The Way to True Happiness

Transcript

GRM 508
12/08/1996
The Way to True Happiness
Psalm 1
Gil Rugh


I want to direct your attention to the book of Psalms for our study together today, the first Psalm, Psalm 1 in your Bibles. It would be just about in the middle of our Old Testament, a little bit before the middle of your Bible. The well-loved book of Psalms, the longest of our books in the Bible with 150 chapters. And we want to look at the first Psalm. I think the Christmas season just focuses attention in a sharper way in a reality that is characteristic of us as human beings year round and that is just about every person alive has the desire to have a satisfying and fulfilling life. People everywhere want to have their life characterized by joy and happiness. People believe that their life should be fulfilling, it should be meaningful, that if life is to have meaning, there is to be happiness associated with it. Much of our lives are spent in the pursuit of happiness. Advertisements are built around this theme of happiness. Sometimes you have to laugh as you watch some of the commercials that appeal to you to buy a certain product. There is one car commercial being on who thinks car commercials have a redeeming value, they show you cars. But the one where the lady is sitting talking to her friend and going on about he's discontent, he need something more in his life and it sounds like someone who is about to go through a divorce and when all is said and done, he wants a Cadillac. You know I turned to Marilyn one time and I said, That’s what we need, a Cadillac. As if our life doesn’t have enough problems. But you know all the advertisements appeal. You watch the beer commercials, and they show you what, a bar someplace and everybody in there is laughing and having a great time. You think, boy I ought to drink that beer. I want to laugh and have a good time. And your life will be more enjoyable. You will be a happier person when you have this.

And that effects our thinking broadly, not just in the area of things. You know young people they are going to be happy when they get done with school. They can get out on their own or done with college and start the job that they wanted. Or I will be happy when I meat the man or woman that is going to be my wife or when we have a family. And always, I am going to be happy when and you know for a certain period of time the world does experience happiness. They get something new, or they enter a new relationship, and they are on cloud nine. But that wears off with the passing of time and they need to get something else new or move on to another relationship and on we go. In spite of all the attention given to happiness, we haven’t been very successful in finding it.

This past year there was much attention given to a drug that many people were taking. It supposedly changes the mood of certain people and makes them happy. They had a program on it where people gave their testimonies of how different their life is and they can face the day and they are excited about the day and they enjoy life in a way they didn’t. Underlying that is people would like to believe it is that simple. I find out that all I need is this certain pill and I will be happy. But it just isn’t so. I am encouraged as I come to the word of God and find that is it God’s intention that the people that He has created experience true happiness. It is God’s intention that we enjoy life if you will. Now not in the superficial way that is often presented to us. God intends us to have happiness but not just the feeling that comes and goes, but true happiness in joy. That’s God’s intention for us as His creation. And He has made provision for that for us.


That’s what this first Psalm is about. In fact if you read commentators on the first Psalm many of them will have titles for it related to the happy man or how to have happiness or the happy and the unhappy person because the Psalm begins, Psalm 1:1, “How blessed it the man.” And that word “blessed” is the basic word for happiness so the most common translation for it from commentators is how happy is the man. What happens in this first Psalm is it sets forth for us what are the characteristics of the truly happy person. He does this by drawing a contrast between the person whose life is filled with happiness, fulfillment and the person whose life is empty and worthless. The Psalmist makes clear, every person alive fits into one of the two categories. Either the happy or the unhappy, either the saved or the lost is the comparison that is drawn.

This Psalm forms an introduction to the book of Psalms. The theme that is developed here is the contrast between the two kinds of people on earth. The happy and prosperous and the empty and worthless as a theme that will reoccur again and again for the rest of the book of Psalms. He introduces here what is a key foundational concept in the Psalms themselves, the contrast between the righteous and the wicked.

Look at verse 1. “How blessed it the man.” That word “blessed” is in the plural. Oh the blessedness of him, oh the happiness’s of the man. It intensifies the idea. So some would translate it, “Oh how extremely happy” is this kind of man. Now you are aware our Bibles are not politically correct so we are not talking just about men as the male of the species. But we are talking about the person here who fits the characteristics that are drawn. Oh the extreme happiness of this person. You know you have to say just the way it starts off, it has an appeal to you. You say I would love to have a life that is characterized by extreme happiness. To say that my life has a joy and satisfaction and fulfillment that can truly be described as intense. I am a very happy person.

Well he immediately proceeds to draw out a description of the happy man, this blessed man. He is first going to draw a contrast by showing what he is not and how he does not function and then the positive side. You know again another area where our Bibles do not follow the thinking of the day, where you have to be positive, always be up, always saying positive things and then after a period of time you can get the truth. Here the Psalmist, one statement, oh the very blessedness of the man, the very intense happiness of the man. Here is what he does not do.

Now he is going to draw a series of contrasts here by using a form of Hebrew poetry. In our English poetry we follow probably most often a system of rhyme in our poetry. At least that’s one of the major features we often use. But that’s not the way Hebrew poetry develops. Perhaps the most common form of Hebrew poetry at least that we can be familiar with is of certain sounds and ways of reading their poetry. We have no way of knowing since we are thousands of years removed from the writing of this but a form of Hebrew poetry that pervades the Psalms is what is called parallelism. And in parallelism you state something then you state it again a little differently and maybe state it a third time as we are going to have as this Psalm opens up. There is synonymous parallelism which we will have here where you say the same thing three different ways to make the point. Sometimes you have contrasting parallelism or antithetical parallelism where you say the opposite thing. You say something and then the next line you say it’s opposite. That’s how their poetry is developed and it appears throughout the book of Psalms as well as other writings in the Old Testament.

So you will note, “How blessed is the man who does now walk in the counsel of the wicked.” That’s the first statement. The second statement which is parallel, “nor stand in the path of sinners,” third statement that is parallel, “nor sit in the seat of scoffers.” So he is saying similar things in three different ways. And you will note the parallel things. There are three words that really relate to one another three times. Note these words. The first word: walk, then in the nest line: stand, then in the third line: sit. Walk, stand, sit. They are related ideas, similar concepts that he is repeating. The second word that is important in the repetition: counsel, then in the next line: path, then in the next line: seat, counsel, path, seat. They will all be talking about a similar idea with different words. And then the third word is at the end of each of these lines: wicked, sinners, scoffers, all identifying the same group of people basically with different words. You see how he takes an idea, then repeats it, then repeats it and so makes the point clearly.


“How blessed is the man.” First of all what does the happy man do or not do? He does not walk in the counsel of the wicked. To walk refers to the ordering of the life in it’s entirety. And the paths that we walk as we conduct ourselves through life. He does not walk in the counsel of the wicked. Counsel, advice. The truly happy man does not get his advice, his counsel, his input for life from the wicked. This word wicked is the most general term for the wicked in the Old Testament in contrast to the righteous. We start right out. You want to be a truly happy person? You cannot take advice and counsel from the wicked. Now we are not talking about certain neutral things here. Does that mean I cannot go to an automobile mechanic who is not a godly person or to a dentist who is not a godly person or to anybody else? Well, he is primarily talking here about the area of our moral and ethical conduct and behavior. Well, of course of our spiritual lives which get intertwined with that. You don’t get your counsel and advice from the wicked. Now that seems like a simple and clear principle but it’s one the people of God constantly struggle with because we live in a world that promotes its wisdom, that constantly tells you it has better ideas and better insights and better understanding. And the danger is that we as the people of God constantly feel the pressure to get input from the wicked and it is corrupting. And a basic characteristic of the happy person is he does not take counsel from the wicked. He does not look to the wicked to give him input on how to function, how to live, how to deal with life.

And we won’t get off on a sidetrack but the church has collapsed on this point when it comes to psychology where men believe that they have come up with a better idea. We will take the counsel of the wicked and after fine tuning it we will wed it to the word of God. Then we will really be able to give direction and advice and direction and counsel to people on how to live, how to deal with the problems of life. You understand what you are doing? You destroy the happiness that only God can provide because inherent in that... And that’s why on of the major Christian Psychologists has written a book demeaning the concept of the “nothing butterists,” those who would believe that nothing but the scripture is needed to deal with life. Well, the psalmist is saying the truly blessed man, the truly happy man doesn’t take advice for life from the wicked.

Secondly, “nor does he stand in the path of sinners.” To stand in the path of sinners, now you are not getting input but you have moved to stand in the path where they live. So the truly happy person does not live the lifestyle of sinners. That’s the point. Standing in the path of sinners. I am where they are. I am involved now in their life and lifestyle, their path where they are walking. So I have moved and it is being more clarified. You don’t take advice from them; you don’t live like they do.

And thirdly, the truly happy person does not “sit in the seat of scorners.” We saw the scorners in our study of II Peter. They are those who reject and mock God and His wisdom. In their pride and arrogance they think themselves wiser than God. Now this may not be overtly evident. We will see that as we move further in this Psalm. They may identify themselves externally with the righteous. They claim to have the same goals and purposes as the people of God have. But they really are mocking the word of God. They are scoffers because they think they have a greater wisdom than God has. But they present it under the guise of being more effective, of being more able to communicate.

I was reading again yesterday, a book on preaching. And the man was ridiculing the idea of people and preachers particularly who have a teaching style ministry. He says you can always tell something is wrong and you are in that kind of ministry when you see people with pencils and notebooks writing. Because if you are a good storyteller everybody will be interested in your stories not writing notes. And they are just writing notes to try to keep awake. And the point of the book is you don’t want to be a teaching preacher. You want to be a story telling preacher. That was a man who pastored and Evangelical church in this state before moving on to another state. And I say if we are not careful we begin to sit in the seat of mockers, coming up with better ideas than God, improving on the word of God and subtle ways that we become influenced by the thinking of the world.

So the sum total of what he has said to this point in these three lines is you are not involved in any way with the wicked. That’s the life of happiness. Now again I am not talking about oh, you don’t talk to them, you don’t ride in the same car with them, you don’t eat the same food. That’s not the point. The point is in the moral and ethical dimensions of our life. We don’t look to the wicked. We don’t pattern our lives after the wicked. We don’t have the attitude toward revealed truth of the wicked.



And I think there may well be a progression developed here as well. You note the walk, stand, sit pattern as well as the other three comparisons. And they not a progression. You know you walk by the counsel by people giving input and you are allowing that to shape your thinking and walk. The picture may be somebody walks by the show room of a car. You are walking by the street. You look. You see the car. The next step is you are in there standing looking at it. And the next thing you know you are sitting down buying it. There may be that picture here as we open ourselves up. We sometimes say, How did people get from here to here? How did some people who seem to be so on track get so off track? Well start simply. First you start opening yourself up to input that the scripture says we ought not to be receiving. Well I just want to talk their counsel and advice. Pretty soon I am adjusting my thinking on the Word and I find myself living more like the people giving the advice are living. And then pretty soon I’ve moved on to think I am wiser than God and these ideas are necessary. I become a scoffer and rejecter of simple revealed truth.

Psalm 1 is part of what is called wisdom literature in the Bible. Wisdom literature deals with the subjects like we are dealing with here, the contrast between the righteous and the wicked. It has an emphasis on how life is to be lived. Turn over to the book of Proverbs which is part of the wisdom literature of our Old Testaments. And just note this emphasis that is repeated through scripture and that is we must be very careful about the associations and involvements we have with the wicked. From the advice they give, to the lifestyle they live, to their attitude toward the word of God and truth. In Proverbs 1. You note verse 7, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” That’s at the root of what we are talking about. Our genuine relationship with the word of God and a proper reverence and awe of Him. Come down to verse 10. “My son if sinners entice you, do not consent.” You don’t heed their counsel. You are not open to their direction.

Verse 15, “My son, do not walk in the way with them; keep your feet from their path.” You know we sometimes as parents try to instruct our young people, watch your friends. You know what we call the pier pressure which we have as adults as well as the young people. But it is real. It is there. Keep your feet away from their path. Sounds similar to what we have read in Psalm 1 doesn’t it. Turn over to chapter 4 verse 14. “Do not enter the path of the wicked,” do not proceed in the path of evil men. Avoid it. Do not pass by it. Turn from it. Pass on. In other words, you go out of your way to avoid any entanglement or any opportunity for entanglement with the wicked.

Over in chapter 13, still in Proverbs verse 20, “He who walks with wise men will be wise but the companion of fools will suffer harm.” We need friends, but we need the right kind of friends. This is reiterated in an emphasized way of verse 7 of chapter 14. “Leave the presence of a fool or you will not discern words of knowledge.” That’s an important verse. “Leave the presence of a fool or you will not discern words of knowledge.” You know what happens? When you open yourself up to this kind of influence and these kind of people, the impact they have causes you to lose your discernment. So how do people come to the point that they will accept some of the things they accept? How do they get so confused? They didn’t heed the teaching of the word. They didn’t leave the presence of fools. Fools in Proverbs refer to those who don’t know God. They are the wicked, the sinners that we are talking about in Psalm 1. You get your advice from these kind of individuals, it begins to affect your thinking. Then I get involved with them. I lose my ability to discern.

I was talking with some people just in the last week or so and you know this is repeated over and over again. I look at men in ministry and I say, what happened to them? I’ve talked to them and said at one time you stood for this. How do you lose you ability to discern? I have to say quite frankly that is a concern to me. I see it happening to men I’ve greatly respected in ministry and I say I had better take this advice. “Leave the presence of a fool.” I put that in the context of Psalm 1. I am not open to their advice, to their counsel. I don’t want to be identified with them in their life and I cannot have their attitude toward God and His word. If I don’t heed that scripture I will loose by ability to discern and then I will be open to more trouble. And so the downward spire goes on.


Come back to Psalm 1. That’s the negative. But what about the positive? A truly happy person is noted by what they do not do but that is not all. You are not truly a happy person by not doing certain things. True happiness is in the context of not doing certain things and at the same time doing what you should do. But verse 2, “His delight is in the law of the Lord. And in His law he meditates day and night. You know this person doesn’t get input on life from the wicked and the ungodly. He doesn’t get input for his life from the world. His life is built in and around and out of the word of God. “His delight is in the law of the Lord.” That expression the Law or the law of the Lord refers to God’s revealed truth. It’s broader than just the first five books of our Old Testament but it would include that. But since they were the initial revelation of God and the foundational revelation for Israel, the expression the law becomes and expression that is used often for the whole scripture. That’s what the Psalmist is saying here. His delight is in the revealed word of God. The word of God is his delight. You note that, delight. It’s not just a wearisome, troublesome task I do but the delight of his life is the word of God. That doesn’t mean I always feel like studying the word. That does not mean that serious grappling with the word is not hard work. But the real delight of a happy person is in the word of God.

Note how he elaborates. “His delight is in the law of the word.” Note what he says next. “And in his law he meditates day and night.” Basically saying the same thing is what it means to delight in the law of the Lord. And when you delight in the law of the Lord it means you meditate in the law of the Lord day and night. The word meditate means to go over something again and again and again. And it’s not just including memorizing scripture although that could be a part of it. It is not just saying having had my devotions but that might be part of it. But the picture here is a life that is shaped and molded and directed by the word of God. He delights in the word of God. He meditates in it day and night. It shapes his life in all he does.

There is a passage that makes this clear back in Joshua chapter 1. Turn back toward the front of your Bible. Just after the law, the first five books of our Old Testament, you come to the book of Joshua. And Joshua is succeeding Moses who has died. God is instructing Joshua after the death of Moses and telling him how he can be successful in accomplishing God’s purposes in his life. We are going to talk about prosperity and success in Psalm 1 in a minute. And not just the health, wealth preaching as though it was having alot but it really begins with an inner character and quality of life. But then often God brings it in to other areas. Look at verse 7 of Joshua 1. “Only be strong and very courageous. Be careful to do according to all the Law which Moses my servant commanded you.” At this point that’s the only word of God that Joshua had. You be careful to do according to all the word of God. “You do not turn from it to the right or to the left that you might have success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth.” What does he mean by that? “You shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. Then you will make your way prosperous. Then you will have success.”

You note that. Meditate on it. It shouldn’t depart from your mouth. You life is shaped by it so that be careful to do according to all that is written in it. That’s what it means to meditate on it day and night. In otherwords the word of God is on my mind all the time. In every situation of life my action, my response, my speech is shaped by God’s truth. That’s what we are talking about when you say meditate on it day and night. And you always have to have the word of God on your mind. It always has to be foremost in you thinking because we are constantly bombarded by the thinking of the world, by advice from the world. And I have to be careful that my immediate response is this is what God says. This is what God says. Otherwise, I allow myself to be influenced. Then my discernment becomes dulled. Then I am in trouble. You know we have such a mess in the church of Jesus Christ today because we haven’t adhered to the simple truth of God. We have gone to the world for advice. We have problems that are complicated, that are serious. We need more than just the counsel of God. See what we do is we couch it in other language. We have put some different clothes on it. Joshua’s obligation is clear isn’t it. Make the word of God central to everything you do. In all your activity it should direct you. “Don’t turn to your right or to your left. Then you will make your way prosperous. Then you will have success.”


Just jot down Jeremiah 15:16. “Your words were found” [Jeremiah said] “and I did eat them. And Your word became for me the joy and rejoicing of my heart for I am called by Your name O Lord God of hosts.” Jeremiah the weeping prophet, Jeremiah the prophet whose life had so much grief and hardship. What does he say? Your word was like food to me. I ate it. I took it into my very being. And you know what? “Your word was the joy and rejoicing of my heart. For I am called by Your name of Lord God of hosts.” We are describing an individual who has a relationship with the living God, who has come to understand and believe that salvation is from God alone and His further revelation reveals that the coming to earth of Jesus Christ to die on the cross was God’s plan to pay the penalty for sin so that men, women and young people might turn from their sin and believe in Christ and be made new. Become the Children of God, be called the righteous, and walk in His truth.

Turn back to the book of Psalms but go back to Psalm 119. I want to just pick up a few verses here with you if we could. Psalm 119. You note a similarity here to Psalm 1. Psalm 119 verse 1, “How blessed are those whose way is blameless.” So here we are again, the blessedness. “How blessed are those whose way is blameless.” We are in the poetry here. The second parallel, “who walk in the way of the Lord.” Those who are blameless are those whose walk is according to the word of God, who seek Him with all their heart. You know you cannot disassociate these two concepts. When you are saying the word of God is not enough, you are saying God is not enough. When you are saying the word of God is not sufficient, you are saying God is not sufficient. Because those who observe His testimonies are those who seek Him with all their heart. So realize friendship with the world is enmity with God, as James talks about adulteresses, adulterers. Oh, this idea yes it is good to have God but I need something more, something else is totally unbiblical. It is the road to misery. It is the road to a wretched life that culminates in an eternal hell.

Jump down to verse 9 of Psalm 119, “How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Your word.” Young people, how are they going to arrange their life? They are going their way. They are going to walk in the counsel of their friends. They are going to do the things they do. As a result, they are going to mock and scorn the word of God. Oh, they don’t say that. They just don’t want the word of God to shape their life. And the end of it will be impurity. How do you keep your way pure? You live according to the word of God. Verse 11, “Your word I have treasured in my heart that I might not sin against You.” It’s treasured in the heart means it’s lived out so I don’t sin against God. Down to verse 14, “I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies 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.” You see that. I meditate on Your precepts. I regard Your ways.

Incidentally the preacher that wrote the book I was referring to, he calls it “precept preaching” that he rejects, “teaching preaching.” Here we are told “I meditate on Your precepts.” I have nothing better to give you, nothing else to give you but the word of God. All I do by the grace of God is try to explain what God has said here. But I cannot improve on it. I cannot try to be more interesting than God is to entertain you. I am sure we could have any number of personalities that could come up who could hold our attention by their stories, by their humor and by what not. But the people of God are called to focus on their God, to meditate on His truth and so regard His ways.

Well, come back to Psalm 1. There are many other passages we could look at. The result of avoiding the wicked in verse 1, of being involved in the word and allowing it to shape your life in verse 2 leads to the prosperity and blessing of verse 3. “He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in its season. His leaf does not wither and in whatever he does he prospers.” In the desert life of Palestine there was no more apt description of the abundant life of the godly than the flourishing tree. In that barren desertland the picture of a tree that has grown large and full and fruitful showed that there were springs and rivers of water that were feeding it, that enabled it to endure the barren region. It was being fed from the waters underneath and beside.


This picture is used a number of times. Maybe we ought to go to one picture. Psalm 92, Psalm 92. And pick up with verse 12. “The righteous man will flourish like the palm tree. He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Planted in the house of our Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still yield fruit in old age. They shall be very full of sap and very green.” You see the ongoing life of the child of God. On it goes. No end in this life and ultimately goes beyond this life and into the very presence of God. The fullness of His blessings will characterize us. Jeremiah chapter 17 verse 7 and 8 give the same picture. We won’t turn there.. Jeremiah may well have taken it from Psalm 1 because of the close similarity to the picture.

I want you to go over to the New Testament, Colossians chapter 3, Colossians chapter 3 so that you see that God’s plan of operation and method is basically the same in the Old or New Testament. I am not saying there aren’t differences but the foundational way that God works in His people is the same in the Old and New Testament alike. You note verse 15 of Colossians 3. “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.” Sounds very similar to talking about the happiness of the man in Psalm 1. When you have God’s abiding peace with that will be God’s abiding joy and happiness. So we are talking about the same quality of life if you will.

Look at verse 16, “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you.” That’s saying basically the same thing as the Psalmist said when he said you meditate on the word of God day and night. You “let the word of Christ richly dwell within you.” That means that the word of Christ that richly dwells within you will shape and mold your life in all of its thinking and all of its action. So, “with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Whatever you do in word of deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks through Him to God the Father.”

Now back up two books to the book of Ephesians chapter 5. I want you to see the comparison with what we just read in Colossians. Ephesians chapter 5. The last statement of verse 18 is a command. “Be filled with the Spirit.” To be filled with the Spirit is to be under control of God Himself in the person of the Holy Spirit. And when you are under the control of the living God, the person of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, note what happens. “Speaking to one another in Psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing and making melody with you heart to the Lord, always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God even the Father.” You see the comparison. In Colossians 3:16, “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you.” Ephesians 5:18, “Be filled with the Spirit” The results of both activities are the same because they are saying the same thing. When you are letting the word of Christ richly dwell within you, your life is under the control of the living God, under control of the indwelling Spirit for us today.

The same thing basically the Psalmist is saying, that you meditate on the word of God. It is part and parcel of your life. And when you do that, it’s the control and work of the living God whose given that word who produces His happiness, His joy, His peace in your life. So to complete the picture we go from Colossians 3:16 and Ephesians 5:18 to Galatians 5:22, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace” and so on. It is a result of the work of God in a life. Do you understand what we are saying here?

You come back to Psalm 1. We are saying to have God at work in your life, you must be in His word. And His word must be in you. And the reason the devil works tirelessly to wean even the people of God away from His word is when that happens then the work of God to that extent is weakened in your life. Because God has chosen to work through His word in the life of His people. And to the extent that you limit your involvement in the word of God, to that extent you limit the work of God in your life.


That explains the problems that are overwhelming people in and outside the church today. Number one, if you do not know the living God as your Savior through Jesus Christ, He is not working in your life. You are trying to find from the outside happiness and peace and joy and fulfillment in relationships, in things and activities. And it’s like taking an aspirin for cancer. You might dull a little bit of pain, but you haven’t done anything to deal with the problem.

But even the people of God get confused in their thinking and they think the word of God is one of many things. It is what is life to us. It is food. It’s just like a little baby born into a family. It is nourished and nurtured and coming along so healthy. But you know what you start to corrupt the diet of that child and you will see his health begin to deteriorate. You take some of the healthiest young people we have. You take them to parts of the world where they are not fed or they are fed very poorly and you see their health deteriorate rather rapidly. We don’t take seriously enough the truth of the word of God.

That’s why we tell people and tell preachers now going to seminary they ought to preach 20 minute sermons. That’s all people are interested in. And that’s all they can pay attention to. And you really ought to spend the bulk of your week preparing stories and things that will be interesting. I say, No. I am involved in a supernatural process. I am talking about the people under the influence of the Spirit of God, being fed on a diet of the word of God. And that’s a supernatural process. And if that’s not what is going on in your life and if that’s not what you life is, then you cannot experience the fullness of the happiness that God wants His children to enjoy.

Back in Psalm 1 verse 4. We have talked about verse 3, the prosperity if you will, the overflowing life of the happy person. You note it’s leaf does not wither. That would remind you that the difficult times will come and go but this individual has a stability that is not affected by those things because it is a joy and happiness that is produced from within by the power of God working in the life. The contrast is stark with verse 4. “The wicked are not so.” “The wicked are not so.” They do not have the life and prosperity, the fullness of abundance of life that the righteous have. “The wicked are not so.”

He is going to draw a comparison now between the righteous and the wicked. And you know it is a striking comparison. In verse 3 you have a picture of a healthy, hardy tree in full bloom producing fruit. Now we can compare that to a tree that is not well developed, that’s not producing a lot of fruit. That’s not the comparison. He changes the analogy completely. “The wicked are not so. They are like chaff.” You say, We’ve got to compare apples with apples. I mean how do you compare chaff with a flourishing, healthy tree? Let’s compare a flourishing, healthy tree with an unhealthy tree.” That’s not what God does. The blessed, the righteous, they are like a flourishing tree. The wicked, they are like chaff. You know what the chaff was? It’s worthless. It’s useless. It has no value. “Like the chaff which the wind drives away.”

And you are familiar with the picture. In Palestine they built their threshing floors on the hills or mountains they would call them. And they would catch the breeze. And when they went out and cut down the grain, they would bring it in and they would tramp it and grind it all down to break the grain away from the chaff. And then they would take in the breeze and they would take a winnowing fork and throw it all in the air. And the breeze would blow the light chaff away and the heavier grain would fall down. The chaff would usually collect off of the threshing floor as it was blown out and then fell down. As they did this over a period of time they are left with the refined grain, the grain that has been sifted and the chaff that has been blown off. Then they would gather the chaff and burn it. In biblical times there was no clearer way to talk about something that was absolutely without value, absolutely worthless than to talk about the chaff. It wasn’t used for anything. They would burn it but it wasn’t good for heat of cooking. They just burned it up. It was good only for destruction. That’s the contrast.


And God says we deal with the flourishing, healthy, fruitful tree; we deal with the chaff. We are talking about two kinds of lives. Do you know the tragedy of people who have not come to salvation in Christ? True they are going to spend eternity in hell. But do you realize their life is without meaning and purpose. It’s worthless. It’s without value. They not only have nothing to look forward to for eternity, they have nothing in this life. They are just too stupid to know it. They are fools as Proverbs talked about. What a graphic picture. You know it’s a picture that you and I forget as we sometimes envy the wicked or it looks like things are alright for the wicked. Well understand that that is a worthless life, chaff, chaff. That’s the contrast.

There are only two kinds of people that are dealt with in this psalm. There are only two kinds of people dealt with in the scripture. What a contrast. You say, well wait a minute, wait a minute that raises some questions. I don’t know if I am a flourishing tree. But I don’t want to think I am chaff. Well you understand there is no third group here. You know we haven’t taken the scripture seriously. We have created our own third and fourth and fifth group that makes us feel better. But you understand what the sovereign God has said. Two groups period. Everybody fits on place of the other. That’s a serious matter. The wicked, not prosperous, not happy, not experiencing what we call the abundant life, the blessed life, the happy life.


“Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgement not sinners in the assembly of the righteous.” Coming judgement. You know not only are they chaff in this life. The end of this life has no hope. They have no future. They will not stand in the judgement. That doesn’t mean they won’t appear there. You know it is a picture like we would say, take your stand. Or, the team was not able to stand. We talk about a goal line stand or those kind of images. That’s what we are talking about here. They are going to appear at the judgement, but they won’t be able to hold their ground. They won’t come through it so to speak. They won’t be acquitted.

“Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.” And that I eluded to early in our study. They won’t stand in the judgement nor sinners won’t stand in the assembly of the righteous. There is going to be a sifting out ultimately. That indicates we are not dealing only with the profane kind of people of religions that are clearly opposed to truth. We are dealing with those who superficially, no the surface identify themselves with the righteous. But you understand that God knows the trees. He knows the chaff and the chaff won’t have part with the righteous tree. The sinners won’t make it at the judgement. God will sift them out from the righteous. Sinners won’t stand in the assembly of the righteous. That’s an awesome thought. You we all gather together and we invite all people to come. But you understand that there will come a time when God will do a sifting between the righteous and the wicked. No matter how good my disguise has been, there is one who can never be fooled and He is the only one that matters because He is the one who will do the judging. And He says that the sinners won’t stand in the assembly of the righteous.

You know in the church we need to be careful. We have bought into all kinds of the worlds ideas, the worlds thinking. We have mixed this with the Bible and that with the Bible, all to help people with the problems that the Bible is not sufficient to deal with. I think that we need to be careful that we are not trying to make the sinners fit the assembly of the righteous. I desire the sinners to become part of the assembly of the righteous but we adopt the world’s methods to try to resolve people, problems with people who are not the righteous. You might be able to glue together the chaff to make it look like a tree, but you haven’t made it a tree.

“For the Lord knows the way of the righteous but the way of the wicked will perish.” “The Lord knows the way of the righteous.” That’s more than He has knowledge of it because He is omniscient. He knows everything. He knows everything about everyone. But this word know has an intimacy about it. In fact, it is used in Genesis chapter 4 verse 1 for an example among many. Adam knew his wife and she conceived. The sexual intimacy. It is a word that carries the context of intimacy, of favor, or relationship, of love. So, God knows the way of the righteous. He has His favor and love and care on the life of the righteous.


“But the way of the wicked will perish.” “The way of the wicked will perish.” Just jot down in your Bible Matthew chapter 3 verse 12. John the Baptist makes a statement regarding the coming of Jesus Christ. Listen to this. Just listen as I read it. “His winnowing fork is in His hand.” The winnowing fork was the fork that was used to throw the grain and the chaff in the air so that the wind could carry the chaff off. “His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor. He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” The same picture as Psalm 1. Nothing is changed. Not only are the wicked chaff in this life, when it comes to the final judgement before the living God and His Christ, they will be cast into a fire that is unquenchable.

Remarkable picture that is drawn. A picture in this Psalm of true happiness and prosperity in this life and in the life to come. Note the contrast is between the happy man and the wicked man. The righteous man and the sinner. Two kinds of people in this Psalm, righteous and wicked, happy and wicked. Righteous and happy go together. Two kinds of lives, a life of happiness and prosperity versus a life of worthlessness, uselessness and destruction. Two kinds of destiny, the favor and blessing of God and destruction.

Turn over to Matthew chapter 7, the Sermon on the Mount. And you remember the sermon on the mount began in chapter 5 with the Beatitudes. Blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed. That’s the Greek translation of the Hebrew word we have in Psalm 1, “blessed.” We move over in the Sermon on the Mount to chapter 7 verse 13. “Enter through the narrow gate.” Jesus is speaking. “For the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction and many are those who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life and there are few who find it.” See, same picture. There’s only two ways. There is a narrow gate. There is a broad gate. There is a narrow way. There is a broad way. You want to be sure to enter the narrow gate. The narrow gate leads to life. The broad gate and the broad way leads to destruction. Just the same theme as Psalm 1. He compares different kinds of trees down through this section. You know them by their fruit.

Verse 21, “Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom but he who does the will of my Father in heaven will enter.” “The sinners will not stand in the assembly of the righteous.” There is a sifting out. These are people who have claimed to be part of the righteous. Oh, Lord I attended that church. Oh Lord, we served. Oh, Lord we gave. Nope, nope. They did many mighty and marvelous things. Come down to verse 24. “Therefore, everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them.” See it all comes back to your response to the word of God. There is an eternal God. He has spoken. This is His word. What He has to say is we are sinners, condemned, worthless, leading, lives without meaning and purpose that have no value and we are on our way to destruction. But He offers to intervene. Enter the narrow gate. “Jesus said, “I am and way and the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but by Me.””

Turn over to Romans chapter 5 as we close. We will read just some verses here. Romans chapter 5 verse 1. “Therefore having been justified by faith.” You know what being justified means: being declared righteous. Having been declared righteous by faith in Christ, “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Verse 6, “While we were still helpless.” What can I do? I am chaff. I am nothing. “While we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” Verse 8, “God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having been declared righteous by His blood” [His death] “we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.” What a remarkable thing. People are like oh you have given up so much. You have become a Christian. No you don’t understand. I’ve got everything. Now I have a life that is full of meaning and purpose and happiness and joy and fulfillment. And after this life it only gets better.

You realize the alternative to that. You have a life that is worthless, that’s without value, without meaning. It’s really empty. And you are on your way to an eternal hell. You know the miracle in all this is God can take the chaff and turn it into a flourishing tree. He can take a worthless sinner and cause him to be made new as a child of God. Aren’t you in awe that everyone isn’t on their face before God, crying out for His mercy and grace and forgiveness in Christ? I trust that if you are not settled on this, you will settle it today. If you have settled it, you need to back up and say, is the focus of my life as sharp and clear as it must be for the fullness of God’s work to be accomplished in my life that I might indeed be a testimony of a truly happy person?

Let’s pray together. Thank you Lord for grace so great, power so mighty, love so strong that You reached down, took hold of those who can only be described as sinners, as wicked, as scoffers. And Lord, totally redeem and make them new so that they are now called righteous. Take those that are the chaff, the worthless, without value. And Lord by redeeming grace make them totally new so they flourish with the abundant life that You provide. Lord, You know us as we are. You know this congregation divides into two groups. May we be open to Your work in our lives? May we as Your people never lose our focus, never lose the clarity of discernment that come from feeding and feasting on the riches of Your word day and night? And we ask in Christ’s name, amen.






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