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Two Reactions

God's Holy Book

Feb 5, 2017


by: Jack Lash Series: God's Holy Book | Category: Scripture | Scripture: Psalm 1:1–6

I. Review:
A. The God of truth
B. The God who speaks
C. The God who makes sure His word gets written down faithfully
D. And so we have this book, the word of God.
II. Psalm 1 tells us about two very different reactions: “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; 2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. 4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; 6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.”
A. This Psalm is about two people: the person who delights in God’s word and is blessed by God, and the wicked person who scoffs at God’s word is on the path to judgment.
1. 3 “He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.
a. This psalm is about a thriving, flourishing, fruitful person. A person living in the way God created a person to live, and a person who is blessed by God.
b. This picture is supposed to appeal to us. Don’t you want to be like that?
2. 4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; 6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
a. Notice the tense difference: he WILL perish
b. He WILL not stand IN THE JUDGMENT
c. 4 The wicked are like chaff that the wind drives away.
d. Right now they are mixed in with the good grain. They appear to be fine. They are protected in a good, safe place.
e. But there is a time coming when their status will radically change.
f. There is a time of threshing coming. What is threshing?
g. And on that day they will perish.
h. Why? Because the Lord knows what’s in their hearts. The Lord sees how they live.
B. Then the psalm tells us two things about the blessed person, one thing about what he doesn’t do, and one thing about what he does do.
1. The first thing it says about the righteous person is whose path he/she doesn’t walk in, whose council he/she doesn’t listen to, whose example he/she doesn’t follow: “walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers.”
2. The second thing Psalm 1 tells us about the righteous person is what he/she gets pleasure from, what is His source of joy, His inspiration: “his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.”
a. Delight — not just respect, not just adherence, but delight, enjoyment, pleasure, ecstacy and passion. The person who sees things as they are, which is a rare thing in this world, reacts to God’s truth with thrill and joy.
b. Law here doesn’t mean God’s rules, nor does it refer only to the five books of Moses. It means God’s word in general: the things God tells us about Himself, about what He’s done, about what He wants of us.
c. This book of God’s truth, the law of the Lord: this is what the blessed person delights in, not in his own thoughts or circumstances or accomplishments, not in his friends, nor in his feelings or how he feels about him/herself.
(1) The delight is in what God almighty has said to him/her.
(2) Ps.119:72 “The law of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold & silver pieces.”
(3) Jeremiah 15:16 “Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart.”
(4) A love letter read 1000 times.
d. “...on his law he meditates day and night.”
(1) Rumination — This is the aftertaste, the lingering remembrance. It implies that there are mountain peaks of experience the sense of which linger afterward.
(2) e.g. Food, concert, play, time with a friend, sport, movie, book
e. When you pull aside all of the layers on the outside and look at the very core of the being of the truly blessed person, here’s what you find: there is a heart down in there that beats and pumps in delight over the things God has said to him. He feels rich because he has the greatest treasure of all: God and His word.
III. Conclusion
A. So that’s Psalm 1, where we meet the growing, thriving believer, in love with God’s word.
B. In the end, the Christian life is a journey of desire, as John Eldredge says in his excellent book by that title.
C. There is a human longing for ecstasy: times of escape when you’re transported into another zone.
1. If we don’t find it in God, we are going to look for it somewhere else.
D. Sometimes we feel like running away from God when people hurt us. But God wants us to run into His arms in the midst of our pain.
1. “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.” (Psalm 23:5)
2. He wants to be the One whose love drowns out our sorrows. He wants to be the One who holds us close when we are hurting. He wants to be the One who wipes away our tears. He wants to be the One who wraps His big arms around us and comforts us.
E. How much more can we rejoice knowing about Christ’s coming and work on our behalf!
1. How sweet is the gospel of the grace of the Lord Jesus, the living word of God!
2. Psalm 2 is the other introductory psalm. Together they form two pillars through which you walk into the temple of worship we call the Psalms.
3. Psalm 2 Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, 3 “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” 4 He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. 5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, 6 “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” 7 I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. 8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. 9 You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” 10 Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. 11 Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. 12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
4. Psalm 2 is also about two very different reactions to God, but in Psalm 2 the contrasting reactions are not to the law of God, but to the Son of God, the Messiah.
a. In Psalm 2 there are those who set themselves against the Lord and against His messiah.
b. And there are those who kiss the Son and take refuge in Him (v.12).
5. The ones who take refuge in the Lord are blessed by God, just as the ones who delight in the law of the Lord.
6. And just as in Psalm 1 God’s people don’t merely pay attention to God’s law and obey it, but delight in it and think about it day and night, so in Psalm 2 folks are called not to just serve the Lord with fear, but to “kiss the Son” (Psalm 2:12).
a. It’s not enough to bow to the Son and His word. It’s not enough to obey the Son and His word.
b. He doesn’t want a mere business relationship. He is not content with a Master/slave relationship.
c. He’s not just calling me to be a believer. He wants me to love Him with all my heart, soul, mind and strength.
d. He won’t even settle for a friendship. He wants to be lovers.
e. He wants to make us happy. And I don’t mean by giving us everything we want. I mean He wants to be the One in whom we find our happiness.
F. But most don’t react this way. (We’ll talk more about this next week.)