Each day and throughout the day, we come to many forks in the road – decisions that we have to make. Many of those decisions are we might consider momentary. They won’t have a huge, long-lasting impact on our lives. But other forks are rather monumental because of the impact that they are going to have on our lives or the lives of families. Should I join the military or go to college after high school? Should I start my own business or should I just stay where I’m at? Should we move or should we stay? Should I ask her to marry me or wait? Should I have the surgery or try some other form of treatment? Those are all decisions that I think you would probably put into the monumental category because of the impact that they are going to have on you or others. But there are other times when those seemingly momentary forks in the road turn into the monumental, significantly impacting your life or the lives of others.
Psalm 1 places before us a fork in the road. This psalm is the first of 150 psalms that God inspired its authors to write for God’s people of every time. The topics within these psalms range from prayers asking for God’s deliverance from the enemies of God’s people, to psalms of praise and thanks for God’s protection and goodness. There are psalms of confession of sin that call upon the Lord to grant forgiveness, and psalms that paint stunning pictures of what the Messiah Jesus would suffer in order to secure that forgiveness of sins. While the topics may vary, there is one thing that all of these psalms have in common. They are all the Word of our God, the things that God wants us to hear, to know, to love, to follow. Psalm 1 asks us, “What will you do with these psalms? What will you do with God’s Word? How will you approach it? Will you allow it to guide your life? Or will you try to go it on your own?” There is a fork in the road.
If you’ve ever listened to someone who is an addict and has hit rock bottom – their life is spinning out of control, they’ve lost their job, their family, their home, their health – if you ask them how they got to where they are right now, very rarely will you hear someone say, “Well, about 5 years ago I woke up one morning and I decided that I was going to be an addict and lose everything that I had.” No. Usually you’ll hear stories about how it started out with what seemed to be little things – a couple more pills than prescribed just to get through the day, a few extra drinks to “take the edge off”, a few minutes on a website to satisfy an urge, and before they knew it, the momentary decisions lead to monumental catastrophes.
Psalm 1 describes a road that if followed will lead to destruction, unable to pass God’s judgment at the end of life and being separated from God like useless chaff blown away by the wind. How does a person get to that point? Well, like the addict, it’s not usually the devil walking up to a person and saying, “Give up on Jesus and follow me to hell.” No. It starts with the seemingly insignificant and momentary which then leads to the monumental and eternally significant. It’s the progression that you hear described in the opening verse of this psalm. Did you catch that? It starts with a person who decides to “walk in step with the wicked” then, “stand in the way that sinners take” and finally, “sit in the company of mockers.” Did you the notice the progression that walking down this road takes? It starts with “walk in step with the wicked.” You decide to compromise a little on what you believe, maybe justifying your decision with, “Well, it’s only one time. It’s only once in awhile. Other people seem to be doing it and I don’t see them being all the miserable.” It begins with compromising. And when you’ve compromised long enough then what happens? You begin to “stand in the way that sinners take.” You get comfortable in the sin that you are committing. What you at one time felt bad about, you feel very little guilt over. And then finally what happens? You end up “sit in the company of mockers.” You become committed to that sin. You defend it and see nothing wrong with it. In fact, you become one of the mockers, mocking those who still think that what you’re doing is wrong. You feel right at home, more comfortable with the mockers of God than with the followers of God. How does a person get to that point? It started with the momentary and it led to the monumental.
However, remember this is a fork in the road. There is another way, another road that Psalm 1 describes. This is the road of blessing, prosperity and righteousness. This is the road that leads a person to be like a well-watered, deeply rooted, strong and healthy fruit tree. How do you get there? Psalm 1:1,2 says, “Blessed is the one… whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.” This is the route that repeatedly looks to God’s Word to guide and direct us. As the psalmist writes in Psalm 119:105, “Your Word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path.” The Word of our God shines the light on our meandering ways. It shows ours our trespasses, the times that we have crossed the line and entered areas that God says are off limits to us: sexual thoughts for someone other than your spouse, selfishness that his more concerned about getting your way than God’s way. God’s Word shows us how we have walked down the road of compromise, maybe making the trip so many times that we’ve grown comfortable with sins that used to shock us, barely even recognizing them as sinful any longer: things like same-sex marriage, when human life begins, and the creation of the world. God’s Word is that bright light that shows us our sin and wondering ways that if continued on will only lead to destruction.
But remember, God’s Word is meant to show us the road of blessing and prosperity, the road of righteousness. God’s Word leads us to the cross of Jesus, a road that was walked by Jesus in our place. There are no meandering moments there in Jesus’ walk, only footsteps that perfectly followed God’s will for us. There is no compromising on what God wanted him to do, no cutting corners to make his life easier or more comfortable. There is nothing except complete dedication to knowing, loving and following God’s will at every moment of his life, willingly going to the cross to suffer the punishment of our trespasses, our wondering eyes, minds, hearts and lives. The Word of God shows us the way of righteousness, the righteousness of Christ which God has given to us through faith, that allows us to stand ready for God’s judgement. At the end of our life, we will be judged, “Right with God.” Why? Not because we walked the road so well, or tried so hard to do the right things. No. Instead, we will be judged, “Right with God” because Jesus walked the road perfectly in our place, and went to the cross to pay the full price of our sin. This is the way of God’s Word which leads to blessing and prosperity.
A Bible scholar commented on this psalm, “Whatever shapes our thinking will soon shape our actions.” The ongoing research of the effects that “screen time” have on our thinking only reinforces this point. The forks in the road will most certainly come. How will you be prepared for them? We need for God’s Word to continually shape our thoughts. The psalmist says, “Blessed is the one…who meditates on his law day and night.” I don’t think that the psalmist had in mind a 24 hour per day Bible study when he wrote these words. However, to think that hearing God’s Word for one hour a week is going to impact our thinking seems to take it to the other extreme. Through group and personal Bible study, reading the Bible at home, personal and family devotions, and Christian conversations, God is shaping our thinking and preparing us for those forks in the road. When we are more deeply rooted in God’s Word we find ourselves asking instead of, “What do I think or what do you think, or what would be easiest?” we begin to ask, “What does God say? What does God promise?” We become more and more those trees that Psalm 1 describes as “a tree planted by streams of water, which yields it fruit in season and whose leaf does not whither – whatever he does prospers.”
When you are deeply rooted in God’s Word, you receive the constant nourishment that your Christian faith and life needs. You grow in your awareness of what God’s will is for you. You are refreshed in Christ’s forgiveness when you fail to carry it out. You are empowered by Christ’s love and guided by God’s Word to do good works, to produce what the Bible describes as fruits of faith.
I was thinking about that picture of a fruit true that the Bible often uses to describe Christians. What is the purpose of a fruit tree producing fruit? Yes, the fruit is evidence that the tree is alive and shows what type of tree it is. But how does the tree benefit from the fruit it produces? It doesn’t. The tree doesn’t eat its fruit! The fruit is for the benefit of others. As we live our Christian lives, producing fruits of faith, it is not merely for our own personal benefit as evidence of who God has made us. Our good works are a blessing to those around us. When we live our Christian lives we are a blessing to our families, to our friends, to our churches, to our coworkers and to our communities. Yes, these fruits of faith are a blessing both to us and to those around us.
May the Lord continue to lead us to choose that road of his Word, the way of righteousness and blessing, so that our thoughts and actions may be shaped by him, to his glory and for the blessing of many. Amen.
