Like a Tree
Psalm 1
Why do some people have all the luck?
I understand that luck is a fabricated force that many people use to explain how apparently random forces fall one way instead of another. I’m not saying that luck exists. I am simply pointing out that many people, us included, sometimes wonder how we can swing the advantage in our own direction.
Let’s ask the question in a way that is a bit more realistic. It isn’t a question of luck. We know that God does favor some people, though he doesn’t play favorites. We call the people God favors, blessed. We find ourselves wanting to know how we can fall into this category.
On the other hand, some people seem to be doomed. I like that word, it says an awful lot even if it does seem melodramatic and suggest something that may not be changed. We don’t want things to go wrong and we don’t want our lives to be meaningless and empty.
Before I get started I want to talk about something technical for a moment. It is very important for understanding the point of this psalm.
In English poetry we have certain devices that make a poem pretty to our ears: things like rhyme and rhythm. The similarity in sounds in words make the flow of the poem smooth and melodious.
In Hebrew poetry it is different. They did not have many devices like this. One device they used was like building a platform for the point to rest on and then building a stair-case rising to the point and another one descending from it. The point of this kind of poem is somewhere near the middle and each stair leading up or down has something in common to show it is on the same level. This is one of those psalms.
The reason I point this out is because we as English readers tend to get distracted from the point. We see the beautiful image of the tree standing by the river and we remember that and forget that it leads us directly to the point of the psalm.
But we will get there in a few minutes.
The question addressed by this psalm is “who is blessed and who will perish?”
Or as I like to say, “who is doomed.” The psalm starts on the first level in verse 1 by telling who is blessed and ends on the first level in verse 6 by telling us who is doomed. Then the writer tells us what he means by doomed. The psalmist pronounces the final judgment:
• The way of the wicked will perish
• You will perish. You will die.
Now of course everyone is going to die and we must be careful not to think that people die because they did something unusually wrong or because God is angry with them. This is not usually true. Sin brings death in an ultimate sense. But individual deaths usually don’t come about because of individual sins.
What is the “way of the wicked?” That is an interesting question that may be partially explained by the second level of the psalm that defines the blessed person by asking a second question:
It answers with the question “where are you?”
More accurately, “where are you not?” The psalmist asks this question 3 ways:
• Where do you not walk?
• Where do you not stand?
• Where do you not sit?
Notice this trio of place concepts in verse 1 and in verses 5 & 6. This is the second step building up to the platform.
• Step 1 question: Who is Blessed and who is doomed?
• Step 2 question: Where are you?
Sometimes the best answer to a question is another question.
Where do you walk or get advice?
God says, you want to know if you are blessed or doomed. Look at where you will not walk:
• Do you refuse to walk in the counsel of the wicked?
• Or are you unable to walk in the way of the righteous?
I’m reminded of a story about David in 2 Samuel 15-18. His kingdom was being overthrown by Absolom.
When David arrived at the summit, where people used to worship God, Hushai the Arkite was there to meet him, his robe torn and dust on his head. David said to him, “If you go with me, you will be a burden to me. But if you return to the city and say to Absalom, ‘I will be your servant, O king; I was your father’s servant in the past, but now I will be your servant,’ then you can help me by frustrating Ahithophel’s advice. Won’t the priests Zadok and Abiathar be there with you? Tell them anything you hear in the king’s palace. Their two sons, Ahimaaz son of Zadok and Jonathan son of Abiathar, are there with them. Send them to me with anything you hear.” So David’s friend Hushai arrived at Jerusalem as Absalom was entering the city. 2 Samuel 15:32-37 (NIV)
Ahithophel was really quite a good advisor. He had his finger on the pulse of the people and he knew David well. He would have been a great advisor for any king.
But David knew the danger of bad advise and he was setting his son up to receive it. In the end, Hushai gave Absolom a disastrous strategy and Absolom listened. If you know the story, the end of that battle spelled death for Absolom.
• From whom do you take advice?
• Is it a righteous person or wicked?
• That is the “way” in which you walk
There are people I love and who I consider good friends whose advice I would not seek. Their advice would go against what I know to be right, and if I am uncertain, it is unwise of me to seek the advice of a person whose ways I know to be wrong.
There is a better place to get advice.
The Bible continues by asking, “Where do you stand?”
Comparing verse 1 to verse 5 we get a choice. You can stand as a sinner or you can stand with confidence in the judgment.
Dose that mean I can’t have friends who are not Christians? That’s not what is being said. It’s more like standing up to be counted.
• Who will you stand with?
• What is your identity?
• Where do your primary loyalties lie?
I’ve heard people say, “I want to go to Hell because that’s where all my friends are.”
They will.
If we count those who are bound for Hell as friends more important than God, we have made our choice. We can’t have it both ways.
It really is quite simple. God will be first in our lives. He will claim our primary loyalty, or He will not be our God at all. Anyone, even friends who we love and can clearly see, that we put before God has claimed a place that belongs to Him alone.
You shall have no other Gods before me
I had a minister tell me once that it was better to indulge in an occasional sin to maintain a relationship than to refuse in order to maintain a clear testimony.
Not so.
I am willing to admit that the subject is not always so cut-and-dried, but to consciously sin is to choose the sin over God. It is to put people’s opinion over His.
Finally we are asked:
Do you sit in the seat of mockers? Or in the assembly of the righteous?
Both concepts imply participation.
Jesus sat with sinners, but He did not participate with them. When they sat in judgement and self-righteousness, He sat in forgiveness and mercy.
During David’s time the assembly was the city gate, where people would sit to conduct business and hear cases of law. Assemblies also sat together in worship at the tabernacle or at pagan temples.
Basically, to assemble together was to agree with a group in purpose or to come to agreement about an issue. God says, who are you trying to come to agreement with? With whom do you have a common purpose?
To sit in agreement with mockers, with those who are irreverent and do not respect the LORD, is to forfeit blessings on your life.
However, in verse 5 he says, sinners ... those who are perishing, will be unable to sit in agreement or come to terms with the righteous.
I’ll never forget 2 friends of mine. Daryl and Rick. Both of them became Christians while we were stationed together aboard ship. Both of them came from seriously problematic backgrounds with addictions. Both of them overcame the addictions for over a year. I’ll never forget watching them spiral back into the problems they had before they accepted Christ.
As they drew away and fostered close friendships with people who were involved in their old lifestyles they drew further and further away from their Christian friends and the fellowship that was so necessary in an environment that was almost entirely antagonistic to the faith.
I am not judging either Daryl or Rick. I love both of them like brothers and if I met them today and they wanted to spend time with me, I would do it gladly and try to pick up where we left off. I’m sure that I and they have changed a lot over the last 20 years.
While we were at sea, and for a time, during our cruise and in Long Beach where we were docked, they grew in the LORD, they memorized His word, they studied the Bible and took strides to become more like Christ.
When we were on our Western Pacific cruise, though, it was almost an inevitability that to choose to spend time ashore with friends from aboard ship that did not know Christ was to spend time in the same sins that dissipated most of the people we knew. It took courage, discipline and, in my case, sometimes just a healthy dose of fear to avoid the prostitution, drugs, and drunkenness that were so available as to be in your face the moment you left the base.
Both of them were smart. One knew accounting and Arabic, the other was a hospital corpsman that could have continued in medicine if he had so chosen. But when they were tired and bored with their Christian friends and were given the choice, they chose to go back to their old friends and lifestyles.
They were counseled against it. They were encouraged to continue the friendships and to spend time with these people aboard ship, but not to go ashore with them unless their plans would not present unnecessary temptation. They disagreed and were not strong enough for the challenge.
There are some that we may not personally minister to:
• If a person has a weakness similar to mine, and the Holy Spirit does not live inside him
• If a person pushes my buttons and moves me toward a sin that they have no vested interest in helping me avoid
• If a person presents an opportunity for me to be involved in a sin that I have little self control over, but they have no reason to avoid
I should not find myself with that person in a situation that compromises my friendship with God. There are other ways I can reach out to that person. I must find appropriate boundaries to protect my integrity in any relationship.
We have looked at two steps that lead to the point:
• Step 1 question: Who is Blessed and who is doomed?
• Step 2 question: Where are you?
The question “Where are you?” This is answered by three other questions:
• Where do your primary loyalties lie?
• With whom do you most want to come to agreement?
• Whose advice do you most highly value?
The final answer is a description of what the two people are generally like
We have reached the platform at the top, where the image is most important. What is the difference between these two types of people? What are these people like? What are the blessings or the doom that sits on them?
On one side of the platform is a pile of dried chaff. On the other side is a powerful tree.
Verse 4 says the wicked are like chaff. You have heard this description many times:
Farmers would take their harvested heads of grain to a high hill. There they crushed it with a stone or a plank and broke the chaff coverings off the edible grain. They would then scoop the grain up and toss it into the air where the high winds over the hilltop would drive the dry, light chaff away and let the heavier grain drop back onto the threshing floor. This is a picture:
• of worthlessness
• of instability
• of brittleness
• of rejection
Is this what we want from our lives? To be worthless, weak, and unwanted, blown away by God’s cleansing winds? You must ask yourself:
• Where do your primary loyalties lie?
• With whom do you most want to come to agreement?
• Whose advice do you most highly value?
On the other side of the platform is a tree. This is the blessed person, planted by a stream, fruitful and living. This is a picture of:
• Fruitfulness
• Life
• Lasting value
A tree planted by a stream is a picture of something beautiful, strong and very valuable. It required no effort to see the fruit of which it was capable. This is the picture of the righteous person.
Now when we come to the platform, we get a little more information about the righteous person than we get about the wicked one. That information is found in verse 2 and it defines the difference between the two groups. What is the difference between this person and the wicked person?
His delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.
• What is the ideal place to go for righteous advice?
• What is the best place to establish a meeting of minds?
• What can give us confidence to stand even before God in the judgment?
The law of the LORD
• Delight in it
• Meditate on it day and night
• Day and night? Isn’t that impossible?
• No! Absolutely not!
Here are some methods
We sang at least two songs today that had words right out of scripture. What kind of songs do you listen to and sing?
You are all blessed to live in a very literate society. You can read the Scriptures in your own home as often as you like. How much do you read them?
We are blessed to live in a wealthy and free society and have the opportunity to decorate our walls with whatever we wish. What godly themes and Scriptural ideas are represented on your walls?
We are blessed with Christian friends. How many of us discuss spiritual things with our friends?
You are blessed with a mind and a memory. How important do you think it is to memorize Bible passages or verses?
We learn to delight in something when we have cared enough to invest ourselves in it and to make it a subject of focus. Have we done that with our Bibles?
• What is your favorite book of the Bible?
• What is your favorite verse of the Bible
• What is your favorite story in the Bible?
• What is your favorite story about Jesus?
• What is the most beautiful passage in the Bible?
• What book in the Bible will you need to invest a great deal of time in to understand it?
Have you begun to invest that time? Have you allowed the beauty of that passage to wash over you recently? Have you read that favorite story to appreciate it anew? Have you memorized that favorite verse? Do you have it posted somewhere in your house?
I challenge you this morning to see the Bible not as a huge book difficult to understand and daunting in its scope. I challenge you to see it as an endless well of clear wonderful water beside which you may plant yourself and
• grow fruitful
• grow beautiful
• grow to last
The Word of God and the amount we immerse ourselves in it is a major element of what separates us from being a wicked person.
Do it!
You will be like a tree!
