Psalm 1

How well God must like you—-you don’t hang out at Sin Saloon, you don’t slink along Dead-End Road, you don’t go to Smart-Mouth College.

Instead you thrill to God’s Word, you chew on Scripture day and night.

You’re a tree replanted in Eden, bearing fresh fruit every month, Never dropping a leaf, always in blossom.

You’re not at all like the wicked, who are mere wind-blown dust—Without defense in court, unfit company for innocent people.

God charts the road you take.

The road they take is Skid Row.

What a statement in the opening line of this psalm, some one that God likes!

This person that God likes has a few characteristics which the writer very simply outlines for us.

The person that God likes:-

• Thrill at God’s word – and chew on it day and night
• They are a Tree planted – Genesis 1 ref placed and planted by God as in Eden’s Garden
• Bear fruit every month – they are constant
• Always blossom they are always ready to transform and change, with a promise of more to come, they are in a constant spring condition always ready to produce
• Has their Road charted by God there is nothing haphazard in their life.

The theme of this psalm is the happiness of the godly and the judgment of the ungodly.

The psalm can also begin in this way…….“O the happiness of the man.”

 

No matter where we turn in the Bible, we find that God gives joy to the obedient (even in the midst of trial) and ultimately sorrow to the disobedient. God sees but two persons in this world: the godly, who are “in Christ,” and the ungodly, who are “in Adam.” ( 1 Cor. 15:22,49)

The Person God Blesses

From the beginning of creation, God blessed mankind (Gen. 1:28); it was only after sin had entered the world through Adam’s disobedience that we find the word “curse” (Gen. 3:14–19).

It has always been God’s desire that mankind should enjoy His blessings. Ephesians 1:3 tells us that the believer in Christ has been “blessed with all spiritual blessings.”

How rich we are in Him!  It is however sad to say, many Christians do not “possess their possessions”  and in so doing they fail to enjoy their blessings in Christ.

In these verses we have a description of the kind of person God is able to bless.

A person who is separated from the world

The Christian life is compared to a walk (Eph. 4:1, 17; 5:2, 8, 15). beginning with a step of faith in trusting Christ and growing as we take further steps of faith in obedience to His Word.

Walking involves progress,  we progress as we applying the living word of God to our  daily life. It is possible for the believer to walk “in the darkness,” outside the will of God (1 John 1:5–7).

The people God blesses are careful in their walk: though they are in the world, they are not of the world.

A person who is saturated with the Word

Those whom God blesses are not delighted with what pertains to sin and the world; they delight in the Word of God. It is their love for and obedience to Christ the Word that brings blessing on their lives.  The people God blesses not only read the Word daily, but they study it, memorize it, and meditate on it during the day and night. Their mind is controlled by the Word of God. ( Josh 1:8)

Because of this, they are led by the Spirit and walk in the Spirit. Meditation is to the soul what “digestion” is to the body. It means understanding the Word, “chewing on it,” and applying it to our lives, making it a part of the inner person.  Jer. 15:16, Ezek. 3:3, Rev. 10:9.

A person who is situated by the waters

Water for drinking is a picture of the Holy Spirit

The believer is here compared to a tree that gets its water from the deep hidden springs under the dry sands. This world is a desert that can never satisfy the dedicated believer. We must send our “spiritual roots” down deep into the things of Christ and draw upon the spiritual water of life. (Jer. 17:7–8, Ps. 92:12–14). There can be no fruit without roots.

Too many believers are more concerned about the leaves and the fruit than they are the roots, but the roots are the most important part. Unless we as believers’ spend time daily on our relationship with Christ through prayer and the Word, and allow the Spirit to feed us, we will wither and die. The believer who draws upon the spiritual life in Christ will be fruitful and successful in the life of faith. When Christians cease to bear fruit, it is because something has happened to the roots (Mark 11:12–13, 20; Luke 13:6–9).

Irrigation of Gardens

He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.

Several commentators call attention to the fact that the Hebrew words palge-mayim, here rendered streams of water by the NIV and rivers of water by the KJV, literally means divisions of waters, and most likely refers to the favorite mode of irrigation in some ancient Middle-East countries.

Canals were dug in every direction, and through these canals the water was carried to all the vegetation. Egypt was once covered with these canals, and in this way the waters of the Nile were carried to every part of the valley through which the river ran. Some gardens were so arranged that water was conveyed around every plot and even to every tree. Allusion is probably made to this custom in Ezekiel 31:3–4 where Assyria is spoken of as a cedar:

“The waters nourished it, deep springs made it grow tall; their streams flowed all around its base and sent their channels to all the trees of the field.”

We don’t know that this ancient custom existed as early as the time of Job, but Job 38:25 seems to indicate it:

“Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm, to water a land where no man lives, a desert with no one in it, to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass?”

Solomon says in Proverbs 21:1—“The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.”

The figure of speech used here is an allusion to the eastern method of irrigation in which several canals were dug from one stream, enabling the farmer to direct a stream as he pleased by a simple action.

A person who chooses the right company and delights in the right employment.

To many it appears a small matter who you choose for your associates. But, if you consider how much we are influenced by the sentiments and examples of others, and what awful consequences will follow from the conduct we pursue, we shall see the necessity of selecting those only for our friends, who, we have reason to believe, are the friends of God. Lets not then rank the talents of men, and still less their gaiety and dissipation, attract your regards; but let the piety of their hearts and the holiness of their lives, be their highest recommendation to your friendship. Choose for your companions the excellent of the earth, and such as excel in virtue.

Six verses of pure insight and instruction  on how to be a happy life-giver, fruitful tree, full of blossom, consistent and constantly growing, learning and changing.

Let us be those who are nourished and sustained, who fully enjoy the house of God and the creation temple all around us.

Let us be thrilled at the placing and planting of God, into His stability and strength, with no lack.