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Dr. Day, you left your Bible up here. Would you like for me to use it? That was Micah Borcier's fault. Ah, okay. All right. Well, good morning, everybody. Great to see you here. Thank you, Dr. Day, for the kind introduction that you gave. Thank you, Dr. Bingham. for the privilege of being first out of this shoot in chapel here. Dr. Bingham asked Dr. Day, I'm sure, to introduce me because he feels guilty himself to stand up and introduce me because of the height differential. Nobody should be that tall. There should be a law about that. That should be sinful. But nonetheless, Southwestern is off and running this semester. Join me in the hymn book of the Old Testament. Turn with me there if you would. Why are you staring at me? You know what the hymn book of the Old Testament is. That would be the Tehillim, the book of Psalms. And find your place in the very first Psalm, Psalm 1, from the hymn book of the Old Testament. And hear the word of the Lord. How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. 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 whatever he does, he prospers. Not so the wicked, so it says in Hebrew. The wicked are not so, but they are like chaff, which the wind drives away. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous, for the Lord knows the way of the righteous. The way of the wicked will perish. One day when I was in the fifth grade, a group of men came into my elementary school. They were called Gideons. And they brought to me a little red pocket New Testament. and they presented it to me and everyone else in my class. I still have somewhere that little red pocket New Testament given me by the Gideons. The interesting thing about that New Testament, as I looked at it, is on the cover it says, New Testament, and then they added one Old Testament book to the pocket New Testament, the book of Psalms. And from that day until this day, the older I get, the more precious and the more powerful the Psalms become in my life. The Jews divided up the Old Testament into three major sections, the Torah, the Naveim, and the Kethuvim, the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings. The first book of the writings is the book of Psalms. It is the beautiful book, Old Testament book, of poetry. The book of Psalms itself is divided into five books, as the Jews were prone to do. And at the last psalm of each one of the five books of Psalms, the last psalm in each book ends virtually the same. It ends with something of a doxology and a double amen or hallelujah. The book of Psalms is all about poetry. It is the poetic book of the Old Testament. God was pleased to reveal his Bible in many different genres. Many different literary categories. He revealed it in narrative, in their letters in the New Testament. And there are prophets, and there's apocalyptic literature. But then we have the book of Psalms, the poetic literature of the Bible. I love poetry. Don't you? Why, everybody loves poetry. And poetry, if you study poetry, there are many different types of poetry. You have poetry that has rhyme and rhythm, meter, and so forth. But you have poetry that doesn't have any of that. You have poetry that rhymes. Roses are red and violets are blue. Sugar is sweet and so are you. But then you have poems that don't rhyme. Roses are red, violets are blue. Some poems rhyme. This one doesn't. And then you have epitaph poetry, like the one that was written by the sports editor of the Little Midwestern Town many years ago when no one else was available to write the obituary and epitaph of Nancy Jones, the oldest member of the community. She had lived a long time. She had never married. She had done nothing particularly bad, nothing particularly good. And so finally, the sports editor wrote this, Here Lie the Bones of Nancy Jones. For her life held no terrors. She lived an old maid, she died an old maid. No hits, no runs, no errors." And then, of course, there is other kind of poetry. There is the blank verse kind of poetry that Shakespeare made famous in his writings and in Macbeth. Out, out, brief candle, life is a walking shadow. A poor player who struts and frets his hour on the stage and then disappears. Life is a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying nothing. But then there is Longfellow's 1855 epic poem in the form of an epic, the Song of Hiawatha, where every line has eight syllables in it. By the shores of Gitche Gumee, by the shining big sea waters, at the doorway of his wigwam, on a pleasant summer morning, Hiawatha stood and waited. And you hear the cadence, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. But then, of course, you have my favorite poetry, the ballad that tells the story. The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees. The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas. The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor. And the highwayman came riding, riding, riding. The highwayman came riding up to the old inn door. Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the darkened yard. He rapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred. He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there but the landlord's black-eyed daughter, Bess, the landlord's daughter, plaiting a dark red love knot into her long black Guys, if you want to get that girl, then learn some poetry and use it. It'll work every time. And so, poetry comes in all different shapes and sizes. The same is true of the poetry of the book of Psalms. There are many types of Psalms. You have the Praise Psalms, the Hallel Psalms, Psalm 113 through 118. You have Lament Psalms like Psalm 44. And in the Lament Psalms, the psalmist is addressing God with direct address and saying things like, Wake up, O God! Why are you asleep? Come and help us! We need you! That's a basic translation of what you get in a portion of Psalm 44. Then you have imprecatory psalms, like Psalm 5. where the psalmist is calling down the wrath of God on his enemies, so that a loose paraphrase would be something like, may the fleas of a thousand hairy camels infest your armpits. And then you have the thanksgiving psalms. You have Psalm 100 as an example of that category, enter his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. You have the narrative psalms, like Psalm 78, that narrates the Exodus story in psalm poetic fashion. Then you have the royal psalms, like Psalm 2, I have installed my king in Zion on my holy hill. And then you have what are called the wisdom psalms. Psalm 19, Psalm 119, and Psalm 1. They all have something in common. They are all centered around Torah. They are all about the Torah. And the key to wisdom is the Word of God, the Torah, and the study of the Word of God, and the worship of God through the study of the Word of God. This is the key to wisdom. Psalm 1 is the first Psalm. It is a wisdom psalm. It's an orphan psalm, they call it, because it has no superscription. We're not sure who wrote it. Psalm 1 is the vestibule through which you walk through to enter God's cathedral of praise, known as the Book of Psalms. What middle C is to the piano, Psalm 1 is to the Book of Psalms. Psalm 1 would be the text of which the rest of the Book of Psalms would be the sermon. And it is all about the psalm of two ways. The psalm divides itself right down the middle. Verses 1, 2, and 3 go together. The godly person and his prosperity. Verses 4, 5, and 6 go together. The ungodly person and his destruction. True to poetic form, there are all kinds of examples throughout the psalm. I'll not have time to enumerate them all this morning, but that give evidence to the poetic nature of this psalm. For example, the kinds of parallelism that you find in the psalms, synonymous parallelism, Synthetic parallelism, antithetic parallelism, are all found in this psalm. Look at verse 1. You have synonymous parallelism. You have three parallel phrases. Blessed is the one who 1. Doesn't walk in the counsel of the wicked. 2. He doesn't stand in the path of sinners. 3. Nor sit in the seat of the scoffers. That's synonymous parallelism. Verse 2 is an example of synthetic parallelism. You have a statement, and then you have a second statement that further amplifies it. So you read in verse 2, His delight is in the law of the Lord, and then here comes the application. In His law does He meditate day and night. Then you have antithetical parallelism, contrast. So you read in verse 6, The Lord knows the way of the righteous, but by contrast, the way of the wicked shall perish. And then you have not only these kinds of things, but you have the example of wordplay that's in the psalm. Notice the kinds of wordplay that I find when I look through the psalm. I notice that the very first word of the psalm begins with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, asherah. It begins with an aleph. The very last word in the Hebrew text of the psalm, the word translated in your English Bible, parish, begins with ta, the very last letter, tobit, the last letter of the Greek alphabet, ta. And I see all kinds of wordplay that is found in this psalm. The tree is a case, but the chaff is commotes. That's deliberate wordplay. And there are many other examples of that kind of wordplay, all found throughout this psalm. It is a beautiful psalm, it is a poetic psalm, and it tells us about God. But the key to this psalm is it's all about wisdom through a knowledge of Scripture. Why are you in seminary? Why are you here training for ministry? You are here to gain a better understanding, a deeper understanding of the Word of the Lord. That's the purpose of the Psalms. That's what the Psalms are all about. This is what God is doing as we come today to orientation, as it were, in His book of Psalms, just like you were at orientation last week for the beginning of seminary, getting yourself oriented So today we come, orientation for all of the chapels to come, all of the classes we will take, all of the papers we will write. Everything that will occur is an act of worship to the Lord as we better understand His Torah, His law, His Word. And so we come to the book of Psalms this morning. I find the book divided right in the middle. 1, 2, and 3 goes together and tells us this. Godly living ensures true success. Godly living ensures genuine success, true happiness, true prosperity. Look at verse 1. How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked. First word in the Hebrew text, asherah. It's a plural. It is a plural of focus and of emphasis. It's, oh, the blessings of this person. It is more than a declaration. It is an exclamation. It is a focused intent to grab your attention. It's like a huge advertisement. Artichokes, three for a dollar at Kroger's. It's an attempt to get your attention. Ashrae, oh, the blessedness of this person. It's an interesting word. It's never used of God who is blessed. It's always used of humans. It is never used of future blessings. It is always, throughout Scripture, used of present blessings that we possess. How blessed is the man? It is a word that describes both a condition and an emotion. Both are blended together in the Hebrew word, asherah. It is a condition that describes the man or woman who is right with God, in a right relationship with God. That's the blessed person, the person whose sins are justified, whose sins are forgiven, who stands in a right relationship to God. That's the asherah person in the Old Testament. Blessed is the person. But then there's an emotional element to it. There's a happiness. Some translate this, how happy is the person? And there's that joy that comes from knowing I'm in a right relationship with God and therefore I can live for him and serve him. And there's an emotional joy that comes from knowing my spiritual condition, I'm blessed. I pass by Miss Kitty Carter every now and then as she's working over there in our building, as she's doing the cleaning, keeping that building so clean. And every time I see her, when I ask Miss Kitty how she's doing, she always answers the same way, I'm blessed. Even though she lost her son in an accident this summer, when I saw her after that and asked her how she's doing, Miss Kitty said, I'm blessed. You see, blessing in the Bible, this word does not describe pure emotion in the sense that everything's working out well. Sometimes things don't work out well. Sometimes things go bad. Sometimes things are difficult. But the Christian, the one who knows God through Christ, is the person who, no matter what the circumstances are, is the blessed man. How blessed! Oh, the blessings! It's plural. Count your many blessings. Name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done. Oh, the blessings of the man. Ladies, don't get nervous. It is ha-ish in Hebrew, the man. But the implication is the person, any individual person who is about to meet the conditions described in verse one, and so you ladies are included as well, it's how blessed is the man, that man, that particular guy. Notice the contrast between the individual, I want you to watch this through this Psalm, the individual and the group of the wicked. The wicked are always lumped together in Psalm one. God takes the wicked, and He throws them all in one barrel. He talks about the wicked, the ungodly. But over here, singular, how blessed is that person? Poetically, who doesn't do three things. He doesn't walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scoffers. Do you notice the poetic parallelism there? Now, the question is, how do we translate this? How do you reflect this poetic device, the stairsteps expression, so to speak, and yet keep the point of the passage? And I think we can do both. There's a way to do both. Notice that the man doesn't walk in the counsel of the wicked. He doesn't stand in the path of sinners. He doesn't sit in the seat of scoffers. Look at those three words. He doesn't walk in the pathway. Walking is a metaphor in the Bible for your conduct, for how you live. He doesn't walk in the pathway of the Reshaim. It's a nasty-sounding word, isn't it? And it should be because it is a word that refers to the ungodly. You will find this word translated one of two ways in this text. You will either find it translated wicked. That's the more common Modern translations prefer that, but you will also find it translated ungodly. Some of the older translations and newer use ungodly. They're both good, both descriptive of what you have in the Reshaim. Who are the wicked? The Reshaim. The great Hebrew scholar, the great Jewish scholar, Nathan Sarna, did a study of all of the uses of that word in the Psalms and Proverbs. It occurs many, many times. Here is his summary. They are identified by these characteristics. They are marked by arrogance, pride, vainglorious bluster, brazen face, insolent, derisive. They are contemptuous of others, plot evil on their bed, scheme against the innocent, enamored of injustice, deliberately pervert the administration of justice. by means of bribery, lawlessness their hallmark, terror their instrument. They wield that against the lowly, the disadvantaged of society. The widow, the stranger, the orphan is their favorite target. They boast of their unbridled lust. They make an outward show of goodwill but conceals their malice. Their speech is deceitful, duplicitous, mendacious, fraudulent, treacherous. They abuse friendship. They repay good with evil. They repay love with hate. They borrow and never pay back. They abhor the person of integrity. They cannot understand another's concern for the plight of the wretched in society, and so they feign compassion. This is the description of the Reshahim. And I know what you're thinking. You're saying, well, I'm not in that category. Oh, but dig a little deeper. And understand that behind this Hebrew word, reshaim, is a content of description in the Old Testament of any person who is not in a right relationship with God. That person, although they may be somewhat morally good, that person, though they may not cheat on their taxes, that person, though they may take good care of their children, but that person who is in rejection of God through Christ, that person the Bible describes as Reshaim. Hence, they are not just acting wickedly on occasion, but they are in a condition and a state of ungodliness. The blessed person is the person who doesn't walk in the counsel of the Reshahim. He is also the person who doesn't stand in the path of the Katahin. The sinners, a word in Hebrew which means, among other things, to miss the mark, to fall short. It is a word that's descriptive of the law of God is here, and a sinner falls short because they do things contrary to the law of God, or they don't fulfill the law of God. Hence, they are in the path of the sinners. We don't want to be in the path of the sinners. And then, nor do we sit in the seat of the, look at the next word, scoffers. That's the only time this word is used in the Hebrew, tehillim, in the book of Psalms. The only time the word is used. The let's sing, the scoffers. It is a word and its derivatives describe people who devise mocking poems and songs about God and traditional values. You know anybody like that? Is there anyone in the music industry out there, in any genre of music, that on occasion mocks God in their songs? Mocks the Word of God and the reality of morality? Of course there are, and there are many. Well, they're the seed of the scoffers, the let-seen. That's who they are. And notice the blessed person. Here we are. Here we're the blessed person if we don't hang out with those people. If we don't hang out at Sin Saloon, if we don't attend Smart Mouth College, these are the people who God says are the blessed people. These are the people who are in a right relationship with God. Oh, the many blessings of that individual person, that man, that woman, who doesn't do these three things. But now be careful. Negative holiness is not enough. You should be known for the things you don't do. There are times in your Christian life where you should be known for the company you do not keep, the places you do not go, the books and pamphlets and pictures you do not look at, television shows, movies you do not watch, and things you do not do. You should be known for that. But then there's the danger of becoming a Pharisee, or the danger of moving over to the monastery, and you have to beware of negative holiness, thinking that's all you need. I don't drink, I don't cuss, and I don't chew, and I don't go with girls that do. Negative holiness is not enough. There has to be positive holiness. Hence, verse 2 begins with, But here's what the blessed man doesn't do. He doesn't hang out with all these people, but here's what he does. His delight is in the law of the Lord. His delight is in the law. Stop right there, time out. Is there anything that strikes you as odd about that statement? His delight's in the law. Do you delight in law? No, you don't. What do you do when you're driving and you come to a yellow light? What does the law say? Driving, come to a yellow light, what does the law say? Slow down, slow down. But what do you do? Dr. Day, you put the pedal to the metal and, vroom, and you go right through that yellow light. That's what you do. You don't delight in the law. Did you know that Psalm 119, a parallel psalm, as it were, to Psalm 1 in the wisdom literature, verse 54, the psalmist says, your statutes, your laws are my psalm. Can you imagine if the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra took the local traffic code and put it to music and we were to sing it? Can you imagine what that would be like? Stop at red lights. Wear your seatbelt. Yield right of way. Don't drink and drive. Is that what you do to the law? No, you don't sing the law. You get around it. You skirt it every way you can. But the word of God, the law of God should be your delight, such that you not only read it, but you sing it. because you love it so much. His delight, look at the word, His delight is in the law. Hebrew word, Torah. Now, think concentric circles for just a moment, because the meaning here is not just the Ten Commandments, and not just the broader five books of Moses called the Torah, And it's not just all of the laws and regulations that are taught by God, principles and precepts. It's ultimately a word that refers to the written revelation of God. From our perspective, this word means everything that's in the book. This is the law of God. This is the word of God. And so all of the word of God, our delight is where? Where is our delight? It is in the law. It is in the word of God. This is our delight. And furthermore, if you delight in something, you'll spend time with it. It will become a priority in your life. So, the next statement, his delight is in the Torah of Yahweh, and in his law he meditates. There's a play on words here. The Torah of Yahweh, and in his law he yege. He meditates day and night. Interesting word, meditates. When you think of that word, you may think of TM. Transcendental meditation. Just throw your mind into neutral and let anything come in there. No, that's not the meaning of the word. The Hebrew word is a word that was used to describe the cooing of doves. It is a word that was used to describe murmuring. It's speaking the word of God softly over and over to yourself. Augustine translates this passage, he chatters the word of God to himself. It is a powerful word to meditate on the Word of God. Meditate on it. It is a word that can be used to describe the cow chewing its cud. A cow is a ruminant animal. At ruminant animals, Dr. Klein knows all about ruminant animals over there, ruminant animals chew their cud, and then it goes down, and then it comes back, and they chew some more, and then it goes down, and then it comes back, and they masticate that food to get every little ounce of nutrition out of it. That's the word picture that's here. And not only that, but we meditate on this word how often? In my class, on Sunday morning when it's preached. No, is that what it says? No, he meditates on this word day and night. That is a Hebrew idiom that means continuously. Constantly, continuously, he is focused in on this word. Why are you here at Southwestern? You are here to better know your God as you get to know him through his word. Every class you take is ultimately built for the purpose of driving you to this book, giving you an understanding of this book, and preparing you to go out into a world and share the gospel of this book and teach it and preach it wherever you may be until Jesus comes. That's why you're here. That's why all of the classes you take, every one of them are important, and you must give them your best attention. Why? Because the blessed person is the person who delights not in Facebook, not in social media, not in Instagram, not in People Magazine, not in all of the various things that we are interested in and devote our time to, but no, his delight is in the Word of God. That's where your time ought to go. That's where your effort ought to go. And by the way, if you want to become all that God wants you to be as a teacher, as a preacher, or whatever servant of the Lord, wherever God calls you, I have nothing to offer you but blood, sweat, toil, and tears as you spend your time in this book, as you learn that Hebrew in class, as you study that Greek, as you deal with all of the classes, you give everything you can, no scrimping, no cutting corners. Why? because this is the Word of God that we are studying. Some translate this, His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law, He studies one Hebrew. Jewish translation does that. He studies it day and night. Be careful at Southwestern. Oh, yeah, be careful. Be careful that your classroom and your study time here of the Bible doesn't become clinically sterile, so that you put on your white doctor's coat, and we step into the laboratory, and here is our major professor who's leading us, and we gather around the cadaver laid out on the table, the Bible, the Word of God, and we're all looking, and the professor says, there's an aorist imperative, ooh, and there's a walk consecutive, ah, There, there is a genitive absolute. And our study of the Bible becomes cold and lifeless. Don't let that happen to you. His delight is in the law of the Lord. If you get a love email, you used to get love letters, but, you know. Well, let's say you get one. Somebody may still know how to handwrite one. Let's say you get a love letter. Or whatever. As soon as you receive that love letter, do you take it, lay it out, and dissect the grammar of it? How many independent clauses? How many dependent clauses? Is that what you do? No! You read it. And by the way, after you read it, guess what? You read it again. And then you read it again. Hey, she wrote that to me. And you read it again, and you read it again. That's the way it should be with God's love letter, the Scripture. Your delight is in Him and in His law, in His Word. And in that Word, you meditate day and night. But look at verse 3, and it's not over yet. Verse 3, he'll be like a tree. Here is what you will be like. He will be like a tree, firmly planted by the streams of water, yielding its fruit in its season. A leaf doesn't wither. And here comes the conclusion of the simile in verse 3. Whatever he does shall prosper. Semantically, there's the most important information. Whatever he does shall prosper. But let's get there. He'll be like a tree. It's a simile. Trees in the Bible become very important. God compares us to the tree. Jeremiah uses that imagery. So does Ezekiel. He shall be like a tree. If you've ever been to the Middle East, it's like universal desiccation. I mean, desert everywhere, hot, dry, dusty. I mean, scorching sand. And if you find a tree that's green in the middle of that arid desert, you know there's water nearby. He's been planted, firmly planted. Look at that. He didn't plant himself. She didn't plant herself. No, he's like that tree that's been firmly planted by the irrigated canals of water. That's the meaning of the Hebrew, the canals that have been brought in to water that tree, the irrigated streams of perpetual supply. Look at this. He yields its fruit in its season. It's a fruit-bearing tree. Look at this. Its leaf doesn't wither. It's an evergreen tree. Whoa, wait a minute, hold on, hold the phone. There are two kinds of trees, major branches of trees. Every arborologist will tell you they're evergreens and they're fruit-bearing trees. Evergreens do not lose their leaves, hence the name evergreen. Fruit-bearing trees are deciduous. Dr. Day, that means they lose their leaves is what that word means. They are deciduous. They lose their leaves. Almost all fruit-bearing trees are deciduous. They are not evergreens. And yet God, and that's the way it is in nature, but God says in the spiritual world, my man, my woman who is blessed, the godly person is like both an evergreen and a fruit-bearing tree brought together. That's who you are. He's like a tree. She's like that tree. She yields her fruit in season. Her leaf doesn't wither. And here's the point. Here's the conclusion of the first half of the psalm. Whatever that person does, whatever that ha-ish, that man, that woman, that person, separated out from the counsel of the wicked, the reshaim, the kateim, and the l'tsim, separated out from them, that person, in whatever he or she does, he prospers. Now, be careful. This is not your best life now. This is not name it and claim it, blab it and grab it. It's none of that. All of that's false doctrine, false gospel. No. You've got to understand the difference between the world's definition of prosperity and God's definition of prosperity. Interesting word that is used here. It is a word that means God will see to it that it turns out well. It's the word used of Joseph in Genesis 39. His brothers sold him into slavery, and yet God says about him, he shall, using this word, he prospered him. He's down there in Potiphar's house, and he rises to the top, and then Potiphar's wife, who's sexually frustrated, sees him and lusts after him and tries to get him to come and sleep with her, but he refuses, and he runs, and she grabs his coat, and when Potiphar comes home, she says, that Hebrew slave tried to rape me. She lied about it. Potiphar believed his wife and threw Joseph in jail. And then the next verse in your Hebrew text will read, and yet God prospered him. And the butler and the baker come down and they have dreams and Joseph interprets them. One is put to death by Pharaoh, the other is restored. But the one who's restored forgets to mention Joseph. And yet the Bible says, but God prospered him. It's the word that's used here. Everything may not seem hunky-dory in your life. Everything may not be the way you want it. You may not have all the money you wish you had, the clothes you wish you had. You may not drive the car you would like to drive. But if you're the godly man or woman, God says, hey, whatever you do will prosper. I got to hurry. The back half of the Psalm reverses course. Here comes the contrast, and it is a stark literary contrast in Hebrew. Not so the wicked. In fact, the Septuagint version, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, renders this in a double negative. Not so the wicked. Not so. Just so nobody misses it. Not so the wicked, who are the wicked like. They are like chaff. Not a tree. They're not the well-watered tree. No, they're the wind-blown chaff. Like the chaff which the wind drives away. Look at that. Now, you have to understand the agricultural world of Israel during the time of the Old Testament. The grain would be harvested, brought into a huge pile. At night, usually up on a hill, the process of winnowing that grain would go on. That is where the grain, the nutritious part that would be used to make bread and provide food, that grain was encased in a husk called chaff. And the husk was lifeless, fruitless, useless, worthless. And when the grain was harvested, the grain had to be separated from the chaff. And so the farmers would run large sleds or sledges over that grain with horses if they had the money to have those big things, or they would take shovels if they were very poor and beat that grain, separating the husk, separating the chaff from the wheat. And then because the wheat was heavier than the chaff, and the chaff was lightweight, then in the night breeze, in order to separate that, they would scoop up in a shovel full of wheat and throw it into the air. And the heavier wheat kernel would fall to the ground, and the wind would catch the chaff and blow it away. There's your picture if you're not a Christian. You're not like the tree. No, you're like chaff. which the wind dries away. No, I'm the vice president of the company. No, you're chaff. Oh, I pull myself up by my bootstraps. I've got a six-figure salary. No, you're chaff, God says. In the early days of computers, the trash can on your computer screen, those of you that are younger won't know this, won't remember this. Those of you that are my age will. The very early computers, the trash can, when you emptied your trash can, the sound was not the crinkling of paper like it is now. And then it's deleted, it's empty. The sound was this. It was the sound of the wind. And so you hit the delete button. One day in the judgment, all of the wicked All of their pride and all of their pleasure, all of their power, all of their pomp, all of their life. God says, I hit the delete button and empty the trash bin. Chaff that the wind drives away. Verse 5, therefore. The wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous." Whoa, look at this. The wicked, plural. Sinners, plural. They will not stand in the day of judgment. Wait a minute. The righteous in verse 1 didn't stand in the pathway of the sinners. Now God says all of those sinners will not stand in His day of judgment. nor sinners will be in the assembly of the righteous." It's the plural, look at that. Now, the individual godly woman, the individual godly man who had to stand alone in this world, in verse one, blessed is the ha-ish. Now, that individual Christian is brought together by God with all of the other believers, and there they stand, blessed under his blessing, and all of the wicked are pulled together, and the wicked will not stand in the assembly of the righteous. Every time I read this, I think of Lord of the Rings. And that scene at Rivendell where the head elf, Elrond, has gotten all of them together and they've formulated their plan for what they're going to do with the ring. And he says, nine companions, four hobbits, two humans, one dwarf, one elf, one wizard. you shall be called the fellowship of the ring. And here God says, he brings together all of his children, plucked from every tongue, tribe, and nation according to Revelation 5, 9, now brought all under the blood, all in the eschaton, all brought together, the assembly of the righteous, and God looks over all of us, and he says, you shall be called the fellowship of the cross. as we gather in the assembly of the righteous." Notice the discrimination of the godly person in verse 1, and now God discriminates between His people and wicked in verse 5. The parallelism and the contrast are too evident to miss. And then comes verse 6, the Lord, for the Lord knows the way of the righteous. The word no there doesn't just mean knowledge. It does mean that, but it's not just head knowledge, no. It is a beautiful Hebrew word and concept that involves intimacy and fellowship and you're God's people and he watches over you and he protects you and he guides you. All of that is wrapped up in this word. The Lord knows the way of the righteous. There's ownership, there's fellowship, there's relationship. The Lord knows the righteous, but look at this, but the way of the wicked will perish. You see, the question today is not, do you know God? That's the second question. The real question is, does God know you? The Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will, Tobid, last word in the text, perish. Last word in verse 3, prosper. Last word in verse 6, perish. writes the epitaph of his children on granite, but sinners write their epitaph on cardboard and in the sand, because their way will perish. Psalm 1 goes with Psalm 2. In fact, the Jews put them together as the introductory psalm to the whole book of Psalms. In Psalm 1, you learn the way of the law, the way of the rule. In Psalm 2, you learn who the ruler is, and he is the Son. And when you put the two together, they become the perfect prelude, preamble, and God's cover letter for the rest of the book of Psalms. 1533. Constantino Ponce de la Fuente, Catholic priest, came into Seville in Spain and began ministering there. His preaching was renowned. Charles V took notice of him. He was a great scholar. He had a large library. One reason why I like him. He loved books and study. He had mastered classical literature. He knew the Hebrew and the Greek of the Scripture. And he caught the eye of Emperor Charles V, who made him his royal preacher and who took him on a period of time on tour. And he visited with the emperor, the council of Augsburg. And he attended for a little while with the emperor, the council of Trent. When he returned to Seville in 1552, as he preached in the cathedral, the people thronged to hear him. Such was the power of his preaching. Why? He was an expository preacher. He took texts of scripture, and he walked through them when he preached. So powerful was his preaching that it reverberated the walls of that great cathedral. And though his service began at 8 a.m., at 4 a.m., in order to get a seat, people would crowd into the lighting up so they could get in to hear him from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. Can you imagine any priest with such power? Something had occurred to him prior to his return in 1552. Somehow, that Catholic priest had come across the Protestant doctrine of the Reformed Reformation, doctrine of justification by faith alone, and he had become converted. It changed his life, and he repudiated Catholicism, and he repudiated the Pope, and yet he was still one. He was still in the cathedral. And during those years, they developed an underground church where he would preach publicly and then privately. And the Spanish Inquisition at her height and power began to focus in and they knew something was amiss. But the historians tell us for eight years, they didn't touch him because they couldn't figure out a way to accuse him because all he did was stand and preach the Bible. And finally, in August of 1558, 460 years from this moment. He preached his last sermon, and he was arrested, and he was tried, and he was tortured, and for a year and a half he languished in a prison. and the debilitating prison circumstances and climate were so bad that his health deteriorated. And finally, he died in prison in 1559. One year later, December 22, 1560, the Inquisition exhumed his bones and labeled him a heretic. and they took straw and they took his clothes and they created a life-size effigy of Constantino Ponce de la Fuente. And in order to mock him in front of the people, had the people come in and they stationed the effigy behind the pulpit. And in his typical style of preaching, he had one hand on the pulpit on the Bible and the other hand was raised. And there was the effigy and the priest and the Catholic church tried to mock him. But one who was there and wrote about it, an anonymous source said that even Though he was not there, only an effigy of straw with his clothes standing behind the pulpit, his powerful preaching reverberated among the minds and hearts and ears and souls of the people, and many more came to faith in Christ. Oh, did I tell you? Constantino de la Fuente left only six sermons. He preached many sermons. There are only six that are left. They're all on Psalm 1, one for each verse. And in those sermons, they are expository. He unfolds the Hebrew text. He exhorts the people, encourages the people, and he calls the people to Christ. As the sun sets over Western culture, You are going to be preaching in many places where it is going to be more and more hostile to you. When that occurs, remember Constantino. As he said in his sermons on Psalm 1, in Psalm 1 is encapsulated all essential doctrines of the Christian faith. And when you preach in that hostile world, remember that his delight is in the law of the Lord. And in his law, he meditates day and night. He'll be like a tree planted by the rivers of water. Whatever he does shall prosper. To all of the wicked, all of those who don't know Christ, when you preach, you're preaching the psalm of the two ways. The gospel divides, and Jesus talked about those two ways. Broad is the way that leads to destruction. Narrow is the way that leads to eternal life. 1 Corinthians 1, Paul says, Jesus is the only truly righteous one. He's the fulfillment of Psalm 1. He's the righteous ha-ish. It is he whom we preach, Jesus Christ. Now, until the Lord takes us home. Now, until the Lord comes. May God make it so. and all of his people said, Amen.
The Way of the Righteous and the Wicked
Sermon ID | 9618952155 |
Duration | 50:46 |
Date | |
Category | Chapel Service |
Bible Text | Psalm 1 |
Language | English |
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