Psalm 1:1-6: Why Delight in God's Torah? Blessing, Security

Welcome, everyone. We are beginning a new series today entitled “The Five Books of Psalms.” In this series, we will examine a handful of psalms in this great book of the OT. And we have specially chosen those psalms from each of the five books of the Psalter. If you don’t know what those five books are or how they are divided, stay tuned. 

The book of Psalms as a whole is a fascinating book full of lots of raw emotion. If I were to ask you, “How are you doing right now? How’s your soul?” And you responded, “Things are going great, Pastor Tony! I want to praise God and express my thankfulness to him.” Well there’s a psalm for that in the OT Book of Psalms. Some of you might say, “Things aren’t going so great, Pastor Tony. Life is hard right now. I want to lament before the LORD.” Well there’s plenty of material for that in the Book of Psalms too. 

In fact, the Psalms incorporate a wide range of themes and emotions. So much so, that John Piper says that’s why Christians love the Psalms so much! Because “they give expression to an amazing array of emotions.” And in his sermon on Psalm 1, Piper gives a long list of those emotions given in the Psalms including:

Loneliness: “I am lonely and afflicted” (Psalms 25:16).

Love: “I love you, O Lord, my strength” (Psalms 18:1).

Awe: “Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him” (Psalms 33:8).

Sorrow: “My life is spent with sorrow” (Psalms 31:10).

Regret: “I am sorry for my sin” (Psalms 38:18).

Contrition: “A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Psalms 51:17).

Discouragement and turmoil: “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me” (Psalms 42:5)?

Also there’s Shame, Exultation, Marveling, Delight, Joy, Gladness, Fear, Anger, Peace, Grief, Desire, Hope, Broken-heartedness, Gratitude, Zeal, Pain, Confidence, and many others. And throughout this series, what we want to do as a church is give voice to some of these wide-ranging emotions as we study this book. And we want to see the ways that, scripturally, God’s people communicate the depths of their heart before the Lord. And I think there is something profound for us to learn here about that. And there are some profound things that we can learn about God as well as we see these prayers and these songs and these laments uttered before the LORD so many years ago.

So, what we’re going to do for the next few weeks is we are going to look at specific Psalms in the Psalter and vary the genre of those psalm so you get a good understanding of the types of psalms found in this book. Next week, Adam Casalino will preach Psalm 5 from Book I. In two weeks, Mitch Palermo will preach Psalm 51 from Book II. In three weeks, Andrew Hall will preach Psalm 88 from Book III. In four weeks, I will preach Psalm 96 from Book IV. In five weeks, Daniel Armstrong will preach from Psalm 127 in Book V. And then Anthony Alcorta will preach Psalm 150, the last psalm in the Psalter. And the psalms that we have chosen are remarkably diverse. There is a wide-range of emotions demonstrated in these passages, so I think this will be a good sampling for us to consider so we get a flavor of the different kinds of psalms that are found in this book. 

Now today’s message will be different than all the subsequent messages on the Book of Psalms. Today I want to overview this great book of the OT and introduce some of its unique features. And then, before we’re done, I want us to look at the message conveyed in first chapter of Psalms, Psalm 1.        

So, is everyone ready? If you are ready, say “Go”!

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Alright, here’s how I want to structure our time today. I want to ask and answer for you…

Six Questions on the OT Book of Psalms (the Psalter):

And let’s start with this…

What’s the historical background to the book of Psalms? 

Well the Hebrew Title of this book is Tehillim. And that word means “Praise Songs.”

Hebrew title is Tehillim, or “Praise Songs”

And that shouldn’t surprise anyone in this room, because it’s in the Psalter where we find statements like this, “Praise the LORD! Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!”

 (Ps 106:1). It’s in the Psalter where we find statements like this, “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!” (Ps 103:1). And statements like this, “Let everything that has breath praise the LORD!” (Ps 150:6). And statements like this, “Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere” (Ps 84:10, NIV). And statements like this, “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (Ps 27:1). And that’s just the tip of the iceberg as far as praises go in the Book of Psalms. 

Now the Book of Psalms isn’t always cheery and optimistic. But even in times of sorrow and lament, the overriding concern of the Psalmist is to praise the LORD. It’s like Job says in the Book of Job. “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (1:21). That’s the sentiment that is expressed by the Psalmist throughout the Psalms.

And speaking of the Psalmist. You can write this down in your notes.

73 Psalms are from David (לְדָוִד)

And there’s some debate about this, but I think that those Davidic Psalms were actually written “by David” not “for David” or “for David’s Kingship” or anything like that. Jesus attributed Davidic Psalms to David, and I think we should too. 

But that doesn’t mean that David wrote all the Psalms in the Psalter. 12 were written by Asaph (Pss 50, 73–83); 10 were written by descendants of Korah (Pss 42, 44-49, 84, 87-88); 2 were written by Solomon (Pss 72, 127); 1 was written by Heman the Ezrahite (Ps 88) and by Ethan the Ezrahite (Ps 89) and by Moses (Ps 90). And some, including Psalm 1, were written anonymously. Who wrote Psalm 1? I don’t know. The Bible doesn’t say. 

Write this down as well. The Book of Psalms functioned as the…

“Hymnbook of Ancient Israel”

And there’s good evidence to suggest that this Hymnbook was edited and collated throughout the

centuries. Because you have some Psalms that date back all the way to Moses (Ps 90). And then some of them are post-exilic (Ps 126; 137), that is they weren’t written until the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, after the Israelites returned from exile in Babylon. Although I will say that most of them, including the Davidic Psalms, were written in the 10th Century B.C. But the Book of Psalms, as we have it today, wasn’t finalized until probably around the 5th Century B.C. But it functioned progressively throughout Israel’s history as Israel’s Hymnbook. 

And write this down as well. One of the reasons for its continued appeal to the ancient Israelites as well throughout church history was its use of poetry and music.

Utilizes Poetry and Music

The Psalms as Music and Poetry 

• 55 Psalms use the Hebrew term Mizmōr (“psalm”), which indicates a song accompanied by instrumental music. Mizmōr derives from zāmar meaning “to pluck” 
• 27 psalms are labeled Shɩ̂r (“song”).
• 13 psalms are labeled Maskɩ̂l  (“contemplative poem”).
• 5 psalms are labeled Tehillah (“praise song”).
• 57 Psalms are labelled Lam-menaṣṣēaḥ (“To the choir leader”)
• 8 Psalms are labelled Negɩ̂nôṯ (“With string instruments”)
• 1 Psalm is labelled Neḥillôṯ (“With wind instruments”) 
• 2 Psalms are labelled Šemɩ̄nɩ̂ṯ (“With an eight-stringed lute or an octave lower than soprano”)

All that to say that the Book of Psalms is inherently a musical book. It was used widely for worship in the nation of Israel, and even more specifically for music and for singing. 

Now I’ve spent a fair amount of time thinking about this. And I don’t know if I’ve figured it out just yet. But for whatever reason, there are different ways in which truth is communicated and impacts our minds and our hearts. And there are unique ways that God has created the human psyche to be touched and impacted by poetry and music. And there are aspects of our being that are moved by poetry and music, that can’t be moved by any other means. Jim Croce wrote that song so many years ago. Some of you probably remember this. He said, “Every time I try to tell you the words just came out wrong, So I’ll have to say I love you in a song.” Y’all remember that song? 

When I asked my wife to marry me 25 years ago, I wrote her a song. And I sang it to her. Now why did I do that? Could I have just spoken those words to her? Would she have said “yes” if I hadn’t written her a song? Maybe? I guess we’ll never know. But I wrote a song, I wrote poetry, in order to reach that part of her that God created, her emotions, her affections, so that she would be touched and moved. And I love the fact that the Psalmist writes in such a way, with the medium of music and poetry, so that we likewise would be moved. And we likewise can express our deepest emotions and our heartfelt desires before the Lord.

That’s actually one of the things that I love about the Bible. The Bible is a unified document, but it’s not uniform. There’s a varied use of style and genre utilized to communicate truth. It’s not a list of rules. It’s not a list of “dos and don’ts”. It’s a diverse collection of writings that communicate and move us in different ways. 

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So, let’s move on here. Now that we know the historical background to the Book of Psalms and what the Book is about. Let’s talk about…

How is the Book of Psalms structured?

Five books of relatively equal length

• Book 1 – Psalm 1-41
• Book 2 – Psalm 42-72
• Book 3 – Psalm 73-89
• Book 4 – Psalm 90-106
• Book 5 – Psalm 107-150

And these book divisions are ancient. And they probably go back to separate collections of Psalms that precede the present construction of the book. I’ll give you some evidence of this. At the end of Psalm 72, in verse 19-20, there’s a statement that says, “Blessed be his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory! Amen and Amen! The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended.” Now that’s an odd statement right there, because there are more Davidic Psalms after Psalm 72. But what that statement indicates is not the end of Davidic Psalms in the Psalter, but the end of Davidic Psalms in Book 2 of the Psalter. And that statement may, in fact, go back to a separate collection of Psalms that were added to other collections to make up the present-day collection. And there are similar concluding (or doxological) statements at the end of Psalm 41, 89, and 106. And when you put that together, you have these five Books of the Psalter, which many people assume to be an intentional mirroring of the five Books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. You can write that down in your notes…     

Parallel to the Books of Moses?

I put a question mark after that statement because that’s a reasonable inference, but there is some debate about it. Let me say it this way… I wouldn’t take a bullet for that statement, but I think there is enough evidence to suggest that these five Books of the Psalms were intentionally put together to mirror the Five Books of Moses. And if that’s the case, then when the Psalmist says in Psalm 1, “but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night,” he’s not just talking about “the law,” the Five Books of Moses! He’s talking about the law, which includes the five Books of Psalms as well. I actually think that’s the case no matter what you decide about the five Books of Psalms being parallel to the Books of Moses. We’ll talk more about that and Psalm 1 in a second. 

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Go ahead and write this down under #3.

What are the different types (sub-genres) of Psalms?

I’ll give you six types of Psalms. Write this down as the first one. 

Praise/Thanksgiving (e.g. Ps 146-150) – Characterized by a tone of exuberant praise to the Lord

These are probably the Psalms that you are most familiar with. These are the Psalms that typically we turn into modern-day hymns and worship choruses. They are uplifting! They are adorational. And they are ascriptive songs of praise offered to the LORD. The Book of Psalms closes with a group of these Praise Psalms bunched together in Psalm 146-150. Isn’t it interesting that the LORD closes out this book with a string of Praise Psalms?

But the Psalter is more than just Praise Psalms. There is also Lament.

Lament (e.g. Ps 13, 88, 102) – Songs that express a mood of despair, abandonment, distress and suffering (typically ending in praise)

“Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?” (Psalm 43:5). Anyone ever pray a prayer like that to the LORD? Anyone ever feel like that sometimes? 

“How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?” (Psalm 13:1). How about that? Anyone ever feel like that before the LORD sometimes? Well if you do, you’re not the first. David felt like that sometimes, and he cried out to the LORD in the midst of his pain. And so should you!

How about this? Psalm 102:2-7 says, “Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress! Incline your ear to me; answer me speedily in the day when I call! For my days pass away like smoke, and my bones burn like a furnace. My heart is struck down like grass and has withered; I forget to eat my bread. Because of my loud groaning my bones cling to my flesh. I am like a desert owl of the wilderness, like an owl of the waste places; I lie awake; I am like a lonely sparrow on the housetop.”

You might say, “Pastor Tony, that sounds like a country song.” “What do you get when you play a country song backwards? You get your house back, your wife back, your truck back, and your dog back.”  

You might say after reading a lament in the OT, like Psalm 102, “Pastor Tony, that Psalmist is depressed.” Yeah, he is depressed. He’s having a hard day. And I’m glad he wrote about it. Because that encourages me when I’m depressed. That gives me something to think about and pray when I’m having a hard day or a hard year. So, the Psalms are not always sunshine, lollipops and rainbows. But I will say this, typically, even with the most depressing laments in the Psalter, they still end in praise. The only exception to that is Psalm 88, which we’ll be addressing in a few weeks. 

Here are a few other sub-genres in the Psalms. There is also something called Imprecatory Psalms.

Imprecatory (e.g. Ps 58, 109, 137, 140) – Prayers against enemies or the invoking of judgment against an enemy

The question will come up when you read Psalms like these, “Should I pray like the Psalmist prays here? Should I utter judgment against my enemy like David does?” And the answer to that, in light of the NT, is no. Jesus calls us to love our enemies and do good to those who persecute us. So, we can pray the Lament Psalms to the LORD, but not the Imprecatory Psalms. We leave the invoking of judgment to the LORD. 

Also there are Royal Psalms.

Royal (e.g. Ps 18, 20, 45, 24, 145) – Songs of Praise to King David and to King Yahweh

Also there are Torah Psalms.

Torah (e.g. Ps 1, 19, 119) – Songs that espouse the glory of God’s Word (the Torah) 

And finally there are Messianic Psalms.

Messianic (e.g. Ps 2, 8, 22, 110) – Point explicitly to a coming Messiah

Here’s a short list of Messianic Psalms and their fulfillment in the NT:

Messianic Psalms

• Christ’s Ascension (Ps 68:18; Eph. 4:8)
• Christ’s Betrayal (Ps 41:9; Luke 22:48)
• Christ’s Death (Ps 22:1-21; Matt. 27)
• Christ’s Deity (Ps 45:6-7 Heb. 1:8-9)
• Christ’s Exaltation (Ps 8:5-6 Heb. 2:6-9)
• Christ’s Kingship (Ps 2:6; 89:18-19 Acts 5:31)
• Christ’s Lordship (Ps 8:2; Matt 21:15-16; Ps 110:1; Matt 22:44; Acts 2:34)
• Christ’s Priesthood (Ps 110:4; Heb 5:6)
• Christ’s Resurrection (Ps 2:7; 16:10; Acts 2:25-28; 13:33–35)
• Christ’s Sonship (Ps 2:7; Matt 3:17; Heb 1:5)
• Christ’s Sufferings (Ps 69:9; Jn 2:17, Rom 15:3; Ps 69:4; Jn 15:25)
• Christ’s Supremacy (Ps 118:22-23; Matt 21:42)

And by the way, there are individual Psalms which are Messianic, but there’s a sense in which the entire Book of Psalms is Messianic. And by that, I mean that the Book itself is structured in such a way that a longing for the Messiah is intensified as the Book progresses. For instance, at the front part of the Psalms, there are a lot of references to King David as the King of Israel in Books 1, 2, and 3. And there are a lot of Royal Psalms that celebrate David as King. But in Book 4 and Book 5, there’s less about David as King and more about Yahweh as King, as the people of Israel start to anticipate a “greater-than-David” Son of David, a Messiah who will rule as King of Israel. 

Also, if you read through the whole Book of Psalms, you’ll notice how the balance shifts from laments to praise Psalms. At the beginning of Psalms, the book is heavily weighted with laments. Some of you who have tried to read through the entire book may have noticed that. You read the book looking for something uplifting, but you get bogged down with a string of laments in Books I, II, and III. But the balance shifts in Books IV and V. Those Books are full of more praise songs than laments. Book V closes with a string of praise Psalms (Ps 146-150). And there are more references to Yahweh and less to David, as the trajectory of the Book points to something better and more praiseworthy than King David, a true and better King David. 

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So, let’s synthesize here. #4. 

What do the Psalms teach us about worship?

• God is sovereign and worthy of our worship
• God deserves worship regardless of our emotional state
• God gave us music and poetry to use for worship

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And #5. 

What are the theological themes in the book of Psalms?

Let me give you four quickly here, and then we’ll turn our attention to Psalm 1. Martin Luther said once that “The book of Psalms is ‘a little Bible’, and the summary of the Old Testament.” So what we say here about Psalms, could be said about the entirety of the OT, but they are displayed in bold relief in the Book of Psalms.

• God (Yahweh) is King and reigns over all the world 
• God is in a dynamic, intimate relationship with his people
• God’s people long for salvation and a savior 
• God is a God of mercy and salvation

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So, with all of that said… With all of that background to the Book of Psalms. #6.

Why Delight in God’s torah?

Or let me ask it a little more crassly, “So what?” “Why does all this matter, Pastor Tony?” “Why is this even important for us?” “Why should we even take the time to study the book of Psalms or any part of God’s Word?” “Why should we even care?”

Those are fair questions for the skeptic who doesn’t know God. And they are probably questions that you, even as a Christian, ask from time to time. Because studying God’s Word is not easy, especially when you look at texts in the OT that are 3,000 years old and pretty far removed from our contemporary world. 

And there are far more interesting and captivating things in this world. There are things in this world that grab your attention and force you to pay attention. The TV. The Newspaper. The Internet. Your phone. Your email inbox. You don’t even have to work at being interested in those things. It just sucks you into it as soon as you wake up. But studying the Bible, studying the OT, that’s work. That’s hard. That takes discipline and meditation and deep thinking. Why bother? Why delight in God’s Word?

Here’s why. Because God wants you to be strong like a tree. God wants you to be like an oak tree planted by streams of living water, fertile and flourishing and strong with luxurious green leaves. God wants you to be a tree. Not chaff. Not chaff that is blown about by the wind. You know what that is? A life that is addicted to TV, Newspaper, Internet, Phone? That’s a chaff-life! Blown about by the different ideas circulating in this world. And easily swayed by the persuasive words of the wicked. 

So here we go, three answers to that question, “Why Delight in God’s Torah?” and then we’re done. Come let’s reason together from Psalm 1. “Why Delight in God’s Torah?” Here’s the first answer. Because 

1) God’s torah is the source of blessing (1:1–2)

The psalmist says…

1 Blessed is the man 

The Hebrew for “Blessed” is אַשְׁרֵי. It can mean “blessed” or “happy” or “elated.” Leah’s maidservant Zilpah gave birth to a son, and she named him Asher, because she was אַשְׁרֵי. She was elated (Gen 30:13).

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; 

Notice the movements here. Walks with… stands with… sits with…. A blessed man, a happy man, doesn’t associate intimately with the wicked… the sinners… the scoffers. Now obviously Jesus walked with, stood with, and sat with sinners and scoffers. But that’s not what the psalmist is talking about here. There’s an intimacy that is intimated with these images of walking, standing, and sitting. A blessed man doesn’t become intimately acquainted with sinners and their sinful ways. What does he or she do then? What’s the contrast? Should he walk, stand, and sit with righteous people? Well, yes, but that’s not the contrast the psalmist is going for. 

Look at verse 2.

2 but his delight 

The blessed man… the blessed woman…the happy woman… the happy man…

2 his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. 

So, you want to be blessed, Christian. You want to be happy. Don’t meditate on sinners and sinful things. Don’t obsess over wickedness. Don’t obsess over movies and current events and video games. Obsess over God’s Word. And that doesn’t make video games and movies and current events wrong. It just means that your meditations need to be on God’s Word. You need to see video games, movies, and current events through the prism of God’s Word, not God’s Word through the prism of video games, movies and current events. Does everyone understand that? That’s where blessedness is found. That’s where joy is found. 

I think we’ve all been guilty of being obsessed about things other than God and his Word. And every time I look back on that in my life it has led to misery and disappointment. And that’s because those things, those replacements for God and God’s Word, can’t satisfy like God can. They can’t deliver the joy and the hope that is only found in him. 

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Here’s a second reason to delight in God’s Law. Because….

2) God’s torah provides security (1:3–4) 

 Look at verse 3.

3 He [The one who delights in the law of the LORD… the blessed man… that guy] 

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. 

Like a tree! Like a tree, people! I love trees. Several years ago, Sanja and I bought a house in central Illinois. And it was in an Amish part of the country where they had cut down most of the trees to build furniture and create farmland. And I told my realtor before we bought that house, “I don’t care about much, but I want a house with a tree in my yard.” So we got a house with a tree in the yard. 

And that tree on my property even started to cause us problems. It was big and strong and beautiful, but the roots of that tree went down into our basement and started tearing up our drainage system. We had to call Roto-Rooter every summer to cut back the roots of that tree in the basement. But that just proves the point of this author in Psalm 1. A tree is strong and powerful and immovable. It is rooted and secure. And if you want to be like that tree, you hold fast to God’s Word. You chew on it. You meditate on it. And you think about it. And you study it, like some people study for the SATs when they’re trying to get into college!  

And by the way, don’t be thrown off by this word “law” here in Psalm 1. That word “law” in Hebrew is the word תּוֹרָה (“torah”) which means also “teaching” or “instruction.” And that word, תּוֹרָה, is used as a title for the first five books of Moses. But it’s also used as shorthand for all of the teaching and the instruction in the Bible. This is a figure of speech called “synecdoche” meaning a part for the whole. 

And the Psalmist uses תּוֹרָה interchangeably for the entire “Word of God” or all of the “instructions of God.” If you don’t believe me, take a look at Psalm 119 where the Psalmist writes 176 verses espousing the beauty of God’s Word, God’s תּוֹרָה. So that’s why I’m using “God’s Law” and “God’s torah” and “God’s Word” interchangeably here. 

Now what about the person who ignores God’s תּוֹרָה? How does the Psalmist describe them? He says they are like chaff. Look at verse 4.  

4 The wicked are not so, 

In other words, the wicked are not a tree. What are they then? They are like a tree that has just been chainsawed and put in a woodchipper.

4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, that is not a flattering description. You probably knew that already, so I don’t have to tell you that. When I lived in central Illinois, the entire countryside was farmland. And driving around you would see corn fields and soy fields everywhere. And you would get a vivid depiction of chaff every October when the combines started to harvest the precious corn, wheat, and soy in the area. And the combines would gather the valuable stuff. And all that miserable worthless chaff got spewed out the backside of the combine and filled the air with hazy debris.

In the ancient world, like what we see in the book of Ruth, the harvesters would take the grain stalks and wrap them up with a blanket. And then they would beat them with a rod to separate wheat from chaff. And the heavier wheat would stay in the blanket or in the basket, but the chaff would escape into the air and be blown away. What a picture, huh? 

So the psalmist is saying, “What do you want to be? Which metaphor describes you? Are you a well-rooted tree or are you wind-driven chaff? What’s it going to be?” A Torah-meditator, a Bible-reader is a tree. That person is secure. That person prospers and produces fruit. Otherwise, you’re just going to be blown away and tossed about to and fro like chaff, like the pulverized debris of grain-husks. 

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So, the person who delights in God’s torah is blessed. The person who delights in God’s torah is secure. The person who delights in God’s torah is directed to eternity. Write this down as #3. 

3) God’s torah directs us to eternity (1:5–6)

Look at verse 5.

5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; 

6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. 

I’m going to close this message by allowing this passage to point us to Christ in the NT. We can’t escape reading the OT with NT lenses when we read the text on this side of the cross, and with a realization that righteousness only comes to us through the blood of Jesus Christ. But even an OT reader of this passage would read this passage with an understanding of their own sinfulness and their need for blood. It’s the Law of the OT that records all those blood sacrifices that atones for sin and makes OT saints righteous.

So how are we made righteous? How are we known by God in the sense of being made righteous by God, escaping the punishment of sin and avoiding the way of the wicked that leads to perishing? Well according to the psalmist that comes from delight in God’s Law, or God’s Word. And obviously delight in God’s Word alone doesn’t lead to salvation, not directly. We are not saved by reading our Bibles. And our Bibles didn’t die on the cross for our sins. But indirectly, this is the תּוֹרָה, this is God’s revealed Word, that testifies to what Christ has done for us on the cross. 

This is God’s instrument of revelation that makes known to us how our sins are paid for and how we might be made righteous escaping eternal punishment and receiving eternal life. This is God’s way of making known to us his plan of salvation, so that we might be “known by God” as a child of God. 

Paul says it this way in the NT: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5:21). Do you know this plan of salvation revealed in his Word? Have you been made righteous through faith in Christ?     

5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; 

6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, 

Are you on the way of the righteous? Are you known by God?

but the way of the wicked will perish. 

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I’ll close with this. Look up on the screen for a minute. If I could visualize Psalm 1 for you in a picture, here it is. 

This is an AI generated picture. And this is what’s called a “trope” in many movies or images. The travelers have two paths before them. There’s the sunny safe path of tranquility. And then there’s the dark, dangerous, ominous path of perilousness. Which way are they going to go? Typically as part of this trope, there’s one character who says, “Let’s go this way,” pointing to the dark, dangerous path. Then the other person says, “What are you crazy! No. Let’s go this way.”

 Psalm 1 is a lot like that. The two options are clearly stated. There’s the way of God-fearing and Torah-reading. And then there’s the way of God-defying and wickedness. There’s the way of a security, the way of the tree. And then there’s the way of danger, the chaff. There’s the way of the congregation of the righteous. In ancient Israel that was the place of worship. In eternity, that’s the New Jerusalem, when we worship Christ for eternity because we have trusted him for our righteous standing before God. Then there’s the way of perishing. That’s torah-rejecting, God-defying, Christ-denying, wickedness. Which way you gonna go?