indicates being productive. That's the second characteristic, the second result of being in the law of the Lord. We're going to be productive. Notice it says that when we're planted, we're also going to bring forth fruit. Is there fruit in your life that others can be nourished from? Is there fruit in your life that is being that others are able to benefit from. Oh, being productive. And then also, I want you to notice that the third result of being in the law of the Lord is that we're not only going to be planted and productive, but we're going to be prosperous. Now be careful. The health and the wealth crowd love to use verse 3, "...whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." Does this verse tell us that we will never ever suffer a financial reversal? Does this verse tell us that we will never ever get laid off? Does this verse tell us that we might not experience a calamity financially in our lives through some economic upheaval? What is this verse actually saying? Well, I believe that A believer may go through hard times. Am I wrong in thinking, for instance, of the book of James, where there were believers that were scattered throughout Asia Minor for their faith? Many of them had lost their economic ability to sustain themselves because they had embraced Christ and had been disowned by father and by mother, been blackballed, by associates at work and told to just boycott his products and individuals were scattered abroad. Are we going to say that they were outside of the will of God? I believe that the way to interpret whatsoever he doeth shall prosper is in the sense of Romans chapter 8 and verse 28. When a believer is planted in the Word of God God promises that even the reverses of life, the reversals that we experience in life, in the end, given time, we will look back and we will see the hand of God work. I'll admit to you this evening that some of the hardest times that I've been through in my life, I never ever could imagine and could really understand the Romans 8.28 of it Until the passage of time as I looked further down the road and saw that God had a higher purpose and God says that we can be prosperous, but their prosperity is not just Monetary there's the spiritual fruit that endures unto life eternal There's everlasting fruit that God wants to create in our lives so that we can be a blessing to to others upon the earth. Now God promises to meet our needs but to say that he promises to make us all prosperous is an aberration. It's a distortion of this particular verse right here. But God promises that through Romans 828 all things will work together for good. Now we've seen the practice of the blessed man in verses 1 and 2. We've seen the power of the blessed man. And it's all situated in God's Word, being in the law of the Lord. Now we're going to look at verses 4-6 at the permanency of the blessed man. The permanency of the blessed man. And he's contrasted here with the ungodly man. And we're going to look first of all at the ungodly man. Once again, the psalmist is showing us the negative side of things so that we can then turn around and see the positive side of things. Sometimes the Lord allows us to see a lot in our lives. And the reason why He allows us to do that, He sometimes shows us a glimpse of where we could be were it not for His grace. And we can look all around us. uh... we were just driving up here to church and we saw one fellow under a bridge just asleep just asleep and and uh... just and he's one of those homeless fellows nowhere to go probably try to find a hot and a cot at the mission station downtown orlando by the evening but the sad part about it is there's a sad state of affair in so many people's lives but look at the four-fold picture of the ungodly man." There's a four-fold snapshot beginning with verse 4. Number one, he's unstable. It says, "...the ungodly are not so, but they're like the chaff which the wind drives away." Most of you are familiar with the process of winnowing and how that they would cast the chaff up in the air, the chaff would be blown away and the grain would fall to the ground. And that would just fly through the air. And that's the picture of the unsaved person. They're blown by this wind of doctrine. And they're blown by this wind of doctrine. And sad to say, even Christians can sometimes be double-minded. Have you ever seen the picture recently? Ever read recently of the double-minded man Pictured here in verse 6 of James 1, it says, speaking of the double-minded man, he's unstable in all of his ways. You see, he's like the sea that's driven with the wind and tossed. And sad to say, there are a lot of Christians that are that way in their homes. Up one week, down another. Their homes are constantly in trouble. Situations at school and at work There's constantly the calamity of the shifting sands. And they're up one day for the Lord and down the other. And the Word of God talks about the double-minded man being stable in all of his ways. That's the two-souled man. So the ungodly man is unstable. He's like the chaff which the wind blows. But then verse 5 gives us the second characteristic of the ungodly man. He's under condemnation. Notice what it says. It says in verse 5, Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment. Now some people have made this mean that the unsaved man will never stand in judgment before God. No, that's not what that's saying at all. The word stand means that he'll not be acquitted. He'll not be acquitted. He'll not be exonerated. He will not get away with things. You know, there's a lot of ungodly people that seem to be getting away with a lot of things today in this world. And you know, in Psalm 37 it says, fret not thyself because of evildoers. Because it's real easy for us as Christians to say, boy, look at that. He's getting away with it. And you may know somebody at work that's getting away with things. And you're wondering, how in the world? Don't worry. You leave it in the hands of the Lord. It says here, the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment. Now, in what sense? Well, look at chapter 5 and verse 5. You have a similar phrase here about standing. Chapter 5 and verse 5, the foolish shall not stand in thy sight. See, that's the idea. He'll not be exonerated. He'll not be acquitted. There will come that day, as it says in Psalm 5 and verse 5, the ungodly man will get his just desserts. And as a matter of fact, in verse 6 of Psalm 1, it says, the way of the ungodly shall perish. It'll perish. And you know, that's not speaking about annihilationism like the Jehovah Witnesses teach. or the Seventh-day Adventists. You know, they teach that there's no eternal hell. And they say, oh well, a loving God would never cause someone to suffer in hell for all eternity. Well, first of all, they need to read their Bible, and number two, they need to realize something about the nature of God. God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. and his provision has been universal. But if individuals reject and refuse to come to Christ, then it is man who sends himself to hell by his refusal to receive the pardon that is offered through Jesus Christ. Now that's the permanency of the picture of the ungodly man. Are you on the road to destruction? I hope you're not. I hope that you know Christ. as your Savior. But look at the picture of the blessed man in the first part of verse 6. Isn't it wonderful that right now, where you are now, you might say, Lord, I don't know how to go out or to come in, to quote Solomon. And Lord, I don't know what you're doing in my life because you sure don't make sense. But you know what counts in verse 6? The Lord knoweth. The Lord knoweth. It says here, The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous. That's a beautiful, beautiful psalm that the Lord gives us. The Lord knoweth. That's what counts. The Lord knoweth and He understands. Now, on this phrase, the Lord knoweth, take a look at Job 23 and verse 8. Job 23 and verse 8. Here it says, Behold, I go forward, but he is not there. Join the club. Job felt and has felt like perhaps you might sometimes. I go backward, I cannot perceive him. On the left hand, where he doth work, I cannot behold him. But he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him. That's how Job felt. But notice, he knoweth the way. The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous. He knoweth the way that I take. When He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. If we're willing to keep on doing right and knowing the right way to go. And the Bible says, The Lord knoweth them that are His. Therefore, we ought to depart from iniquity and continue to serve the Lord. The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous. In other words, the Lord saves, He directs, He comforts, and He gives us wisdom. Now look at Matthew chapter 7, and I'll close with this verse. Because we have a good deal to go to the Lord in prayer on. But in Matthew chapter 7, verses 13 and 14. Matthew chapter 7, verses 13 and 14. The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous. And what is that way? Enter ye at the straight gate. Wide is the gate, broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many be there that go thereat. Because straight is the gate, narrow is the way that leads unto life, and few be there that find it. We have a picture of two men two destinies. Which one is yours? As we enter into the doorway of the Psalms, may we align ourselves with the blessed man. May we be able to raise our families in the way that God would have us to. But it all begins with a decision on our part, individually, to be and to do what God would have us to do. Let's bow our heads together in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank You for the privilege that we have of coming before Your throne of grace. And Father, help us to practice the principles that we have seen these last few weeks from the book of Psalm, chapter 1. Father, we must confess as we stand before You that we have not always delighted in the law of the Lord. We have not always assimilated the Word of God and been in the Word of God. We have not always meditated upon the Word of God. And Lord, we confess that sometimes we're more prone to be able to discuss baseball scores and Olympic results and batting averages and latest styles and trends in clothing and in jewelry and all of the things Lord, are acclaimed and held in high esteem by the world. But Lord, oftentimes we're not able to meditate upon the Word of God because we have not taken time as a priority. While our heads are bowed and eyes are closed, perhaps you've been meditating on the wrong things. Perhaps you've been allowing yourself to get into the wrong kind of reading. Even your television viewing has been pulling you and your family down. Maybe, Dad, you need to take that step as the head of your home and begin making some changes. And may they first be exemplified and lived out in your life. Ladies, are you willing to follow his leadership? Maybe there needs to be a decision to reinstitute praying with your wife. praying with your husband, having family devotions together. My, oh, my, how are our children going to be planted in the shifting sands if we ourselves are not seeking that in our lives? Some of you have children that have already gone on and established their own homes. Do you pray for them? Oh, may God give them strength. Young people, no matter how young you may be, if you can read, get into God's Word. If you're in kindergarten, first, second grade, there are certain things that you can start reading, even to start meditating on God's Word. Take time to be holy. Father, thank you for this time that we can have together and for this doorway to the psalm and the instruction that it provides for us. Help us to be godly men and women. to be planted by the rivers of water, and Father, in so doing, to be able to be a source of refreshment for those that need your blessing. And Father, I pray for unspoken requests and burdened hearts. Father, I pray that you would minister in a very definite way as we would go to prayer through the prayers of your people. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.