The Two-Fold Blessing: Psalms 1 & 2 Week 17

Have your Bibles open to Psalms. We're going to look at the first two Psalms, which I know pastor has gone on over before. I'm going to probably take it from a a different angle than what pastor has spoke on it before. Uh, I'd been doing some study, for those of you that are in my Sunday school class, I've been doing some study on, uh, biblical theology. And this is something that kind of came to my attention and had been thinking about, but it's regarding Psalms. And and and I'm not sure where Pastor left off with or what he had talked about so far as far as the background for the book of Psalms, but there's some interesting trivia about Psalms I thought I'd share.

And one of it is that did you know that of all the ancient Hebrew literature that we have of the Old Testament, uh the one that we have the most of is the book of Psalms. And I think what that tells us is that the uh ancient Hebrews love this book of Psalms just as much as the modern Christian does u because there's so many copies of it. Now, another piece of trivia that we'll come back to, right? Right? It's not really trivia, I guess. Is did you know that the book of Psalms is more than one book? It's actually five books. It's five books put together to compile the the main books. Chapters 1-41 is a book.

Chapters 42- 72 is a book. 73- 89, 90- 106, and 107 through 150 are all books that that compile up what we call the Psalms. We may be tempted as we read through the Psalms to think that they're just half-hazardly put together, but that's not actually the case. They have been compiled. Theologians believe that it was compiled around the time of Ezra, maybe by Ezra himself. This is um after uh the exile to Babylon and the Jews have started coming back into Jerusalem. The rebuilding of Jerusalem during this period of time is is probably when uh these were compiled in the order that they are. But but one thing as we look into the order of them order of them that we can say is that that that too was also God ordained that God oversaw that to bring about the the the fullness of the books that we have.

Now for many years when I when I looked at Psalms 1 and two I thought they were kind of unrelated. And let me go ahead and read Psalm 1, Psalm 2, and maybe you'll get the feel for what I mean. If you open your Bibles there to Psalm 1, let me start in verse one. I'm going to just read all through Psalms 1 and then all through Psalms two. There it says, "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor seatth in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season.

His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Therefore, the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish. Psalm two. Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands aunderder and cast away their cords from us.

He that siteth in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have derision in them, or shall have them in derision. Then he shall speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore pleasure. Verse verse six is him saying now the Lord now speaking, yet I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. Verse seven, the psalmist starts to speak. He says, uh, I'm sorry. Yeah, I'm sorry. Yeah, excuse me. I'm getting confused myself here. Uh, verse 7, the psalmist now speaks and and he says, "And I will declare the decree uh speaking of what the Lord says regarding this king that he has established. The Lord saith unto me, thou art my son, this day I have begotten thee.

Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Be be wise now, therefore, or ye kings. Be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him. As I read this, as I went from Psalm 1 to Psalm 2, maybe you're like how I have been for a long period of time and you look at them and you're like, are these two things related?

They seem to make this this sudden change and it and it doesn't seem to flow. But but yet these are put here on purpose. They actually frame out or start to frame out this first book of the book of Psalm. If you notice that that Psalm 1 and Psalm 2 are are bracketed by the idea or the same idea. It starts in Psalm 1 of a blessed man and then it ends in Psalm 2 verse 12 about those that are blessed. Psalm 1 and two are are framed with this idea of blessedness and and you don't see blessedness again until uh Psalm 32. At Psalm 32, you start to pick up the idea of being blessed again in more frequency up to Psalm 41 uh which kind of completes that first book of the book of Psalms.

And what we see is that that first book of Psalms is bracketed by being blessed in the same way as the first two Psalms are bracketed by being blessed. And if you spend some time with those other books that I mentioned, the bracketing of the books of of Psalms that I mentioned, if you look at the other four books, what you'll find is that there's a general bracketing of blessedness as well, too. Not quite as clearly as delineated in this first book, but they're there. Chapter or the book five, the last book of of the Psalms is is is blessedness throughout. It doesn't have that bracketing aspect there, but there's a bracketing aspect.

And God has has put this idea of blessedness within the Psalms, which is often why we come to the Psalms, isn't it? We come to the Psalms often because we're dry. We come to the Psalms because we need encouragement and we're seeking that blessing and and and and we're recognizing that that is that is there. In fact, a lot of the songs that we sing are are inspired by the Psalms. Did you know how great thou art is actually inspired by Psalms 8? And so this idea of blessedness is that we recognize it's there. God has put it there. And so throughout the ages, Psalms is the book that God's people have come to to to find blessings.

And it is appropriate and and God has put within Psalms 1 and two really the opening uh of the book of as a whole of Psalms this idea of blessedness. And it's a two-fold aspect of blessedness, which is why when we read from Psalm 1 to Psalm two, it feels like a sudden jerk. But in reality, what this is preaching is it's preaching the gospel. We're going to see that as we kind of pull it together. And so what I want to do is I want to look at this two aspected part of the blessed life that we find in Psalm 1 and two and and pull them together as the Lord would like us to see. And so the first part I want to look at is in Psalms 1 and the blessedness that comes in God's word.

Let me read verses 1-2 again is Psalms 1. It says, "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor seeth in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law does he meditate day and night." Here we get the idea right at the start of the blessed man and he's described to us in in two ways. One one the things that he does not do and the other the things that he he does do. And what he doesn't do is he he doesn't keep close company with those who reject God's law. If you could categorize I know pastors talked about this.

I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it but if you could categorize the people that he's he's he's he's not keeping as close companion. They're they're those who are have a disregard for God's law. Ungodly means that they're guilty before God. And sinners, we understand that that means transgressions against the law. And the scornful are those who have an unwillingness to be taught by the law. And so all three groups have this disregard for the law, which the blessed man doesn't allow them to be his close companions. And he then he and he kind of puts them in a different category. It's not that he's he's shunning people like that.

It's just they're not his close companions. He's not sitting with them. He's not not keeping them close. Just a side note on this group of people, this ungodly group of people, by the way, is there's nothing in this passage passage that speaks of their disposition. Often times when we come to this kind of speaking of the ungodly, I I think a lot of times we get the idea of somebody who's just out out committing huge, horrible, heinous sins, and they're they're so easy to pick out. But but the the issue that's being spoken to here is a heart issue that has no regard for God's law. And the reality is is around us we can find people that are nice, people that are fun, people that are friendly, but yet at the same time do not have a a regard for God's law.

And that's the standard that the blessed man is not wanting to keep close. And why that comes in verse two says, "But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law does he meditate day and night. The blessed man instead delights in the law and he meditates on it day and night. And so he doesn't have the the friends that have no care for God's word because he in himself is focused on God's word. It's it's it's got the delight that inner joy that's inside of it over God's word and and so much so that that he spends his time thinking on it and contemplating it, working it over into his mind as he understands and seeks to see how it applies and how it works out and the riches of it that are there.

And then verse three tells us what this brings. And I love this word picture that the psalmist gives us. It says, "He shall be plant he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." I've had the opportunity to preach just Psalm 1 a number of times. And I and if you've heard me preach on it before, you know I always speak about the litechi tree that's in my yard, which by the way is no longer there. We cut it down. But but we used to have this huge litechy tree in our yard. And you cannot see my house from the from the street.

You see my garage and the neighbor's house, but my house is is in the back. You can't see it, but what you can see is the litechi tree. And the litechi tree grows or used to grow behind my house down by the stream, fitting this imagery perfectly. And the lchi tree would not have fruit every year. That's part of the reason why we cut it down. But but when it would have fruit, it would just have it in abundance and the whole canopy would have all this red of the lyche up top. And while you couldn't see my house, you could see that. And so what happened is we would have strangers, people that we didn't even know, coming up the street, seeing that in our backyard, and then going into our backyard and trying to pick our lichi.

And it's way up top. Couldn't reach it. But even then, my wife, good local girl, chases them out of our yard cuz they're not going to have her leche. Even if they even if we can't reach it, they're not still not going to get it, right? But but it's the idea that that sticks with me that you guys are looking at me funny when I said that. You guys like lchi? Do I have do I have enough of a local crowd to appreciate lyche? the uh the image fits so well because that lchi tree drew people in off the street that we didn't even know to come and enjoy the tree. That's the kind of man or woman that comes out of uh delighting in God's law and meditating on it.

It's a wonderful picture and and we read that and we want to be that we want to be that that person that prospers like that that person that that is that blessing to others that is so fruitful in our lives and that comes from from delighting in God's word. But but verse four tells us the opposite or the the ungodly group that does not do it. Let me read that. It says the ungodly are not so but are but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Therefore, the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

So, you see, those that then do not delight in God's word and do not meditate on it day and night. God knows who they are with their wickedness, there is no hiding from him, and they will perish. Now, there's something I want you to notice in this psalm and pay special attention to. There's no third option. The psalmist here has divided humanity into two groups. The blessed and the sinner. And so as you look at this psalm, think about that for a second. You're going to fit in one of those two categories. Which category do you fit in? And you know, think about it for a second. I want to I want to get you in a spot so that I can take you out of that spot afterwards in a second.

Are we blessed by that definition? Do we delight in God's word? I mean, do we delight in the law? How much time do you spend even reading the law? I maybe read Deuteronomy once a year. And and I know the law is bigger than Deuteronomy, but but I read it maybe once a year. Do we delight in it? How much time do we spend meditating on it on the right rule of of what God has called for for us to live? How much time do we spend thinking about it? Is it constant? It's not, is it? Now, think about this. Are we sinners? Do we scorn at time? Are we guilty to the law? We are. You see, Psalm 1 leaves us in a dilemma when we think about it because we want to be that blessed person.

We want to be that fruitful tree. But the reality is when we look at our hearts and we see what we really are, we're not that blessed man. We don't rise to that standard. And the reality is we fall into the the ungodly standard too often. And and the psalm here is saying those are the ones who perish. And so Psalm 1 is it's a beautiful psalm and and in one sense very encouraging as you think through it and you start to contemplate it, you realize it leaves you in this dilemma. One of the wonderful things is Psalms two that then carries us out of this dilemma. Let me read Psalm 2:es 1-3. It says, "Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing?

The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, "Let us break their bands of sunder and cast away their cords from us." Psalm 1 or Psalm 1, I'm sorry, ends off speaking of the perishing of the ungodly. Psalm two now picks up from there and now starts speaking of the actions of the ungodly. And the ungodly, what they want to do is they want to break the bands of the Lord. They want to they want to throw off his authority, which is actually sin, right? The the the most basic definition of sin is that we want to do our own.

We want to put off God's authority of what he says is right and us take the authority and we do what we think we should do and sinfully go against his rule. We want to break off the bonds. Verse 4 to 6 has the response to those who willingly want to do this. And and there in verse four, it says, "He he that sitth in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in dervision. Then he shall speak unto them in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure." The ungodly want to break away, but as the Lord looks at it, it means nothing to him. Instead, the instead the Lord laughs at it. And in doing that, what he does then is he he sets up a king.

You want to you want to break off the authority? You want to go your own way? It's nothing to the Lord. He's going to set up his king who's going to rule as we find out as we we look down as he as he makes a decree as to as to this king. Starting in starting in verse 7, he says, "I will declare the decree. The Lord hath said unto thee, thou art my son. This day I have begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.

We're still talking about the ungodly here, and we're following along in the idea of Psalm 1 a little bit, that the ungodly will perish. But Psalm 2 gives us a little bit more information uh which is going to be helpful for us as we roll to the end of Psalm 2. And that is that this punishment is going to be coming through the sun that the that the king has set into place. And since we live on this side of the cross, we pick up quite quickly who who the psalmist is speaking of here, right? That son is Jesus Christ who has already come and is now on the throne. He's been set uh in his position. Verse 10 then speaks about this king.

He says, "Be wise now, therefore, or ye kings. Be instructed, ye judges of the earth." And so God has set his son on the throne, has declared him to have the power to rule. He's the one who's going to judge. And it's at this point in the psalm that now God speaks to not really offer a peace treaty but in a sense to reach out now to the ungodly. He has said he laughs at their wanting to break off the bonds and in response to them wanting to break off his authority. He has set one over who will rule and one who he is going to give the power over to to bring them into submission and to dash them to cause them to perish.

However, he calls them to be wise and to listen because he's going to give them a way of escape. And he says verse 11, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. When we first hear that, we think we think, hey, isn't this like Psalms 1 where we're supposed to obey? We realize that we can't fully obey anyway. So, how is this helpful? Well, verse 12, it comes alive. And he says, "Kiss the son, lest he be angry and you perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in the Lord." The blessedness then comes from the relationship to the sun.

The blessedness then comes to the relationship to the son and having peace with the son. The one who gives the is giving is being given the authority to rule and to dash into pieces is the one that you can have peace with. Come kiss the sun. Submit to the sun and put your trust in the sun and then you are blessed. It is in kissing the sun and putting our trust in the sun that we are covered that we are saved from the wrath. And then the dilemma of Psalms one starts to get get solved in Psalms two because there is peace with the one who is going to to dash apart if we seek to have peace with the son of God.

And put together this perfectly now describes the Christian life. Because the blessed life is not found in simply following the law. That's moralism and it fails. We cannot we cannot appease a righteous God by by seeking to be completely moral. In fact, we can't even be blessed happy in our life in seeking to be completely moral because in one sense we will fail but then we live amongst other people who fail. I was listening to a man this morning. My wife and I try to listen to um preaching as much as we can before we start our day. And we we were listening to a a man I actually know. And um he guy loves his wife.

He's almost old enough to be my dad, but man loves his wife. And and um he was speaking about how difficult it is to to truly love, right? And even if you could well it up within yourself to truly love, the reality is is your spouse is not always going to be what she needs to be. And so there's still going to be conflict and you're still not always going to have that blessedness. There's it's not going to work. But yet Psalms 2 gets us out of this dilemma and shows us that hey, there is that blessed life. There is that that hope because there is peace with the son. Therefore, kiss the son and trust the son.

And in that this pursuit of the law completely changes because now the now the pursuit of the law is is is is following after the law of the one that we have kissed and put our trust in. And I love that idea of the kiss. I am not at all interested in kissing a man. Doesn't nothing. But I understand a kiss and so do you guys, right? The people and the and the and our spouses and our children and and whoever it is that we kiss are people that we love, people that we're very close to and people that we can trust. But the but the ones that we kiss have that same uh attraction to us. They allow us to kiss them and have this intimate moment because they also love us and they are also invested in us.

And this is the son. The son calls for the them in that kiss and that poetic picture there to come to the sun. Uh because the son loves those that come to him and those that come to him can trust him. Our Lord Jesus reigns. But for those that love the Son and put their trust in him, there's peace and there will not be perishment. I'm sorry. There will not be they will not perish. Which then takes our Psalms one and completely gives it new light. We seek to delight in the law and we seek to meditate on God's word because we love the king who has given the the law and he has rescued us from perishing.

And so as we seek to live out the law, we become that fruitful tree and that and we and we prosper in life because we have the son. And when we fail, when we fail to carry out the law, when we become lazy, when we become self-centered, when we fall into ungodliness, when we want to deny his authority and follow after our owns, because we have the son, we are still blessed because of the relationship to him. And you know the very next time that word blessed occurs, remember I told you it's at the at the beginning and at the end of this first book of Psalms, it's in Psalms 32. Let me read it to you.

This is the very next time this word occurs. Psalms verse 32, sorry, chapter 32:es 1 and 2. It says, "Blessed is he whose transgressions is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto the whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile. Brothers and sisters, we are blessed to kiss the son and to be able to put our trust in him. But but the psalmist in the comp the compilation of the psalms we see that that within that the reason that we can do that is because it's also in the sun that our sins are forgiven that we are not guilty and that we will not perish but we are loved by the almighty god. The book of Psalms is written by multiple people over a extended period of time, but yet it has one author. And that author wants us to understand that the blessed the blessed life comes through peace with his son and the intentional effort to follow after that son in love.