Psalms 1 And 13 - The Ups And Downs Of Life

Psalms 1 & 13

Please stand as we read our newest memory Scripture together …

1 John 1:5-7

“This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.

“But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.”

And our memory refresher verse(s) for today is(are) …

Philippians 4:6-7

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Please open your Bibles to Psalm 1

I know I’ve told you this before but I was raised by my Mom and Great Grandma Mary with anywhere between 3 (I was the third born) and 12 kids in the family. And I remember we would have a short devotional each night from a series of illustrated Bible story books. Then we would recite Psalm 1, Psalm 23 or the Lord’s Prayer and have individual prayer times.

They were wonderful teaching times and I remember them with great fondness.

With that in mind let’s go ahead and read Psalm 1

Now, the Psalm 1 that I remember is some sort of mixture of the King James translation and the NIV translation, but the truth is still there.

Let’s work our way through the first Psalm …

Psalm 1:1

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the company of mockers,

(NLT: Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers.)

- Do you want to be blessed?

- This is much more than simple happiness.

- Blessed = Holy contentment

- I Timothy 6:6; “Godliness with contentment is great gain!”

- So if the “blessed” person is not taking advice from the wicked or hanging out with those who oppose the Lord or sitting around with scornful mockers where DO they get their advice???

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Psalm 1:2

but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night.

- “the law of the LORD” = the Holy Bible

- He knows the Bible

- He loves the Bible

- Meditate does not mean to sit around in a yoga posture humming to yourself

- He “chews on” the Scriptures until he can digest it and make it a part of his being; the way he sees and interacts with the Lord and with the world

- Continually …

Philippians 4:8

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things.”

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Psalm 1:3

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.

- The godly person described in verse 2 will thrive spiritually

- He will prosper because his desire is to do the will of the Lord!

- When your desire is to do what the Lord desires you will never have to do it alone!

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Psalm 1:4

Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.

- This is an agricultural metaphor. On wheat there is the kernel of grain and the chaff surrounding the kernel of grain. At the time when the Psalms were written the threshed grain would be tossed up into a light breeze. The breeze would carry away the worthless chaff and the kernel of grain would fall back into the basket.

- The wicked are spiritually useless

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Psalm 1:5

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,

nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

(NLT: The wicked will be condemned at the time of judgment. Sinners will have no place among the godly.)

- Why is that?

- Because they, followed the advice of the wicked, stood around with sinners and joined in with mockers.

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Psalm 1:6

For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous,

but the way of the wicked will perish.

(NLT: For the Lord watches over the path of the godly, but the path of the wicked leads to destruction.)

- To explain why the LORD watches over the godly we can just look at one of our new memory verses, 1 John 1:7, “If we walk in the Light as He is in the Light we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.”