The Happiness of a Lifetime

Transcript

GRM 921
The Happiness of a Lifetime
11/21/2004
Psalm 1
Gil Rugh

Turn in your Bibles to Psalm 1. The hymnbook of Israel, as it’s often known, in fact that’s what the word psalms indicates, particularly in the song with stringed instruments, many indications of that through the Psalms. The first psalm forms something of an introduction to the whole rest of the book, because the concepts and ideas set forth in the first psalm are found permeating the rest of the Psalms. The issues settled in the first psalm are basic issues to all the Word of God. Psalms deals with the matter of happiness and where true happiness is found and everybody in the world wants happiness. Most of our lives as people in this world have an element of desiring happiness. You think about everything you do; you say well I did this because I was hoping I would be depressed; I did this because I thought it might make me miserable. We just don’t live our lives that way. Why do we do what we do? Basically, we hope to be happy or happier. We do what we do because we think it will make us happier, not in a superficial trite way. Most of the commercial’s appeal to us from the standpoint, what? We’ll be happier if this happens to us. I was watching a car commercial the last couple of days, and it all is appealing. Basically, the bottom line is you will be happier if you have this car. You know you get out of a hard day at work, you get into this car, you close the door, all the world goes away. Now you have peace and contentment and happiness. This car isolates you from the world, all its problems and all its difficulties. I almost ran out and bought one. Then I said wait, I don’t think that’ll work, I think I thought that with my last car, and it didn’t work that way.

Most of our decisions, we think we’ll be happy. People get married and they find someone they love, and they’re convinced what? Life will be happier with that person. If that wasn’t the case, we’d think maybe I won’t get married. Just everything in life gets back to being happy, having peace and joy, enjoying life is much of what life is about. You pick a job, you change jobs. Well, I’ll make more money, so more money not happiness is it. But basically, what we’re saying is I think if I have more money, I’ll be happier. Sometimes you turn down a job that would pay you more money, but you say I don’t think I would be as happy in that job. At the bottom line the concept of being happy, having joy and peace, and to blend that all together because the concepts do get intertwined. It’s important to everyone, and this Psalm deals with it.

The Psalm really divides between two kinds of people in the world, and the only two kinds of people in the world—the happy and the unhappy. Only it titles them differently. Psalm 1 says there are two kinds of people in the world, the happy and the wicked. You might have thought that it would be the contrast between the happy and the unhappy, or the righteous and the wicked. But you know verse 1 begins, how blessed. We’ll see in a moment that means how very happy is the man. Verse 4 draws a contrast with another kind of person—the wicked are not so. You draw a contrast between the person who is filled with happiness and the person who is wicked. The person who is filled with happiness is a righteous person. The contrast is between the child of God and the person who is not a child of God. The perspective given shows us how God sees all people. Basically, it’s going to be a contrast between people whose lives are filled with the blessings of God and those whose lives are worthless. Very strong contrast. God is going to say the wicked are worthless, they are of no value, they are only good for destruction. It sounds very harsh and cruel and unkind. But that is the picture God draws in Psalm 1, between those lives that He blesses and are filled with joy and happiness and those people whose lives are not worth anything, they’re not good for anything but to be destroyed in hell.

Let’s pick up with verse 1, and we pick up with the happy man. 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. That word blessed, how blessed is the man. It’s a plural word, a word in the plural, and that gives it emphasis. That’s why I say some would translate it oh how blessed, oh how happy, because it’s not just talking about if someone is happy, but how very happy, how very blessed. The word translated blessed means happy, prosperous, not in the sense of material possessions, but his life is filled with joy and peace and all the things internally that give you that sense of happiness. You know it’s what the world is looking for, what people are looking for. I recognize that things in and of themselves don’t make you happy, but we think they will contribute to our happiness. We think, if we don’t have much money, that if I had more money, I would be happier. Why? I wouldn’t have the pressures, it would be nice not to have the pressure of my bills coming in every month, that I wouldn’t have the pressure of working so hard to make a living. Yeah, I think I would be happier if I inherited $10 million. Yet we look and see the richer people get the more difficulty they seem to have finding happiness. In fact, the very wealthy seem to get settled into a pattern of having their own psychiatrist or psychologist to attend to them. Why do they need them? They have more money than most of us will ever dream of, and yet somehow, they need someone to counsel them and keep their spirits up, because happiness doesn’t come from the outside, it has to come from the inside.

We’re talking about the overflowing, abundant happiness of a certain kind of man. You’re aware that in Hebrew in their poetry they often use what is called parallelism. Often in English we rhyme things, so that in our poetry certain words and certain stanzas rhyme. That’s not the only thing involved, it’s one of the characteristics of some of our kinds of poetry. In Hebrew they developed parallel ideas, they would say one thing, then they would say the same thing in a different way. They would say one thing and then they would say the opposite thing. You could have synonymous parallelism or antithetical parallelism and different kinds of parallel ideas. Say one thing, then say it in contrast or the same way, things like that.

Here you have that idea, repeated things said using different words but carrying similar or the same ideas. You talk about the blessed man who does not walk, and that word walk, in the counsel of the wicked. Nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit. So, you have walk, stand, sit. Remember the progression here, we’ll say something about that. But carrying that idea of his contact and involvement with ungodly people. You talk about the counsel of the wicked, you talk about the path or way of sinners, you talk about the seat of scoffers. The counsel, the path, the seat, again all bringing you into contact in one way or another with the ungodly. Then the ungodly are identified as the wicked, sinners, scoffers. Repeating these concepts and these ideas, intensifying the emphasis, if you will.

How blessed, how very happy is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked. Now we’re not just talking about here, we think of a specific wicked person who would try to talk someone into doing something sinful. We say of, course, that would be wicked counsel. But the idea here is broader than that, of a person walking in the counsel of the wicked, a person whose life is shaped by the thinking of the ungodly. It’s not just a specific action done, but it’s life—walking, conducting your life according to the counsel or thinking, the pattern of life of the ungodly. Now those who do not know God, the wicked, are often used in the Old Testament for those who are in contrast to the righteous. The world appeals, we would call it worldliness, an aspect of which is materialism. The world is constantly appealing to us as we referred to, to find happiness in certain ways, happiness in relationships. We have debates going on now and same sex marriage and homosexuality because some people say I couldn’t be happy outside a relationship of this kind. Some people get married because they think that’s what will make them happy. You know in the early days of their marriage and early weeks and months and so on, this is wonderful. But reality does come in and then people find themselves unhappy and miserable. The world is constantly appealing, happiness comes to you from what comes from the outside. I will be happy when I do this because it will make me happy. The truly happy man does not have his life structured according to the thinking of the world, the wicked, those who do not know God.

In Romans chapter 12 verse 1-2 the Apostle Paul wrote, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the making new of you mind. You see when a person allows their thinking to be arranged and directed by those who do not know the living God, they will be conformed to this world. Their life will be characterized by worldliness, living according to the world’s standards, seeking what the world says is fulfilling and satisfying. But the truly happy man does not walk according to the counsel of those who do not know the living God, nor does he stand in the path of sinners, doesn’t join in the lifestyle of sinners, those who miss the mark. There may be a progression developing here because someone walks, then they stand, then they sit. Then the next statement is they don’t sit in the seat of scoffers. Scoffers are those who reject God and His wisdom. In their arrogance they think they know more than God, they think they are wiser, smarter than God. A person has their thinking infected and affected by the counsel of those who don’t know God. They spend time with the ungodly, they stand in the path of sinners. Pretty soon they’ve taken a seat there, they’re comfortable with them in the way they think. We see the same pattern with our kids. You take them to school and say if a stranger starts to talk to you, you keep on walking. Don’t stand and talk to them, don’t sit down with them, and that would be worse. You see a progression here. But the idea pervades it of the thinking of the world getting more and more of a hold on a person, a person becoming more and more comfortable with the ungodly, the wicked, the sinners, those then ultimately who openly reject and refuse to obey God.

The Bible is permeated with this kind of instruction. Turn to the book of Proverbs, just after Psalms. We’ll read a few verses. Something to note--the world’s thinking presses in on all of us, you don’t outgrow this. But the scripture does give particular counsel to young people regarding this. We as adults give particular counsel to our young people. When you get teenagers and they’re starting to go out more independently, you want to know what? Who are you going with? Who will be there? Where are you going to be? What are you going to do? Because you’re concerned that they will get involved. What do the young people want to say? Don’t worry, they’re okay, we’re not going to do anything. We need to be careful that as adults we don’t think we outgrew susceptibility to that kind of influence. We turn on the television and sit down and are bombarded with its thinking and pretty soon our thinking is shaped by what we're hearing, and we’re doing exactly what we tell our children not to do. I don’t want you to be influenced by bad friends, but then we open ourselves to the world and allow our thinking to be shaped by the world and wonder why our kids don’t do what they’re supposed to do.

Look at Proverbs, and you’ll note the warning given to children, and young people need to pay attention to this, teenagers need to, college students need to, young adults need to, as well as older adults need to. But Proverbs begin by directing it. Let’s look at verse 7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. The wisdom and instruction that fools despise is the truth that God has given, the knowledge of Himself, that proper fear of Him. My son, hear your father’s instructions. Do not forsake your mother’s teaching. Here again, wisdom is given to young people. Verse 10, my son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. Don’t listen to them, don’t walk in the counsel of the wicked. Verse 15, my son do not walk in the path with them, keep your feet from their path. Don’t get involved with those who do not know the living God, who reject Him. Doesn’t mean we can’t have any contact, but I can’t be involved and allow my life to be shaped by those who don’t know the living God.

Look at chapter 4 verse 14. Look at verse 13, take hold of instruction, do not let go. Guard her for she is your life. Do not enter the path of the wicked and do not proceed in the way of evil men. Avoid it, do not pass by it, turn away from it, pass on. Sounds like a parent today, doesn’t it. Repeating, emphasizing, don’t enter the path of the wicked, don’t proceed in the way of evil men, avoid it, don’t pass by it, turn away from it, pass on. Why? You can only get in trouble then, you can only get in trouble, you can only have problems.

Look over to chapter 13 of Proverbs. Very simple, he who walks with wise men, verse 20, will be wise. The companion of fools will suffer harm. The conduct, the pattern, the path of our lives, our friends do make a difference. We are influenced by those we allow to get close to us. Over time I just listen to them, but pretty soon I stand with them, and their thinking begins to shape me more. Pretty soon I’m comfortable with them, I sit down with them; and that’s the pattern. Our young people find themselves doing things they didn’t really plan on doing, but they did plan on doing them because they were fools. They rejected the counsel of God and thought they knew more than God. That’s something all of us need to be careful of. We think we’re wiser than God. It’s not just knowing what God says, but it is putting it into practice, as we will see in a moment by the psalmist. The starting point is, be careful of your friends, be careful of the influence of the world. Didn’t think if I spent 6 hours a day letting the television pour into my mind that I’d begin to think like the world. Soon I’m more comfortable with the thinking of the world, then pretty soon I’m settled down with the people of the world because I just feel comfortable with them. The next thing is I see the people in the church, of course they’re hypocrites. My ungodly friends aren’t hypocrites, it’s the people in the church who are hypocrites. I’m more comfortable with my friends, the ungodly, than I am less comfortable with the godly and down we go.

Just jot down I Corinthians 15:33, a verse from the New Testament. Evil companions corrupt good conduct. Same thing as Proverbs 13:20, he who walks with wise men will be wise, the companion of fools will suffer harm. Evil companions corrupt good conduct. How many times as a parent do you hear your teenagers arguing that they are the exception? Well, I know they drink, and they run around, and they do things, but I won’t let that influence me. Now we have the day where parents have to be understanding of their children so if their kids are going to be fools, the parents think they have to be fools, too. The Word of God is true, true for us adults, true for young people, true for all of us.

Come back to Psalm 1. That’s what the truly happy person doesn’t do. He doesn’t get involved in the thinking of the world and allows the world’s thinking to shape and direct life. That’s the negative side. As the scripture often does, it tells you the negative before it tells you the positive. You understand what a truly happy person does. Talking about television, the guy who is cutting his lawn and he’s talking about his house and he belongs to a country club and he does all of it. How do I do this? I am in debt up to my eyeballs. Well, here is a true reflection of what the world does, because everything we need, we need, we need. Some of you are just as much in debt up to your eyeballs. How did we get there? I was going to be happy when I got this, I thought I needed that, I thought I should buy this. I had a credit card, and I like paying them 18% interest. Oh, I see, now you’re really happy. No, I’m more miserable than I’ve ever been because I can’t make the payments. So that which was going to bring you happiness is what? Somehow in our thinking we begin to think like the world that just because we’re believers………. But believers and those following the path of God for true happiness to listen to God. The truly happy man does not allow himself to be shaped by the thinking of the world.

But, strong contrast, his delight is in the law of the Lord and in His law, he meditates day and night. Rather than having his life shaped by the thinking of the world, his life is shaped by the Word of God. His delight, the truly happy man finds his joy, happiness, in the Word of God. Now that is a conflict. You never see one commercial on television telling you that you will be happy if you read the Bible and submit your life to it. It all has to do with what? Things. And if they don’t work……… Now we have commercials that tell you we have a pill if you’re depressed, you’re discouraged. It will make you happy. Nobody says turn to the Word of God and allow the living God to use His truth in your life, to be your delight. To this person the Word of God is not drudgery, it’s not a boring responsibility fulfilled by going to church an hour or two a week. His delight is in the law of the Lord, and it’s not only an hour on Sunday morning or 20 minutes in devotions every morning, but day and night he meditates on the Word of God. The idea is the Word of God is shaping his life. Doesn’t mean he doesn’t do anything but read the Word of God, he doesn’t think about anything but the Word of God. Obviously has things to do. David is king of Israel, had to run a kingdom, had to make mundane decisions, had to make decisions about going to war, how to conduct the war and all of that. But yet here we’re told by the Spirit of God that you meditate on the Word of God day and night. Meaning what? All your decisions, all the patterns of your life are shaped and determined by what God says. So here is a life, rather than shaped according to the input of the ungodly, is shaped and determined by what the living God has said. His life is shaped by the Word of God, a person delights in the Word of God. That’s the joy of his life, his delight is in the law of the Lord. This is a person who has true, full happiness. He finds his delight in the Word of God, thinking on the Word of God, making it the center of my life. Constant admonition of scripture.

Turn back to the book of Joshua, back in the first part of your Bible, after Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. The sixth book of the Old Testament is the book of Joshua, and we come to Joshua chapter 1. Joshua has succeeded Moses as the leader of God’s people, Israel and God is giving Joshua instructions. He tells them in verse 6 to be strong and courageous. Verse 7 he repeats it, only be strong and very courageous. Now note what he says, be careful to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you. The law refers to the first part of the Bible, the first 5 books of the Bible are the Torah, the law given through Moses. That’s the Bible that Joshua had to this point. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left so that you may have success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, then you will have success. Have I not commanded you, be strong and courageous. Don’t be dismayed, don’t tremble. Obviously specific instructions for Joshua, the principle for all of God’s people repeated throughout the scripture, Old and New Testaments. We belong to the living God, we live under His protection, under His authority. His truth, His counsel, His instructions are what shape our lives. You’ll note in verse 8, you don’t let the book of the law depart from your mouth, you meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written. You live according to it, you just don’t learn it and oh yeah, we went to church, that was good, we learned a lot of things. Now I can put that aside and get on with life the rest of the week. No, we take in the Word of God so that we can live according to what God has said.

Turn after the book of Psalms to the book of Jeremiah, it’s a little bit past Psalms and Proverbs, the large prophetic book, Isaiah. You come to the book of Jeremiah, right about the middle of your Bibles. We’re going to chapter 15; I just love this verse and I refer to it often. Very graphically put by Jeremiah the prophet. Jeremiah chapter 15 verse 16, your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart. For I have been called by your name, oh Lord God of hosts. Characteristic of one who belongs to the living God that the word from our God is like food to us and we take it in and it’s a delight to us, it’s a joy to us. Something is wrong in the church when people find themselves bored and disinterested in the Word of God. They’re happy to have the counsel of the ungodly, so sermons turn into self-help talks and people are pleased and enjoy it. We don’t really enjoy the Word of God. You can see there are dangers for young, inexperienced Christians, there are dangers for older, more mature Christians who have been in the Word a long time and have been through these truths so many times they become a little bit shop-worn to us. They no longer impact us the same way they did the first time we heard them. We no longer find it necessary to fill our lives again and again with this truth and repeat it. You know we’re to meditate on it day and night. I’m never done with it, I’m never to grow tired of it.

Turn to Psalm 119. This is the longest chapter in all the Bible, the 119th Psalm. One of the old writers who wrote a commentary, preached a series of messages, wrote a commentary on Psalm 119 and it takes 3 large books. That’s just one chapter of the Bible. Psalm 119 verse 1, how blessed. Here we are, want to talk about true happiness, how blessed, how happy are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord. See that parallel idea? What does it mean to have your way blameless, complete, all that God wants it to be? It means you’re walking according to His Word. You’re living your life according to His truth. Someone followed you around for the next week, at the end of the week would they say, well one thing I can say is they lived their life according to the Word of God, whether they go to a job, whether they go to the store. Whatever they do, they live their life according to the Word of God. Doesn’t mean they don’t do anything but read the Bible, but everything they do is shaped by the Word of God. How blessed are those who walk in the law of the Lord, is what he is saying. How blessed are those who observe His testimonies. His testimonies are what God has testified to, it’s the truth of His Word. Who seek Him with all their heart.

Verse 4, you have ordained your precepts that we should keep them diligently. Oh, that my ways may be established to keep your statutes. Then I shall not be ashamed when I look on all your commandments. Not ashamed, why? Because I’m doing them. We know what it is to be ashamed. When we’ve sinned and someone brings the Word of God to bear, we’re embarrassed, we’re ashamed because we haven’t obeyed the Word of God.

Verse 9, how can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to your Word. We have a lot of impurity going on in the world today because people aren’t interested in obeying God. They scoff at the Word of God. We don’t want to sit in the seat of scoffers, want to be joined with them. You tell them what the Bible says, that’s sin. They scoff at it. We keep our way pure by keeping it according to the Word of God, and that’s where true happiness comes from. With all my heart I have sought you, do not let me wander from your commandments. Your Word I have treasured in my heart that I might not sin against you.

Verse 14, I have rejoiced in the way of your testimony, as much as in all riches. That’s the contrast. Somebody in the world gets thrilled if they come into a large windfall. But that’s nothing compared to the riches we have in the Word of God. David said I have rejoiced in the way of your testimonies, talking about what God has said, as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and regard your ways. I shall delight in your statutes; I shall not forget your Word. I daresay that for many in the church today, the Word of God is not precious. They do not esteem it highly; they like to get as little of it as possible. I know I should do it, enough is enough, I don’t need a lot, a little bit. That’s not something you treasure highly, not something I put great value on, not something that I’m looking to fill my life with in every area and every way. Is the Word of God my delight? It’s no longer a question of do I have to go to Bible study again? Do I really, if I’m a Christian, have to go to Sunday School? Do I have to go every Sunday morning? Is Sunday School necessary? Is Sunday morning worship necessary? Is Sunday night? Are Bible studies necessary? Look, I want to know how much I have to do, and you see something is wrong. I’m not thinking about those that are precious.

Some of you are dating or engaged or anticipating soon to get married. You don’t say oh do I have to spend more time with them? You know you get home and one of your parents says so-and-so called. Well, if it’s that special person, I mean why didn’t you tell me sooner? It was only 5 minutes ago. I know but you could have told me right away. Why? This is important. What do I want to do? When Marilyn and I were dating my parents asked, where are you going? I’m going over to see Marilyn. I had an accident, so I lost my driver’s license. I get all my confessions………. I only confess what happened 40 years ago. We had moved from Pennsylvania to New Jersey. Tragedy of tragedies, I was 16 and you could drive when you were 16 in Pennsylvania, you had to be 17 in New Jersey. All right, I drove on my Pennsylvania license. But then I was driving down route 130 in New Jersey and I hit a Corvette, just mashed that poor guy’s Corvette. I’m driving this old 1950 Plymouth, didn’t matter to me. You know what I did when I went to court? The judge says that license is no longer good, give it to me. I had to walk. We lived in New Jersey, Marilyn lived in Pennsylvania. I couldn’t talk her family into moving, I couldn’t talk my family into moving. Nothing was too much trouble. It was snowing a blizzard one night and I turned up at the door of Marilyn’s house. Let me tell you, getting a ride on a night like that was miserable. Why? I wanted to spend time with her. I mean it wasn’t too much trouble. My parents would say you’re not going out on a night like this. Well of course I am, it’s not bad. Now if Marilyn asks me to do something on a night like this—you’re kidding, not on your life, not even in the car. No.

All this to say what? When something is precious you want to spend time with it. I just get concerned when people say oh yeah, I love the Lord, I love the Word. Do I have to do this? Do I have to be …………… You know it’s like I want as little as possible. Then it’s not precious, it’s not my delight, it’s not what the psalmist is writing about. Any wonder we don’t have true happiness, the true oh the happiness? Any wonder people in the church have just as much trouble as the people in the world? They’re discouraged, they’re depressed, they’re down. I don’t know what’s wrong, I’m just not happy. Yes, something is wrong. It’s a characteristic of the wicked that they’re not happy. Oh, the happiness of the one whose delight is in the Lord and His Word. Do you really know the Lord? Going through the motions but looking for happiness in the ways of the world. Church, I have to get that out of the way, it’s a responsibility, everybody should go for at least an hour. But my real happiness, what I really enjoy, I find here. Wonder why people get depressed and discouraged. All of us can allow, if we’re not careful even as God’s people, our thinking begins to get shaped by the world. I say why am I discouraged, why am I depressed, why am I gloomy, why am I down? You know sometimes what I have to do? I have to just get off by myself and do nothing for the next few hours but read the Word of God. I’m just going to sit down and read it. Lord, I have to say it doesn’t seem very interesting, it’s not encouraging my heart, it’s almost drudgery to me. But I’m going to do it. You know I find I just have to force myself, fill myself with the Word. I may get done in those two hours or whatever, close it up, and you know I find if I discipline myself to do this over time pretty soon my thinking gets reshaped, just like I’ve readjusted.

It’s like when my glasses get out of focus, my eyes are changing. I go get a correction; I see clearly again. The danger is we start to get discouraged and depressed and we begin to think, well I need something else. We turn further away from God and His truth, and we get more into difficulty, and then our problems begin to multiply. Something is wrong. You know what the world’s solution to unhappiness and difficulty and depression and discouragement is? Go see a counselor, a psychologist or psychiatrist. If his talking won’t do it, he’s got pills that will. You know what the church has adopted now? The thinking of the world. We follow the same pattern in the world. I don’t want to walk in the counsel of the ungodly, they don’t know. I want to find out, why isn’t God‘s Word thrilling my heart? It’s a characteristic of the people of God that they have an overflowing happiness. If I don’t have it, I want to know what’s wrong. Do I belong to the living God, or have I been fooling myself all this time? I want to settle that, that’s the basic issue of all issues. If I think I really do know the living God I want to know, is the Word of God precious to me. Not just do I go and listen to a preacher once in a while or even every Sunday. I mean is it my delight and is my joy to get into the Word. I want to know more of Him, I want His Word to be the refreshment for my soul, the encouragement of my heart. Even in times of sorrow and grief and discouragement, there is a happiness and joy that is mine. Paul could write to the Thessalonians and say we don’t grieve as those who have no hope. Doesn’t say we never grieve, but we don’t grieve as the hopeless. The Word of God anchors my life and brings hope and that brings joy, that brings happiness.

Come back to Psalm 1 verse 3, this truly happy man who has his life shaped and directed by the Word of God, he will be like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season. Its leaf does not wither and whatever he does, he prospers. Doesn’t mean he gets rich, because remember true happiness doesn’t come from outside, it comes from inside. But he does prosper, and the happiness and joy of the Lord is His and all that He does. The Middle East was a picture of prosperity because of the dryness, the desert climate, a tree prospering and producing fruit a picture of health and well-being. We don’t have time to go there, but Jeremiah chapter 17 verses 7-8 uses the same picture in the same contrast as we have here. We’re talking about a life that is filled, that is full. Why are some people so happy, so content, so joyful and they have so much less than a lot of other people? Because they have the happiness that only God can bring, the joy that is not connected to circumstances. Their health may not be what others’ is, but they’ve experienced the happiness that the Lord brings to an unhealthy body. They don’t have as many material possessions, but they’ve experienced the overflowing happiness that the rich find themselves trying to find. They are like the tree that is so prosperous and fruitful.

There is a contrast we have to mention. The wicked are not so, they’re not in any way like the godly person who is so prosperous, so happy. The wicked are not so. They do not have the living God sustaining them, they do not have the living God producing His joy, His happiness, His contentment in their life. You’ll note we started out with oh how blessed is the man and that man stands in stark contrast. The wicked are not so. They are like chaff which the wind drives away. This is a strong contrast. This is how God sees them, what God says they are. The contrast is not even between two kinds of trees, a fruitful tree and an unfruitful tree. The contrast is between this tree that is so fruitful and prosperous, and chaff which is absolutely worthless. Everyone, when the psalmist wrote this understood, to say they’re chaff means they are not good for anything but damnation. They’re not good for anything but burning. John the Baptist used the same picture in introducing Christ as the Messiah to Israel. In the coming of the Messiah, He’ll gather up the chaff for burning, that’s all the chaff is good for. The lives of the wicked are worthless, as God sees them. That’s a stark saying, it sounds cruel, it sounds mean. Oh, I know some good, unsaved people. God knows not one. Oh, I know some unsaved people, I’m sure God thinks highly of them. He says they’re not good for anything but hell. You say I don’t like a God like that. Go up into the seat of scoffers, then. You don’t want to sit in the seat of scoffers, those who think they know more than God, those who are arrogant enough to deny that what God says could be true. It’s the context we have here, isn’t it? We ought to be careful even as God’s people that we don’t allow the thinking of the world to shape us. The wicked are not like the righteous, they are like chaff which the wind drives away. Just worthless, what’s left from the grain when it’s separated out. What a stark contrast. We’re talking about judgment here.

Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. Comes judgment day, the wicked will not make it, they’ll be gathered like chaff and cast into the burning of hell. I mean can there be any greater contrast. Oh, the happiness of the man who knows the Lord. His life is filled to overflowing and everyone else is like chaff, only good for hell, worthless. We go and tell people oh you are so valuable, Christ died for you. God says they are chaff. Aren’t you arrogant? You think everybody else is chaff, but you’re something special. No, that’s the amazing thing with the grace of God. He takes the chaff and turns it into a flourishing tree. I don’t say this because some of us are better than others. Titus chapter 3 says don’t be arrogant, you remember what you were. You were foolish and wicked just like the rest before the grace of God came and made you new. I don’t say this because some people are better than others. The amazing grace of God changes a life, but until a life is changed by the grace of God that life is worthless. It’s only good for hell, and if the grace of God never changes that life, that life will be consigned to an eternal burning in hell. If you deny that, you’ve taken the seat of scoffers in verse 1, those who scoff at the Word of God, who reject it, who despise it and, in their arrogance, think they are more loving than God, more knowledgeable than God.

For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. You know we think of the worst kind of sinners, but you understand He has divided all people into two groups, and only two groups. Some of the wicked are more obvious and open in their wickedness, but the best unbeliever you know, the nicest unbeliever you know is chaff, worthless to God. From God’s perspective hell is the only place for him. That’s a stark contrast. What a change, what a contrast. You say that’s depressing. It’s not depressing to the psalmist who writes under the inspiration of the Spirit, oh the happiness. I couldn’t be happy thinking that some people are chaff. You need to immerse yourself in the Word of God. I’m not glad people are lost, but this is what God says is true. There is only true happiness, true joy in eternal salvation found in the living God. We allow our thinking to be shaped by the world and pretty soon it takes the edge off things, and we don’t begin to look at the people around us, the closest family members, people we work with as destined for a hell that has no hope. Well, I don’t want to judge, we’ll just see. I don’t want to judge either, but I do want to tell people what the living God has said. I do want to tell them what the judge who will judge them has said. They may think I’m arrogant, but you understand this is not what I have said. A person is not chaff because I’ve said they’re chaff. They’re chaff because God said they’re chaff. I don’t like to think of any human being as worthless, so that’s why I need to meditate on the Word of God day and night. So that I might see people as you see them—chaff, destined for judgment and burning. That’s hopeless. No, because Jesus Christ the Son of God came to suffer and die. Why? That that worthless chaff might be transformed by the power of God into a flourishing tree. What were you before God saved you? Titus chapter 3, you were just like the rest, just as wicked as God saw you, just as worthless as could be. But God’s grace changed you.

We forget sometimes as believers who have been saved a long time, what we were. We begin to think of ourselves as not dirty old sinners like those people. But that’s what we were. That’s the amazing thing about God’s salvation—that I should be privileged to have the overflowing happiness and joy, peace and contentment, the eternally glorious destiny that God has promised to all who love Him. What grace, what a salvation that could take worthless chaff and make a flourishing tree. Only God can do it. Are you happy? Oh yeah, I got a raise this week, I’m very happy. But that will wear off, inflation will take care of that, somebody will find a way to spend it. If your happiness depends on that, oh yeah, I just got married, I’m happy. Well time will take the edge off that. Well, we just moved into a new house, I couldn’t be happier. Well, you live in it a while and it will become an old house. Your car, well my car has over 100,000 miles on it, air conditioner doesn’t work all the time, fan goes off when it should go on, it goes on when it should go off. Doesn’t give me happiness anymore, I’ll buy a new one and then I’ll be happy. You can’t have happiness from the outside. If you’re expecting your husband or wife to make you happy it won’t work. If you’re expecting your job to bring you happiness it won’t work, and on it goes. But there is happiness in the living God. He produces it within, and that keeps coming and coming and filling you and filling you and overflowing, even in the most discouraging and disheartening times, most painful situations. God brings His peace, His joy, His happiness. If someone spent a week with you, would they say, I don’t know, they’re sure a happy person. That church there, I don’t know, they’re happy people. I mean they’re happy, they just seem to have a joy and a happiness. I don’t know where they got it. Is it yours? Maybe you’ve just been trying to go through the motions. You know it’s hard, isn’t it? I have to go through the motions and act like I really enjoy studying the Bible. I really don’t, I like to get done and get on with other things that are important. I like to act like I’m happy going great, thanks. It’s no fun living like that. Do you have true happiness? You don’t have to confess to me. But before the Lord are you a truly happy person? If not, do you know the living God, have you come to trust His Son? If you have are you filling your life with the Word? Maybe as His child you’ve allowed yourself to get distracted and the influence of the world and the thinking of the world has begun to shape your life, and that begins to detract from your happiness. Are you filling your life with God’s Word? Thinking on Him so it becomes the natural thing that God’s Word directs you in the decisions and activities of your life?

The wicked aren’t like that, the wicked are chaff. Those who don’t know Jesus Christ sit here as chaff, doomed and destined for destruction. But there is a Savior who can turn the chaff into the flourishing tree. That’s the one who loved us and died for us.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord, for abundant grace. Thank you for the clarity of your Word. Lord it’s easy for us to forget the stark contrast between those who belong to you by your grace and those who do not. It’s easy for us to try to forget that the wicked are chaff, those loved ones who do not know the Savior are destined for burning. Lord, they need to hear the message of salvation in Christ. Lord, our hearts are thrilled to know that you have provided overflowing happiness for us. It is to be a defining characteristic of us as your children that we have a full happiness and joy. May that characterize us individually, may it be the testimony of this church for your honor and glory. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.