PT-1 "Psalm One" (Psalm 1:1-2)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/11/2011 7:34:43 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  Psalm 1

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Psalm 1

 

            Message of the verses:  “1 How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night. 3 He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers.

    “4 The wicked are not so, But they are like chaff which the wind drives away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. 6 For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the wicked will perish.”

 

            Psalm one is a very special Psalm to me as the memory of this Psalm goes back to the early years of my walk with the Lord.  My wife and I attended a seminar in October of 1980, which was almost seven years after I became a believer and one of the things that were taught there was the value of memorizing Scripture.  We were told that if you begin to memorize Scripture and continue to go over it in your mind that the Lord would give you a song from the verses that you memorized.  I chose Psalm one to memorize and as was taught there the Lord did give me a song to which I gave it to a lady from the church I was attending who actually composed it to be played on an organ and it was played one evening in church, much to my surprise.  I wish I could say that I still memorize a lot of Scripture, but sadly that is not the case as it does get more difficult with the passing of time, but Psalm one is still in my memory and I do love this wonderful Psalm.

 

            Dr. Wiersbe points out that this is a wisdom Psalm as it speaks of blessings and also cursing, blessings for those who believe and cursing for those who don’t.  It is a contrast between two different people going in two different directions.  He goes on to say that the Psalm also reminds its readers of different places in the Scriptures.  For instance in the book of Genesis we find people who were walking with God (Gen. 5:21, 24; 6:9; 17:1), and we also see the life giving river in Genesis 2:10-14 along with the trees and fruit found in Genesis 2:8-10. 

           

            Next we see the Law of the Lord as seen in the books of Exodus through Deuteronomy.  In Joshua 1:8 we see success through the meditation on God’s law:  “"This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.’”

           

            Dr. Wiersbe points out that the Bible seems to build history on “two men.”  We see the “first Adam” and the “last Adam.”  It is seen in Romans chapter five and also in 1Cor. 15:45, "The first MAN, Adam, BECAME A LIVING SOUL." The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.”  Cain and Able are the next example of “two men,” Ishmael and Isaac, Esau and Jacob, and David and Saul.  The culmination is with Christ and Antichrist.  Two men, two ways, two destinies, and we can see this concept in Psalm one.

 

            We will begin this study of Psalm one with the first two verses as we follow the outline from Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary on Psalm 1, “Be Worshipful.”  He writes, “While this psalm depicts two ways, it actually describes three different persons and how they relate to the blessing of the Lord.” 

           

            The Person Who Receives a Blessing from God (vv. 1-2):  “1 How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night.”

           

            I first want to point out that the word “man” is generic and speaks of both men and women.  Next the word for blessing is asher which is the name of one of Jacob’s sons and it is plural. We see here that the person who is blessed has met the conditions and therefore God is blessing him.  Now if we too want God’s blessings we must meet God’s conditions.

           

            We must be directed by God’s Word (v.-1):  1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.”  (KJV)  Dr. Wiersbe uses the KJV of the Bible and I like the NASB, but sometimes it is easier to understand his commentary if I too use the KJV, which is why I used it here.

           

            Verse one speaks of a man falling deeper into sinful ways by beginning to walk with the “ungodly or wicked” and then stands in the path of sinners, and then the person is sitting with the scoffers or the scornful.  He goes from casually walking with these ungodly people to stopping and conversing with them to sitting down with them to listen and chat with them.  This is a slippery slope that leads to much trouble.

           

            In order to understand this a bit better let us look at two men from the Scriptures and the ironic thing about looking at these two men is that one will actually write about the other.  I am speaking Lot and Peter.  Lot was the nephew of Abram and he came to the promised land with Abram and between the two of them they began to have so much livestock that the place where they were was not big enough to sustain their animals so they had to separate.  Abram told Lot to choose where he wanted to go and then Lot looked at Sodom and decided to go towards Sodom, and then he moved into Sodom and it seems like some of Sodom moved into him, therefore when the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorra Lot lost everything.  Lot even lost his testimony and if it were not for Peter’s writings we would not realize that Lot was a true believer. 

                       

            Not we look at Peter who was told by Christ to leave after the soldiers had taken Jesus to go to trial and eventually to be crucified.  Peter did not go away, but followed Jesus into the high priest’s courtyard.  He stood there with the enemy, and then ultimately sat with them.  The result was denying Christ three times.  In John chapter twenty-one we see Peter wanting to leave the ministry by returning to fishing, but after a night on the water and catching nothing he saw Jesus on the shore waiting for him and Jesus serves him breakfast.  Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves Him and three times Peter says yes.  Jesus very kindly brings Peter back into fellowship with Him for denying Him three times, and so Peter’s fishing days are now over, for he follows the Lord once again.

           

            We delight in the Word (v.-2):  “2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.”  We have just seen a negative verse and now we look at a positive verse.  I heard that people do not realize what meditation is and therefore do not know how to meditate on Scripture.  It is kind of like a cow after eating grass sits down and begins the process of chewing the grass again, chewing its cud.  Another way to think about it is to ask yourself if you worry about something, well everyone does that and meditation on the Word of God is kind of like worrying, for when you worry about something you think about it and think it over to get the right solution.  We must remember that if we delight in something like the Word of God we can then meditate on it.  Take the time before we get to Psalm 119 to read all 176 verses of that Psalm and you will find that the author of that Psalm really delights in the Word of God, for he mentions the Word in all but (I think) three verses.

           

            Dr. Wiersbe writes these wonderful words about meditation, “If we speak to the Lord about the Word, the Word will speak to us about the Lord.  This is what is meant by ‘abiding in the Word’ (1John 2:14, 24).”  How we treat the Word of God is how we treat the God of the Word.

           

            We are to desire it more than food (Ps. 119:103), sleep (Ps. 119:55), wealth (Ps.110:23) and I know at times that is hard to accomplish in life.

           

            One more quote from Dr. Wiersbe because it helps to understand Psalm one better:  “The verbs in verse one are in the perfect tense and speak of a settled way of life, while verse two ‘meditate’ is the imperfect tense and speaks of constant practice.”  There is also a footnote or endnote that goes along with this:  “Verse one can be translated ‘has not walked…has not stood… has not sat.’  The only person who ever lived that way on earth was Jesus Christ, and in Him we have the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21).”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I think of three words from this section that have spoken to my heart today.  Three things that I desire to do better.  Memorize, Meditate, and Delight are these three words, and three things that I have a desire to do better.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:

 

1.      Memorize, Meditate, and Delight in the Word of God.

2.      Continue to learn contentment.

 

12/11/2011 9:18:52 AM