Psalm
1:1-2
The
Way of the Ungodly
Walking was the main method of transport
from one place to another in the ancient world. And, up to our day, it is still
the way people get from one place to another. In the news programs, we find
this in the stories from many cultures. In some cases, people pull carts or
even carry materials balanced in their heads as they walk from one place to
another. In Worcester, there are many cultures who are accustomed to this means
of travel, so they walk what seems to us Americans as great distances. But, to
them, the distances are short to average. There are still some ladies,
especially, who walk balancing their bundles on their heads. I have been told
that one destination of these immigrants is the laundromat where they give in
to things modern in order to wash their laundry. There is no river or stream
accessible in order to wash clothes as they did in their own culture before
moving to our country. And, these folk are quick to note how subsequent
generations accept more and more the American way of doing things. Yet, to many
of them, they find the metaphors used in the Bible as understandable because
they are shared metaphors from their own culture.
We tend to miss the force of words found
in these word pictures because we are accustomed to living life in ways that
are very different from more primitive cultures from the past and present. We
think the modern ways are the best ways. It is called chronological snobbery.
Others seem backwards to us. But, taking just the metaphor of walking, other
people from cultures different than our own understand the benefits of walking:
physically, emotionally and for our purposes today, socially. To walk with
others is to spend time talking and socializing with others who are family and
friends, but also for safety, some who are more distant acquaintances as the
start of a journey, but known much better by the end of it. Many of the stories
of people walking found in the Scriptures bear this out. Something similar can
happen as we drive with others from one place to another, or as we give others
rides. But, it is not the same, exactly. It is a close approximation of what
walking was and remains.
Some of my best friends in Jr. High
school were those who walked to school with us or walked home with more time to
spend on occasional adventures. Walking brings about a bond between or among
those who travel together.
So too, walking used as a spiritual
metaphor. In the scriptures we find walking with one another as important in a
number of ways. It is especially true of us as we seek to minister to one
another as the people of God. The second, but more important use of walking as
a metaphor is our fellowship with God. From Adam, to Enoch, and Moses to the
travels of the disciples with the Lord and instruction to the believers in the
NT, walking with God is one of the most important pictures of the Christian
life. Walking with God is equal to walking by faith. It is a step by step
process that is always moving forward and should not be walking backward or
backsliding as some used the word. But, if we ask "What is this
sliding?" it is on the path of the
Christian life we are supposed to be walking on. This picture is found in
assumed ways throughout even the NT.
We are walking to heaven together. It is
a straight and narrow way. In 1 Timothy Paul asks about those who have gone
down a one way street--the Message uses the metaphor of a cul de sac. Walking
metaphically, or spiritually defines the Christian life. Jesus called himself
"the Way." We walk in the way he sets before us. In this age, we
learn of that way through the ways God has appointed--teaching or preaching is
important for this task. It is much more important than your own personal
reading and studying. That is, if personal reading and study can be shown to be
the responsibility of all beyond the teaching of the word through the reading
and preaching of it in the gathered services of the church.
Today, I want to look at the first of
the Psalms. Walking is an important picture used in a provocative way in this
short poetic picture of the life of faith before God.
Turn in your Bible to Psalm 1. This
stands as a wonderful introduction to the thoughts and themes of all the
Psalms. This is their collective message. We settle for much less because it
makes no demands upon us. Many profess to believe, yet live somewhere in the
first half of this passage. The point is to walk in the right way according to
the will of God pointing us to the will of God. To be ultimately good, is to
believe in Jesus so he will change our root--making it good--so that our fruit
will be godly as well. Another old world metaphor from agriculture and farming.
The Godly Man
1. What he does not do
1.Blessed is the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
2. What he does do
2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
3. The effects of the way to life
3 He shall be like a tree
Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper.
Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper.
4. The effects of other ways
4 The ungodly are not so,
But are like the chaff which the wind drives away.
5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment,
Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
But are like the chaff which the wind drives away.
5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment,
Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
5. The end of all men
6 For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
But the way of the ungodly shall perish.
But the way of the ungodly shall perish.
Let's look at the text:
Walking was the main method of transport
from one place to another in the ancient world. And, up to our day, it is still
the way people get from one place to another. In the news programs, we find
this in the stories from many cultures. In some cases, people pull carts or
even carry materials balanced in their heads as they walk from one place to
another. In Worcester, there are many cultures who are accustomed to this means
of travel, so they walk what seems to us Americans as great distances. But, to
them, the distances are short to average. There are still some ladies,
especially, who walk balancing their bundles on their heads. I have been told
that one destination of these immigrants is the laundromat where they give in
to things modern in order to wash their laundry. There is no river or stream
accessible in order to wash clothes as they did in their own culture before
moving to our country. And, these folk are quick to note how subsequent
generations accept more and more the American way of doing things. Yet, to many
of them, they find the metaphors used in the Bible as understandable because
they are shared metaphors from their own culture.
We tend to miss the force of words found
in these word pictures because we are accustomed to living life in ways that are
very different from more primitive cultures from the past and present. We think
the modern ways are the best ways. It is called chronological snobbery. Others
seem backwards to us. But, taking just the metaphor of walking, other people
from cultures different than our own understand the benefits of walking:
physically, emotionally and for our purposes today, socially. To walk with
others is to spend time talking and socializing with others who are family and
friends, but also for safety, some who are more distant acquaintances as the
start of a journey, but known much better by the end of it. Many of the stories
of people walking found in the Scriptures bear this out. Something similar can
happen as we drive with others from one place to another, or as we give others
rides. But, it is not the same, exactly. It is a close approximation of what
walking was and remains.
Some of my best friends in Jr. High
school were those who walked to school with us or walked home with more time to
spend on occasional adventures. Walking brings about a bond between or among
those who travel together.
So too, walking used as a spiritual
metaphor. In the scriptures we find walking with one another as important in a
number of ways. It is especially true of us as we seek to minister to one
another as the people of God. The second, but more important use of walking as
a metaphor is our fellowship with God. From Adam, to Enoch, and Moses to the
travels of the disciples with the Lord and instruction to the believers in the
NT, walking with God is one of the most important pictures of the Christian
life. Walking with God is equal to walking by faith. It is a step by step
process that is always moving forward and should not be walking backward or
backsliding as some used the word. But, if we ask "What is this
sliding?" it is on the path of the
Christian life we are supposed to be walking on. This picture is found in
assumed ways throughout even the NT.
We are walking to heaven together. It is
a straight and narrow way. In 1 Timothy Paul asks about those who have gone
down a one way street--the Message uses the metaphor of a cul de sac. Walking
metaphically, or spiritually defines the Christian life. Jesus called himself
"the Way." We walk in the way he sets before us. In this age, we
learn of that way through the ways God has appointed--teaching or preaching is
important for this task. It is much more important than your own personal
reading and studying. That is, if personal reading and study can be shown to be
the responsibility of all beyond the teaching of the word through the reading
and preaching of it in the gathered services of the church.
Today, I want to look at the first of
the Psalms. Walking is an important picture used in a provocative way in this
short poetic picture of the life of faith before God.
The Godly Man
1. What he does not do
1.Blessed is the man
All sorts of people are looking for contentment in this life. They want
to be happy, even though they hardly understand what true happiness really is.
Biblical happiness starts with contentment and trust in another. That other
being is God, the One True and Living God as he is known through belief in the
Lord Jesus Christ. In the ages before the coming of Christ, blessedness came
through believing the promises of God--what he had promised to do for mankind
if they would only believe. The message of utter contentment and true peace
came through the preaching of God's prophets to Israel and the Nations--some
pagan people heard and believed--think of the story of the effects of Jonah's
preaching in Ninevah: repentance and faith in The Jewish God, Yahweh.
Blessedness begins with faith--it always has. Since the beginning it
has been so. Remember a few weeks ago I talked about the faith of Eve that
believed God's Words? We can't fault her for taking his words in an overly
literal way, many still do today.
This Psalm deals with blessedness, ultimate happiness with peace and
contentment. It is what most of the people in the world are looking for. But,
they are looking in all of the wrong places. As I say that, I am aware of
professing Christians who are likewise looking for either something else to
make them feel a certain way or looking for the wrong thing. Blessedness, or if
you will Gospel happiness, the theme of this Psalm should be our quest. We
should pray to God to give it to us and to make it what we pursue as we walk
through this life.
The Psalm starts with some negative ways in which many people go. If you want God to give you blessedness, this
is what he has already told us. We don't need anything else. We don't need a
new revelation; we need courage to walk in the way that is set before us.
This is what the way of blessing is not:
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Many professing Christians take what is popular in the
world and subsequently brought into the faith as the way to go. When you can't
find it in the Word either directly or inferentially, you need to be careful.
Much of what passes for ministry has been taken from pop-psychology and imported
into the church. God's ways are still better and more direct. People want
therapy in the place of instruction that brings repentance. These professing
believers might not know better. So much of the talk of accountability and
mentoring is some of what I'm talking about. Therapy of many kinds takes the
place of biblical repentance when sin is discovered. The response to a personal
awareness of sin is not to talk more about it, or even sympathy for it because
we are all sinners anyway, it is to cry out to God for repentance to get us off
of the path of sinners. We ought not to walk with them.
When people know you, or how you live and what you
really think including what is most important to you, are they tempted to think
you are on the straight and narrow way that leads to God and his salvation? Or,
would it make them think you are on the broad way to destruction along with
them. They might think you a little quirky, but do they see you as walking on a
different path, the way to life.
This is only where the Holy Spirit begins. This is the
least of the metaphors used. For walking still allows someone to leave the path
and get on the right one.
The path in this first section is the counsel of the
ungodly. Who are the ungodly. Well, to be godly is to live in such a way that
you show forth the characteristics, as much as humans can, of God himself. Some
should see the way that we live and be provoked to ask why we are different.
The best answer is, Because God in his gracious ways, has made me to be. He has
given me faith and promised to work in me remaking me after the likeness of his
son, the Lord Jesus Christ. What a blessing it is for someone to see you are
different and to thank God before them for the grace that made us to be what we
are. It is all the work of God that has changed our roots and made us to bear
fruit, fruit that is produced by the Holy Spirit in our lives. That is what us
different. Most will act neutral. Others will ask further about this hope. It
is one of the most powerful defenses of the truth of Christianity that God
continues to change people he has brought to believe. And into the deeper
things, it may be step by step. Not all understanding is given at once. That is
why I have reminded this congregation of the basics as the preaching has been
on a variety of topics. Many people understand when something is explained a
second time, or a third time, or a fourth and so on. Some who finally
understand, discover that this is not the way they have been living. Their
hypocrisy is found out. TO some repentance is given; to others they lash out
about other things. People are basically the same. They just have different
names and "concerns".
Be careful that you don't walk in the counsel of the
ungodly. It is easy to do. It is all around us. It is even in the way History
gets explained in our educational institutions. History is the unfolding of
God's providential dealings in his creation and the analysis of his directing
all things for the good of his church. It is called the Augustinian philosophy
of history. Augustine was a great theologian in the early fifth century.
Walking gives way to actions that slow progress down
or stops it all together. Walking is dangerous enough. But, walking often gives
way to something else:
The text reads:
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
This is where the walking stops and the standing
begins. The metaphor of standing shows the acceptance of ideas. We use the word
this way. Which candidate do you stand for? The question, How can you stand
that? It also means how can you tolerate it. To stand is to withstand
something. To a person with many children, others might ask, "How can you
stand the noise? How do you put up with it.
These are the pictures used here. People walk for a
while, then they stand for ungodly counsel in order to settle in among others
who now think as they have come to believe. Have you ever noticed how many
people use things not found in the scriptures as the basis upon which they
choose churches? Many of them, not all of them, walked in the counsels of the
ungodly and godless ideas being promoted as Christian in our day. In walking in
that way, they find what pleases them and they stop to stand for the believe
and practices of those with new ideas.
This also has application to how the world thinks and
how some professed believers accept what the world says and does over what God
has revealed. That is very dangerous. To look at the major contrary influences
in the world that have been brought into the churches, would take us weeks.
Even false views of so-called "Counseling" have taken many off of the
straight and narrow because people would rather walk in the counsel of the
ungodly, then stand in the way of sinners.
To defend themselves, they speak ill of the things of
God and even ways in which they once seemed to walk and stand. Often it is to
defend themselves and their new perspectives that they do what we find in the
next phrase. Something for the godly that we are not to do. It reads:
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
Scorn is to speak against another person. Blasphemy is
close. Blasphemy are words spoken against God and his word. TO accept the ways
of the world, or those that are contrary to God's revelation is blasphemy. Here
the one who started walking and went on to stand for something contrary to the
Godly way, eventually sits down with his new associates and gives into their
sinful pattern of living. To justify oneself, people like this lash out with
scornful words to those that formerly taught them or to others in order to try
to bring them down in the eyes of others.
Many who leave the path of the righteous take up the
seat of the scoffers. It is predictable. You know why? Because we find this
process in God's Word. It infallibly tells us the course of life for those who
will not be corrected in order to get back on the right way.
Next week we will pick up with the way of the godly.
For now, let it suffice that we have looked at the way of the ungodly. If you
are any of these stages along the broad way that leads to destruction and
therefrom Hell. Call out to God to change your allegiances and ways. If he
doesn't you are in danger. The straight and narrow is the way to eternal life.
It is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that puts you squarely in the way you
ought to go. Otherwise, if you have professed to be a Christian you will sin
and bring reproach to the name of Jesus. That is one of the greatest sins. The
Holy Spirit promises to keep those who believe. If he doesn't provide a way for
you to escape temptation, you may think you are his, and you might be
wrong--dead wrong.
Next week, Lord willing we will see what a godly
person does. I hope it goes well with the Lord's Supper. Look at these verses
and as you do, pray these realities will be found in you to the point where
they will be seen by others.
What defines who you are? First and foremost it should
be your faith in Christ. After that, it is all things that are legitimate for
us as we seek the kingdom of God and to glorify him in all things from the
mundane and regular to the extraordinary. Bring all things into the subjection
of Jesus Christ. AMEN!
2. What he does do
2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
3. The effects of the way to life
3 He shall be like a tree
Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper.
Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper.
4. The effects of other ways
4 The ungodly are not so,
But are like the chaff which the wind drives away.
5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment,
Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
But are like the chaff which the wind drives away.
5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment,
Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
5. The end of all men
6 For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
But the way of the ungodly shall perish.
But the way of the ungodly shall perish.
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