PSALM 1 – THIS WAY AND THAT WAY – WHICH WAY ARE YOU ON? PART 2
PSALM 1 – THE TWO WAYS
This message continues on from PART 1
THE TREE OF VALUABLE BLESSING
VERSE 3. {{Psalm 1:3 “and 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.”}}
Now a comparison is made. The concentration is now on that righteous man of verse 1 who does not follow the wicked, the sinners and the scoffers. A simile is given, a very appropriate one indeed. This righteous man is likened to a tree. This tree is firmly planted the word says. A Christian is firmly planted in Christ and nothing can remove us from His hand. It is God’s doing – “rooted and grounded in Christ” Paul says. That is a wonderful position to be in for it is not the tree that has to worry about being established – for us, that has been done for us. All we have to do is rest in the fact and trust fully in the Lord.
Jeremiah wrote somewhere around 500 years after the Psalms but he chose to use this same image, but he put it in a wider context. Here is that passage – [SECTION 1] {{Jeremiah 17:5 Thus says the LORD, “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength, and whose heart turns away from the LORD, Jer 17:6 for he will be like a bush in the desert and will not see when prosperity comes, but will live in stony wastes in the wilderness, a land of salt without inhabitant.”}}
[SECTION 2] {{Jeremiah 17:7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD and whose trust is the LORD, Jer 17:8 for he will be like a tree planted by the water, that extends its roots by a stream and will not fear when the heat comes, but its leaves will be green, and it will not be anxious in a year of drought nor cease to yield fruit.”}}
[SECTION 3] {{Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick. Who can understand it?”}}
Jeremiah also makes this contrast of The Two Ways. In verses 5 and 6 he declares the man who does not follow God to be cursed. The curse of God rests on him and the verses say why. That cursed man trusts in mankind and makes flesh His strength. In other words, he utterly rejects God because he adheres to humanism and the strength of the human nature. God is dismissed. This is just like our world. Nearly all reject God and put their trust in human nature and human achievements and human wisdom that God calls foolishness as Paul explained to the Corinthians. That means nearly all the world today is cursed.
SECTION 1. The image Jeremiah writes of is a stunted bush growing in the desert. In fact such bushes struggle to grow. They fight for their existence all the time. I saw lots of that in outback Australia when I lived there. The prophet’s description of desert conditions is so accurate – stony wastes, salt deposits, and isolation with no inhabitant. That is a miserable existence. That man will never enter into prosperity but will know the poverty of hell for eternity. O, be saved if any of you have not given your lives to the Saviour. Don’t stay in your desert place. It will lead to a Christless eternity.
SECTION 2. The way of the wicked is done, and Jeremiah speaks of the way of the righteous man, the same one as Psalm 1. He says this that may seem like a repeat in the words but is not – {{“Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD and whose trust is the LORD.”}} He trusts in the Lord in all situations; lives a life of trust. As well the Lord is his trust. The Lord is the object of trust, that Rock to which he can flee. That is the man who will not succumb to the wicked, the sinners and the scoffers.
Jeremiah says of him, his roots are extended, and the roots of faith anchor him by living water so that when the summer heat or drought comes, he will not wither but will continue to prosper. There will be no anxiety, no ceasing of bearing fruit and the leaves (outward appearance) will always remain green.
SECTION 3. By way of summary, the overall view is that of the nature of man. Man is deceitfully wicked. In the heart of man there is not one good thing. The KJV says “desperately wicked” while the NASB says “desperately sick”. In fact it is so sick it is dying and nothing but the blood of the Lamb will ever be able to cure it. Only the Lord knows the heart and will faithfully render to every man.
GOD TAKES CARE OF THE TREES (AND CHRISTIANS)
A tree – what you see when you look at one, is the outcome, not the process. You see the statue of the tree, the quality of the leaf, and majesty of the branches and the health of the bark. What you don’t see is the process – the spread of the roots and the chemical changes through photosynthesis. You don’t see the mycorrhizal activity of the fungi in the ground which is critical to the tree’s wellbeing. You don’t see the quest of the roots towards the water but it is all there. It is happening. It is necessary. In fact it is essential.
As Christians, all we have to worry about is the fruit. The Lord looks after what is under the ground. He does it all Himself just like the Shepherd who looks after his sheep. The sheep are not meant to plan their lives; to seek the best pasture or the watering spots, or their safety, or where to put the sheepfold. They are not meant to keep themselves. All that is in the shepherd’s care, just as we are in the Lord’s care. The ONLY thing required of the sheep is to obey what the Lord asked, and what was that He asked?
{{John 10:27 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them and they FOLLOW ME.”}}
{{John 21:19 “Now this He said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God, and when He had spoken this, He said to him, “FOLLOW ME!”}}
{{John 21:22 Jesus said to him, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You FOLLOW ME!”}}
This is where the simplicity of the Christian faith has been complicated by isms and procedures and regulations and by hierarchies. Listen, sheep! Follow Jesus. Faith in the Shepherd of the sheep. That is what it is all about. In the four Gospels, the expression/command “Follow Me” is used 19 times.
APPLICATION TO CHRISTIAN LIVING
In the right season we must be producing fruit. If we are not progressing in Christ what is wrong? Where is that fruitfulness? God has planted us by living streams so our growth should be automatic. What is hindering us? Is it sin? Is it self-reliance and not full trust in the Saviour? Is it listening to the counsel of the ungodly? Is it complacency that older Christians can get weighed down by? We should be advancing in Christ, not stagnating or in the case of some, going backward. Commit yourself to Him.
We are told even the leaves do not wither. When the tree is tapping into streams of living water, the leaves will not wither; the tree has a godly health and the Christian person is prosperous in all that is done for God. How many Christians remove themselves from the provision of the Lord and plant themselves in deserts? They do, you know, and look withered and fruitless.
Looking at Jeremiah again, in verse 8 he uses the word “extends” and this is what the tree must do. It must extend into the life-giving stream, and God wants us to extend into Him. How many Christians are content with just a mediocrity, a whitewash of Christianity. They have lazy roots, a careless desire, and a lack of appreciation of their own salvation and the cost of it. Grow into Christ.
The next point Jeremiah made is a vital one (v 8). He says the tree will not fear when the heat comes (that is difficulty, trial, tragedy). Give some Christians a few days of heat and they fold up. Their leaves wither up and fall off. These are “fair weather” Christians, those of the rocky ground. Trying circumstances produce fear in people, but it should not be so with Christians that they get overtaken by the heat. We do fear and we are concerned when difficulty has come, but we have the resource that is absolute in these conditions, that ought to take the dread of fear away. We have that stream we should be tapping into, the abiding in Christ in our lives, and we should be drinking from the stream of living water. The disciples feared when the boat looked like it would capsize but the master of earth and skies was in the boat! Matthew 8:23-27.
Then Jeremiah continues to say (v 8) the tree will not be anxious in drought, even for a year. It is what is under the ground that counts. It is that unseen action, the work of the Holy Spirit feeding us from the blessed stream. The work of the Holy Spirit is not showy or dominated by showmanship, but is the quiet work in the spirit of man, the inner man as Paul called it in these verses – {{2Corinthians 4:16 “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day,”}} And {{Ephesians 3:16 “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man.”}}
I mentioned the mycorrhizal fungi before. Mycorrhizal fungi work to keep the plant healthy from infection. [[Plants are able to get nutrients themselves through their roots, but they have a limited ability to do so. Their roots need to be in direct contact with the soil to absorb the nutrients, and plant roots only grow so small. Fungi, on the other hand, can get much smaller. Fungal hyphae can wedge in between individual bits of soil to cover almost every available cubic millimetre of soil. This increases surface area and allows the plants much greater access to nutrients than they could get by themselves. For many plants living under difficult conditions, they wouldn’t be able to survive at all without mycorrhizae.]] (From an Internet Biology site). These fungi are supported by the plants and they support plants.
It is the work of the Holy Spirit that sustains and keeps us even through the drought. Tough times are hard and wearing to our human makeup, but we have an extra power and special Friend who will never forsake us. Sometimes things can be so hard that in the end all we can do is just place it in the Lord’s hands. We have no strength of our own and it seems all too hard. The Lord is in control, not us. Place it with God, and let go and rest. AND FOLLOW 100%. Throughout all this time we remain fruitful.
What do you see when you look at a tree? The trunk and branches and the leaves. Jeremiah’s tree had green leaves (v 8), a sign of health. What is your spiritual health like? What is seen in you, in me?
We need to note that after the tree imagery, in verse 9, Jeremiah goes on to say the heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick. That we acknowledge, and it is for this very reason, that the whole resources of God are on our side, and work for us. A sick heart leads us into byways, and towards the counsel of the ungodly. The life renewed leads us to God. This is where Romans 12:1-2 plays a very important part.
The track away from God is easy, gentle, appealing and justifiable to our flawed human reasoning. It is so easy to slip onto it. We have been looking at the Good Shepherd recently from Psalm 23. The sheep paths were often narrow and the tempting grain growing by the side of the path was sometimes close to the travelling sheep. Here they might be tempted to slow down and nibble, then stand in the wheat, and then sit down lost. Remember Lot. Don’t ever become “Lot sheep”.
We have noted the progression of the wicked in Psalm 1 v 1 from sinners to scornful, but in departing from the Lord, or being lost and unsaved from the start, then one does not notice the subtle progression into wickedness. Wickedness is so evil, so pernicious, so cunning. Paul terms this working, “the mystery of iniquity” in the KJV.
THE CONCLUDING VERSES OF THE PSALM
VERSES 4 – 6. {{Psalm 1:4 The wicked are not so, but they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
Psalm 1:5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous
Psalm 1:6 for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.}}
THE WICKED WILL HAVE THEIR DAY
The second half of the psalm is given to the wicked in a comparison with the righteous. They are weighed as no heavier than chaff, and when the winds of drought come, and when judgment arrives, they will be blown away. I used to go to a dairy farm for 5 weeks or so every year when I was 10 upwards. It was such a thrill. There was a chaff cutter there and the barn floor had the chaff residue that floated in the air. When the wind blew it carried the chaff fragments away with the greatest simplicity. That is what David is meaning – lightweight chaff! How many lightweight professing Christians are there? I fear there are too many, and the time is here to get right with the Lord, and in many cases, get converted to begin with.
VERSE 4
is in stark contrast with verse 3. Take every point in verse 3 and there is an equivalent for the wicked, the opposite truth, because the wicked are struggling, drought-ravaged, desert plants that have no stream of living water to tap into. You may not be familiar with desert plants. I was because I lived in those areas. The vegetation was generally not bright green but a grey green and dull green. Only those eucalypts that had a good rooting system had green leaves.
VERSE 5
talks about “not standing in judgment” and “not being part of the assembly of the righteous.” When judgement comes the wicked have no foundation and therefore can not stand. At the great white throne they melt away. There is no substance. Likewise the wicked can not be placed with the righteous because they would hate it. There is a really strong contrast going on here.
This is what this psalm is all about. It is a clear division of light and darkness. It is like all people are on a balance beam and they will be found on either the left or the right balance dishes. There are only two choices, not three. Good or bad; righteousness or unrighteousness; saved or unsaved; blessed or cursed; eternal life or eternal death. What a sad subject this can be. That is why we must warn people everywhere of the coming judgement and the time for repentance is here. NOW.
One is either in Christ or not in Christ; in the camp of the saved, or the camp of the unsaved; living with a glorious hope, or living with a fearful expectation.
We link verse 5 with verse 1. The wicked are there and the sinners are there but there is no mention of the scoffers or mockers. They will not even get a mention. I think too many in our world and especially in Australia have settled in the mass of mockers. It is sad. They have no time for God at all.
VERSE 6
The final verse draws the comparison to a close. It is a wonderful fact that the way of the righteous is known to God. We must not miss this and we must take comfort in it. We saw in the Psalm 23 study that the shepherd knew his sheep so closely and would spend time with each sheep daily in a close communion. It is tremendous that the Lord knows you and me closer than any living person can. We are known to Him. Eternity is ours, but think not on eternity, or eternal life, or blessedness, but on HIM. That is what it is all about – to be with HIM for all eternity, to see HIM as He is. He knows our way. May we then know His way!
In closing, all through this Psalm THE TWO WAYS are evident. This is a Psalm of those ways. We used to sing a little chorus in Sunday School a long time back:
One door and only one,
Any yet its sides are two,
Inside and outside,
On which side are you?
One door and only one,
Any yet its sides are two.
I’m on the inside.
On which side are you?
{{Jeremiah 21:8 “You shall also say to this people, Thus says the LORD,” Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.”}}
Today I wrote a quick poem for this Psalm and I close the message with it:
THOUGHTS FROM PSALM 1
We must not walk in wicked ways,
Or stand in sinners’ reach.
Beware the scoffer’s filth he lays;
The godless hate he’ll preach.
Blessed is the life that is upright,
That follows in God’s truth;
To meditate in bible light,
Rejecting what’s uncouth.
And like a tree by deepest streams,
Its roots in God hold fast.
With health and vigour that tree gleams;
His fruit will always last.
Like lightweight chaff the wicked are -
Puffed away in judgement.
From the righteous, they’re banished far,
Into their confinement.
The Lord upholds the righteous ones.
They’re kept in His great hand.
But wickedness and all its sons,
Will perish from the land.
5 October 2022 Ron Ferguson 8-6-8-6 ABAB
Poem is copyright but may be used in Christian ministry with acknowledgement.
ronaldf@aapt.net.au
