Be Blessed - Psalm 1

June 10, 2018

Psalm 1:1-6

Now that we’ve got the Fruits of the Spirit mastered, I thought we would take a summer look at some of the best writing in the Bible. Now, I know it’s tough to say what books are the best in the Bible, but I would say if we were to look at the book of Psalms, we would find writing for every occasion in our lives.

So, for the 8 weeks, we’re going to look at various Psalms and see what they say to us. There are times when I read through Psalms that I’m amazed God allowed some of these to be placed in the Bible. But that’s God thinking about our needs. Because some of what is in Psalms is pretty deep and pretty raw . . . we see a lot of emotion on display, some of it praising God, some of it questioning God.

There’s joy and anger; despair and celebration; frustration and triumph . . . and lots more. Psalms was really our first hymnal. Many of them were to be sung.

It’s believed 73 were written by David, out of the 150.

Asaph wrote 12

The Sons of Korah wrote 11

Solomon wrote 2 - - -

and many others have unknown authors.

There’s lots of other information I can pass on, but I want to dig in to the Psalms, and there’s no better way to start than at the beginning.

So, let’s look at Psalm 1, to which we don’t know who wrote this, but it’s a great place to start ~

1 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.

This is kind of a compare and contrast psalm. The author takes us back and forth, between the godly and ungodly person. He starts out telling us we are blessed if we don’t do certain things. Let’s look at the 3 parts of verse 1 ~

1 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;

It’s interesting that if we want to be blessed we need to avoid certain things. I would think we all want to be blessed, but it’s pretty easy to end up hanging out with the wicked, the sinners and the scoffers.

The wicked person is the one who is guilty of sin, they are considered just word the word says - - wicked!

The sinners are those who very simply sin.

The scoffers are the ones who are scornful, they are filled with contempt or disdain.

It would have been just as easy to say, blessed is the person who doesn’t hang out with people Your mama tells you not to hang out with. But the author wants us to understand there’s a progression.

You’re blessed if you don’t take the advice of those who are ungodly or wicked. When you listen to people who you know are ungodly, people you know are wicked, the end results aren’t going to be good. What happens when you follow their advice?

You end up standing with the sinners. You find yourself in some not so good company and situations. These are people who are missing the mark. Not that we don’t sin, but you’ve placed yourself in a precarious position. You’re now with people who are more apt to sin and you’re part of that gang. Temptations increase and the pressure to sin increases along with it.

Now that you’ve accepted the supposed wisdom of the ungodly, and are hanging out with these sinners, the next step is to sit with the scoffers or the scornful. The scornful person is one who has contempt and disdain for who? For God. Sometimes they’re referred to as atheists. They’re the ones who don’t believe in God, because they believe they are god. They have no rules or laws to follow.

How many times have we taken advice from someone who really doesn’t care about us, doesn’t have our best interests at heart, and we end up hurt and suffering? Why? Because we listened to those who are ungodly. And don’t be surprised when you receive bad advice from the ungodly . . . after all . . . they’re ungodly, they don’t have Godly advice within them.