The Path To Blessing And Happiness (Psalm 1:1-6) Series

What are the first things you should teach new Christians? What is it, that they most need to know, now?

Maybe, we'd answer this question by turning to Hebrews 6:1-2:

6 Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 and of instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.

Hebrews says there are six things new Christians need to understand:

(1) the importance of repentance from dead works.

(2) Of faith(fulness) toward God.

(3) Of baptisms (plural!). Baptism of water, and baptism of the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:14-17?).

(4) Of the laying on of hands (Acts 6:6?; Acts 8:14-17?; 1 Tim. 4:14?).

(5) The resurrection of the dead,

(6) and eternal judgment (Rom. 2:6-11; 6:22-23; Gal. 6:8-9).

Maybe you look at this list, and you find yourselves thinking, "That list seems awfully charismatic, for new Christians" (smirking). Maybe some of the things on the list bother you, or bother some of the churches you've been a part of over the years.

But that's a good list. I have no interest in arguing with Hebrews.

Now, what would be the best way to work your way through this list? You could go through it step by step, and try to figure out each thing, and why they are so important. You could do it as a new believers' class, or as a sermon series.

OR... you could come at this diagonally, grabbing maybe half the list all at once, through Psalm 1-- and teaching something even more basic, at the same time.

A few months ago, somehow, through the wonders of the internet, I found myself on the website of a large Pentecostal church in Nigeria. At this church, the first thing new Christians learn is Psalm 1. They spend weeks in Psalm 1, wrestling with it.

Why Psalm 1?

The first thing that this church wants new Christians to understand is that God wants them to be blessed, and happy, and successful, and prosperous. And if you want to convince people of this truth, and tell them how this can happen for them-- because it's not automatic-- then Psalm 1 is a great place to start.

Let me just say one more thing before we jump in. Scholars agree that Psalm 1 was deliberately placed at the beginning of Psalms, for a specific reason. Psalm 1 gives you a framework for reading everything else in the book. What is that framework? What is that reason?

We'll come back to that at the end.

Psalm 1

(1) Blessed/happy is the man who hasn't walked on/in the counsel of the wicked,

while on/in the way/road of sinners he hasn't stood,

while on/in the seat of scoffers he hasn't sat,

(2) but only in the instruction of Yahweh, his delight is,

while on/in his instruction he mutters/meditates day and night,

Everyone wants to be happy in life. "The pursuit of happiness" is built into our Constitution. It's central to who we are. And this isn't just an "American" thing. This is a human thing.

And yet, it seems like hardly anyone is actually happy. We are a society that has everything, but enjoys nothing. We couldn't be less happy. We medicate with drugs, or alcohol. We seek refuge in mindless entertainment. We cope. And this seems to be true as often for Christians, as for non-Christians.

How can we be truly happy?

Know that God loves you. He wants you to be happy. He wants you to be blessed. And because God wants those things for you, He gave you Psalm 1. Psalm 1 tells you the path to happiness.

In verse 1, the psalmist begins by talking about the path in life that you need to avoid, if you want to be happy. You need to stay off the path of the wicked, and sinners, and scoffers.

All of these people have lots of ideas about how you can be happy. And these ideas, basically, revolve around sin.

The wicked have lots and lots of advice they'd like to give you about how you can get ahead in life and be happy-- but don't listen to them.

Sinners follow a well-worn path-- stay off of it.

And scoffers? Scoffers are the ones who look at everyone else in life, and know that everyone else is beneath them. Scoffers are proud. Not open to rebuke. Not open to learning. They "know" that people are stupid. The righteous, in particular, they think are stupid. And so they mock people who are committed to God.

If you want to be happy, you need to be careful not to get your advice from these types of people. They will steer you down the wrong path.