Tree or Chaff, Tall Timber or Dust (Olympic Edition)
We are told in life that it’s unfair to compare ourselves to others but when the Olympics are on and we see the best of the best of physical humanity it’s possible that we do a bit of comparing.
What an awesome job our rowers have done and with three gold medals we are for population of the country currently top of the medal table. P.P. Olympic medallists.
It’s amazing what these athletes can do, some would say that they are super human. Would anyone else here like to be able to perform with the abilities that these athletes show?
We need to be careful when we do, for any of us to go around comparing ourselves to others sets us up for a fall, we will always find others who can do something better. Interestingly though God has given us all special personalities and abilities, to enrich the lives of others and his Kingdom. He has a reason for us all being here and we all have a role to fulfil. You are all fearfully and wonderfully made!
In Psalm One (read) we see that God compares two things in people. We also see what the outcome of life style decisions brings. We see that God is interested in whether we have a right relationship with him or not. The question the psalmist uses is are we righteous? Or have we turned our backs on God and are what’s called wicked.
I know that in 2012 the word wicked, means something different to what it did in the time this was written and even in the sixties when I was born. The term wicked has recently meant cool, stylish, flash, really good and for any late bloomers from the nineteen eighties, rad and far out! Interesting how words go in and out of meaning and fashion.
THe real meaning of the word wicked is evil or guilty.
So there are two types of people; those who are in relationship with God and those who aren’t.
Now the truth of the matter is that there are a lot of people who choose not to have a relationship with God who are decent sorts. They are not the type that you would classify as wicked or evil, but the truth is that their lives would still be better if they had a spiritual connection with God. Personally I don’t see these people blowing away like chaff and in some cases they live more upright and wholesome lives than some believers. As believers we should take a look at these people and think about the height of our own socks.
Remember though there are eternal consequences to turning yourback on God.
So let’s take a look at these two types of people.
1) The person who is blessed:
The first line of the Psalm can also read “Oh the happiness of the man.” Now this bloke and I use the word bloke, and I shouldn’t, I should say this person because these psalms apply to men and women alike, is blessed because he or she keeps sensible company. He does not seek advice from evil people, he does not stand around with those who’ve missed the mark, and he doesn’t hang around with those who blather on, pulling others apart.
It’s one of life’s truths, we become like those we spend our time with. That’s why people who want to learn a trade work with a Tradesman whoops person, who has that trade, if you want to become a teacher you go to teachers college. Learn to drive a car – get driving lessons.
We have to be careful with the company we keep, seeds of ideas planted today or tomorrow can one day explode into growth blowing our lives apart.
Today we can add things like this; blessed is the person who does not read rubbish and gossip in magazines, ring dodgy 0900 numbers or read dodgy novels, check out internet porn, have cyber or text relationships they know are wrong or watch sexually explicit or excessively violent TV, DVD, MP3’s or Movies.
Some say they can handle this stuff and not fall. Experience says that they’ve tripped and fallen; but their head is yet to hit the concrete.
The other reason the blessed are blessed is because instead of their looking in the wrong direction they are looking into God’s law, not just looking but delighting in it.
It can take a while for this to happen.
To get to the point of delighting in God’s word took me awhile. There were times when it confused me; I felt it judged me, that I felt offended by it. This came down to where I was, those places where I was in my own life.
Many are offended by the scriptures, by the gospels; this is because they are out of where they can be in their relationship with God.
The word, the law points out ways of living that by their very nature keep followers out of strife. There have to be blessings in that! A quick show of hands who here can attest to having a better life since they started reading this book and even more since they started putting the Word into practice?
Jesus summed up the law in these words. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” and “Love your neighbour as yourself.” (Mark 12:30-31)
We see that delighting in this law brings a well-nourished life. The psalmist tells us this about the one who delights in the law. “He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.” (Psalm 1:3)
The picture itself is of a tree that is well watered, that at the right time brings forth fruit and does not have to be concerned because of lack of water in the dry times, it does not wither. What a picture
By delighting in the law, in the word of God we can be assured of our relationship with God being solid. (SBI)
Our prosperity comes through our knowing with certainty, our place in God’s plan.
We prosper by bringing forth fruit, the fruit of the Spirit; and the fruit of increase having sowed seeds into the lives of others; we see them grow in their relationship with God.
There is no need to be concerned that we may wither as long as we stay beside the stream, the life giving water that is the word of God.
Jesus said this of the water of Jacobs well in the story of the Samaritan woman at the well; “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13-14) I am open to someone proving me wrong on this point. I don’t believe it is possible to prosper more, than the gaining of eternal life!
By delighting in the law, in the word of God we can be assured that our relationship with God is solid. (SBI)
2) So what of those who turn their backs on God, those who take advice from evil people, who stand with those who’ve missed the mark, who hang out with those who blather on and scoff? Who read rubbish and gossip in magazines, ring dodgy 0900 numbers or read dodgy novels, check out internet porn, have cyber or text relationships they know are wrong or watch sexually explicit or excessively violent TV, etc the Psalmist is fairly blunt about these people.
From the Olympics I found some really sad stuff, there was a report about a swimmer and a gold medal swimmer to boot whose own mother said that he had no time for meaningful relationships and could only have one night stands, or the cyclist who crashed deliberately to get a restart and went onto win gold, or the eight badminton players who threw games, deliberately. It leaves me wondering, yep great to have a gold medal, but credibility is worth so much more. You can have as many gold medals as you like and still in the eternal scheme of things blow away like chaff. Yesterday’s Press stated, “People usually cheated because they were under pressure, either internal or external – from coaches, parents and peers”.
What is chaff, this stuff (a pocket full was dusted from my hand); it is what remains after the crop has been threshed.
The crop, the useful nutrients, the seed for the next crop remains and the chaff blows away in the wind or is swept up and burnt as waste.
What a picture: their choices have made them waste. (pause)
Waste their time with people, in meaningless relationships, who pressured them to cheat, who brought them too ruin or in situations where they brought judgement upon themselves. (pause)
Waste their opportunities for growth and nourishment. (pause)
Waste the opportunity for the relationship they could have had with God . (pause)
What a sad waste, I think the Psalmist looks at these people with sadness; I think that God himself is sad at their choices. They have missed the mark; they have missed their possibility to stand in the judgement in the assembly of those who have a right relationship with God.
All round a sad picture when compared with those who are blessed.
Sad when by delighting in the law, in the word of God we can be assured of a solid relationship with God. (SBI)
The two word pictures are a challenge, two peoples two ways of living two results
In relationship with God, or out of relationship with God
A well watered tree, or Chaff blown away by the wind
Blessed / happy, or perishing of no consequence
Eternally prospering or guilty
The last verse of this Psalm though fills me with hope you may wonder why; let’s look at verse six again. “For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.”
Great if we are in a right relationship with our Heavenly Father he looks over us and the path we are treading; we are living a life in relationship with God our creator.
“But the path of way of the wicked, will perish” now this is the bit of the verse that brings me hope, so much hope. Some may see this as a condemning of people who are doing wrong or that wicked people will perish or be destroyed both physically and spiritually.
There is an interesting sentence structure here that could read “but the path and or journey of the wicked will perish / be destroyed.”
My hope rests in the fact that many have been on the path of the wicked and the encounter that we have had with Jesus has taken us from the wide journey to destruction to the narrow path that leads to life.
The path that was leading to our destruction has been terminated; the old race cancelled. We are now walking a path, running a new race that builds us up, where we receive joy and nourishment in the word of God, and our relationship with Him is solid.
Now I know that there are people here who have committed to this narrow path who are walking, running in the joy of the Lord, I know there are others who have started the journey only to find that they continue to get caught up in the way of their past. While there are still others who want to start the journey that leads to life.
If you have found those old ways hard to shake off or want to start that journey, you may have even started the journey privately; here is an opportunity to make that journey public.
Jesus said “whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven.” (Matt 10:32) What a promise!
A well watered tree or chaff blowing in the wind?
[The whole sermon was preached with a picture of a mature tree beside a stream on PowerPoint behind me. This tree was referred to.]
