I want to look in the book of
Psalms. There's probably no other book
in the Scriptures that's more familiar to people in general
than the book of Psalms. There's probably no other psalm
that's more familiar to the average person than the 23rd psalm. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. You hardly ever go to a funeral
when that's not read, at least in part. And it is indeed a comforting
word for the sons of God. The man who has no desire to
have a shepherd, I don't see how he could have much comfort
in that, but I suppose some would take some natural comfort in
it. But I wanted to look at the book
of Psalms. And most of the Psalms are written
by David, though not all of them are. And the book of Psalms is
primarily a book of songs. That is what a psalm is. If you
sing a psalm, you are singing a song. And most of these Psalms
were put in verse that were able to be sung at the time in which
they were written. Now, you know, poetry is a thing
that varies from one language to the other. And it's hard to
take a poem that is written in one language and bring it over
to another one and it have all of the same nuances and everything
that it does in the language that it was originally written
in. Because, you know, there's meter involved in Psalms, which
is a musical thing having to do with the tempo and timing
of of how the tune of a song goes, but without getting into
all of that. But anyway, these Psalms are
unique in that they are the expressions of the soul and heart. They are
not just doctrine wherein somebody sets out how things are, or they
are not recording of history per se, but they are the language
of the heart that is being expressed. And David, of course, was a blessed
psalmist. He was a man who, the Scripture
says, was after the heart of God. He was a very blessed man
in his life, and the Lord used him in a great way. And so, looking
again, I want to begin, of course, in Psalm 1, and this is It's interesting that the book
of Psalms begins with this one, and let me say this about the
book of Psalms primarily. The book of Psalms, as is all
of the Scripture, but specifically the book of Psalms is a book
of the collection of the prayers and exaltations of Jesus Christ. And most of the time, whenever
we read the Psalms as David is speaking in the first person,
I believe he is speaking prophetically in the language of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And when those perfections are
described in the Psalms, I believe they are describing the perfections
of Christ. And this is most clearly, in
my estimation, seen here in this first psalm, which is not just
a recommendation of how men ought to live their lives, but it is
the manifestation of the glory of Christ and how He walked among
men as a man. And so if we see Christ as the
very image of the Godhead bodily, As Al pointed out very ably there,
that the Lord is able to make an image of Himself, and He sent
the Lord Jesus Christ into the earth as the image of the Godhead
bodily. He's the only one we can see.
We can't look up into heaven and see because the Scripture
says, that He is immortal, invisible, the only wise God. He dwells
in the light to which no man can approach. It is impossible
for man to enter into the realm of God. And apart from the grace
of God and Him being seen fit to come and visit us, we could
never have known Him. And the manner in which He has
shown us Himself is to reveal Himself in Jesus Christ. as He
has came and walked among us. And He came and walked among
us as a man, just like every man. And so we read the first
Psalm with that in mind, and it says this, 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.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in his law doth
he meditate day and night. And 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."
Now, when the Scripture speaks that says the word blessed, you
could, in most cases, put the word, our word for happy,
in there. Happy is the man. The blessings
of God do not come as a result of what men do. But the blessings
of God are in what the Lord is pleased to work in His people.
Blessed is the man who walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly.
Now who among men has ever perfectly fulfilled that statement? There is only one. Blessed is
that man. who walketh not in the counsel
of the ungodly." Now do you know any man born of woman who has
not at some point in time in his life walked in the counsel
of the ungodly? I've never met one, but there
is one whom the Lord came into the world to demonstrate this
blessed man himself. He walked not in the counsel
of the ungodly. He did not stand in the way of
sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scornful." Now, he has
manifested that. Now, if a man should approach
this psalm and say, well, I'm going to be that man. I'm going
to cause God's blessings to be on me by not doing these things. Well, he's already got one strike
against him to start with because he's already messed up. It doesn't
say, blessed is the man who sometimes walks not in the counsel of God. You see, that's not a partial
thing. You see, everything that men want to do and their righteousness
that they bring before the Lord, that they think the Lord will
be pleased with, is partial. But the Lord, He isn't interested
in partial obedience. Had the Lord been interested
in our partial obedience, then He would never have sent His
Son into the world to die for us. But you see, it was necessary
that we be made perfect and stand in His perfect righteousness
in order to be accepted in His sight as those who are fulfillers
of the law. And so we see Christ as this
man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly. But now, having
said that, the Lord made us like He made us. Now, He could have
made us to be absolutely perfect men, could He not? Could He not
have made Adam never to have fallen? Well, of course He could
have, had that been His purpose. But you see, His purpose in the
earth is not to create a place of perfection so that men might
enjoy this place of perfection in the earth forever, but rather
to demonstrate here in the earth, in the lower parts of His creation,
the inability of men to do that and the magnitude of His grace
and mercy in delivering us out of it. And so it is that this
is a true thing, that the Lord does visit His people with blessing
in Christ and He causes them to be blessed as He causes them
to walk not in the counsel of the ungodly. Now that's a place
of blessedness, is it not? When the Lord enables us not
to heed the ungodly, because the ungodly are on every side,
and the most ungodly man you'll ever meet lives with you. Now you women, you all don't
think, I'm speaking about your husband, I'm talking about each
one of us. I mean, you know, when we live
by ourselves, we still live with the most ungodly man we'll ever
know. Isn't it amazing how when we
think about the ungodly men, our first thought is to think
also about all these people that's going on doing all this stuff.
I mean, you know, if you think about ungodly men, you think
about, oh, what about Hitler? He was ungodly. Or you think
about ISIS, or you think about this, that, or the other, but
who are the ungodly? It gets right close to home when
the Lord is pleased to show us what we are by nature. And so
a man is blessed when the Lord works in him both the will and
the do of His good pleasure to cause him not to heed the counsel
of the ungodly, nor to stand in the way of sinners, nor to
sit in the seat of the scornful. Because you see, that is just
the way we are by nature. And the blessing of God is seen
in His people as He is pleased to deliver us out of those things,
to give us not the ear to listen to the ungodly. Because, dear
brethren, the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against
the flesh, so that you cannot do the things that you could. There is a warfare going on in
the sons of God as they are born again by the Spirit of God. And
happy are they as the Spirit of God subdues that ungodly man
and causes us not to heed what it is that the ungodly would
set before us. Because the counsel, that is
the advice of the ungodly. Now the advice of the ungodly
is, well, just go on and do the thing that satisfies you. Now
see, we live in a society, at one time our society in general
had a predominance of fault towards the subduing of the counsel of
the ungodly. You know, somebody would have
to be blind not to be able to see that our nation from an outwardly
moral situation has degraded over time. I mean, you'd have
to be hiding somewhere and not have any definition of what moral
standards are in order not to come to that conclusion. You
can come to that conclusion. Now does that mean that men are
more wicked today than they were a hundred years ago? Not a bit. Men haven't changed a bit. Every
man that's ever been born into the world is equally as corrupt
as the next one. And the only difference between
one man and another and the level of corruption to which he goes
is the restraining grace of God. Now, unfortunately for us, when
we consider what this is speaking about here, the Lord has removed
some of the restraints that He has in time past seen fit to
put upon men. And men aren't any more wicked
today than they've ever been, it's just that they are being
let go in their way because As we look at this, the counsel
of the ungodly has become the counsel which men have begun
to embrace. I mean, that's the advice that
we're taking. I mean, you get people, it's
amazing. I think back, you know, whenever
I was growing up, I remember, you know, all of my, the people
that I knew around me, and this is not a political discourse,
I'm just making an observation, okay. They all, one of the things
that you never wanted to do was vote for a Republican. I mean,
you know, that was just about the most, the height of wickedness
there, to even entertain the notion of voting for a Republican. But I think about it, you know,
and if the people back then that were saying those things could
look and see what the Democrats as a general rule of how the
counsel that they give to men, would they still say those things?
I think not. I think they'd roll over in their
graves if they could see it. And I'm not saying that because,
versus a Democrat, they're ungodly. That's not it. They're ungodly
because they're ungodly. But you see, when you've got
people that call evil good and good evil, then that is the counsel
of the ungodly. And so, you know, this is not
in any way meant to be political, but just an observation. And
certainly I'm not patting the Republicans on the back because
they've got their own set of problems, you know. So that's
not what I'm getting at at all. So there is a degradation. There
is a walking in the counsel of the ungodly that's clearly to
be able to be seen. It says, "...nor standeth in
the way of sinners." That is, walks in the same road that they
go in. Not only listen to their Bible,
what was Eve's first error? She listened to the counsel of
the ungodly, did she not? No, she was deceived. And then
Adam, what did he do? He listened to her. And then what did they both do?
They stood in the way of sinners. Because you see, when you listen
to the counsel of the ungodly, then standing in the way of sinners
is just one point further down the road to
heed the counsel of the ungodly and stand in the way of sinners.
And then once a person has listened to the counsel of the ungodly,
And they have stood in the way of sinners. They've entertained
it. They've said, well, that's okay. That's all right. It's
well and good. Then what's the next step? It
says they sit in the seat of the storm. See, they heard, they
stood, and then they sat down. Now, dear brethren, this is a
progression that does take place. That progression took place with
Adam and Eve, and it's been taking place among men ever since. But
there is one who never listened to the ungodly, he never stood
in the way of sinners, and he certainly never sat in the seat
of the scornful. Because you see, what's happened
in our society is that we have come full circle. And our society,
Now, I'm not saying that our society was ever a godly society
in the sense that it was a society which worshipped God in spirit
and truth. But morally speaking, as far
as the standards and things that went by the nation, it did not
scorn the things of God. But what is it doing in the present
time? Dear brethren, our nation does
scorn the way of God. Turned his back on it. It doesn't
just not walk in it, but it actually says it's a bunch of baloney.
We don't want this God to rule over us. I mean, that's basically
what it is. And you know, our money says
in God we trust. Now personally, I think it's
a lie. You know? But at least it's there, but
I guarantee it won't be long. Well, it won't be on the money.
Now, am I going to raise a fuss and fight and get them to keep
it on the money? No, because it doesn't really
mean much anyway. But it is indicative, is it not,
of the way that we are going. And surely it is. Sitting in
the seat of the stormful, because when the ungodly man is in a
place of power, when the man who disregards the things of
God is in a place of power, then it is not long, dear brethren,
until the things of God are scorned, and the ways of the flesh are
just turned loose. And the blessing of God is seen
when these things are not in the case. Now we talk about all
these different... I often hear people talk about,
you know, Our nation is under judgment, or we are going to
be judged because of the things we are doing. Well, dear brethren,
we are not going to be judged because of the things we are
doing, but the things we are doing as a nation are indicative
of the fact that the judgment of God has fallen upon us. Now that is what Paul said, did
he not? He said, because they did not like to retain God in
their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind. And I do not know how you would
define necessarily how it would be in each individual person
would define a reprobate mind, but if I had to look and give
an illustration of what I would consider as our nation as a society,
I would say it has been given over to a reprobate mind. Because
that's what the seed of the scornful is. They don't want anything
to do with God. It's just foolish. I mean, is
it not true that at one time it was kind of a
thing where on the matter of evolution, for instance, I don't
know how I got off on all this stuff, but anyway, You know,
it was at one time, people didn't even think about
that. And now if you bring up that God created the world, oh,
that's just the most foolish thing that ever was. Well, we
know that science teaches us this. And so science has become
the God of this age. Science falsely so called. Paul
speaks about it. That's the way it is. But blessed is the man that does
not walk in those things. Not because of it, but because
the Lord has delivered him from it. See, that's the blessing. If the Lord has given you a clear
mind to see these things for what they are, you can thank
Him. Because I'm telling you that the vast majority of people
around you do not have that clear mind. They do not see what I'm
talking about right here. They're just walking right down
the road just like lemmings going off the edge of the cliff. They
claim that's true. I don't know if it's true or
not. Have you ever seen that happen? I don't even know what a lemming
is. It is a little old thing like a rat. But every now and
then they get, supposedly, When the population of them gets so
big, and the Lord just sends a bunch of them over the cliff,
and they just all follow one another to their destruction.
And that's really the kind of way our society is, is it not?
But blessed is that man who does not follow the way of the living. And how can he keep from it?
The grace of God. It's only the mercy of God that
keeps any man in that way. But his delight is in the law
of the Lord. Now whose delight was in the
law of the Lord in a perfect fashion? The Lord Jesus Christ. His delight is in the law of
the Lord. He came, what did he say? I came to do my Father's
will. That was his purpose in life.
Now you see, a lot of times people think, well, you know, we're
supposed to live our life and then, well, we'll go by the Ten
Commandments or we'll follow the law of God. Well, that's
not what's talking about here. See, we don't need to look at
living our life and we'll go by this set of rules. That's
not what this is speaking about here. He said, His delight. is in the law of the Lord. Now,
it's not just talking about the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments
would certainly fall in that. The law of the Lord is the way
of God. Whatever He says, whatever He
would desire, that's the thing that the man who is blessed does
desire. Blessed is the man whose delight
is in the law of the Lord, that his word is precious to him.
That it's that which he contemplates upon. In his law does he meditate
day and night. Now a lot of folks believe you
ought to go to church every Sunday. That's not a bad idea, is it?
I mean, I always thought it was a good thing to do. Sure it is. But you see, If religion, and
when I use that term, if the worship of God, let me say that,
if the worship of God only occupies your mind one day of the week,
then you are in a miserable condition. Because blessed is the man whose
delight is in the law of the Lord, who meditates in the law
of the Lord day and night. It is his constant companion. What a blessing that is, is it
not? Because even when he's sleeping, the law of the Lord is precious
to him. Now, dear brethren, we know what
we are by nature, and I'm not talking about that ever thought
we ever have in our mind is of the things of God in the flesh. I know that it's not. You know
that it's not. But that which stirs our soul,
that which we desire, is to meditate in His law day and night. Now
we have one who is our substitute, who is our righteousness before
God, who does indeed and has indeed done that very thing as
a perfect man, did he not? Day and night. Meditate in the
things of God. And he shall be like a tree planted
by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season."
Is that not a picture of Christ? Because you know, there was,
I saw one hanging on a tree. In agonies and blood he fixed
his languid eyes on me and near his cross I stood. Jesus Christ
is as a tree, and He is that One who hung upon that tree for
His people. He is that One, dear brethren,
who is planted. You see, it is the righteousness
of Christ demonstrated in His life, but manifested for us in
His death on Calvary's cross. And He is that One who is planted. by the rivers of water. What
did he say? He said that if I give a man
this water that I'm speaking of, it shall be as a well springing
up into everlasting life within him. He is that tree planted
by the rivers of water because he is the river of water. You
see, in a tree that is planted by the rivers of water brings
forth its fruit in its season, Christ has done His Father's
purpose in the time that it seemed good unto Him. Why did the Lord
Jesus Christ come into the world 2,000 years ago? Couldn't He
have come into the world 3,000 years ago? I mean, did He just
happen and He came into the world 2,000 years ago? No, that was
the time. That was the appointed time.
That was the predestined time. It was the ordained time by Almighty
God who according to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge sent
His own Son into the world to die for sinners at that time. And he'll bring forth his fruit
in his season because he will. He said, All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. Yes, dear brethren, he brings
forth his fruit in his season. He calls his own by name. He
said, My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. Blessed is the man. that walketh
not in the counsel of the ungodly. Because Christ does bring forth
his fruit in his season, his leaf also shall not wither, and
whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. You see, the Lord shall see of
the travail of his soul and be satisfied. He is that which he
has set forth will prosper in his hand. A tree, Think about the blessedness of
being a tree. You never thought about that
and I never have either a whole lot, but think about the blessedness
to the tree now of being planted by the riverside. Now a tree
doesn't have a thing in the world to do with where it's planted,
does it? You know, there's an acorn coming
along there. You say, well, I think I'll get
in this spot right here. No, it's probably dropped by
a bird or the wind blew it there or something. But anyway, just
like the Lord ordained that tree to be planted by that roadside
where Zacchaeus would come along one day and climb it right in
that spot, so too does the Lord plant the tree by the river of
water. Now what a blessed thing it is to be planted there rather
than in the desert. How many trees are growing in
the Sahara Desert? Huh? Why not? Yeah, exactly. I mean, do you
think that probably there has not been an acorn dropped in
the Sahara Desert by some bird flying? or out in Kansas or whatever. I mean, why is that? Because you see, the Lord plants
His trees where He wants them to be. But think of the blessing,
dear brethren, of being planted by the river of water. Because
you take the trees out here, I mean, it's got to get pretty
dry, but it does happen. When it gets so dry and the drought
comes along and trees that are out here sometimes die from the
drought. They can die from the drought.
Especially newly planted trees, they especially can. Yes, absolutely. But can a tree that's planted
by the rivers of water ever die from drought? I mean, unless
a river dries up, and now we're talking about a river of living
water here, so we're not talking about a river that's going to
dry up. What he's speaking about here,
no, that tree's going to bring forth its fruit in its season,
its leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall
prosper. He is indeed that one who shall
plant his trees where he wants them to be, And he's that one
who's planted as a tree by the rivers of water, and he brings
forth his fruit, because you see, he's that one from whom
all the seed... The Scripture speaks about the
Lord has a seed. Do you know that in the Scripture?
And he plants those seeds exactly where he wants to, puts them
by the river of water, and so that their leaf also shall not
wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." Now happy is
that man. Blessed is that man. And surely
it is speaking of Christ. But then it says, the ungodly
are not so, but are like the chaff which
the wind driveth away. Now that word chaff there is
mot. That is the Hebrew word is mot.
When the Lord said, that's the same word the Lord said, you
know, that you speak about the moat that's in
your brother's eye, but you can't see because the beam is in your
own. It's a chaff. Scripture says the wind drives
it away. And that's the picture of the ungodly. Now who are the
ungodly? Everybody I know is ungodly. Everybody you know is ungodly.
And remember, who's the most ungodly man you ever met? Huh? It's yourself. So what's he talking about? The
ungodly are not so. I mean, if that was the end of
the story, where would we be, dear brethren? If I came to you
and I said, the ungodly shall perish, That's a true statement,
is it not? I mean, that's what the Scripture
says, they shall perish. And if we're all ungodly, what
does that mean? It means we shall perish. But
oh, you see, here's where the glorious manifestation of God's
mercy and grace comes into bear. Because had he left us in that
situation, we should surely perish, because we have nothing to recommend
ourselves toward God. And the ungodly are not so, but
are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Now the ungodly
that he speaks of here is in contrast to the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is that perfect righteousness. And so we might know and understand
that the psalmist is here speaking of the contrast between those
who are in Christ. Because you see, where is our
righteousness found? It is not found in what we are
doing, is it? If it is, then we are in bad
shape because we are counted among the ungodly. Because our
righteousness is not found in what we do, but it is found in
what Christ did. And so we are not the ungodly
if we be in Christ. You see, a man who is in Christ
is not ungodly, is he? He can't be ungodly because he
is hidden in Christ, and Christ is godly. And he never walked
in the counsel of the ungodly. He never stood in the seat of
sinners. He never stood in the seat of
the scornful. He never stood in the way of
sinners. But He walked in a perfect fashion and He carried us with
Him. And we are not those whom the
Scripture speaks of as the ungodly that perish like the chaff which
the wind driveth away. Now what does that tell you?
I mean, I remember, of course, we never grew wheat, but I remember
my grandpa, he used to like parched peanuts. Now you probably don't
even, most people, especially kids wouldn't understand what
parched peanuts are, but they used to take peanuts, they always
had a bunch of peanuts because they grew peanuts and they kept
peanuts for seed and what not. They might take a few of them
if they got a hankering for some parched peanuts and they would
hull those peanuts out and lay them out on a pan and put them
in the oven and they'd cook them. Well, when they got through cooking
the peanuts, then they'd take them out in the yard in that
pan, and they'd chunk them up and down like that to get the
little old red husk and stuff off of them, and the wind would
come along and blow it away, because you didn't want to eat
that. Well, that's just like the ungodly. The ungodly are
not like the peanuts that fall back down to the pan. They're
like the chaff which the wind drives away. Now, did anybody
Did anybody go around and try to pick up the pieces of chaff?
No, what? They had just gone. They served
their purpose in the seed and that was it. Now, dear brethren,
when we understand the mercy of God, to realize that we, apart
from the grace of God, would be just like that chaff which
the wind drives away, had it not been for His mercy and kindness. in making us the sons of God. Therefore, the ungodly shall
not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of
the righteous. Now, the ungodly, because they
stand in the way of sinners, they shall not stand in the judgment. Now does that mean they won't
be in the judgment? No, it means that they won't
stand in the judgment. That is, they won't be able to
stand. They'll fall on their faces. They will be cast out. There will be no mercy. They'll have no place to hide. They shall not stand in the judgment.
But you see, those who are given grace by the mercy of God, They
shall stand beside Christ. He said He would gather all of
His sheep to His right hand. And we shall stand in the judgment
because we are with Him. You know, I don't know if you've
ever been in a situation where you were threatened, but maybe
you had some older friends that were with you. or whatever, and
you kind of stood behind them and they faced the danger in
your behalf. That's a comforting feeling to
know that somebody is standing for you. Well, the Lord Jesus
Christ stands for His people. And we don't stand in the judgment
because we're better than anybody else, but we stand in the judgment
because of His mercy. in His kindness, in His appointment. But the ungodly shall not stand,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous." There's not
going to be any mixture. Now, the Lord gave this parable
about the fact that He said, you know, they gathered the wheat
and the tares at the time of the harvest. And you can't tell
them apart in some respects. But the Lord knows them that
are His. And there is going to be a separation. And the sinners
shall not stand in the congregation of the righteous. That is, the
gathering of God's people is not going to be interspersed
with some who came in not having on the proper garment. But they are going to be seen.
They are going to be cast out. They shall not stand in the congregation
of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of
the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish." Now
what is the way of the righteous? There is only one. The Lord Jesus
Christ told it to His disciples. He says, I am the way. The truth and the life. No man
comes to the Father but by me. Dear brethren, this is the way
of the righteous. The Lord knows the way of the
righteous. He knows the pathway of the just. Because the pathway
of the just is the same as the way of the righteous. It is the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Savior. And He is the Savior of sinners. But the way of the ungodly shall
perish." Now what is the way? You see, there is a straight
gate. There is a narrow way that leadeth unto life eternal. Now
what that means is that there is one way. You see, there is
a multitude of ways in men's minds, aren't there? For men
to come into the presence of the Lord. Just take your pick. I mean, they're out there. You
can just get there any way you want to, just whatever, you know,
whatever you feel is right. No, there's one way. One way. And that way shall perish. It's
a broad way. The Lord said many go in there. Because why? Because there's
many ways. There's only one way to be right, but there's a thousand
ways to be wrong. May the Lord give us grace to
be in that one way, the way of the righteous. Blessed is the
man, happy is the man, who walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly,
nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the
formful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his
law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a
tree which is planted by the rivers of water. His leaf shall
not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. May the
Lord give us grace to be such a people.