There are some passages of Scripture that seem to be almost custom made for an occasion such as this. And it's one of those passages of Scripture I'd like to have you turn to this evening as we look to the Word of God together. Turn to Psalm 1, the first Psalm. It's so much the case that this psalm is made for an occasion like this that I can imagine myself being tempted to preach from this psalm every single baccalaureate service that we have. It's so good for bringing our thoughts down to a fine point this evening because the psalm is talking about paths. about how to get on the right path and how to stay on that path. And it opens up with a wonderful word. You see the word, the very first word of the psalm, the word blessed. And so as you read this psalm together, I want you to think about that word blessed. and how this psalm is presenting to us the Lord's counsel for a blessed life. Let's read God's word together at the first psalm. This is the word of God. 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. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Therefore, the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish. Amen. With our Bibles open there, let's all seek the Lord's face together and pray. Lord, our gracious God and heavenly Father, we bow in your presence now and ask for the moving of your spirit upon the word, that the very Holy Spirit who breathed out these words through David centuries ago would come now and illumine our minds to the truth, that we might behold wondrous things from thy law. We confess that the Lord Jesus was manifested that he might deliver and save his people from their sins. And we pray that we would know his ministry in saving us from sin this evening. We pray this in Christ's name, amen. High school graduation comes with a lot of mixed emotions, doesn't it? I mean, there's the joy. This is something you've been looking forward to for a long time. You've imagined what it would be like to wear the regalia, to process in, what it would be like to be done with your last final exam. What would it be like to all the other kids are still in school for three weeks and you're done just showing up for a couple hours every day for rehearsals? Been looking forward to this for a while. There's a lot of joy in it. There's a lot of relief in it as well. Relief, at least you thought there would be relief in it. But that, you hear them chuckling because it's mixed emotions, isn't it? There's There's something intimidating about this as well, isn't there? It's a little bit unsettling. It's not all joy. It's not all relief. There's something unsettling. The most significant part of your life is coming to a close. And There's so much out there in the future that you don't really know exactly how it's going to play out, do you? Perhaps you have some regrets, some lost opportunities, some desires to go back and do things over again at this point. And as you think about the future, life can be pretty intimidating. I mean, what now? Up until now, everything's been pretty routine. It's been pretty planned out for you. I mean, you barely had to even decide what to wear in the mornings, did you? For the last 14 years or so. Life was pretty simple. But here you are, you're standing on the verge of adult life. Life outside the direct discipline of this school and of your home. and you have all of these opportunities and all of these complexities in front of you, and it can be rather unsettling. That's why I say it comes with mixed emotions, joy and relief, regret and fear. I remember some of the emotions that I had when I was a graduating senior. I lived with this awful, devastating fear of wasting my life. I thought about the fact that I only had one, you only get one life, and what it would be like to come to the end of it and to have nothing to show for it, to waste your life. It terrified me, still does terrify me, to waste a life. I don't think I'm unique in dreading that. I think that's part of the image of God in us. And it's especially a godly desire that he implants in the hearts of his children, to want to do something significant for the Lord, to want to live a blessed life, I don't want to waste it. How can I, how can you live a life that will not leave us hanging our head in shame at the end? We're here in Psalm 1 with the passage of scripture. And you see that very first word of the psalm, the word blessed, is actually a plural word. Oh, the multiplied blessednesses of the man. And that's what you want, right? That's what you want. Multiplied blessing in your life. I mean, no one sets out to live a cursed life. No one wants to get to the end of their life and have nothing to show for it. No one wants the end of their life to be a train wreck. You want the blessed life. That's what I want. And that's what we want for you, the blessed life. But the blessed life is not the result of crossing your fingers and hoping everything turns out okay. Spiritual prosperity is not something that people stumble into accidentally. You will reap what you sow, and God will not be mocked. Whether or not you live a life of multiplied blessing, the things that really matter is up to you and to the choices that you make. And this psalm is here as counsel from the Lord on high. To tell us, to counsel us, to come alongside us and to encourage us about the way to live a blessed life. So will you give the word of God? your best spiritual attention as we think together about the Lord's counsel for a blessed life. The Lord's counsel for a blessed life. Now what I want you to see at the outset in this psalm, I want you to see it, I want you to understand it, I want you to remember it, are four fundamentals of life according to this divine counsel. Now I just want to just quickly set them all out here on the table in front of us so that we have them to kind of probe in the second part of this sermon. Four fundamentals of life as God counsels us about living a blessed life. In the first place, I want you to see in this psalm that there are just two types of people in this world. There are only two kinds of people. You see it right there in verse number six. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish. Our assumption is that there are many, many varieties of people in this world. That they can be categorized by age, or by status, or by occupation, or by talent, or by fame. But God, in his word, reduces all of humanity down to just two kinds of people. Pick them out in that sixth verse. On the one hand, there's the righteous. And on the other hand, there's the ungodly. And that encapsulates everything in this psalm. I mean, if you think about this psalm verse by verse, what's the subject of verse number one? The blessed man. What's the subject of verse two? Well, you're still talking about the blessed man, his delight. Verse number three, still the blessed man. He shall be like a tree. All right, now we come to verse four. What's the subject there? The ungodly. How about verse number five? What's the subject? The ungodly. You see, there's just two kinds of people in the world. And this psalm secondly tells us that everyone is going somewhere. Nobody is sitting immovable. Everyone is on a journey, and it's encapsulated in this word, way, in this psalm. You see it there in verse six again. The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish. There is two kinds of people in this world, and there are just two paths that those two people travel, just two. And thirdly, what's the difference between those two kinds of people? I mean, what's the difference between the blessed man, the righteous man, and the ungodly man? What's the difference? You would think that because of those titles, unrighteous and ungodly, that the difference is in something of their behavior, that the difference is in their actions or something. That's what you would assume. But the psalm traces it back further than that. Look at the first verse. Take that first kind of person, the blessed man. The blessed man is the man that does not walk in the what. He doesn't walk in the council of the second group. What the first Psalm is introducing to us is that a fundamental of life for every individual is the issue of who he listens to. That's what makes the difference. Where do you get your advice? And at the end of the day, what Psalm 1 tells us is there are only two sources of counsel. You've got on the one hand, verse one, the counsel of the ungodly, and then what's the other source? It's in verse number two. His delight is in the law of the Lord. And so this is great contrast. of walking according to the counsel of the ungodly and walking according to the law of the Lord. All right, so can you hold these things in your mind? We've got three so far. This psalm is giving us fundamental facts of life for every individual to know. First, there are only two kinds of people in this world. All of those people are on a journey, and there are just two paths that they can take. And the difference between the two individuals is who they're listening to on that path, where they're getting their advice from. Is it people who are not like God, or is it God himself and people that are telling you what he says? And then fourthly, verses three and four and six inform us that there are just two destinies, just two destinies. And verses three and four, those destinies are described figuratively or illustratively. You see the two illustrations there. And verse number three, the righteous man is like a tree. Think of a tree. Think of the size of a tree, the stability of a tree, the beauty of a tree, the productivity of a tree. And then the ungodly, according to verse four, who seem to be so progressive, they say, this is the way to move forward, listen to all of our knowledge. The ungodly, verse four says, in the end, all those people amount to this, they amount to chaff. chaff, the kernels on, the husk of the kernel on grain that gets broken and then just the slightest little breeze carries it away. No one heats their houses with chaff. You don't feed chaff to animals. You can't shape it into anything. It's absolutely useless. And scripture says that in the end, men and women who follow the advice of people that are not like God, those who follow the advice of the counsel of the ungodly, that's their destination described figuratively, chaff. And then you look at verse number six, and there are still two destinations, it's the same two destinations, but now they're described not figuratively, but eternally. Look at them, verse six, the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous. You may not think of that as a destination, but it is. God knowing you is a destination. Our Lord taught at the end of the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount that there would be many people in that day who would claim some sort of attachment to him and that they would even profess to have some sort of relationship with him and bring forward evidence of all the things that they've accomplished in his name. But he will look at them and say, depart from thee, me, ye that work iniquity. I never knew you. And so, God knowing you is a destination. And on the other hand, in verse number six, you see that those who are not like God in this life, verse six, they perish. They walk, and they walk, and they walk, and they walk, and in the end, the way of the ungodly, it just perishes. They're walking, and it's going downward, downward, and the slope gets steeper, and then the whole thing gets slippery, and they're grasping out for something, anything, a tree root, a rock, something that will hold them, and they flare their arms, and they gasp, and whoosh, perish. It's the destiny. of the ungodly, their way just perishes. Can you hold those four things in your mind then? I'll start with two. There are two kinds of people in this world, just two. Those two kinds of people are all going somewhere, they're on a journey, they have a way, there's just two ways, there's just two. And the thing that differentiates them is who they're getting their advice to from. And at the end of the day, there's just two sources. There's two sources of counsel. And there are two destinies. Two destinations that these people arrive at. Now, graduating seniors, and all who are gathered together in this sanctuary, We need to take an inventory. Which path are you on? Because there's no middle road. There isn't. There's not a third way. On the one hand, there's this blessed man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly. His delight is in the law of the Lord. And on the other hand, there are those who are ungodly and will not be able to withstand the inevitable judgment of God. Those are just the two ways, that's it. And what we want to say, right, what we want to say is some kind of third way, right? What we want to say is, well, I don't think I necessarily walk in the counsel of the ungodly, but what if I don't really delight in God's law? I mean, it's a third way, right? And the psalm comes back to us and tells us, the ungodly are not so. It just stops you from thinking about any third way, just like that. Scripture is unified on this point. It is unified on this point. What does James say? Does James give room for a middle way that a believer can be a believer but fail to produce good works? No, he says faith without works is dead. What about 1 John? Can you know God but disregard his commandments? No. He says, hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. So friends, we must not give ourselves false comfort if we're living in a supposed middle of the way position. There is no third way, there are only these two ways. So how will you know the blessed life then? There are these two people, and there are these two paths, and there are these two councils, and there are these two destinations. How can you ensure that you are on the blessed path? And how can you stay on that path? Well, the simplicity of this psalm just brings it down to three applications. How can you know that you're on the path of blessing, and how can you remain on that path? That's what you want, isn't it? Well, here's the first thing, then. When you boil it all down, the first and primary thing is to know God. I mean, that's how the psalm ends. The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous. You must know God and he must know you. You must have a relationship with God. Can I share the gospel with you one more time? Just like this psalm says there's two ways and there's two kinds of people and there's two councils and there's two destinations. You know the Lord looks at all of humanity and puts them in two categories. Either you are in Adam or you are in Christ. And all in Adam receive the guilt of his transgression. All in Adam die. You are a member of Adam's fallen race. Adam is your representative, rebelled, and he fell against God's law. By one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. And sin brought us into a state of sin and misery and made us liable to all the miseries of this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell forever. But God delights in mercy. And he set forth his son to satisfy his justice and to reconcile sinners to God. And as Jesus hung on that cross as a public spectacle, the Lord laid sins on him. There's a transaction happening at the cross of Christ. God makes his soul an offering for sin. God made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. As it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. He put away sin once and for all by the sacrifice of Himself, bearing our sins on that cross and receiving in His body and on His soul the just punishment for all of our sins. His name was Jesus, for He would save His people from their sins, and He did. He fully accomplished that salvation. And sinners, therefore, that look to Him in simple faith, that trust Him, they live. All in Adam die, but all in Christ are made alive. And for all who trust Him, a gracious transaction takes place. They're united to Jesus Christ so that their sins become His responsibility. When you're united to Jesus Christ by faith, your sins become His responsibility. and he is punished for them. And his righteousness is credited over to you so that you can be pardoned and accepted and being justified by faith, have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Are you in Christ? It's the only way to be righteous in God's sight. It's the only entrance into a relationship with him. Grace and peace will be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. He's the only way. So if we ask God for the keys to the blessed life, he tells us, first of all, to know God. Do you know God? I made a point of emphasis every time that I spoke in chapel this year to really talk to you and talk to your heart about the reality of your relationship with God. Matters like being honest about your sin. Matters like casting your cares upon him, rolling over to him your anxieties and knowing the peace of God guarding your heart. knowing how it is to what to do with your heart when you're overwhelmed and how to be led to the rock that is higher than you. How to settle down your noisy soul. Do you know God? Do you just know about him or do you really know him? What evidence could you bring forward that you have a real living relationship with Jesus Christ? He's not just a fact to be assented to, he's a person to be known. Do you know him? The second key to a blessed life, according to the first verse, is to refuse ungodly counsel. Verse 1 teaches us that being a blessed person begins with certain negatives. The way of blessedness requires that a person have a whole set of no's and not's. There's things that he's determined not to do, not to be associated with, not to participate in, not even to listen to. The blessed man does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly. His life is characterized by reflection. He refuses to walk in ungodly counsel. Let me just spend a moment with that word ungodly there in verse number one, because we might get snagged on that word. The word ungodly is not referring to the most notorious of sinners or something like that. I think that's what we think of. We think of ungodly as the capital W wicked, notorious criminals out there. But really the word ungodly just means those that are not like God. It's God's way of describing everyone who's not like him. Their values are not God's values. Their opinions are not God's opinions. They are truly going their own way. That's the essence of ungodliness, just people that are going their own way. and prosperity and blessedness in this life is the result and consequence of deliberate choices that you make. If you are going to have a blessed life, then you are gonna have to say no to certain things. You're going to have to refuse and reject certain things. The age in which you live is not neutral. It's not neutral. This world is supercharged by an invisible spirit being. It is bent on fulfilling lusts and indulging in creaturely appetites. So if you are going to be blessed, then you are gonna have to say no over and over and over again. No, that's ungodly. Those are ungodly ways. That's ungodly talk. Those are ungodly people. You're going to have to refuse ungodly counsel. Okay, so what was the first key? The first key was to know God. You get these two people, two ways, two counsels, two destinies. I wanna be on the right one, all right? Know God. Number two, refuse ungodly counsel. And then what's the third key? The third key is your Bible. I mean, that is at the very heart of this psalm, isn't it? When the blessed man is described positively in verse number two, it's all about his relationship to his Bible. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. That word law is just the word for instruction. Don't think law as in rules or commands or something only. Don't think of it merely as the first five books of the Bible, the law, the Pentateuch. No, the Lord does the instruction of the Lord. His delight is in God's instructions, and in His instructions, He meditates day and night. The third key to a blessed life is to have a right relationship with the Word of God. What would a right relationship look like? What would it look like to value the Word of God? Well, you see how it's characterized in verse number two. The first description, we wouldn't have guessed this, we wouldn't have written it this way, this is what God says. The first characteristic is an emotional response to God's Word. It's an emotional response. His delight is in God's instructions. He speaks of our emotional pleasure with the Bible. Have you ever come to a text of scripture, some promise, some counsel, some instruction, and found yourself so glad that God said it that way. And really, how are you doing about that? How are you doing with that? Delighting in God's law. How long has it been since something in scripture lit you up emotionally? Did you come alive to scripture? the way you come alive when talking or hearing about so many other things. Maybe you'd have to confess that you don't even know what that feels like. I mean, you know it must exist because you hear other people talking about it, and you see other people that have that kind of delight, but you can't say that you've ever experienced that kind of delighting pleasure in God's word. Seriously, take stock in that. Measure your delight level right now in God's word. Is it flat? Is it growing? Is it decreasing? If it's just flat or it's decreasing right now, then you're in trouble. Because the characteristic of the blessed man is that his delight is in the law of the Lord. That's the first characteristic. It's an emotional response. And then look at the second characteristic in verse two. In his law doth he meditate day and night. This is a mental kind of a characteristic. This man is preoccupied with God's word. I don't know what the word meditation, what you think of when you think of meditation. We're not talking about yoga or something. We're talking about a person who is preoccupied with God's word and he is observing to do it, right? That's what biblical meditation is, observing to do. It's to consider the applications and the outworking of the truth and see the connections and the significance in your life. And actually, that second thing is the key to the first thing happening. As long as God's word is a small segment of your life, as long as it's confined to a little corner over here, you're not gonna know what it means to delight in it. You will not know what it means to delight in God's word until you make it the center, until you're habitually carving out time in your day to spend time with God in the word. And you're preoccupied with what you read and the significance of these instructions and these promises and these threats and these instructions of the word you're preoccupied with these, how it counsels you in difficulty, how it assures you in your anxieties, how it comforts you in your distress. If you will be daily preoccupied with the word of God and begin to bring it to bear on every area of your life, you're gonna find yourself delighting in the law of the Lord. I mean, that's where the delight is. The delight of God's word is in discovering the unique contribution that this passage of scripture makes to my life and how it significantly impacts me. That's where the delight is. As long as it's vague and general and confined to some small section and area of my life, there's no delight in that. And so he says this third key then is to delight in the law of the Lord, is to value God's word, to delight in it and to meditate in it day and night. Now seniors, wherever you are right now, there is a path to a place of blessedness. Do you believe that? no matter what the past has been, no matter what choices that you've made up to this point that you're suffering consequences for now, no matter what has happened already, no matter where you are today and what path you've taken up to this point, there is a way to blessedness from where you are right now. But that blessedness will be the consequence of deliberate choices, choices that are gonna be made over and over and over again for the rest of your life. That's how you're gonna get on the path, and that's how you're gonna stay on the path. Know God. Refuse ungodly counsel. Value God's word. Scripture does not ever minister assurance or peace to a professed Christian who's not growing in his relationship to God and the word. If the word of God has no place in your life, Do not comfort yourself with the idea that there is a middle way where your soul can be safe while you diligently pursue everything else but God. The Holy Spirit says there are just two positions a person can take. You either walk in the counsel of the ungodly or you delight in the instruction of the word. Choose the blessed way. It's the better way. I'm not coming to you this evening appealing for you to choose something inferior, to make some kind of sacrifice or something. This is not a sacrifice. This is the better way. This is the superior way. This is the way of blessedness. This is the way of God knowing your way. This is the way of being like a tree, firmly rooted and planted by rivers of water and a source of blessing to generations to come. Choose the blessed way. What you need are massive doses of God's word. You know, the more accessible the counsel of the ungodly is, the more massive your doses of God's word needs to be. And has the counsel of the ungodly ever been more accessible than it is now? So you need massive doses of God's word. That involves reading God's word habitually, regularly, moving through scripture routinely. It means planting yourself in a congregation of God's people where hours each week are dedicated to the systematic study of God's word together. You need that. It means memorizing God's word and putting yourself through that mental rigor of continuing to think and meditate and dwell on God's word to the point that you have it word for word memorized. Give God's word a rich dwelling in your life. And you'll be like a tree planted by rivers of water that brings forth fruit in a season. Your leaf also will not wither, and whatsoever you do will prosper. You'll prosper in the things that really matter. And everything in your life will prosper, because the man who's living the blessed life who's preoccupied with God's word is seeking to bring God's word to bear on every area of his life, so every area of his life prospers. Whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. If you will give the word of God a rich dwelling in your life, if you will choose the blessed way, then you will be prosperous in the things that really matter. God has never disappointed anyone who has gone this way. This is the Lord's counsel for a blessed life. Let's bow for prayer. Eternal God and our Father in heaven, we praise thee for this passage of scripture, for the way that it, with simplicity, brings all of the complexities of life down to just two choices. And Lord, we pray now for grace to live a life of blessing. And we pray especially for these graduating seniors. What a gift they are to us. We thank Thee for giving them to us, for the years that we've spent together in the Word. And we pray that they would not wander from Your commandments. We pray that mercy and truth will be bound about their neck, that they would forsake not the instructions of their father and their mother and their school, We pray that as Satan desires to sift them as wheat, that you would keep them by your grace and enable them to make choices which will bear blessed fruit in time and eternity. And we ask this in Christ's name, amen. Let's sing together one last time, number 501 in the Trinity hymnal, Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah, hymn 501. Let's stand as we sing. in the land almighty. Hold me with thy crown, O Lamb. Lamb of heaven, Lamb of heaven, feed me till I am no more. ♪ Lead us to our salvation ♪ Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory, both now and forever. Amen.