TWO CLASSES OF PEOPLE -- PSALM 1
Introduction to Psalms: The Hebrew word for Psalms means “praise” or “hymns. ” This book was the National hymnbook for the Israelites. It has been called the heart of the Bible.” Martin Luther called it “The Little Bible. ” It has also been called “The Bible within the Bible.”
The subject matter for this book is exceeding great and excellent. Many of the Psalms respect the person, offices, and grace of Christ; His sufferings and death, resurrection, ascension, and session at the right hand of God.
The Psalms are a great comfort to every believer because they reveal the most varied feelings and experiences of God’s people found anywhere in the Bible. No other book in the Bible is as personal to me as the book of Psalms. If a child of God is going through a hard time, comfort can be found in the Psalms like no other place in the word of God. The Psalms express adoration, penitence, prayers for delverance, devotion to God’s word, joy, faith, grace, hope, love, and witnessing.
Many of the Psalms contrast the righteous and the wicked. Some reveal the moral and personal; attributes of God, such as holiness, righteousness, justice, mercy, truth, goodness, omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence, and imutabiltity.
Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible. Psalm 117 is the shortest, and the middle chapter in the Bible. Psalm 118:8 is the middle verse in the Bible. “It is better to trust in the lord than to put confidence in man.”
Lesson Goals:
1. To show the tremendous contrast between the Godly and the Ungodly.
2. To learn the simplicity of living the blessed Life.
3. To show forth the negative and positive sides of living the blessed life.
4. To discover the meaning of true wealth.
Definitions or important terms and/pr phrases:
1. Counsel
2. Meditate
3. Scornful
4. Prosper
5. Chaff
In this lesson we will study the first psalm and see that there are actually only two classes of people. There are the blessed and there are the blighted.
1. Blessed -- Means Joyous
2. Blighted - Means afflicted with withering Hope. The life of the Sinner is Blighted. There is no hope for him.
3. In this scripture there are two classes of people.
a. The Godly - vs.1-3
b. The Godless - vs. 4-6
4. We all fit in one of these two Categories.
5. There are but two classes of people
a. Saved and Lost
b. Blessed and Blighted
c. Those with hope and those with no hope.
d. The majority of the world fall in the class of the ungodly
6. How can a man be blessed?
a. By Making God’s Way his Supreme Aim
b. By Making God’s Word his Supreme Authority
c. By Making God’s Will his Supreme Aspiration
7. The Contrast of the Blessed and Blighted.
a. The Blessed man makes Jesus lord of his life while the Blighted man rules God out of his life altogether.
b. The Blessed man is likened to a tree which bringeth forth fruit while the Blighted man is likened to the
worthless chaff driven to and fro by the wind
c. The way and walk of the Blessed man will lead to heaven while the Way and walk of the Blighted man will
lead to eternal Damnation in Hell
8. The plain teaching of this Psalm and the whole Bible is that the righteous are blessed and the wicked are cursed.
I. THE CONDUCT TO BE MANIFEST-vs. 1 - The Psalmist first talks about the Negative side of the blessed man’s life, then he deals with the positive, then he deals with the results. In this verse we see that the saved man or the Blessed man will be careful of the direction he goes, how he spends his leisure time, and the company he keeps.
A. What the Blessed man does not do
1. He will not heed the counsel of the Self willed.
2. He will not Imitate the conduct of Sinners.
3. He will not seek the company of Scorners.
a. The Counsel of the Ungodly speaks of Evil Principles.
b. The Way of Sinners speaks of Evil Practices.
c. The Seat of the Scornful speaks of Evil Partnerships.
4. Notice the downward progression
a. He walks--He starts listening to the world
b. He Stands--He starts Going to the same places
c. He sits--He becomes friends with the world
B. What the Blessed man does Do
1. The Blessed Man’s Counsel comes from the right Source--Jesus Christ
2. The Blessed Man’s Course comes from the right Way--God’s word
3. The Blessed Man’s Companions come from the right crowd-Christians
II. THE CHOICES TO BE MADE-Vs. 2 - We looked at the negative side of being a blessed man. Now let’s look at the positive side of being Godly. The blessed man will choose the Word of God
A. His Delight in the Word - "Delight"
B. His Desire for the Word - "Meditate"
C. His Devotion to the Word - "Day and Night"
III. THE CHARACTER TO BE MOLDED--vs. 3 - The Blessed man will be as a Tree. A tree speaks of Strength, Stedfastness, and Stabilty.
A. The Tree is Planted.
1. It Did Not Plant Itself.
2. It Surrenders itself totally to the Planter.
3. The first step to a fruitful blessed life is whole-hearted surrender.
B. The Tree is Place.
1. When you are planting trees you don’t just throw them out everywhere in your yard. You pick out certain
spots where you feel they will flourish.
2. It’s the Same way with God. He knows where we will be used the greatest and we should trust in him and let
him plant us where he wants us.
3. Someone said bloom where you are planted.
a. If it’s in Africa, Bloom
b. If it’s cleaning the bathrooms, Bloom
c. If it’s picking up mean little kids on the Church bus, Bloom.
d. JUST FIND GOD’S WILL AND DO IT!!!
4. Notice where it is Planted. By the Rivers of Water.
a. John 4:14 "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give shall never thirst; but the water that I shall
give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."
b. Those who are planted in Jesus need not worry about the "dry" season.
c. The Rivers in my soul never run dry.
d. A healthy planted tree begins to put forth in two directions:
1. Its roots grow deeper into the ground and its limbs grow higher into the air.
2. To grow spiritually one has to reach deeper into the Word and reach higher in their prayer life.
C. The Tree Prospers - Notice the Word Prosper here. It is Different from the Word Success. Success has to do
with Price while Prosperity has to do with Value
1. When a Man betters his circumstance, puts money in the Banks and wins public recognition that is success,
but no man really prospers unless his soul profits.
2. Success has to do with physical. Prospering is talking about the Spiritual
3. Success has to do with Reputation. Prospering is talking about Character.
4. Success has to do with what people think. Prospering has to do with what God knows.
5. True Wealth is not what my estate amounts to, but what I amount to.
VI. THE CONSEQUENCES TO BE MET Vs.4-6
A. The Ungodly are Conquered by Sin.
B. The Ungodly are Condemned as Chaff.
C. The Ungodly are Consigned to Hell.
CONCLUSION: At the beginning of the lesson I stated that their are only two groups of people. There are the Godly and the Godless. There are the saved and the lost. These same two are also mentioned in Matthew 7:13-14. “Enter ye in at the straight gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in there at: Because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” The question is which group are you in?
