Where Does True Happiness Come From? (AM Sermon Notes)
GIST: True happiness comes from the Lord, so without Him our lives are empty.
SCRIPTURE: Psalm 1
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; 2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. 4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; 6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
Welcome to our first “Summer in Psalms”! This morning we are moving away from our nine month study of the Gospel of Mark to our new summer series. Now, let me stop you before you jump into trying to calculate how long it will take us to cover 150 psalms if it took nine months to cover 16 chapters in Mark☺. I have no idea how long this series will last, but it is at least my intention to only cover the psalms, as many as we can, during the summer months. If the Lord tarries, around September, we will begin another book study, and then pick back up in the psalms again in the summer of 2019…etc.
Why Psalms next? I’ve been looking forward to this study for quite some time mostly because I feel like God has been pointing me back to the psalms over and over again in my personal study. Several years ago, Haley asked a question in youth group that she probably doesn’t even remember, but which has never left me alone, “Why don’t churches teach the entire Bible?” Now, in the context, we had been working through entire books of the Bible since she had been in youth group, but she wanted to know why we don’t cover everything. Now, of course, there are practical reasons why churches may not seem to cover the entire Bible. This is partly because of time restraints. If you were able to cover two chapters a week, it would take about 11 ½ years to cover the entire Bible. And you all know covering two chapters a week would be pushing it ☺. Nonetheless, it is my heart’s desire to teach all of God’s Word. I know this is not the case everywhere, but pray that this be the commitment of all of God’s churches. I say all that to say, one of the major reasons I’m excited to cover Psalms during our summer months is because reading psalms takes us through so much Scripture. Martin Luther referred to the book as the “Little Bible” because in it you will find not only many Old Testament references, but also New Testament prophecies and summaries of the teachings of all Scripture. So, I guess that is reason number one. Reason number two is that as we’ve been studying Mark, we’ve seen Jesus quote Scripture again and again. The book from which He quoted most was Psalms. In fact, Tim Keller calls the book the “Songbook of Jesus”. He meditated on and sung these psalms, and then quoted them to point others and Himself back to the truth. We should do likewise, right? Plus, “Summers in Psalms” just has a nice ring to it☺!
That explanation might have been unnecessarily long☺… so let’s jump into today’s passage. Psalm 1. This psalm has been called the overview psalm, or the summary psalm. Its place in the psalter is not accidental. From the beginning, we are presented with the core theme of the entire book, and really, all Scripture. This is the true nature of affairs: you are either God’s, or you are not. You either have hope, or you don’t. I loved this quote from Robert Daniel’s 1953 book, How to Study the Psalms, “The psalmist is expressing and magnifying the profound inward peace and security and joy which one has when he walks completely in God’s way rather than in the way of ungodliness.” So what is the gist for us? In short, true happiness comes from the Lord, so without Him our lives are empty.
I. TRUE HAPPINESS COMES FROM THE LORD.
The Blessed .“1a Blessed is the man...” The word translated blessed here can also be translated as happy. However, one of the commentaries I was reading this week noted that the Hebrew word implies more than either of our English words. It is complete peace with God, others, and self. Don’t we all want this? If I’m not careful, we could actually end up spending an exorbitant amount of time on this. Let’s just look at our society. How much of what is done is done in pursuit of happiness? Nearly everything, right? We want money, so we can buy things, so we can be happy. We want specific relationships because we want affection because that makes us… happy. I could go on, but don’t need to because the bottom line is clear: we want to be happy. AND...there is nothing wrong we that. We weren’t made to be somber; we were made to rejoice! This psalm starts right off by acknowledging this. This psalm is about the source of true happiness.
Are Not Consumed By Wickedness. “1b...who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;” Yet it starts by painting a negative picture. As in, “blessed people are people who don’t do this.” What is the this? Living like people trapped in sin. We know that by nature we are all sinners, so this is speaking of people who have somehow been set free from that bondage to sin. The only way that happens is through salvation. So, the idea is that blessedness comes from not living in sin.
The way this is presented is very typical of the psalms. When we think English poetry, we think most often of specific rhyme schemes or rhythms. Hebrew poetry didn’t work exactly like that. It focused more on parallels. There are several different parallel approaches used in the psalms, and we’ll address them as we come to them. The one we see here is progressive. We have a thought being developed throughout these three lines. The blessed man doesn’t walk in the counsel of the wicked, stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of scoffers. There is a progression here. You start with walking in the counsel, taking the advice, listening to the wisdom. Then you have standing in the way--which actually sounds like you’re trying to stop them, but means more literally standing with them...going the way they go, doing the things they do. So we move from listening to the wisdom of sin, to actively sinning, to sitting in the seat of scoffers, which is even more of an active picture. You’re not only sinning, but you’re an example of what sin looks like. Far from walking with God, you are amongst those who mock Him and teach others to do the same (either directly or indirectly; it doesn’t matter; the result is the same.) Nonetheless, though I do think this can be taken as a warning to all of us about how easy it is to “slip” into more and more sinful lifestyles (the slow fade), the bigger picture is saying sin no longer defines the blessed. They are not consumed by it. Why?-->
But Love The Lord And His Word. “2a but his delight is in the law of the Lord,” It is not enough to just “not be wicked”. Christianity isn’t a set of do’s and don'ts. It’s a complete change. It’s not just learning to behave yourself, even though you’d rather not. It is a complete shift in desires. The man is blessed, not only because he is not living in the futile ways of this sinful world, but because his heart is in the right place. He delights in God’s Word (which we’ve discussed recently is what is meant by “Law of the Lord”). Which means, he loves God and wants to hear from Him. He delights in the Word, which means...it makes him happy. I don’t want to lose the significance here by typing too many words: True happiness comes when what makes you happy is the Truth! Let that sink in.
And Meditate On It “2b...and on his law he meditates day and night.” The Hebrew word translated meditate means “to mutter”. However, this is more than just talking to yourself (though that isn’t excluded☺!). It means really chewing on it. Reading the Bible to check it off your list, but never given it any further thought, won’t feed your soul. We’re meant to take it with us everywhere we go. I think the term meditation has been muddied recently by pictures of cross-legged humming. To meditate on God’s Word means to read it, think about it, pray about it, and talk to others about it. And, we’re to do this...all the time (day and night). Happiness comes from loving the Word, and if we love it, we’ll be consumed by it...rather than the things of this world!
And Are Sustained By It “3a He is like a tree planted by streams of water” I love Spurgeon’s quote on this passage: “The Lord’s trees are all evergreens.” The blessed find their happiness in an all consuming love of God and His Word and are sustained by this. What struck me most about this verse this week was that it points to something unnatural happening. The tree is planted here; it didn’t just spring up. Even the word used for stream seems to imply irrigation waters. So the whole picture is that it is because something intentional has been done to the tree that it is experiencing such growth. That’s salvation! By nature we are dead in our trespasses. We are walking in the way of the wicked; we’re sitting in the seats of scoffers, and we’re seeking ourselves with unashamed passion. Then, Jesus comes and changes our hearts. He makes us new. We’re moved. We’re planted and fed by His Word. What was once appalling is now our delight--and those rivers never run dry! This feeding is both intentional and continual! Hallelujah!
And Are Fruitful Because Of It. “3b...that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.” The result of this planting is fruit. Now, of course, this could be taken out of context today to imply earthly prosperity. However, while I do believe this verse is talking about God’s provision in all walks of life, the prosperity seems to be, at least in first measure, in reference to the fruit production. The leaf doesn’t wither, but it keeps producing fruit. We’re not guaranteed earthly success, but we will be fruitful. So, what is the fruit? Being like Christ. The fruit of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). Those who claim to be Christians, but fade away from the Truth and reject the Gospel are not planted here. If you feel dry spiritually, get back to the stream! If you find yourself “just not feeling it anymore”, but you haven’t been delighting in God’s Word and chewing on it all throughout the day...then get back to the source of life!
II. WITHOUT HIM, OUR LIVES ARE EMPTY.
The Wicked Don’t Do Any Of The Above. “4a The wicked are not so,” We’ll spend less time on these next few verses because the psalm does, as well. Moving from the picture of the blessed, we’re given the opposite side. This is another type of parallelism. We’re given contrasting images. The blessed are like this, but the wicked...are the opposite. They don’t do any of these things. So they do walk… and stand...and sit in the way of wicked, sinful scoffers. They don’t delight in God’s Word. They don’t meditate on it. They aren’t like trees planted by streams of waters, and they aren’t producing the fruit of the Spirit. In fact-->
But Are Like Chaff. “4b...but are like chaff that the wind drives away.” Like that C.T. Studd (what a great last name, by the way!) poem says: “Only one life, twill soon be past,/Only what’s done for Christ will last.” I am not a wheat farmer, but from what I’ve read, part of the harvesting process involved separating the wheat from the chaff--the parts that won’t be eaten--by letting the wind blow these lighter portions away. They aren’t being used, so are discarded. This is hard to type because the implication seem so heartless. Are we really referring to people as worthless? Here’s the deal: Sin is not of eternal worth. It’s the very thing that separate you from God, from the life for which you were made. If you have never given God control of your life, it doesn’t matter how much you gather here on earth. Remember what Jesus said back in Mark 8:38? “36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” This is a big theme throughout the Old Testament, and we’ll see it frequently in the psalms. Often the wicked seem to prosper here on earth, but ultimately of what value is that earthly gain?-->
And Cannot Stand In The Judgment or With God’s People. “5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;” When Jesus returns to take His people home, only those who are His will go. When we die and we stand before that final judgment, the only way we can stand is if we’re accounted as one of the “congregation of the righteous”--and the only way that is possible is if we are covered in the righteousness of Jesus. If we have not given Him our lives, we won’t be able to stand. We will face Hell. Period.
KEY: Being Known By God “6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.” This truly is the key. If you’re saved, it’s because you have been known by God. We like to talk in terms of our coming to know Him and our accepting Him, but the beautiful truth is that it’s all Him. He calls us. He saves us. He knows us. That brings us to our takeaways.
TAKEAWAYS
- We were made to be known by Jesus. Amen and Amen! We weren’t made for this sinful world. One of my favorite C.S. Lewis quotes is, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” We were!
- Because of this, true fulfillment won’t be found any other way. Do you delight in Him and His Word? Are you known by Him? No experience in this world will bring you the happiness you seek because it can only be found in Jesus!
- The enticements of sin aren't worth the cost. Oh, sin will seem fun. In a world consumed by it, it will often even seem right. However, it won’t fulfill. If you seek satisfaction through sinful means, you will continue to seek more and more, and fall deeper and deeper...but never be truly happy. And what is there to gain from all that unhappiness? Eternity in Hell.
True happiness comes from the Lord, so without Him our lives are empty.
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