We’ve been talking in this series of messages about the fact that God wants His people to prosper in life. Our foundational verse for this series is Psalms 35:27b, which tells us that God “has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant.”
The word translated “prosperity” in this verse is the Hebrew word shalom, which speaks of wellbeing in every area of life. As we have seen in this series, the prosperity God desires for His people is not about us all having mansions and private planes. It is about us living the abundant life Jesus said He came to bring. Today we want to begin to understand how to see God’s promise of prosperity take root in our lives. Please go with me to our text:
Psa 1:1-3 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; 2 but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night. 3 He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.
Let me tell you right off the bat what I see as the fundamental message of this passage: in order to prosper in life as God has designed you to prosper, you’ve got to become THE MAN! Not “the man” they used to talk about in the 1960s – “Going to work for ‘the man’.” No, we’re talking about a very different man – THE MAN who is described in this passage.
When I started studying for this message I was surprised at how powerful just the 1st five words of this passage are: “blessed is the man who.” So lets start today by focusing on those first five words.
The 1st word is BLESSED: Gk: “the state of prosperity or happiness that comes when a superior bestows his favor on someone” (Vine’s Expository Dictionary). Of course, God is that “superior” who bestows His favor. So, this passage is speaking of having the favor of God. It is teaching us is how to enter into a state of blessing and prosperity where we are experiencing God’s favor in every area of our lives.
ILLUS: The “state” that a person is in refers to who they are at that point in their life. If I am in an angry state that says that right now I am an angry person. If I am in a joyful state then right now I am a joyful person. In the same way, if I am in that state of prospering that comes from being blessed by God guess what I am: I AM A PROSPEROUS PERSON – “blessed” and “prosperous” describe who I am right now in my life. Whatever my circumstances may look like at the moment, the reality is I am a blessed and prospering person.
ILLUS: Suppose I tell you I am a professional football player. You look at me and say, “You don’t look like a pro football player. Where is your helmet? Where are your shoulder pads?” Wouldn’t that be a pretty stupid way to evaluate whether a person is a pro football player or not? Pads and helmets and uniforms are just outward manifestations that a player will display at some seasons and not at others, but they do not define him as a pro. You can go down to the sporting goods store and buy all that gear but that doesn’t make you a pro. There is only one thing that could define me to be a pro player – if I have a signed contract with a pro team. As long as that contract is in force it defines me as a pro football player, whether you can see shoulder pads and helmets or not. The shoulder pads and helmets will show themselves in their proper season – come September you will see those things on me every Sunday. But what defines me as a pro player is my contract that spells out my relationship with my team.
In the same way, if I tell you on the basis of Psalm 1:1 that I am a blessed and prospering person, you may look at the outward appearance of my circumstances right this moment and say, “you don’t look blessed and prosperous to me.” I may be going through a season of difficult and painful challenges in my life. Or I may be in a season when somebody looking at my bank statement would see nothing that looks like prosperity there. But the outward manifestations of prosperity are just the shoulder pads and helmets of my life. They may not be apparent in my life right now, but they will show themselves in due season.
And here’s the important point for us today. Just as with that pro football player, what defines our state in life is not those outward signs of blessing and prosperity that people look for. No, what defines you and me as being in a blessed and prospering state in our lives is our contract with our team!
Right about now you may be thinking, “Contract? I don’t have any contract.” But I am here to tell you today, if you know Jesus as your Savior and your Lord, you do have a signed contract with your team! In fact most of us brought our contracts with us this morning (hold up Bible). This book contains the contract between you and the team that you belong to, Team Jesus. It is a contract that has already been signed by the owner of the team. He signed it in red, with the blood of His precious Son, who came and shed that blood on the cross for you and for me, that we might have the right to become part of His team.
Now in biblical terms, we don’t call it a contract – the Bible word is COVENANT. The moment you accepted Christ as your Lord and your Savior you entered into covenant with Him.
1 Cor 11:25 In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
Every time we take communion we celebrate that covenant signed in blood red ink. And here is how the covenant works:
Gal 3:15 Brethren, I speak in the manner of men: Though it is only a man’s covenant, yet if it is confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it.
A covenant, like a contract, is a binding agreement that spells out what each side will do. What this verse tells us is that the covenant, once put into effect, is unchangeable.
ILLUS: Go back to my pro football player. You will often hear about players who want to renegotiate their contract because they think they deserve more money. On the other hand, if a team decides they no longer have any use for a player they can just terminate his contract. But that’s not the way covenants work. Once a covenant is in place, it is binding and unchangeable.
Let me tell you something – God will never terminate His covenant with you! Everything He has said He will do as part of that covenant, you can absolutely count on it – He will do it. That, in fact, is the foundation on which the whole Christian faith rests. Think, for example, of God’s covenant promise regarding our salvation:
Rom 10:13 For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.”
Whether you realize it or not, that verse is a covenant promise. God says, if you will call upon the name of the Lord by putting your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, believing in Him as the perfect Son of God who came to earth, put on human flesh, and died on the cross that our sins might be forgiven, and who rose again and now sits at the right hand of the Father – if you will do that, you will be saved.
You see, our salvation is a covenant thing! There’s no if’s and no maybe’s about it. It’s covenant! And God never breaks His covenant. What we have in Psalm 1:1 is another promise of the covenant: “Blessed is the man WHO” . . . Who, what? Who fulfills the requirements of the covenant.
In other words what God is saying is, “My covenant promise is to make you a blessed and prospering person – IF you do what the covenant requires of you.” You see, there is always an “if” in the covenant. We just read in Rom 10:13 that God said, in effect, “IF you will call on me by trusting in my Son Jesus, THEN I will save you.” You see, in order for us to receive the benefits of the covenant we have to meet the requirements of the covenant. And that is what these first five words of Psalm 1 are all about: “Blessed is the man who” – the man who does the things specified in this passage. So, let’s put it this way: in order for us to come into the state of being blessed and prospering that God offers us in His covenant, we’ve got to be THE MAN! Which man? THE MAN who chooses to live by the requirements of the covenant. And what are those requirements?
Psa 1:1-2 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; 2 but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night.
So, all I have to do in order to be THE MAN who enters into and remains in a state of blessing and prosperity, is to be obedient to fulfill my covenant obligations. That’s the great thing about God’s covenant promise: ANYBODY CAN CHOOSE TO BE THE MAN!
• You don’t have to come from a certain background to be THE MAN.
• It doesn’t matter who your mother was or your father was or what kind of family you grew up in; you can still choose to be THE MAN.
• It doesn’t even matter how badly you may have messed up in the past; you can still choose to be THE MAN.
What all of that means is that it’s my choice. Whether or not I am going to be THE MAN who lives my life in a state of blessing and prosperity is my choice. You see, the great thing is that God has no special pets and He doesn’t play favorites; not like Isaac, who favored Esau or Jacob, who favored Joseph.
Acts 10:34 (KJV) Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:
God doesn’t play favorites! He has set this thing up so that anybody who will … anybody who is willing to do what God asks of us … can be THE MAN who lives out his life in a state of blessing and prosperity.
Now what that means is this: you and I don’t get to cry and to moan and groan and complain that we are victims of our circumstances in life. Because, what’s the covenant? God says if you choose to be THE MAN, if you choose to meet the covenant requirements, you WILL live a life of blessing and prosperity. We know that doesn’t mean a life in which there is no pain and no challenges to be overcome, but it is a life in which we do overcome.
ILLUS: I watched Serena Williams win the Wimbledon tennis championship yesterday. She cruised through the first set. But in the second set, her opponent rallied and got hot, and won the set. Then, in the 3rd set, Serena got her game back on track and she just overwhelmed her opponent to win going away. Now, when Serena Williams looks back on this Wimbledon championship do you think she will be crying and moaning, groaning and complaining? “Oh, it was so hard in the 2nd set. I just had to go through so much, and it seemed like nothing I did would work, and I missed out on so many points I could have won, but I lost those points, and it was just so hard!” NO! Of course not. She won in the end! And all of the challenges she had to overcome in order to win just add to the joy of the victory.
And that’s the way it is with us … When I choose to be THE MAN, the man who “walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but whose delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law meditates day and night” … When I choose to be that man, I will have some 2nd sets in my life. I will have to go through some times when my opponent, the devil, seems to be on top of his game, and when nothing I do seems to be working the way I want it to, and it seems like I’m losing points I could win. That’s going to happen; Jesus said it’s going to happen:
John 16:33 These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
You see, God’s covenant promise is that the 3rd set is coming! And at the end of the day, I will emerge victorious, holding up the trophy of victory.
But understand – my time of blessing and prosperity is not at the end, when I can look back and say oh, it was tough in the middle but I won in the end. Now, that looking-back time is coming; but that is not my time of blessing and prosperity. Look at our text one more time:
Psa 1:1 Blessed IS the man . . .
It says, “blessed ‘IS’ THE MAN.” When is “IS”? “IS” is now! So, when do I become that man who lives his life in the blessing, prosperity, and favor of the Lord? The moment I begin to walk in the requirements of the covenant! The moment I commit myself to “walk not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scornful; but to delight in the law of the LORD, and in His law meditate day and night.”
So, when I make the choice to walk in the covenant of Psalm 1:1-3, here is the truth about who I am: from that moment I “IS” THE MAN. My time of blessing, prosperity and favor with God is right now!
That means that even if I am going through a season of tribulation and challenges in my life, those things do not define me. I am defined by my contract, my covenant with the owner of my team, Team Jesus. And that covenant says I “IS” THE MAN and I “IS” in a state of blessing and prosperity right now!
And since I “IS” THE MAN, I’m going to act like it, I’m going to think like it, I’m going to talk like it! No moaning, groaning and complaining; no po’ me attitude. Instead I’m going to do what the Bible says I supposed to be doing anyway:
Phil 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!
Why? because I “IS” the MAN, and I “IS” living my life in a state of blessing, prosperity, and favor. Whether or not you can see all the signs of that blessing, prosperity and favor in my life right now – whether or not you can see my shoulder pads and helmet – they will appear in their due season.
But even then, those things won’t define who I am; because, you see, I’ve got a signed contract, a covenant with the Owner of my team that I entered into when I put my trust in Jesus Christ as the Savior and Lord of my life. And that blood-signed covenant says that because I have chosen to walk not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scornful; and my delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law I meditate day and night; I SHALL be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever I do SHALL PROSPER!
