The Way of the Righteous (Psalm 1)

Sermon for MHBC (16 May 2021). You can listen on Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, or our website. Live at 11:00am on Sundays. Also available as a podcast here or by searching “Monument Heights Baptist Church” in your favorite podcast app.

We are in between series right now, so I want to do a standalone sermon. My plan for situations like this is to work our way through the psalter. The psalms have been the hymnbook of God’s people from the beginning. John Calvin referred to them as the “anatomy of the soul” because they encompass the whole range of human emotions.

Furthermore, they are thoroughly and overtly messianic. I mean they shadow and point forward to Christ. In the psalms we see Christ and we hear his voice. Of course, we see the value of the psalms in the life of Jesus. He was so saturated in these words that he called out in his dying moments from Psalm 22: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” When we read that psalm, we realize that Jesus had not somehow lost his faith, instead his choice of that psalm indicates a deep confidence in God’s provision despite the circumstances. That is what a life saturated in Scripture looks like.

Now Psalm 1 calls us to just that. Psalm 1 depicts two ways for us: (1) the way of the righteous and (2) the way of the wicked. The difference lies in the righteous person’s saturation in God’s Word.

Psalm 1 is particularly important not only for understanding the whole psalter but also for the entire OT, if not the entire Bible. Some scholars think Psalm 1 is more of a preamble to the entire psalter than a psalm itself. We don’t have to dive deep into that discussion, but I do want you to notice that Psalm 1 present a whole way of viewing the world—what we call a worldview. The person who sees life through the filter of Scripture is blessed. So, that is what Scripture calls us to be—people who are saturated in the words of Scripture.

The other night after we had finished giving the kids baths, Ansley was running around in here towel and somehow managed to dive headfirst back into the yet-to-be-drained bath. You can imagine what happened to that towel. It was sopping wet. That’s the idea of being saturated—so full of something that it drips out of you and when pressure is applied, it pours out. That, by the way, is Jesus’s relationship to the psalms. Every word he speaks is a word spoken in complete wisdom and in his moments of greatest pressure, the psalms pour out of him.

Let’s take a look at the passage, beginning in v. 1: Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers. This psalm is a beatitude. It tells us who is blessed—first, by stating the action to avoid. Blessed is the person who walks not in the counsel of the wicked—that phrase “counsel of the wicked” is contrasted with the congregation of the righteous in v. 6. The Hebrew words are very similar.

Many commentators have noted the seemingly progressive action here—from walking, to standing, to sitting. Some have suggested that this is a movement from thinking, to behaving, to belonging. In any case, the blessed person avoids the company, influence, and lifestyle of the wicked. The wicked, as we learn from this psalm and Psalm 2, are those who reject the Word of God and live in open rebellion to God.

There’s a contrast in v. 2. Blessed is the person who does not do these things, but then we are told what sort of person is blessed. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.

Obviously, this verse is the central thrust of the passage, so we have to take our time here. First, let’s talk about this word “law.” The Hebrew word is torah, which you’ve likely heard before. In particular, this word can refer exclusively to the first five books of the OT. That’s probably not a broad enough sense here. And yes, the word can refer to law, but it really has the broader sense of instruction. And in that sense, all of Scripture is torah or instruction.

Now we have these two parallel lines. His delight is in the instruction of the Lord. And on his instruction he meditates day and night. Scripture is often described with metaphors like sweetness and honey. Have you ever delighted over a dessert? That would be a comparable metaphor. The blessed person has such delight in God’s word.

What does that imply? It implies a desire to spend time with it, to devote attention to it, to find joy and happiness in it. But I’m afraid we often treat Scripture as a duty and a drudgery.

Then there’s the second half. This idea of meditating on the instruction of the Lord. I’m not sure meditate is a great translation for our day. The sense seems to be closer to study or paying careful attention to, thinking about. You can see that in Ps 2:1 in the second half: “The peoples plot in vain.” The word translated “plot” is the same verb. That also means Psalms 1 and 2 have a relationship, but we will leave that for another day as well.

The unfortunate problem with the word “meditate” is we tend to think of sitting silently and clearing our heads, but the idea here is closer to reading carefully and closely, perhaps even muttering the words slowly on our lips. In fact, that’s quite an appropriate practice that I would suggest. Don’t just read Scripture silently as you might read a novel. Instead, read it slowly, forming each word on your lips and perhaps even whispering it as you read.

This is important for our cultural moment because meditation in the Buddhist style particularly has taken our culture by storm. Best-seller lists are full of these books. Sometimes it goes by the terminology of mindfulness. But that form of meditation has different aims and goals from what we are talking about in Psalm 1. This psalm is calling us to fix our attention on the words of God.

This careful attention and study of Scripture forms a biblical tapestry. We see this same command in Josh 1:8 where at his commission Joshua is told in the exact same language to meditate upon the instruction of the Lord day and night—that is, frequently and constantly. This command to Joshua comes right after Moses has completed his leadership appointment and has stated that one day a prophet greater than him will arise with the very words of God. Malachi ends with the same expectation as well, by the way. In the Hebrew Bible order, Malachi is immediately followed by the psalms. Michael Shepherd summarizes, “[T]he reader is to wait on the messianic future by meditating in Scripture day and night.”[1]

Now, of course, we are on the other side of that future. We know who the prophet greater than Moses is. His name is Jesus. He is the very Word of God. And what are we told? That we should listen to him. That he has the words of life. That his teaching leads to righteousness.

And here we have the gospel. Who of us can truly say we are the man or woman of Psalm 1? None of us. But there is one who was so perfectly fixated on the Word of God, so thoroughly saturated in it, that he had the authority to instruct us on its intended meaning (as in the Sermon on the Mount). It was Christ, I remind you again, who cried out with the words of the psalmist in his deepest agony. And it is Christ alone who can say he perfectly saturated himself in the Word of God day and night. He alone can claim the benefits of this psalm perfectly. But by listening to him and being united to him, we are caught up in this psalm. We can follow in his steps and also enjoy his benefits.

So, let me tie this part together. We are to meditate on Scripture. Jesus and his work on the cross is the key to understanding Scripture. Therefore, we carefully study and saturate ourselves in Scripture, but we always do so by reading it through the lens of Christ.

Now notice what this psalm teaches. Thinking shapes our life. Saturating ourselves in Scripture directly impacts the results of our life. Look at v. 3: He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.

Here we have an image and comparison. The person who is saturated in Scripture is like a healthy, well-rooted tree. This is the fruit of biblical meditation. You’ll hear lots today about the benefits of mindfulness and meditation. Here are the benefits of carefully giving ourselves to Scripture, and the primary benefit that emerges is stability.

Mental health is at a crisis point around the world. Anxiety, depression, fear, are causing people to become unhinged. Is there any way to be stable in this world?

Christians in the first three hundred years after Jesus’s resurrection often faced severe persecution. In the Roman Empire, death was feared—much like our culture. Romans built their graveyards underground. These are called catacombs. Romans wouldn’t go down there; they didn’t want to think about death. They would send slaves down there. Christians soon found that they could meet there without opposition. This was no concern since Christians didn’t fear death because Jesus conquered death. Christians also buried their dead there. They would sometimes draw symbols on the walls. One especially common symbol for early Christians was an anchor. This psalm first reminds us of our security in Christ and it reminds us that there is an anchor in attending to the Word of God. The entire psalter reminds us that our refuge is found in the Lord.

Contrast that with the wicked. Verse 4: The wicked are not so but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Notice how abrupt v. 4 is. We’ve just had a lengthy explanation of the person who meditates on Scripture, but here is this short description of the wicked.

Those who have no interest in the Word of God as made clear to us in Christ are transient. Verse 5 draws the conclusion: Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
This is rooted in the relationship God has with his people. He knows who are his. He has an intimate relationship with them. Verse 6: for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. Here is the final contrast. There are two ways. The way of the righteous and the way of the wicked. This is, of course, consistent with Jesus’s exhortation to follow the narrow road (Matt 7).

So we are to be saturated in Scripture. This is the way to stability. We are to attend to the teachings of Jesus, the one who gives us the key to understanding all of Scripture, the prophet greater than Moses, who is the very Word of God. How can we give ourselves to these things?

Let me make a few comments. There are endless ways to explore. But let me speak to congregational practices and then to individual practices.

How often have you been to a church service where very little time is given to Scripture? I’m afraid I’ve been to far too many, and it’s quite problematic for Baptists, who claim to be people of the book, and yet, many other denominations walk circles around us in their devotion to public reading.

So one thing we are working toward is placing a greater emphasis on Scripture in the service. It’s not unthinkable for congregations to read large segments of Scripture together each year.

What are some individual practices?

• Reading the psalms. Augustine: “If the psalm prays, you pray. If the psalm laments, you lament. If the psalm exalts, you rejoice. If it hopes, you hope. If it fears, you fear. Everything written here is a mirror for us.”

• Reading large chunks of the Bible

• Reading the same section repeatedly

• Memorizing

• Studying closely

We have a practice given to us that can provide stability, that can provide hope. The question is will we allow this to become a congregational and individual habit so that we might be shaped and conformed to the image of Christ, who is the blessed Word of God.

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[1] Daniel in the Context of the Hebrew Bible, p. 6.