The Right Path Series

Scripture

I came across a poem that I believe is titled, “Don’t Grieve for Me.” It reads as follows:

When I’ve been to my last service, / And fades softly on the air, / The notes of the last song for me, / And then the final prayer.

When friends arise and slowly walk / Down the long church aisle, / For that last look at my cold corpse, / As they pass in single file.

There may be words of flattery, / And some may even sneer, / Some may sob, and some may cry, / Some may not shed a tear.

But be what may, this much I know, / I will no longer care; / No earthly voice can reach my ear, / As I climb that “Golden Stair.”

Now, pen in hand, I’m writing you / This is my last request, / Don’t grieve for me; don’t wish me back; / For I am one most blessed.

I have a hope beyond the grave; / I am secure in God’s great love. / I leave this world with all its cares / For a mansion up above.

Though it be hard, please wear a smile; / Rejoice, and praise our God! / ’Tis only this old shell of mine / You place beneath the sod.

The line that caught my attention was this one: “For I am one most blessed.” The author of this poem is most blessed because he (or she) is in the presence of the Savior. That will be true for every believer when he or she dies and passes into the presence of Jesus.

But, for the believer, that blessedness does not only begin in glory. It begins here on earth. It begins the moment we trust Jesus to be our Savior. We who know Jesus are blessed.

Today, I want to look at Psalm 1 because this psalm shows us the path of blessing and fulfillment in life.

Please follow along as I read Psalm 1:1-6:

1 Blessed is the man

who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,

nor stands in the way of sinners,

nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord,

and on his law he meditates day and night.

3 He is like a tree

planted by streams of water

that yields its fruit in its season,

and its leaf does not wither.

In all that he does, he prospers.

4 The wicked are not so,

but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,

nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;

6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,

but the way of the wicked will perish. (Psalm 1:1-6)

Introduction

There are 150 psalms in the book of Psalms. There are different types of psalms. The ESV Study Bible categorizes the different psalms as follows:

• Laments, whose primary function is to lay a troubled situation before the Lord, asking him for help….

• Hymns of praise, whose primary goal is to call and enable God’s people to admire God’s great attributes and deeds….

• Hymns of thanksgiving, which thank God for his answer to a petition….

• Hymns celebrating God’s law, which speak of the wonders of the Torah (the Law of Moses) and help worshipers to aspire to obey it more fully….

• Wisdom psalms, which take themes from the Wisdom Books (Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon) and make them the topic of song….

• Songs of confidence, which enable worshipers to deepen their trust in God through all manner of difficult circumstances….

• Royal psalms, which are concerned with the Davidic monarchy as the vehicle of blessing for the people of God….

• Historical psalms, which take a lesson from the history of God’s dealings with his people….

• Prophetic hymns, which echo themes found in the Prophets, especially calling the people to covenant faithfulness.

Psalm 1 is of course the first psalm in the book of Psalms. It is a wisdom psalm. “But,” as one commentator says, “Psalm 1 is more than this. It is the father of all the wisdom psalms.”

We don’t know who wrote Psalm 1. Some scholars say that Solomon wrote Psalm 1, and he intended it to be placed at the front of the entire book of Psalms.

The great 19th century Baptist preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, called Psalm 1 “The Preface Psalm,” adding, “It is the psalmist’s desire to teach us the way to blessedness, and to warn us of the sure destruction of sinners. This then, is the matter of the first Psalm, which may be looked upon, in some respects, as the text upon which the whole of the Psalms make up a divine sermon.”