The Word is Your Life, part 2
Loving God's Word is the Path to the Full Life
Psalm 1
David Taylor
We are in the second week of our fall series, “The Word is Your Life,” four weeks to help us see the the necessity of making the word central in our lives. Today we look at “Loving God's Word as the Path to Life,” looking at Psalm one, looking at memorizing the word; next week we will finish Psalm one looking at meditating on Gods word; then we will look at sharing the word with each other. So lets look at Psalm one.
Big Idea – The path to life and salvation consists of loving Gods through saturating ourselves in God's word.
1. Find Great Satisfaction in God (v. 1)
The psalms starts out with describing the blessed life. Blessed is the man who does not do certain things and does certain things. Whose life is characterized by a certain way of life. Blessed is a plural noun pointing to the blessing being multifaceted and not limited to one aspect or area of life. The characteristic of their life is that of blessed or favored by God. You have probably heard that blessed means happy but that happiness is not the happiness Victoria Olsteen is talking about but this happiness is the fullness of life that is found in God. Life and obedience is about God, he is our source of joy and happiness. So not only does the blessed life speak of God's favor toward his children but it also points to finding our fulfillment in him and not what the world has to offer which leads me to my second point.
2. Do Not Be Satisfied with this Age (v. 1)
Now in the second half of the first verse the psalmist describes the blessed man negatively, what he does not do. 'He does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of scoffers.' Not walking in the counsel of the wicked is refusing to allow your mind to be shaped by the secular and humanistic worldview of this age. Not walking in the way of sinners is not allowing your morality and lifestyle be shaped by this age. Not sitting in the seat of mockers is not belonging to or having your community being those who scoff at God. This age is always being seeking to inform and form you. It comes in the form of the public arena forming how you see the world. It comes from those we relate to every day who are influencing our lifestyle. And it comes from those we hang out with, who are our community. This tells us not to let this present age, which opposes God, to be that which we love and seek, knowing or unknowingly, to influence us. But it is not telling us to remove ourselves from the world. The New Testament tells to be engaged with the world, to leave our thumb print on it. We are called to we engage this world to influence it rather than let it influence us. Notice also that there is a progression in this verse from walk, stand, and sit, pointing to the fact that life is not spiritually static but dynamic. You are either moving towards Christ or away from Christ. If you are not a Christian there is a real possibility that you are becoming more and more hard toward God if you are not moving toward Christ. If you are a Christian, you are either growing closer to Christ or farther away from Christ; there is no treading water. It is inescapable.
3. Saturate Myself With the Word (v. 2-3)
Positively, 'his delight is in the law of Lord and on his law he meditates day and night.' We delight in what we love, what we enjoy, and long for in this life. He delights in God's word because he loves it, he hungers for it, and he longs for it. Evidence of the new birth is a desire for God's truth, your new nature longs for it. This appetite for God's word leads him to mediate on the word day and night. He is consumed with it much like an addict. And the reason he can mediate on the word is because he drew from his memory, which means he had memorized it. The bible commands us to memorize God's word, it assumes we will memorize Gods word, and expects us to memorize God's word. So I want to spend the rest of our time convincing you to memorize Scripture.
Benefits of memorizing Scripture:
• I have a weapon to fight temptation (Eph 6:17; Ps 119:11 )
• I have source of Wisdom (Ps 119:105)
• I have fuel for meditation and prayer (Ps 119:97)
• It transforms my heart (Josh 1:8)
How to memorize Scripture:
Prepare:
• Read and reread it ten times from your bible, then close your bible and say it ten times.
• Visualize it by making a card with the verse on it.
• Carry it with you and review throughout the day.
Repeat:
• Read it again ten times or if you know it already read it five times.
• Say it ten times from memory or five if you already know it.
• Hear it by recording it and listening to it.
• Walk it by saying it or reviewing it or listening to it as you exercise.
Recall:
• Read it and say it again five to ten times depending on how well you know it.
• Reflect and pray it. Reflect on it throughout your day and turn it into prayer.
Reinforce:
• Learn with others like your life group, spouse, or accountability partner.
• Study it, spend time studying it so that it has more meaning for you.
Review:
• Repeat the process of reading it, saying it, and reinforcing it.
