Don’t Let The Green Grass Fool You
Scriptures: Psalm 1:1-3
Introduction
The title of my message this morning is “Don’t Let The Green Grass Fool You!” Some of you are old enough to remember the song with this title. Let me read the first verse of this song to you: “Girl, try to remember when we didn't have no shoes we stuck together, just me and you. It took a long time, to get what we got today, now ya wanna give it all up for another guy. Baby, I'm tellin' ya don't let the green grass fool ya, don't let it change your mind.” In this song a woman was leaving a man who had been with her when they had nothing for another man who had not gone through life’s struggles with her. We see that often when a man or woman married young and then decide that the person they “grew up” with needs to be traded in for a younger model. Remember what Solomon said in Proverbs chapter five about rejoicing with the wife of your youth? There is a reason for that advice! Also, if you recall from the Old Testament, this is the issue that God often had with the Children of Israel. He had brought them through everything and yet they continued to be fooled by the green grass of those around them to the point that they forgot what He had done for them! God said that they had committed adultery against Him when they desired the lifestyles of those around them and seeking their idols.
Our foundational Scripture is found in Psalm chapter one if you want to turn there and just bookmark it. I do not know where the term “the grass always looks greener on the other side” originated, but it goes to the heart of envy – our wishing that we had something that someone else has because it “appears” better than what we have. We are a society that thrives on comparison. We often look at the lives of others and determine based on “what we see” that their lives might actually be better than our own. As a matter of fact, their lives can be so good that we find ourselves wishing we were living their “good life.” We read magazines and books about the lives of the rich and shameless (famous) and we sit around wondering what it would be like to have all the money we need and be able to have instant recognition from the public. Bigger is often better and newer beats out old any day of the week plus on weekends. We strive and strive to get to greener pastures only to find that once we get there those pastures eventually look just like the ones we left! The grass may actually be green on the other side until we get there. If you are wondering why this is I will not keep you in suspense.
The grass that is in my yard might not look as green as my neighbor but who is “responsible” for my grass? I am the one responsible. So if my neighbor has the same type of grass that I have and his always looks greener than mine, then it must be something that I am not doing that’s making my grass less green. So let’s say my neighbor and I decided to switch houses because I really love his yard better than my own. Once I move into their house and start taking care of their yard just like I had been taking care of my old yard you know what will happen? That yard that looked greener from my side of the fence will now start looking like my old yard and my old yard (that is now being taken care of by my neighbor) will look better than my new yard. If I take care of my new yard like I took care of my old yard, my new yard will eventually become my old yard. Don’t let the green grass fool you! Yes the grass might look greener on the other side but that’s until we get there and kill it! You see, the greener grass might make me think it’s about the grass and thus fooling me into thinking it’s not about me or my actions in taking care of it! What I am telling you this morning is that our grass (lives) is in our hands and what we do with it is within our power. While we are staring at the green grass of our neighbors we become more disappointed with our own until we are ready to dump what we have to gain that of our neighbor. We get fooled by the grass in someone else yard which will make us “think” differently about our own grass. Many do not realize that they can have what others “appear” to have if they are willing to make the sacrifices to get it. However we often get fooled because what something appears to be is not always what it actually is.
I want us to examine what David says in Psalms chapter one. In these three verses David captures the heart of this matter – we sometimes focus on the wrong things and expect a great outcome. What David tells us is that if we want the outcome God has for us, we must focus on His things and not the other things that so easily tempt and influence us. If we focus on God and His outcome for our lives we will not be fooled by the green grass in someone else yard because we are focusing on our own and being happy with what God is doing in our lives. If we focus on what God has blessed us with and work hard to maintain it, our lives will be different, especially as it pertains to the different relationships we have with people in our lives. Let’s begin at verse one.
I. Our Green Grass
“How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season. And its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers.” (Psalm 1:1-3)
The book of Psalm open by dispelling the ideology that a sinful life is the good life. We have all seen or read about how rich people live. How they get preferential treatment and how they begin to believe their own press to the point that they believe that the laws we must live by do not apply to them (and in some cases they do not.) We are being brainwashed into believing that true and lasting satisfaction can be found in indulging into the lust of our flesh. I am not just talking about lust of the physical, sexual nature, but also our lust for things, success, etc. Our world is telling us that the more freedom and permissiveness that we experience leads us to a life of fulfillment and anything less than this leaves one wanting for more. A life of purity and walking with God is dismissed as “old fashion” and out of touch with reality. David, in Psalms one, set the record straight.
He opens with “How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers!” (Vs. 1) David uses three phrases that I want to dig just a little deeper into. The first one is “walk in the counsel of the wicked.” What does it means to walk in the counsel of the wicked? The Hebrew word for “walk” is Halak. It means “to go, walk, behave” essentially without any suggestion of direction of where a person is going. It is like wandering without a destination. In this first phrase David says that a man is blessed who does not walk with the wicked – in other words, a man walking with God walks with a purpose. He knows where he is going. He knows that there is more than just what the world has to offer. He is not just wandering from place to place, event to event, party to party waiting for the next great things to come along. He does not spend his time daydreaming about what he could have versus following God’s plans for his life and knowing what he will have. To walk in the counsel of the wicked is to be led by their words and their ways. He is not being fooled by the green grass of the world.
In the second phrase David says, “nor stand in the path of sinners.” What does it mean to stand in the path of sinners? The Hebrew word for stand in this verse is ‘Amad’ and it means to “serve” as in worship. What David was saying in this phrase that we should not “serve” in the paths of sinners – doing the same things they are doing and actually ‘helping’ them commit sin. While it also means to stand stationary, in this verse the standing stationary gives way to participation. Let me clarify it this way. Remember in Acts chapter seven when Stephen was stoned to death. When you read verse fifty-eight, the men who did the stoning laid their robes at the feet of Saul. Saul was the one who had received permission to persecute the Christians and he stood by (with his approval) as the men stoned Stephen. This is what I want you to see, Saul never picked up a stone and threw it at Stephen yet he was fully complicit in Stephen’s death. He participated fully by approving of it and standing there “watching over the robes” while the other men threw the stones. David was saying that we should not “stand in the path” of sinners – being complicit with them.
In the last phrase David said “nor sit in the seat of scoffers.” When I examined the Hebrew words for “sit” and “scoffers” it was interesting. The Hebrew word for sit means to sit as if a judge – pronouncing judgments as if a king. The Hebrew word for scoffers actually means to “speak a different language, to translate” as if an interpreter. When we consider these words together and their meaning it is possible that David was saying that to sit in the seat of scoffers is one who pronounces that the sin is okay and actually translates it that way to make it acceptable. By definition, a scoffer is someone who expresses derision (mocking) or scorn about something. Okay, I will say this slowly so that we do not miss it. If we profess to be children of God and we pronounce that things of the world are okay and we mock the Word of God, we are doing exactly what David describes – we are sitting in the seat of scoffers – we are speaking another “language” that should be unfamiliar to a child of God.
What David says in verse one is that we cannot participate in, desire, or long for the “greener grass” of the world. What the world has to offer us looks good and inviting on the surface but it’s not lasting for beneath the surface there is nothing there to sustain it. Don’t let the green grass fool you!
What we have is totally different. David says in verses two and three: “But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season. And its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers.” The man/woman of God delights in God’s word and meditates in it day and night. In other words, he delights in spending time with God which is accomplished first through spending time in His word and then through the personal reflection/prayer time that he spends mediating on what he has read. The word “meditate” means to empty the mind of thoughts so that you are able to focus on something different. The man who delights himself in the Lord clears his mind of thoughts of those things that are contrary to the will of God. Please understand I am not saying that the man walks around in a bubble and nothing touches him. On the contrary, he experiences the things of the word but he is in a constant state of denying himself the pleasures gained from them. This is easier said than done and oftentimes we do not do this well, but it should not be something that we are not focusing on.
When we do this, David said that we will be like a tree that is firmly planted by the waters yielding fruit. A tree whose leaves does not wither and whatever he does will prosper. God wants us to visualize this. Where we live we have seasons. What happens to the leaves of the trees in the fall? They wither and fall from the tree only to return in the spring. The tree spends the summer in a dormant stage. David says here that the man/woman who delights in the word of the Lord will be like a tree that is firmly planted by water and its leaves will never wither and it will always bear fruit. This means that this particular tree never goes dormant! It is always producing fruit! It is able to do this because it is planted by water that continuously feeds it! Have you noticed around here that when we have not had enough rain that the trees become stressed and the leaves start to fall off prematurely? The tree needs water to survive and for us we need the word of God. The man who delights himself in God’s word is like that tree that is always producing fruit. And here is the best part that same man prospers in whatever he is doing! I am not saying that he will have the Midas touch where everything he touches turns to gold (if you recall that story) but that he will prosper. He will face hard times just like all of us, but in the end he prospers!
Conclusion
If you are looking at the life of someone else and thinking that their grass is greener than yours I want you to consider what you are feeding your grass? What fertilizer are you using? How often are you watering it? Do you know what your neighbor is doing to get his grass to be so green? When you examine your life, do you delight in God’s word? Are you feeding your spiritual being with something other than the fast food of this world?
Do you know that the tallest, most vibrant trees have a very complicated root system? What we see above ground (on the surface) is the results of what has happened underneath the ground. Those trees have roots that extend far beneath the ground tapping into a water source that provides a continuous source of nutrients for growth. Its roots will continue to expand in their search for water in order for the tree to continue to grow. When the roots of that tree begin to die, it’s not long before the tree itself dies. What I am trying to get you to visualize is that it’s not what is happening above ground that is making the tree strong and healthy, it’s what is going on “behind” the scene, beneath the ground.
When we look at the lives of others we see the surface. We see what has been produced by the roots that are hidden. Sometimes that surface portrays something that looks strong but in reality has very poor roots that in a storm cannot sustain the tree. We have seen this with trees being uprooted during storms because their root system was not enough to keep them planted. This is the image that I want you to visualize. Are you a tree that is planted by the waters whose root system is so vast that you have a constant supply of food and is able to withstand the hurricane force winds or are you a tree whose root system is close to the surface and are in need of reaching deeper? God’s word allows us to reach deeper and become that tree that is planted by the waters always yielding fruit.
Don’t let the green grass of this world fool you – remember who you are and Who’s you are!
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
