His Delight is in the Law of the Lord - Psalm 1

 

Dennis Edwards

The theme of the very first psalm in the book of Psalms is the importance of God’s Word in our lives. The Bible is a collection of 66 books. The book with the most chapters is Psalms, with 150 psalms. However, Psalms is not the longest book by word count in the Bible; both Jeremiah and Genesis are longer. Of the three longest books: Jeremiah is a book of warning, where God has warned us to love and obey Him. Genesis is a book of mankind’s beginnings, where God has told us not to forget our beginnings, where we come from. Psalms is a book of praise, where God teaches us how to live our lives with thanksgiving and praise.

Today we will study Psalm 1.

Psalm 1:1 “Blessed is the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful.”

Right from the start, God warns us to avoid having fellowship with ungodly sinners who disrespect God. In Proverbs, Solomon covers the same subject.

Proverbs 1:10,11a,14,15 “My son, if sinners entice you, consent not. If they say, Come with us,…Cast your lot among us; let us all have one purse. My son, walk not in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path.”

Proverbs 4:14-15 “Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.”

In contrast to the way of the wicked, God instructs how the Godly should walk.

Psalm 1:2 “But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law does he meditate day and night.”

How do we keep ourselves from evil, from the evil influences of the culture all around us, from the evil influences of our own heart and mind? God’s word teaches us to meditate and take joy in His Word.

Moses taught the children of Israel before they entered into the Promised Land.

Deuteronomy 6:5-9 “And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words, which I command you this day, shall be in your heart: and you shall teach them diligently unto your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. And you shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. And you shall write them upon the posts of your house, and on your gates.”

In other words, we should memorize God’s word. We should get it deep into our hearts.

Psalm 119:9&11 "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to Your word...Your word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against You."

In Proverbs, Solomon gives the same message:

Proverbs 6:20-24a “My son, keep your father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of your mother: bind them continually upon your heart, and tie them about your neck. When you go, it shall lead you; when you sleep, it shall keep you; when you awake, it shall talk with you. For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and the reproofs of instruction are the way of life: to keep you from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.”

The ”evil woman” refers to spiritually to what Jesus and the Apostle’s called “the world.” The Apostle John wrote,

1 John 2:15-17 “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust thereof: but he that does the will of the Father abides forever.”

Jesus Himself warned,

John 15:19 “If you were of the world, (or the evil woman of Proverbs and the Great Whore of Revelation 17-18), the world would love his own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”

Proverbs 7:1-3 “My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with you. Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of your eye. Bind them upon your fingers, write them upon the tables of your heart That they may keep you from the strange woman (or what Jesus and the Apostles call ‘the world’), from the stranger which flatters with her words.”

When Moses died, the Lord spoke similar words to Joshua:

Joshua 1:8 “This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth; but you shall meditate therein day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success.”

David may have been meditating on the writings of Moses or Joshua when he wrote Psalm 1.

Psalm 1:3 “And he (the Godly) shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he does shall prosper.”

Moses wrote similarly:

Deuteronomy 30: 9-10&20a “And the Lord your God will make you plenteous in every work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, and in the fruit of your cattle, and in the fruit of the land, for good: for the Lord will again rejoice over you for good, as He rejoiced over your fathers: if you shall hearken unto the voice of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this book of the law, and if you turn unto the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul…That you may love the LORD thy God, and that you may obey His voice, and that you may cleave unto Him: for He is life, and length of your days.”

In contrast, the Psalmist continues,

Psalm 1:4 “The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind drives away.”

John the Baptist used a similar expression when describing the Messiah who was to come.

Matthew 3:11-12 “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but He that comes after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: He shall baptise you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor, and gather His wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Psalm 1:5 “Therefore, the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.”

Jesus also spoke a similar parable of the wheat and the tares.

Matthew 13:24-30 “The kingdom of heaven is like unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the household came and said unto him, Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field, from where then has it tares? He said unto them, An enemy has done this. The servants said unto him, Will you then that we go and gather them up? But he said, No; lest while you gather up the tares, you root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.”

Elsewhere in the Psalms and in Jeremiah, we find the same concept:

Psalm 9:17 “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.”

Jeremiah 12:17 “But if they will not obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation, says the Lord.”

The psalm ends with,

Psalm 1:6 “For the Lord knows the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.”

We have been thoroughly warned. The ungodly shall perish, but the Lord knows those who are His.

Jeremiah 9:23-24 “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD which exercises loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, says the LORD.”

Deuteronomy 30:11-14 “For this commandment which I command you this day, it is not hidden from you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? But the word is very nigh unto you, in your mouth, and in your heart, that you may do it.

The God of the Psalms is not far off. Apostle Paul makes the same point,

Acts 17:24-28a “God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwells not in temples made with hands; neither is he worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing He gives to all life, and breath, and all things; and has made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us: for in Him we live, and move, and have our being.”

God is not far off. His word is not far off. His law is written in our hearts, our conscience bearing witness of it. [Romans 2:15] Let us seek God daily. Let us delight in meditating on His Word. Let us walk not in the path of the wicked, but let us walk with God.

Proverbs 4:18 “The path of the just is as a shining light, that shines more and more unto the perfect day.”

Psalm 119:105 “Your word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”

Help us, Lord, to let your word enlighten our paths, and minds, and keep us close to You, today. In Jesus’ name, we pray.