Psalm 1: Delight in His Word
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning my name is George Garcia and as Spencer said I am one of the community group leaders here at Mill City Church Casey we are going to be in Psalm 1 today that will be on page 254 of the blue Bibles if you do not own a Bible or do not have one currently please take that one today not only is today's sermon from the Word of God it is about the Word of God so today would be. A wonderful day for you to take home a Bible and since it is about the Bible we're going to be talking about reading the Bible now reading the Bible is something that I struggled to do a lot growing up and even to this day whether it was because I was lazy or I just simply forgot or because even when I was reading the Bible I did not know what I was doing growing up I didn't. Really grow with a lot of direction and a lot of explanation as to why reading the Bible is so important all I was told that it was just something that a Christian should do when I actually began implementing Bible reading as I grew as I grew and as I mature it's just I just added it to the list of something to do I just added it to my routine which I was fine with reality is for me I'm someone who. Can do the exact same thing every single day I can wake up I can shower read my Bible go to work come home play guitar if I have some time catch up with my wife eat dinner and go to sleep I could do that every single day for the rest of my life and I would have no problem with that now to some of you that sounds like a prison routine to me your prison is my dream regardless even if you grew up Bible.
Reading all the time or you've tried to implement Bible reading your life or even if you've never even opened up the Word of God Psalm 1 serves as a reminder and an explanation as to why we should not only just read the Bible but we delight in the Bible so we're going to read Psalm 1 it's only six verses then I'm going to pray for us and then we're going to tackle each verse one at a time Psalm 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 but his delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law he meditates day and night verse 3 he is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither and all that he does he prospers the wicked are not so but are like. Chaff that the wind drives away therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous for the Lord knows the way of the righteous but the way of the wicked will perish let me pray Lord we are humbled and undeserving of this opportunity to open up your Word and I ask as we read through Psalm 1 may it serve to remind us and explain to us why we get to. Meditate and delight in your finished work Lord I ask that if there's any area any anywhere in our hearts that are distracting us from this morning I ask that you take that away and we focus and we pay attention and pay their respect to your Word that we are supposed to I pray this in your name amen verse 1 blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked nor stands in the way of the.
Sinner nor sits in the seat of scoffers now we're not starting off with the positives clearly we go from walking in the counsel of the wicked to then standing to then taking a seat among the scoffers this is a natural flow of sin sin is a very progressive thing and since we are naturally inclined to be comforted by sin this is sin this is the process of sin in our life an example of this. Is actually myself in the workplace I work in my free time not in my free time the summer is my free time I work at a school I am a PE teacher which is awesome but as if there's any teachers in the room you know that during the school year teaching can be draining and because it's so draining and sometimes it feels unrewarding it leaves room for gossip and for slandering so usually when I'm walking. The halls before or after school because we don't ever get an opportunity to talk to each other during school I'll listen I'll hear some gossip in the classroom or just wherever the break room is and I'll stand there I'll be walking then I'll stand I'll listen to it and I'll think to myself it's not worth it I shouldn't do it but that person's pretty terrible let me just see what they have to. Say let's just let me just let me just walk in we'll see and then before I know it I've taken a seat among the scoffers and I am either condoning what is being said or I'm contributing to it and it just happens just like that and so the reality is what verse one is getting at is what how sin progresses in our lives we also see this in social media where you can see someone asking for.
Help or advice and with the situation they're going through and all you you read through the comments you read through whatever is being responded to them and it's just terrible it's strictly worldly advice there's nothing it's rooted on but the problem is we go from mindlessly scrolling then all of a sudden we're also contributing that same type of advice we see this in movies and videos and shows we watch. We get so hooked they're very clever with how they bring us in and before we know it or being more influenced by the show we watch than by the word of God we see this with political commentary a show that I used to watch or listen to was the Ben Shapiro show I know Spencer has mentioned that a couple of times it's a political commentary show it's a conservative political commentary show which essentially. It's just an excuse to lash out on anything that isn't conservative and you know what I love it I love it because in my sinful nature for some reason is drawn to that is drawn not necessarily to the political idea but to the idea of someone lashing out on someone else and so I've had to stop watching it and listening to it because I get hooked. And I get influenced by it all of a sudden I'm I'm thinking these things that uh the show talks about we also see this with lust and the over sexualization of pretty much everything you can just be watching a movie with friends or your spouse and then some triggering or provocative scene comes up and now you can't get that out of your head and before you know it you're indulging.
And acting upon those thoughts and feelings now when you take a seat somewhere you normally take a seat when you're comfortable right you don't take a seat somewhere and stay there for a long time if you're not comfortable and so we see that in verse one that the last step is to take a seat among the scoffers because that's when you get comfortable and so we need to take a look a closer look at what. Gives us comfort where are areas in which we have taken a seat among the scoffers or even what we're playing with fire what catches our attention what makes you stop in that hallway and what makes you finally eventually join the psalmist goes on to give a direct count to this in verse two verse two but his delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law he meditates day and night. Now there's a very it's a big u-turn here we go from what the blessed man does not do to what he does do and what he does is he delights in the law of the Lord the hebrew meaning of delight being pleasure so what he is doing is he's taking pleasure in the law of the Lord now side note but also very important to the rest of this is that when the psalmist wrote this they were referencing the. Ten commandments when they said law of the Lord they were referencing the ten commandments which was the written word of God in the new testament we see the writers and the authors reference Psalms Proverbs as well as the ten commandments for the same exact reason it's the word of God so we fast forward to today and we have this right here so when we read that in Psalm when he meditates.
In the law of the Lord we are referring to the written word of God he is meditating on the written word of God now with knowing that we can go back to verse two the psalmist goes from listing what not to do to an all-encompassing encompassing word in delight the word delight is used several times in the Psalms all pointing to ultimate joy and satisfaction it's not just don't do this or don't do that. It's take pleasure in and delight in the law of the Lord this is why this is a the way verse one and verse two kind of go together is verse two is a complete uh opposite reaction it is it is a it is a counter to walking in the counsel of the wicked standing in the way of sinners and sitting in the seat of scoffers and it uh what that means is what the psalmist is trying to get at is that delighting. In the law of the Lord is the fundamental alternative to walking and sitting and standing in sin I'll say that again delighting in the law of the Lord is the fundamental alternative to walking and sitting and standing in sin now why is that the case well because the word of God is a story from front to back that all points to Jesus alistair beg who is a pastor in cleveland ohio put it like this. We find christ in all the scriptures in the old testament he has predicted and the gospels he has revealed in Acts he has preached in the epistles he has explained and a Revelation he has expected in Genesis God tells us that the serpent he will he tells the serpent he will bruise his head with the offspring of that woman and that eventual offspring being Jesus Jesus arrives in the new testament and we.
See miracles and his teachings all throughout Matthew Mark Luke and John such as bringing lazarus back to life turning water into wine and revealing that he knew the woman at the well these are just all of the countless examples of Jesus's miracles and his work that in Acts we see people like paul and barnabas preach the finished work of christ to the nations and then some areas and people need. Correcting or refining so they need Jesus explained to them they need that finished work explained to them so that's why we have the letters to the people in corinth and galatia and colossus and then in Revelation the bible ends on the expected return of Jesus and it's not just like oh he's coming back now it's if you take a look at revelations it is a triumphant return he will come back and collect his. People so all throughout the bible from front to back it's all about Jesus it's all about the wonderful story of Jesus coming to the earth and reconciling his people we get to delight in that story that's why it's the fundamental alternative now we can focus on the word delight a little bit it's used here purposefully delighting in something is an external and an internal reaction to something take for. Example you have a friend and by God's grace I do have a friend in our group by joe benton who uh he has a smoker so just picture that you have a friend who has a smoker and they text you like five in the morning because that's usually when these things happen and they say hey I'm gonna smoke a brisket today come on down later tonight first of all wonderful friend and second of all I'm there.
And once you get there you know you wait all day they pull that brisket out and I've just been smoking for several hours and it's being pulled ever so easily because it's been there for like 10 11 hours and it's on your plate mac and cheese and baked beans are there but they're not important right now you take that first bite and you just take in that moment I know some of you are already thinking. Of it and I know lunch is later but there you take in that moment and in that moment I am delighting in what's in front of me I'm delighting in the food in the brisket I am delighted it's not only internal it's external right I'm saying but I'm also like oh this is this is amazing but the crazy thing is ever since I found ever since I got that text ever since I was told that. My whole day got better I've been delighting the entire day my day was that much more enjoyable because I was looking forward to what was to come and then when I partook in it forget about it that's when the song that's what the psalmist is trying to get at here delighting in the law of the Lord day and night to the light in the law of the Lord day and night is. To constantly be influenced and affected by the word of God so much so that you are so eager to return to it after you're done reading it and you're eager to return to it because all you're thinking about or at least what some of the things you're thinking about are the word of God it's keeping you in check it's helping you respond to your co-workers it's helping you be loving and patient to people that.
Don't deserve it and the only way you can do that is by delighting in the law of the Lord we move on to verse three he is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither and all that he does he prospers now we're going now we're seeing what the blessed man is what what the word blessed is the streams of water that plant the tree is the. Word of God the tree mentioned has a firm foundation it has one that is everlasting and solid and that's where we need to be right where we are where we're naturally inclined to be is we like to walk and listen to the counsel of the wicked we like to stand in the way of sinners and we like to sit down because it's comfortable because it's easy it doesn't take that much effort. What we want to be is like the tree that's planted by streams of water that lasts forever even in seasons of difficulty even in seasons of suffering Jeremiah goes on to say it like this from Jeremiah 17 verses 7 through 8 blessed is the man who trusts whose trusts blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord whose trust is the Lord verse 8 he is like a tree planted by water that sends out its roots by the stream. And does not fear when heat comes for its leaves remain green and is not anxious in the year of drought for it does not cease to bear fruit what a wonderful picture that is of a tree that is planted by streams of ever flowing water and that is what is true for the christian who is delighting in the law of the Lord that seasons of suffering seasons of anxiousness don't feel that anxious they don't.
They don't you can bear it because you have the word of God you have the truth and the delight in that story that can bring you comfort peace and joy that actually lasts now if you look at me you can clearly tell that I've planted plenty of trees in my time regardless what I do know about planting a tree specifically trees that bear fruit or specifically fruit trees is that they bear fruit. And it bears fruit for the benefit of the planter and for those around it if you ever had a friend who gardens normally whenever their vegetables or fruits come in they come in a surplus and in almost and almost always because they come in a surplus they share it with those around them that's what it's like to be planted by streams of water the Lord delivers in a surplus. You prosper and you get to share that fruit with others you get to show love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control to those around you and it does not wither so you get to bear that fruit into eternity about been leading group for about four years now four and a half years and not that the first two years were bad by any means but something changed about two years ago. And you can chalk it up to people you know maybe we had some new people come in and they were great but something radically changed in our group and what that was was by God's grace we began to fall more in love with his word as a group and it came at a great time because then we multiplied we were a group that was in love with the word that was being taught the word that was talking constantly about the word.
And then we multiplied and now we have another group that meets in congress in the casey area and I know that they are being infatuated and in love with the word week in and week out and that changes that's what actually changes people it convicts it convicts us is the word of God and so and none of that has to do with the group leaders by the way it all has to do with his word. It's all because we decided that we we pressed on we kept reading his word that eventually it will it will change someone moving on to verse four the wicked are not so but are like chaff that the wind it drives away now this is a very contrasting image in that the chaff is being driven away by the wind we talked a little bit about this when we went uh when we were in Ruth but an example I can. Think of to kind of better picture it in your head is and and the reason I chose this example because I am a coffee snob but when you roast coffee beans uh it's a very tedious process you got to put it on the the roaster but on and off on and off it takes forever but after you actually do the roasting and the beans look like what we would all uh picture uh coffee beans to look like you have to put it into. A colander which I recently learned what I when I got married I learned what a colander was and you put it in the colander and you kind of shake it back and forth because you're trying to get rid of the skin of the bean or the chaff because it's no good you don't want that on your coffee bean the chaff brings no benefit to anyone and they have no foundation therefore it makes complete sense.
That the wind would drive it away charles spurgeon who was a preacher in the 1800s describes the chaff as intrinsically worthless dead unserviceable without substance and easily carried away it is very clear that the wicked have no foundation unlike the blessed one is planted by streams of ever-flowing water and the other one has nothing to stand on. It is driven away by the wind Psalm 1 is very very clear on this that's why I'm thankful for verses like 5 and 6 verse 5 therefore the wicked will not stand in judgment nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous for the Lord knows the way of the righteous but the way of the wicked will perish the one that walks in the counsel of the wicked the one that stands in the way of sinners and the one. That takes a seat with the scoffers will not stand with the congregation of the righteous it will be very clear to the Lord who is who we see this in Matthew John the baptist is making a reference to what Jesus will do Matthew 3 12 his winnowing fork is in his hand and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. Jesus will return for what is his the rest will not make it which is why I'm thankful and completely humbled by a verse like verse 6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous now this is more than just knows about okay so when you when you read that uh it's like a spouse knowing you or like a best friend who knows you they know a lot about you you know that they know.
Your tendencies they know maybe they know some of your thoughts because maybe you you know you talk to them you confide in them but there is only one person one being who knows everything about you all the good and all the ugly and when you think about it it's kind of terrifying imagine if your best friend knew every single thing about you and you think they know a lot about you but imagine if they. Knew everything about you it would be quite terrifying but the one that knows you completely is God the righteous can have peace because a loving God in heaven knows their way and will protect and he will preserve them if there's anybody I would want to know me like that it would be him and one of the main reasons I can think of is because a lot of times people will use. Knowledge of you to hurt you right when people find things about you one of the reasons we get a little scared to confess sin scared to talk in group is because we're scared that people knowing this about me what are they going to think of me what are they going to say about me what are they going to talk to other people about when it comes to me a lot of times that is a very very terrifying thought. But we can have peace knowing that there is an omnipotent loving gracious God who knows us and he will not use that knowledge against you that is the that is the grace aspect of the Lord now you may be asking or telling yourself what if I'm not good at this what if I'm not good at reading the bible what if I've tried and I've tried and it came to nothing what if I just can't.
Here's my encouragement to you last summer I was part of the summer internship here and just to give you a little insight on the summer internship there's a lot of meetings a lot of classes you go it's it's it's pretty rigorous honestly and one of the biggest things about the internship is showing up on time and I love punctuality um I do so when I discovered that punctuality was a major. Component of this internship I was really excited to show off my arriving on time skills but second week in I forgot that I had a meeting with isaac so not only was I late I was non-existent for the meeting third week I was very late or arriving just on time to the things between monday and thursday my pride was being tested the final straw for me was on sunday as it was on a on a sunday. And I forgot that we were supposed to show up at 8 a.m here we're supposed to show up at the church at 8 a.m and at the time chat was my track leader I was on the pastoral and like teacher development track and chat was my track leader and I remember that I I had to I was like I have to apologize this is like the fifth time and I remember the walk of me going to apologize to him and even as I was apologizing. Him the shame that I felt of my failure was honestly unbearable I had my head down I was I was talking to him and I was like this because of all the shame that I felt and after I apologized I kind of just stood there and chat looked at me and he said hey chin up I thought okay but then he said you're fully known you're fully forgiven and you're fully loved by a.
Savior who would gladly do it again feel that remember that and continue your your day like you believe that notice he didn't just say hey chin up show up on time next time hey chin up maybe what you can do is this this this this and this to show up on time now he reminded me of the gospel the work is finished and even in our shortcomings such as reading the bible we get to be forgiven. And out of that out of that forgiveness and grace we are empowered to be more like him and part of that is delighting in his word so then how do we set ourselves up for success in reading the bible I have a couple of practical ways that can work first and foremost pray pray pray for the desire to read his word the reason praying is the first thing I could think of is because praying sets. Us up for success and because it is the acknowledgement and the remembering of why we are able to delight in his word if we skip this step if we don't pray if we don't ask the Lord to make us more like him and to desire his word then we're just doing good works that we're just we're just it's just something else to do and we'll be missing the entire point of delighting in his word second recognize it's a battle. If you struggle to meditate or even just read through the bible like any goal you start with pure discipline now uh I started uh working out for the first time in my life about two years ago and when we started this was me and two other guys we we were we were on it like three or four times a week that was crazy but then the second I let go of that discipline the second one of us.
Was like it went from four three to four times a week to two to three times a week to once or twice a week to maybe once every two months so my point in that is that stay disciplined to reading the word read it in the morning great time to read the word of God now I know some of you are saying I'm not a morning person my question to you is what time do you go to sleep the night before. Now my point don't get me wrong my point is not that reading in the morning is the way but my point in that question is what are you doing to set yourself up for an opportunity to read the word of God third set a specific goal so if I'm up here and I tell you that I want to learn a new language and add it to my arsenal of languages and I just say hey I just want to learn a new language. It's really easy if I just keep it at that broad vague goal it's really easy for me not to be held accountable to it and you really don't know what to ask me really all you can ask me is hey how's that new language going and I can just say it's all right it could be better but if I told you I want to learn 45 new words write three new sentences and be able to have. A one-minute conversation with someone in that new language and the new language being portuguese let's say then you would know exactly what to ask me when you come up to me hey how's portuguese going hey how many words have you learned what's your favorite word what's the sentence you wrote it'd be a lot more difficult for me to kind of make something up there so set a specific goal fourth ask people.
In your community group to hold you accountable more specifically we all have that one person ask that one person that you know will hold you accountable sometimes we selectively choose who to hold us accountable because we know maybe they're not going to ask us also I learned this term recently it's called the bystander effect. Don't just tell your entire group I struggle with reading with the bible gather in two or three people because the temptation if you tell 10 to 12 people is that they'll probably be like oh I'm sure he'll ask him about his bible reading I'm sure they'll ask right and the problem is if everyone does that no one's going to ask you about your bible reading to get about two or three people and that. Just decreases the chances of oh I'm sure I'll ask him lastly don't forget why we get to do this we get to do this because of Jesus's finished work on the cross that is what empowers us and changes us to be more like him and follow him there is no one like him the band is going to come up we're going to sing a song that is based on Psalm one and I want this to be our prayer and our. Encouragement for this week there's a line in the song that I really love and it's in the chorus so we're going to hear it and we're going to sing it over and over again form us more and more into a people who love your word I love that because it implies and it's it's humbling because it's us admitting that we need the Lord to be able to love his word on our own.
We will we will easily and so fast we will so quickly we will take a seat among the scoffers but we love his word we love him we love people because he loved us first because he finished the work on the cross that is why I love this line because it is just it is that we are admitting that we need him first also I love the word form because you're not it's not going to be something you. You all of a sudden fall in love with tonight and then you're reading the bible every day starting tomorrow when you form something it has stages it takes time it takes steps so don't lose heart don't be discouraged because you lost you didn't read it one day but in those days of our shortcomings remind yourself of the finished work on the cross remind we need to remember that we are forgiven. We are fully known and that knowledge will not be used against us that knowledge is actually what is what brings us to him and because of that we get to delight in the whole we get to delight in that the whole time we delight in the story of salvation and the truth of grace and the truth of reconciliation we get to delight in that and that will give us joy peace and comfort that is everlasting let's pray. God I pray that as we are singing this last song as we are just thinking of what Psalm one has to say about your word Lord I ask that you through your grace and your forgiveness and in our shortcomings Lord may we not use your grace to paralyze us but may we use your grace to motivate us to push us to empower us to delight in your law.
Oh remind us as we are reading and as we delight in your word or as we fight to delight in your word Lord remind us that even if we even if we don't understand even if it takes time Lord you're not going anywhere you will sustain us you will preserve us you will maintain us the whole way we are so appreciative of that we are so humbled by that Lord we pray all of this in your name amen.