Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / June 2, 2024 | Summer in the Psalms - Psalm 1: Two Paths for Life

Transcript

June 2, 2024 | Summer in the Psalms - Psalm 1: Two Paths for Life · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Morning.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Good to be with you.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Starting a new series today.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: You're having flashbacks.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, should we not be in the desert?
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Are we not still outside the promised land?
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: No, we're moving on.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: We are uh starting a new series here in the book of Psalms.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, when it's it's to be honest with you, it's gonna be quite the departure from what we've been going through.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Because the book of Psalms, to me, um, it's kind of like when I have been in a museum and I'm looking at a piece of modern art and I'm just going like, huh.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Huh.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I mean, just me personally, I connect more with the pieces of art that are, you know, they express skill that I could not ever hope to achieve.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, the ones where it's like, I I can see all the wrinkles in their skin or the marble is carved in this way.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: And then sometimes you go to the modern art section, yeah, and it's just paint splatter, right?
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: But yet, then there are also times where you're looking at those pieces and all of a sudden one just catches your eye and you're like, okay, hold on.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now I'm gonna sit here for a second.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: Because in a way that is almost hard to describe, it's accessible, evocative, it's emotional, it's there seems to be like passion in the way that this art was made, different than some kind of Renaissance sort of, you know, pic portrait of an old king, but rather that it's something that speaks to your emotions.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: And that is what the psalms really represent in terms of their function within the Bible.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Because as we go through the Psalms, um, you're gonna, there are there are ones that, you know, cry out with fury against God.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: There are ones that um are wondering why the Lord has let the wicked continue to prosper.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: There are some that are just a very long section of poetry on the beauty of creation.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there are many psalms that read more like somebody's diary entry than they do something that is sort of deserving of deep study.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not to say that we don't study the psalms because it's actually quite complicated, but the point is that God has included uh this, these 150 psalms in his word because they speak to the human experience.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: They are emotions, uh, they are it's anger, it is despair, it is rejoicing, it is laughter, it is everything that you can imagine.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: And it's really different than anything else.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so as we go through the book of Psalms, um, we're reminded continually, especially when we get to the ones that were like, this really doesn't seem like like, can you say that you're mad at God?
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Can you can you do that?
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Can you say that he has abandoned you and he's never been there for you?
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like, are you allowed to say those things?
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: And then you're reminded that God has included these in his word for us, because this is the human experience.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: This is, we are broken people who love God, and walking through the mess of life often brings out these emotions, right?
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, John Calvin, looking dapper in his best skullcap, said, Here the prophets themselves, seeing they are exhibited to us as speaking to God and laying open all their inmost thoughts and affections, call, or rather, draw each of us to the examination of himself in particular, in order that none of the many infirmities to which we are subject, and of the many vices which we abound, may remain concealed.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think John read his dictionary?
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: I think so.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: What he's saying here is that there is a way that Psalms ministers to the heart that is different than any other book of the Bible.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, when he goes at the end there, he says their vices, their sins, their infirmities, how they are broken.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like all of these things are sort of pulled out of us in a way that gives us the opportunity to worship God in a vulnerable place that is sometimes not present.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when we're going through the book of Deuteronomy, right?
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's a different kind of scripture, even though it is all inspired by God.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: So, anyhow, this is why we're going through it.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, the Psalter, which would be kind of the word for all of the Psalms, and the book of praise, which is what the name means in Hebrew, uh, this would be the hymnal, essentially, that was used in the temple.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so you can also imagine as we're going through these things in their original languages, these would have been the praises that were sung at the temple in Jerusalem before it was destroyed.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, quick note on logistics there are 150 Psalms.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: We are not going through all of them this summer.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, we are just going through the first eight.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to go through Psalms 1 through 8.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, all things being equal, my hope is that we could kind of revisit this in the summers, is a, I think, a really wonderful thing.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: But this summer we are just doing one through eight.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now, as a final way of introduction, Psalm 1, that's where we're starting, makes sense.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: Psalm 1 kind of is the tip of the arrow in the book of Psalms, in that it establishes some of the themes and uh the language and sort of the references that will be used throughout the book.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so there will be certain psalms that are very poetic.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh that's not the case in this one.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: You can all breathe a sigh of relief.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: We'll warm up to those.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but Psalm 1 is going to really establish something that is true in, I mean, throughout history, but especially in the Psalms, which is that there are two paths that you can go down.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: There is the path of the righteous and there is the path of the ungodly.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: And that those paths are identifiable, that you can recognize when you're on it and when you're not, and ultimately that beyond that, there are eternal ends to those two pathways that are different from each other.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: This is something that is sort of broadened as we move forward.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: But this morning in Psalm 1, that is where we'll begin.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: So if you want to turn to Psalm 1 with me, it begins by saying, How happy is the one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked, or stand in the pathway with sinners, or sit in the company of mockers.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: The first thing to get to is the fact that when it says, How happy is the one, um, the Hebrew word there is blessed.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: And there's no real problem most of the time in translating that as happy or something, because oftentimes they mean similar things.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um but in this psalm, as we're talking about the path of the righteous, we need to understand that the happiness that it's referring to is at a depth and reaches further down into our lives than just, you know, you know, I've like I really had a good time today, right?
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: Or, you know, like I had, you know, somebody made my favorite dessert, like I am doing great right now.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: That blessedness is a condition, right?
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: It is a way that God refers to us.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: We have a status, that we are a blessed people.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it is something that He gives to us, He gives blessings, and then also we might feel blessed because we are living and following after God.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so the idea that we're talking about being blessed instead of happiness is important because as we're talking about these two pathways, we see that there is a choice to be made.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: And that blessedness or the feeling of blessing is something that you can achieve or pursue by following the path of righteousness.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: And the first way, and kind of Psalm 1, it devotes time to the path of righteousness, and then it devotes time to the path of wickedness.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so, path of righteousness, how happy or blessed is the one who does not, and then three really similar lines walk in the advice of the wicked, stand in the pathway with sinners, or sit in the company of mockers.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: This is the first way that we see.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of if you've you know gone hiking before and you get to a trailhead and it, you know, sort of forks off.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: This is kind of the first sign, right?
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: And it's that, well, okay, the path of the righteous is different and kind of divergent from the path of the wicked, and that it is intentionally seeking to avoid those habits and behaviors, and in fact, people who have adopted the habits and behaviors of sin, right?
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, we're all sinners.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um Bible's really clear on that point, okay?
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: But when we talk about sin, and this is a great introduction to the Psalms, um, often it's wisdom literature, uh, which means that sometimes it speaks in these kind of maxims, these generalities.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: And what it's saying here is not that the path of the righteous that they never sin, but rather that it's an intentional movement that they would not seek out and spend a lot of time with those who have no care for the things of God and have rejected his commands.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, at the very end there, company of mockers, they are being hostile towards the Lord.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: The first lesson that we see this morning is that we need to avoid the paths and practices of the ungodly if we want to seek this path of righteousness.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: How blessed is the one who does not habitually take ungodly advice, make allegiance with sinners, and provide encouragement to mockers.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: Those who do these things, and this is particularly true for people who are pursuing Christ, going to church, right?
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if they do those things, not only are they double-minded, right, they're chasing after two things at the same time that are opposite from each other, but they're hypocritical.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a really significant problem.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, it's one of the reasons today why there are so many people walking away from evangelical faith, is because they see people in the church who are sort of speaking out of both sides of their mouth.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: But when we look at this though, there's always the uh pushback.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: And they go, well, did Jesus not?
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I thought he had a bunch of parties with sinners.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: That was like his thing.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: He hosted them, you know.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's like why he sort of gets on the map of the Pharisees at first, is because they're like, Did you hear he's having a dinner party with tax collectors?
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: So, to press into that for a second, right?
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus, of course, is going to be the ultimate fulfillment of any scripture.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: He is uh the fulfillment of Psalm 1 and that he is the example for us.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so obviously, there is a way, um, if we are to be lights into the world and we're to share the gospel, there's obviously a way in which we move out and we interact with a broken world just as we are broken, but also interact with those who are ungodly and reject Christ.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: The significant difference is that Jesus did not affirm or endorse sin as a strategy for evangelism, right?
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, imagine he's at a party and he's like, dear Jezebel, prostitute in the Red District.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: I want to encourage you for how you have found liberation through sex and you have made your body your own, right?
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, like, that does not sound like something Jesus would say, nor is it something that Jesus said.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: And there is a vast difference between the ministry of Christ, which is leading people to the water of life, and is engaging with a broken world and the ministry that some people falsely proclaim in the name of Christ, which is really just befriending sin, and has, even though they might say, has no real intentions or effectiveness at proclaiming the gospel, because there's nothing different about their life than the life of those that they're interacting with.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: And the disparity, like the difference between the contrast between Christ's life and the life of those that he was interacting with, that is what was captivating.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: What was captivating is yes, Jesus was kind, yes, Jesus was loving, all of those things, true, for sure.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: But what was captivating is they go, man, there's something different about you than my life, and it feels like you have a joy which I am not experiencing.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: And he goes, That is right.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: As we are eating together and we are drinking together, I am also not going to say that the things that you're spending your time on are valuable or God honoring.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: So there is a, if you want to take the polls, there is kind of the monk in the hedon, okay?
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the the monastery which sort of separates entirely from everything in life which is sinful, and we say, well, now we've now we've given up the job responsibility that we all have to share the gospel.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then you go far to the other end, to the heathen, and you, which just congratulates everything that is being done for the sake of making relationships, and you go, Well, now we have no distinguishment between that and the gospel.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so we live in the middle, which is where Christ did.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: But the path of the righteous does not just avoid, okay, but it also dives in.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: And uh what Psalm continues to say is that instead the delight of the general, of the righteous one, is in the Lord's instruction, and he meditates on it day and night.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: So the righteous one delights and takes great joy in God's instruction.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, not that they read it out of compulsion, okay?
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh not that they do it for the sake of seeming righteous, but the one who is blessed and loves the Lord is reading and meditating on the Bible.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: There's all the language here is in the present tense, right?
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's like the righteous one is doing these things.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: Not that they have, but they are.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: And when we look at this too, we understand that the one who delights in the Lord's instruction, they meditate on it day and night.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna see a lot of language like that in the Psalms, and what it does not mean is that 24 hours a day that somebody is reading, though there have been uh communities in the past and Qumran, the monks back there, the guys who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls, they had somebody from their order reading and expounding upon scripture 24 hours a day.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's not what we're talking about here, but rather that it's sort of figurative language that says that all day long you are somebody who is thinking of and reflecting on the goodness and the glory of God, and that his word primarily is the thing that is driving you forward in that.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: That yes, it's prayer, and yes, these things all come together.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: You don't need to have your Bible open 24-7 in front of you, but as people who are following the righteous path and are delighting in God's word, they are ones who are marked specifically by a desire to learn from the Bible and to seek it out.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, not only do they go to Scripture, but they have the proper heart and attitude.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible is not something which is used just to benefit our life, but rather with submission and humility and openness, we go to Scripture recognizing that it is molding us and shaping us if we will let it, because it is God's word upon our life.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so the one who takes great delight and joy in these things is it's kind of like uh it's uh there's a little bit of a catch-22 here, because what we see is those who take great delight and joy in God's word continue to read it, and those who continue to read it take great delight and joy in it.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to how King David describes this.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: He says, the instruction of the Lord is perfect, renewing one's life.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: The testimony of the Lord is trustworthy, making the inexperienced wise, the precepts of the Lord are right, making the heart glad.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: There's some real happiness.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: The command of the Lord is radiant, making the eyes light up.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that does not sound to me like someone who is like, oh yeah, I forgot to do my quiet time today.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'll catch up on it tomorrow.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and you know what, I'm about seven weeks behind in my reading plan, but I mean, and the question is not rather, well, let me say this.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: The lesson is that you need to read your Bible often and with purpose.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: That would be the lesson for the righteous path.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: But then the question that comes from that is what is often and what is with purpose?
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: What I can tell you, only from my experience, because the scripture does not say, you know, seven days a week, five days a week, you know, every other day.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it doesn't give us that kind of plan.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: Rather, like Psalms, it is just encouraging to sort of be a person who is reading God's word, being a person who is delighting in his word.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: And whatever it takes to do that is the proper path forward.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: But I can say that I have not encountered many people who love and delight in God's word and read it like just when they come to church on Sunday.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: Or that I found somebody who just rejoices in God's word and says, it gives me, you know, life and breath, and my eyes light up and it is, you know, rejuvenating for me, and I read the verse of the day on my phone.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like there is an element of intentionality and study that is present in those who find themselves in King David's spot, right?
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: But you say, Well, look, I'm no King David, right?
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: I've never felt that way about reading the Bible.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, it's just kind of like we're doing good that I'm here today, okay?
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: And to that, I would say that this is something that you can grow within you.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like you were born with a desire to read scripture, okay?
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like you were born just going, I love four months in Deuteronomy.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: There's some of you I still didn't convince.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so, as we're walking with this, you have to see that it's something that you can improve upon.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: Improve in the sense that you can draw closer to that ideal that King David has, right?
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, there was a student, this is a couple years ago, that I had lunch with, a former student in our ministry, and they had gone away to college and they came back and we had uh lunch with each other.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: And in the course of conversation, I'm like, okay, you know, so you've been away for a while.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like, have you found a church?
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: Have you found a place?
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: And they're like, no, I haven't.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: I really feel like I'm I'm not really close with God at all, and I feel really distant from him.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I said, okay, well, when have you ever felt close with God?
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: Because they were really involved in our ministry.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: And they go, well, you know, I really felt like I had a kind of a mountaintop experience, or I was really close with God when I was at camp.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: When I was at summer camp.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I go, okay, well, let's think through what was going on at camp.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you uh didn't have any cell service.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: We gave you specific time each morning uh to read the Bible.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you were talking with people about godly things, and then each night we had Bible study.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, now not every day in your world gets to be summer camp, but if you haven't read your Bible in six months, might there be something here where practicing something in a way that forms a habit is actually what draws us towards these emotional places.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes there's a there's a separation between the two, and we're like, I don't feel that way.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, well, maybe the stair steps to get there are putting some things on your calendar so that you can.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know that David just suddenly arrived one day and was like, my eyes light up with scripture, and he had not been reading it.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: So the second lesson here for the righteous one is that they would read their Bible often and with purpose.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: And you say, finally, I don't have time to do that.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: Eyes, eyes, you do, you do, you make time for anything else.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: You have 15 minutes.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: You have time.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: Now, as we move on, though, we're going to kind of close out this section on the righteous because we're going to now just it is there's this beautiful nature imagery that describes the one who is pursuing these things.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: He is like the tree planted beside flowing streams that bears its fruit in season and its leaf does not wither.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever he does prospers.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: Those first three lines are really describing this.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever he does prospers.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, what is whatever?
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, much like Philippians 4 13, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength, is not about like winning the lottery, getting your dream job, um, winning the football game, that kind of stuff.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh whatever he does prospers is language that the psalmist is using to describe the path of righteous and receiving and experiencing those blessings that we talked about.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: So whatever he does prospers is not like any business venture might succeed, but rather that with intention and with purpose, those who avoid the paths of the godly and the wicked, and those who seek out the word of God, they are like one who is planted by a stream, okay?
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: And a tree that is growing bears its fruit in season, and its leaf does not wither.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now, you're also, I mean, this is kind of crash course and figurative language, right?
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because the Psalms are going to use this a lot.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes in wisdom literature, they speak in generalities.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: I already said that.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: So what this means is not that, to continue the illustration, the tree is never struck by lightning or the birds never steal its fruit or something of that sort.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: But if you were making a plan for how to grow a tree and to do it well and to make it beautiful, this is what you would do.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: You would plant it next to a continual water source so that it might drink deep and it might grow at a fast rate, right?
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: It is not going to suffer out there in the Badlands.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: So what the psalmist is saying is the path of the righteous, not that it is never walking through difficulty, right?
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, even Psalm 23, uh right, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, right?
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that is one who is praising God for walking with him, and yet he says, I go through hard times.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: So the path of the righteous, it's not that it never has valleys, but rather that the one who pursues these things experiences the blessings of God and is able to notice them in a way that is meaningful and significant, right?
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: The blessings are not necessarily financial, and there might be many blessings that come which are very worldly from this, right?
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: We do often just get happiness as a byproduct, but nevertheless, the pursuit of the psalmist, as he says, the difference between the godly and the ungodly are these things.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um we switch a little bit here and we begin to look at the path of the wicked.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: And though you could always say the path of the ungodly is the one which is the opposite of the path of the righteous one, uh, the psalmist is going to draw out some specific things.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: The wicked are not like this.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: Everything that we've been talking about, the wicked are not like that.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, they are like chaff that the wind blows away.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: So the biggest contrast between the wicked and the righteous in terms of what they receive by per walking down that path is that the ungodly do not receive the blessings of God.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: And that is something that is both true in a worldly sense, but as we'll get to in a moment, also an eternal sense.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: And the way that that um prospect, the way that that reality is introduced, is by bringing out this farming imagery.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: So uh they're talking about wheat and chaff, and this is an example.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: What would happen is you you've collected your wheat harvest.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: This is before John Deere, or whatever color tractor you want.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, this is before all of that, and they've harvested it and they've crushed the wheat underneath a sledge, and it has sort of broken it up into its parts, and the grain, and then sort of the dry husk that was on the outside the chaff, um, are sort of all in this mixture, and then they're thrown up into the air and normally kind of a windy place, and the lightweight chaff sort of drifts and blows away while the heavier grain falls back down.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: This is how the separation would occur.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's what exactly what you see happening here in this picture.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so when it says the wicked are like the chaff, okay?
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the chaff did have some uses.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, like it protected the kernel of wheat while it was growing, and then there are even some who would use it for bedding or kind of a lower cost feed afterwards.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: But the point, as is normally the case with the Psalms, is what is the like overriding idea here?
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's that chaff is a worthless product.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: That really what they're searching for is the grain that can be turned into many more things.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so the idea is that the ungodly, and which is really the word, again, that is being used there, um, that is translated as wicked, uh, the ungodly, they are like chaff, and that their life is amounting to worthless things, which is like a really hard thing to hear.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it's not saying that someone's life is not valuable, but rather that the things that they are pursuing on this path of wickedness hold no value and no purpose.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um you can uh think of somebody who is, I don't know, like they they did something stupid at work, and HR comes to them and they're like, hey, we really need you to apologize to the team, okay?
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: And they're reluctant to do it and they don't want to, but HR is like, okay, well, let me remind you, you need to go and apologize to the team.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so they go out and you know, you get this like, hey, guys, everybody, you know what, I'm I'm sorry that I did this.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: Just because somebody might do what is right does not mean that the motivation behind it is proper.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: And to think that just because somebody does an externally good deed, okay, somebody gives money to the poor, they're trying to eradicate or find the cure for cancer, they are giving alms to the homeless, I mean, all of these different things.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like just because an externally good thing has been done does not mean that the motivation behind it does not matter, and furthermore, that the motivation is not the most important thing to God.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: God is most concerned about the heart.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: This is what we read over and over again in Scripture.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: When David says, Lord, you search me and you know me, he recognizes that God is one who knows even the deepest parts of his heart, and everything that he is doing is flowing from that.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so where we normally get sidetracked is we think we look around us and we go, well, there are plenty of people who are ungodly who are being generous or kind.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: And we say, Well, yeah, absolutely.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's that's a good thing.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: But just because it's a good thing doesn't mean it makes them godly.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: Righteousness is not something that we cultivate by doing what we think is good.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: Righteousness is something that is defined by God and we only achieve it.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, we can't really achieve it without Christ.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: But in the terms of the Psalms, the only way that we can even pursue it is by seeking after what he says we should do.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: You go and meet the King of England and you're like, I know you have a protocol for how I'm supposed to say hi to you, but what about a chest bump, right?
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: And Buckingham Palace, they say, no, no, no, no, we don't do chest bumps to the King of England, right?
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like, just because you think something is good, and just because you think something might be right and fun, even externally, it looks good, does not mean that it's appropriate.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so when the psalmist is looking at this and he goes, the wicked, they're like chaff that the wind blows away, we recognize that motivation matters.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: Motivation is important.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: And as hard as it is to say, the ungodly life holds no purpose.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: I had a conversation recently with a good friend of mine.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: He's a pastor in town, and we were just kind of, this sounds silly, but we were sort of swapping stories of uh performing funerals, okay?
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: Which is what we do when we hang out, anyhow.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: And what we were sort of lamenting and kind of commiserating with each other about is how hard it is to do a funeral when um it is somebody who has not trusted in Christ.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: And how difficult it is to go forth with somebody who I mean, part of my goal in any funeral is to proclaim the gospel and to try and walk this line between saying, look, they they were generous and they were kind, and the family, of course, right, wants to remember the best parts about this person's life.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: But I mean, from my perspective and from those who know Christ would go, yes, but they've walked into eternity without a savior, and just because they gave away, you know, 10% of their income to this cause does not mean that they made it.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so the hard thing is that the ungodly life, it amounts to nothing from an eternal perspective.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: From an eternal perspective, which is always the viewpoint that we should be holding in context.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: From an eternal perspective, the ungodly life amounts to nothing and has pursued things which are going to crumble away.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: And though there might be many fantastic memories about what we have done with them in this life, to say that it has the same value and purpose as those who are chasing after righteousness because God has uh because they're doing it out of an overflow of their love for Christ, okay?
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like those two things are way different from each other.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: And biblically they are different from each other, even though the external action might be the same.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now, as we go into the last two verses here, we get to the final end of this path of wickedness, the path of the ungodly.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it continues on, really.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, the wicked will not stand up in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous, right?
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: We've moved on beyond this world and into the final, right, the eternal.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: In a further separation from the way of the righteous, the way of the wicked leads to a different end when the time of judgment comes.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: Those who uh rebelled against God, who mocked his laws, who um had no concern for the things of the kingdom during this lifetime, and ultimately who rejected Christ, this is where we're going.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: And uh Jesus actually uses that same image that we're talking about of wheat and chaff to describe the judgment in Matthew 3.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: His winnowing shovel is in his hand.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's the thing we're using to throw up.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: And he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with fire that never goes out.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I've always felt like it was interesting because Jesus takes this imagery, and though he's satisfied to just go, you know, for us to understand that the righteous are the wheat, and you know, to make all these connections, he includes that last sentence there that the chaff will burn with fire, and then adds that will never go out.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: And you ask, well, why does he include that last part beyond the fact that it is true?
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: Why does he include it?
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it is because um, one, it draws our attention, but two, because oftentimes those who are rejecting God have no concern, or at least not a proper one, of what is coming at the judgment.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, they would normally have picked a different path.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think he is using it to, for anybody who might be listening in that crowd, and he says, it's the righteous and the ungodly, and the ungodly, all they are burned in the fire, and specifically for those who recognize themselves to be in that group, it is a fire that does not go out.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: It is one that they don't come back from.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus gives them sort of the reality.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: So we're getting a real crash course in figurative language this morning.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Psalms and all the beautiful things that are in it.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: What's the good news?
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: The good news is that we have the ability to walk a different road.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have to walk down the path of the ungodly, nor is that our defined destination.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: But rather we have the ability, as the psalmist would speak about it, to choose a different path.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to ruin.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: When it says that God watches over the way of the righteous, okay, first of all, it is good to see that we're kind of getting two, our two things are sort of recognized here.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: We have the way of the righteous and the way of the wicked.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um the way of the wicked, it says, well, it leads to ruin.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, we've talked about that.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: We understand that, we hear that.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: But what about the way of the righteous?
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: And all we receive at the very end of the Psalm here is, well, God is watching over it.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: But to have God watch over something is more than to just have him observe.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh to be known by God, to be understood by God, to be to be sought after by God is to not just have a relationship with God, but to be protected by him and to be saved by him.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: The one who is walking the pathway of the righteous is one that knows and has a personal relationship with God, because for our purposes, they've accepted Christ as their Savior.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: And really, that is the only way that we might move from the path of the ungodly to the path of the righteous.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: You do have the choice.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: You have the ability to move, but the movement is not that you just try and do better things more often, but rather you accept that the only way to get out of the path of the ungodly and into the path of the righteous is by accepting Christ as your Savior, that his death on the cross was a sacrifice for your sins, your mistakes, and mine too, and that by trusting in him as our Savior we might be saved, right?
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: That we might be able to then go into that judgment, and instead of the chaff, we'll be the wheat.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: When we talk about the end of these things and how Psalm 1 concludes, we have to understand that picking the righteous or wicked path is an eternal decision.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: And whether or not you trust in Christ is an eternal decision.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just now.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: It is now, but it's more than that.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: Psalm 1 gives us a great introduction to the book of Psalms to the Psalter.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: And what it does is it establishes this foundational truth that the path of the righteous and the path of the wicked are two different paths, and that in both a worldly and an eternal perspective, they don't intersect with each other.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: And particularly in the way that the psalmist is writing here, the idea that we can divide our lives and the lives of those around us into these pathways is an important thing for us to recognize.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: That there is a difference between those who are pursuing God and those who have rejected him, and that we should be able to identify that pathway.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_00: Not necessarily that we are judging somebody who is on another pathway than us because only God is a fitting judge.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: But when it comes to our life, when it comes to your life, right, you have the ability to do these things.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_00: And you have the ability to, on the path of the righteous, avoid the plans and the practices of the ungodly.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like for some of us, I mean, that's a real application here.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you cannot continue to go out and get drunk with your friends and think that you are on the path of the righteous.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_00: You cannot go out and continue to just gossip with your friends about the one who isn't there and think that that is on the path of the righteous, right?
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: Ultimately, by doing these things, it's not just that you're like cheating to the other side, but you are going to get drawn away from the path that you're on.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's the thing.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_00: When God says you can't serve two masters, the point is that you don't have the ability to do it.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_00: You're either serving one or the other.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_00: The pathway of the righteous and the wicked is something that is clear.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_00: And when we make decisions in our life, we're choosing one or the other.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_00: On top of that, we are people who should be defined by, I mean, we want to be trees that are planted by a stream.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: We want to read and understand God's word.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_00: It is far easier than we make it out to be, but nevertheless, it requires intention and it requires a bit of habit and practice and kind of gumption to get in there, right?
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: Particularly if you're somebody who's like, I haven't read the Bible in a long time.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, we have got Bible studies, right?
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_00: You can find an accountability group, you can find somebody else to read scripture with.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_00: You can go to UVersion or an app or find some book that has a Bible reading plan for you.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_00: You can do any number of things.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: You can just play it on the speaker as you're driving to work.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like any of these options are available for you.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_00: But to say that the path of the righteous is just something that happens without knowing God's word, that's a lie.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_00: And then finally, when we get to the path of the wicked, right?
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: It is the fact that this is something that not only we should avoid, but that those who are on it need to sort of have, they should have alarm bells going off in their head because Jesus does not describe the end of that path in positive terms.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_00: But in fact, he says, I've died on the cross for your sins, so that you might come over to the path of the righteous.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I want us to pray and together as a church, and then as we move into our time here of communion together, that we would reflect on these things.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_00: And that if you are somebody who is maybe walking that path of the ungodly, that you're recognizing, hey, I'm not doing what God has called me to do, that you would hear the offer and the invitation in the Lord's table, and that you would accept it as your own, that He can be your Savior.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we come before you today.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, we thank you for your goodness and your mercy.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, that you give us something like the Psalms.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, as often emotional and intense, but yet relatable that their language is, Lord, we're reminded that you have included these things for us, God.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: You tell us what we should do, and then you remind us that you understand what it is like because you are Christ.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_00: To walk through this world that is broken.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_00: You know the temptations, you know the struggles, Lord, because you have experienced them yourself.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so you have given us Psalms as a way for us, Lord, to know that it is safe to be vulnerable in our relationship with you, and it is safe to have these emotions.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_00: And God, as we think about Psalm 1, we reflect on the fact that, Lord, we want to be people who are walking the righteous path, and that, God, that is something that we can choose to do.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_00: But Lord, also for those who are walking the path of the ungodly, that they can choose to come to the path of the righteous by simply accepting you as their Savior.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_00: God, thank you for the gift of salvation, which is not based on our works, but on our grace through faith and your finished work on the cross.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, we love you and we thank you.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's in Jesus' name we pray.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to take the elements of the Lord's table together, if you're somebody who's trusted in Christ, this is for you.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says, For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_00: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, This is my body which is for you.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_00: Do this in remembrance of me.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: In the same way also he took the cup after supper and said, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_00: Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_00: For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, we proclaim your death until you come.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_00: And Lord, may you come soon.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_00: God, we know that it is your body and your blood that you have given to us so that we might be saved, so that we might know you.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, so that we might have a relationship with you.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_00: God, I pray that your spirit would draw us deeper into Psalm 1, that it would be something we reflect on this week.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_00: As Lord, we seek to be people who are planted by streams of water.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, where our fruit comes in season and our leaf does not wither.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_00: God, where we might experience the blessings of your kingdom because we have sought them out.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_00: And Lord, because you are good and gracious to us, far better to us than we deserve.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, we love you and we thank you.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's in Jesus' name we pray.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_00: All right, love you.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_00: See you next week.