The Godly

Psalm 1

In this time of, "Did God really say? relativism/ situational ethics and more concern about feeling than facts..." we have a clear delineation between the righteous/ godly and the wicked. In the garden there was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Each is spoken about in this Psalm.

Jesus spoke about this division in Matthew 25 when He spoke about separating the sheep from the goats. There is  a marked difference.  

The Psalms are the hymnal of the Bible, the book of worship. Worship requires a relationship and so this first Psalm sets that out for us.

Over the next months we are going to be going through the Psalms. This would be a great time to connect with one of our Bible Studies if you do not presently attend and walk through these poems that were put to music, which are 3,000 years old.

So this morning we are looking at Psalm 1. 

We have before us a contrast of the righteous person and the wicked one.

The godly righteous person...  

1. Does not

*Walk in the way of in the way of the wicked

*Stand in the way of sinners

*Seat in the seat of mocker

Natural progression here.

*Walking, standing, sitting... all our waking hours are spent doing one of these things.

Walking is living. Keeping in step lit.

Galatians 5.25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

Keep in step: 

to proceed in a row as the march of a soldier, go in order

metaphorically to go on prosperously, to turn out well

to direct one's life, to live

*Standing is waiting.

*Sitting is  reading, working, leisure... can also be waiting as at a doctor's.

Settled attitude of life.

Scornful= irresponsible

All our hours, moment by moment, in all our activities and even in inactivity.

The godly person...

2. Does delight in the law of God.

delight= pleasure, longing, desire

We talk about the pleasures of sin. They are for a very short season.

There is pleasure and delight  in obeying the LORD.  He knows the truth about life through the whole Revelation of God. He knows he needs God.

Peace

Contentment

Harmony in your soul

Heaven in your future

meditates= muse, utter

On it both day and night While he is awake walking, standing, sitting

While he is going to bed he is dwelling on God's Word

3. God's blessings on this man- v.3

Planted- 

Like a tree- difference between a tree and a plant.

A method of watering in the Middle East where water is not plentiful is to dig canals off the rivers. The Nile and the Euphrates are prime examples of this. When a tree is planted by one of these canals it has continuous nourishment. 

fruitful- lots of joy 

The fruit of the Spirit is produced as we keep in step with the Spirit ...

and handle the Sword of the Spirit with increasing skill.

This word can mean both produce (nothing like the fresh stuff! Fruit and vegetables or offspring, children,...

We pray for believers who are sick and rightly so. We need to be praying the prayer in Acts as well...

in its season= forever, continuous existence - Tree of Life in Revelation 

leaf does not whither (eternal life)

Whatever he does prospers= to advance, prosper, make progress, succeed, be profitable

Psalm 4.3 But know that the LORD has set apart for Himself him who is godly; The LORD will hear when I call to Him.

What notes are you leaving? What legacy are you passing on?

Rich,

Your dad always set up the baptistry for the church. This afternoon the Spanish Church asked if I could help them set it up. I remembered everything your Dad told me. Then down underneath it, in the basement, in a room no one goes in except Sig when he outs the offering in the safe, I took the guy from the Spanish Church and showed him how to turn things on and off, there hanging from a string was a note your dad put up, in his handwriting, explaining how to turn on the heater and turn it off, how to work it in coordination with the water. He knew one day he would not be here and he prepared us for that. I am still thinking about it hours later.

Pastor