Psalm 1



"He Shall Be Like a Tree"



Children, have you noticed how dry it has been lately?

The grass is turning brown,

and plants are shriveling up.

We have a tree in our front yard that used to be green-but now it is brown.

It can't get any water.

Its ground has dried up and its roots cannot find any water.



In order for a tree to grow, it has to have water.

And if it doesn't rain, then the tree must find water some other way.

This is why it is such an advantage for a tree to be planted by streams of water.

If you drive out through the Great Plains (Kansas or Nebraska, for instance),

you can always tell where the rivers are.

Look for the trees.

If you see trees, you know there must be some stream or river there.



Why does the Psalmist use the image of the tree?

The land of Israel is generally a very dry land.

Water is a very precious commodity.

And the largest and most fruitful trees are those by the rivers

-where they get plenty of water.

Without water, the land is worthless.

Indeed, water and blessing are connected in many places:

when Caleb gives his daughter in marriage to Othniel in Judges 1,

he gave a piece of land in the Negev to his daughter and her husband.

After she sees it, she comes to her father and says,

"Give me a blessing. Since you have set me in the land of the Negev,

give me also springs of water."

Perhaps you are familiar with the idea that the blessed life in the OT

is to live at peace in the Promised Land with lots of children?

One of the foremost blessings that God promised to Israel was that

if they obeyed him, he would "open to you his good treasury, the heavens,

to give the rain to your land in its season

and to bless all the work of your hands." (Dt 28:12)

But if they rebelled, "The heavens over your head shall be bronze,

and the earth under you shall be iron.

The Lord will make the rain of your land powder.

From heaven dust shall come down on you until you are destroyed." (Dt 28:23-24)

Therefore, the blessed man is like a tree planted by streams of water.

The blessed man has a source of life-giving water that does not dry up.

So who is the blessed man?

What is he like?

Psalm 1 needs to be seen in the context of the psalter as a whole.

Psalm 1 is the introduction to the psalter.

The whole of the psalter is concerned with this question:

who is the blessed man?

The "way of the righteous" and the "way of the wicked"

are contrasted throughout the Psalms.

The judgment of God is a common theme.

Psalm 1 calls you to remember the day of judgment.

Remember that the judgment of God is coming.

Do you stand in the congregation of the righteous?

Or do you sit in the seat of scoffers?

The Psalter calls Israel-and it calls you-to walk not in the counsel of the wicked,

but to delight in the law of God.



Because the question is, who are you listening to?

Verses 1-2 provide a striking contrast.

Verse 1 provides a progressive triad

of what happens to those who listen to the wrong people:

It starts by walking in the counsel of the wicked.

Who are your closest friends?

Do they call you to delight in the law of God?

Or do they urge you to live according to your own desires?

Cursed is the man who walks in the counsel of the wicked,

because no matter how well-intentioned he may be,

it is only a matter of time.

The one who walks in the counsel of the wicked

-the one who keeps bad company-

will, in the end, also stand in the way of sinners.

It started simply with listening to their counsel,

but now you are also standing with them.

The apostle Paul warns of this in 1 Cor 15:33:

"Do not be deceived. Bad company ruins good morals."

The end result is that the one who walks the counsel of the wicked,

and who stands in the way of sinners,

will sit in the seat of scoffers.

Not only are you listening to them.

Not only are you standing with them.

Now you are talking with them.

You are not merely listening to bad advice,

now you are giving it.

You are not merely hanging out with the wicked,

You ARE the wicked!

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked!



But this threefold pattern of walking, standing, and sitting,

ought to give us insight into the contrast.

The blessed man does not walk, stand or sit with the wicked,

because his delight is in the law of the Lord.



The Hebrew word "torah" has a broader meaning than the English word "law."

To us "law" carries the idea of a code of rules.

"Torah" includes this idea, but also carries a broader sense of "instruction."

The blessed man does not listen to the counsel of the wicked,

but delights in Yahweh's instruction.

The "law" of God is more than a list of commands.

The law of God includes the whole counsel of God,

the entire package of God's instruction to his people.

As our Shorter Catechism puts it,

"what man is to believe concerning God,

and what duty God requires of man"

In this sense, God's law, his Torah, includes more than just the five books of Moses,

it includes the whole of Scripture.



Indeed, this the point of Psalm 1.

Psalm 1, after all, stands at the beginning of the five books of the Psalms.

The Psalter is divided into five books, just like the books of Moses.

And Psalm 1 is calling you to learn Torah from the Psalter.

Delight in the instruction of God,

as he teaches you how to think and what to do.

The righteous will come to the Psalter and drink deeply from its refreshing streams,

finding life-giving water in its songs.

"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"

The wicked claim to have wise counsel.

They have their schemes for success:

their seven steps to financial freedom,

their special techniques for happiness in marriage;

but the best they can say is that these things will probably work.

Their path may provide some temporary highs,

but the Psalmist sees beyond their schemes:

"The wicked are not so, but are like the chaff that the wind blows away."

The wicked are not even dignified with the comparison of a living tree to a dead tree.

The contrast is between the living tree and chaff.



You see, the problem with the wicked is not that they don't have enough water.

You can pour water on chaff all day long,

and nothing's going to happen!

You can read the scriptures to the wicked all day long,

and they're not going to grow.

They are like chaff that the wind drives away.

They are the by-product of the harvest (it was useful while the plant was growing,

but now is fit for nothing but destruction)

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,

nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.



When God judges the nations,

and separates the sinners from the congregation of the righteous,

those who walked in the counsel of the wicked,

who stood in the way of sinners,

and who sat in the seat of scoffers,

will not stand.

God has not given his law-his Torah-his instruction,

simply as good advice.

He has given it as the way of life.

The man who walks in his ways, and delights in his instruction

will indeed stand in the judgment,

and will be found in the congregation of the righteous.

For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,

but the way of the way of the wicked will perish.





There.

That's Psalm 1, right?



What's missing?

Is there a word that you have not heard in this sermon?

To say it another way,

is there anything in this sermon, so far, that a Jewish Rabbi couldn't happily preach?



You are looking for a pastor.

If a pastor preaches from the Old Testament,

and does not preach Jesus Christ,

don't call him.

What I have said this morning is true.

It is the word of God.

But it is only true if you understand who the blessed man really is!



Psalm 1 stands at the beginning of the Psalter,

calling Israel to delight in God's Torah-the instruction of the Lord.

Israel was called to live as the congregation of the righteous,

to be like that tree planted by streams of water.

And thus prosper in everything that they did.



You know the history.

Israel failed.

And through the centuries, faithful Israelites sang the Psalms,

hoping and praying that God would establish his congregation of the righteous;

that he would vindicate the righteous, and condemn the wicked.

Or, as Ezekiel saw in his vision in ch 47,

that a stream of living water would flow from the temple,

giving water to the tree of life (indeed, a very forest of life-giving trees).

And as Jesus grew up,

he grew up in a faithful Israelite family.

Mary, thanks be to God, would have taught him to sing the Psalms

(her song in Luke makes it clear that she knew the Psalms well!).

In the synagogue he would have sung them.

We do not know (nor could we likely grasp)

how Jesus became self-conscious of his identity as the Son of God.

But as he sang the Psalms, he would have come to see that they were all about him.

As he came to see that all of Israel's history was pointing to him,

all of God's promises-the blessings and the curses-were centered in him.



Psalm 1 takes on new light when we sing it in Christ.

For Jesus, the Messiah, is indeed the Blessed Man.

He, and He alone, never walked in the counsel of the wicked.

He, and He alone, refused to stand in the way of sinners.

He, and He alone, would not sit in the seat of scoffers,

but his delight was in the Torah-the instruction of the Lord,

and on his law he meditated, day and night.

Certainly he was tempted-in all ways like us.

The difference is that he never yielded to temptation.

Even in the midst of temptation, the Law of God remained his counselor.

And when the devil tempted him, he delighted in the Law of his Father.

And so Jesus is like a tree planted by streams of water.

When Jesus says, "I am the vine, and you are the branches,"

He suggests that we-in ourselves-can never be the blessed man.

This is why the first half of my sermon would be a gross error by itself.

Yes, we are called to delight in the Torah of the Lord!

Yes, we are called to avoid the path of the wicked,

but we cannot be that tree, planted by streams of water.

We are but branches.

We do not have life in ourselves-but only insofar as we are connected to the vine.

"Abide in me, and I in you.

As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine,

neither can you, unless you abide in me."

Jesus is the tree planted by streams of water.

He is the one who prospers in all that he does.

And therefore He will stand in the judgment,

and because he stands,

therefore we who abide in him,

have the confidence that we too will stand.



How do you abide in Jesus?

Jesus explains this, echoing the thought of Psalm 1:

"By this my Father is glorified,

that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.

Abide in my love.

If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love,

just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.

This is my commandment, that you love one another." (John 15:8-10, 12)

Psalm 1 called Israel to delight in the Law of the Lord, and they would live.

Jesus is the true Israel.

Jesus delighted in the Law of the Lord and was vindicated by the Father.

Therefore, the only way that you can delight in the Law of the Lord,

is if you abide in Jesus, and keep his commandments.



We now sing Psalm 1, "Blessed is the man, Jesus Christ!"

And therefore, we also sing, "blessed are those who abide in him."



Without singing Psalm 1 about Jesus,

we would have to sing it tentatively:

"I hope I'm included here-but I'm not very righteous...."

But when we sing Psalm 1 about Jesus,

we sing it with confidence,

"Because I'm in Christ, this is about me!"



Amen.