Psalm 1 is featured this week looking at the words ‘walk’, ’stand’ and ’sit’.The sermon is available as a Podcast. Notes are below. The material is made available so that any may use it, adapt it and preach it.
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Psalm 1, part 1
This psalm is not just brief, it is concise. Like a good poem that encompasses so much by the skilful use of very few words. It will reward those willing to meditate upon it.
“BUT!” This word is the great turning point in this Psalm as the godly and ungodly are compared.
1) The Godly Does Not (verse 1): Walk, stand, sit.
Walk - Go with the flow
Stand - Find solidarity
Sit - Linger.
“Sit”
See Psalm 26:4
I do not sit with deceitful men, nor do I consort with hypocrites (NIV). some translations lose the significance of the word “sit”, such as the New Century Version - I do not spend time with liars, nor do I make friends with those who hide their sin.
Psalm 50:20
You sit and speak against your brother; You slander your own mother’s son. (NKJV)
You sit around and slander your brother- your own mother’s son. (NLV)
You sit and speak against your brother; You slander your own mother’s son. NASB
1 Corinthians 15:32-34
If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus for merely human reasons, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised,
Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.
Do not be misled: Bad company corrupts good character. Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God- I say this to your shame.
2) The Godly Does (verse 2):
The godly delights in the law of God
Note, “delights in” is not the same as “refrain from”.
See
“Refrain from” - Luke 18:11 The Pharisee stood alone and prayed, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people who steal, cheat, or take part in adultery, or even like this tax collector.
“Delights in” - Psalm 34:14 Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.
3) Why the godly “does”.
This Psalm celebrates an appetite for holiness and intimacy with God that was not fully satisfied in the Old Testament age.
Why would someone have that disposition of delighting in God’s way and turning from wickedness?
In the Old Testament age
The covenant community, did they have a sense of God’s presence? I don’t mean the cloud over the tabernacle, etc. I mean did they feel his presence as a community, as the Christian community does?
They did not feel it enough. See the cycle of coming to God and falling away again seen in the books of Judges, Kings and Chronicles.
See the glimpse of hope held out to them in Jeremiah 31:31-33 (quoted in Hebrews 8:7-10).
31 “The day is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. 32 This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant, though I loved them as a husband loves his wife,” says the Lord.
33 “But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day,” says the Lord. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
In our New Testament age
Hebrews 8:7-10 shows Jesus to be the fulfilment of all that Old Testament longing.
See:
Romans 6:21-23
What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:9
You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.
Galatians 5:16-26 especially (verses 24-26)
So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.
But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
Ephesians 5:8-10
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord.
So, are you..
Walking - Going with the wrong flow?
Standing - Finding solidarity with the wrong people?
Sitting - Lingering where you should not?
Turn, repent, find delight in the light.
