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Psalms 1 and 2 sermon
The Book of Psalms has been
called the Hymn Book of the Church.
Here we have 150 songs that take in the whole gamut of human
experience. There are songs of
love and hate, of joy and sorrow, of deep intimacy with God and of
profound disillusionment with God.
People talk about certain albums being the soundtrack to their
youth. This is the soundtrack to
the lives of God’s people. No
matter where you are in life you can find in Psalms a song to suit. And
so people love the Psalms because they resonate so much with our lives.
But actually God doesn’t
want just anybody picking up His song book and starting singing. Any more than the Royal Opera House
would be pleased if you went to the opera and decided to join in. That’s frowned on. Only certain people are invited to
sing at the Opera House, and only certain people are allowed into
the Psalms.
That’s why Psalms 1 and 2
are often called the gateway to the Psalms. Before we charge on in and start
singing these songs for ourselves, we are stopped at this
checkpoint. And these two Psalms
will instruct us in the basics.
Only certain people can proceed and Psalms 1 and 2 will tell us,
who’s in and who’s out. We have
here a gateway.
Just like in the sermon on
the mount. You know just before
Jesus launches into His longest sermon, He has a little gateway called
the beatitudes where Jesus will explain what kind of person can be in
God’s Kingdom. And the person who
is in is called ‘Blessed.’
‘Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven.’ The one who’s blessed is
the one who belongs. To be blessed
is to be allowed in through the gate. And just as the gateway to Jesus’ sermon begins and
ends with telling us who is blessed, so the gateway to the Psalms begins
and ends by telling us who is blessed.
Do you see the first verse of Psalm 1 – ‘Blessed is the man…’ And then do you see in the last verse
of Psalm 2 ‘Blessed are all those who take refuge in Him.’ This gateway to the Psalms tells us
who’s in and who’s out. To put it
in other words – it tells us who’s righteous and who’s wicked.
Psalms 1 and 2 are both
about this basic theme. Who’s in,
who’s out, who’s righteous, who’s wicked?
In Psalm 1 we see the
difference between the righteous and the wicked. In Psalm 2 we see war between the
righteous and the wicked. Psalm 1
lays the righteous and the wicked side by side, in Psalm 2 they go head
to head.
That’s why traditionally
people have taken these two Psalms together, because together they
function as the gateway to Psalms.
Together they make it plain: who’s in and who’s out.
Here’s who’s in –
verses 1 and 2:
Blessed is the Man Who does
not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or
sit in the seat of mockers. 2 But His delight is in the law of
the LORD, and on His law He meditates day and night.
And you read that and you
think, I know what that’s saying – it’s saying that the kind of person
who’s in is the person who (v1) avoids peer pressure and (v2)
reads their Bible lots. (That’s what ‘the law of the LORD’ means in v2,
it’s another way of describing the Scriptures). So, you read this and you think, the blessed kind of person
stays away from bad influences and they have their noses in the
Bible. And then you say – v3,
that kind of person lives a fruitful Christian life, but v4, the other
kind of person is not like that, they’re not fruitful and so they will
face judgement. That’s often the
first impression people get when they read these verses, and there’s
great truth to that interpretation, but it’s not quite what Psalm 1 is
saying.
Look again at verse 1:
there isn’t a group of people mentioned here. There is just one blessed man. In verse 4 it’s in the plural – there
are lots of wicked people. But,
v1, just one man who is called blessed.
It’s quite emphatic in the original. There would be ways the Psalmist could have said ‘Blessed is anyone who reads their
Bible.’ And there would be ways
he could have said ‘Blessed is
the kind of guy who reads his Bible.’
But this verse is saying emphatically ‘Blessed is that guy
right there. The One meditating on
His Bible day and night. He’s
the blessed one – the Man.’
In
Australia there was a rugby league footballer called Anthony Mundine who
quit football and took up boxing.
And he became this undefeated champion and soon he asked people
simply to refer to him as ‘The Man.’
I know what you’re thinking – arrogant Australians – and you might
be right. Wasn’t it Elle
McPherson who was known as ‘The Body’? Other women have bodies but Elle McPherson has the Body
by which all bodies are judged.
It’s like that with Anthony Mundine – the Man. He wants to be known as the definition
of manhood. All men are relative
to the Man. How
arrogant. I’m rarely so bold as
to call myself a man. Even
that’s a stretch. But ‘the
Man’.
‘The Man’
is a very exalted title. We still
have a sense of this in some parts of the English speaking world. I remember once my father-in-law from
Belfast said to me: “Now your man is quite conservative.” My
man is quite conservative?
He meant the Australian Prime Minister – your man. And in the Bible ‘the Man’ also has
overtones of being a ruler. For
instance Joseph is often called ‘the man’ in Egypt. He’s the man – He’s
Pharoah’s right hand man, the guy that get’s things done, if you want
something done in Egypt go to the Man.
It’s often the title for a ruler.
And that fits in well with verse 2, because
in v2 we see that the Man meditates on the Bible day and night. And that is something that
particularly the King was meant to do. Turn with me to Deuteronomy 17:18-20 (p ). Here we see what the King ought
to do when He takes the throne of Israel:
18 When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself
on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the priests, who are
Levites. 19 It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the
days of his life so that he may learn to revere the LORD his God and
follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees 20
and not consider himself better than his brothers and turn from the law
to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a
long time over his kingdom in Israel.
The King, above all people, is meant to be an
avid Bible student. Flick on a
few pages to Joshua 1:8. (p ). This is what the very next ruler of Israel is told. As
Joshua becomes ruler he is told (Joshua 1:8):
8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on
it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in
it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.
The King is the one who meditates on
the Law day and night. And then
he is prosperous. Well we already
know that from Psalm 1. In v3 we
see that the Man becomes a prosperous tree (same word as in Joshua
1). And, as we flick back to
Psalm 1, this tree imagery from v3 is often used to describe the promised
King of Israel. The promised King
is often called things like ‘The Branch’ or the Root or He’s likened to a
vine.
When you put all this together you get the
picture that the Man of Psalm 1 is in fact the King of Psalm 2. The Man of Psalm 1 is the
Anointed One (or Messiah or Christ, it’s all the same word) from Psalm
2:2. The Man is the Christ, the
Son of God.
So you see in both Psalm 1 and Psalm 2 you
have a contrast – not between one group of good guys and another group
of bad guys. In both Psalms you
have one man, the King, who is God’s Righteous, Anointed, Blessed,
Beloved Son and then you have the wicked, the other kings of the earth,
the sinners, the mockers, the rebels.
And the message of these Psalms is not ‘Don’t belong to the
bad guys, belong to the good guys.’
The message of these Psalms is ‘Don’t belong to the wicked, belong
to the Blessed Man.’
Belong to Christ, the Son of God.
See, take the beginning and end of these two
Psalms together and you get the whole message of the Bible in a
nutshell. Psalm 1:1 ‘Blessed is
the Man’ and Psalm 2:12 ‘Blessed are all those who take refuge in
Him.’ That’s the gospel right
there. Blessed is the Man and
blessed are all those who take refuge in Him.
Christ is the One Blessed Man, but He doesn’t
keep His blessedness to Himself.
It’s a blessing that’s available for all who come to Him. So, v3 – He is likened to a tree which
sounds remarkably like the tree of life – which is also planted by a
river and has evergreen fruit.
Well the Blessed Man, Christ, is like the tree of life. To come to Him is to receive the Life
and blessing that He has received from His Father. And at the end of v3 ‘everything He
does prospers.’ Really that’s
better translated ‘He causes it to prosper.’ He doesn’t just thrive, He makes
others thrive. He’s a tree with a
green thumb if you can handle the mixing of metaphors. He’s a prosperous tree and He makes
others into prosperous trees when they come to Him.
And that’s where we fit in in this
Psalm. We are those who take
shelter in Christ, those who feed on the tree of life, those who are
blessed in the Blessed Man. And
so more and more we will be people, v1, who refuse to go along
with the wicked crowd. More and
more, v2, we will be people who love the Scriptures and meditate
on them daily. If Christ is
Scripture saturated, if He thrives on the Bible, then can we expect to
flourish any other way? No if
we’ve taken refuge in Jesus, more and more we will become blessed Bible
meditators too. And more and
more, verse 3, we will bear fruit in the Christian life. We can’t generate this kind of life
ourselves but in friendship with Jesus His blessing will flow through our
lives.
And so at the end of v3 we’re left gazing on
a flourishing tree – a picture of Christ bestowing His fruitfulness on
His people. And it’s a picture of
security,
strength, plenty. It’s thriving,
abundant, evergreen, lush, verdent, prosperous, full of life and vitality
and all those words they use to sell bottled water. Blessed is the Man and blessed are all
those who take refuge in Him.
But, v4,
Not
so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.
Verse 4 is such a shift of gears. We have left the verdent garden and now
we’re in a dry wasteland. What is
chaff? Take away everything that
is fruitful and alive from verse 3 and you get chaff. The farmer brings in the harvest –
there’s wheat and there’s chaff – the dead, dry husk around the
wheat. On a windy day, the farmer
throws the wheat up in the air and the wheat has weight and substance and
so it falls back down again onto his sack. The chaff blows away in the wind. Insubstantial, lifeless, useless, worthless. And when the day of sifting comes,
it’s blown away. That’s the
wicked.
And the word wicked doesn’t mean the grossly
immoral person over there. The
wicked are all those who have not drawn life from this tree of
blessing. The wicked are simply
those who haven’t come to Christ.
Jesus says in John 15 – ‘I am the vine, you
are the branches.’ He says ‘Apart
from me, you can do nothing.’
Take a branch away from the vine, leave it on the ground and what
do you have? Fire-wood. Worthless, lifeless. Take a person out of a vital
relationship with Jesus Christ and what do you have? Chaff.
And so verses 5-6
5 Therefore the wicked will
not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the
righteous. 6 For the
LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked
will perish.
There are just two sides to be on and it
matters very much which side you’re on.
The LORD is watching and there will be a day when He will sift us
all and separate the wheat from the chaff. Those who are with Christ, the Blessed man, they will
stand. Those who are not with
Christ, those who are with the wicked will perish everlastingly.
This
is the gateway to the Psalms. And
we are being asked: Where do we stand?
Are we in or out? Are we
with Christ, the Blessed Man, or are we going to be blown away?
Well
Psalm 2 picks up this theme straight away and asks ‘Why wouldn’t you
stand with Christ? Why wouldn’t
everyone join in with Him? Why
would anyone oppose Him?’
Verses 1 and 2
Why do the nations
conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather
together against the LORD and
against his Anointed One (Messiah/Christ).
Here the imagery has shifted from botanical to
battlefield. Here is the war
between the righteous and the wicked.
The nations, the peoples, the kings of the
earth, the rulers – are all conspirators, plotting against the LORD and
against His Anointed King, Christ.
Maybe you read that and you think. God is paranoid. There isn’t this massive conspiracy
against Him. Is this
sensationalist propaganda from the Psalms? No, the Bible insists that this conspiracy against the
Father and His Son is a universal phenomenon. We are all rebels.
If you don’t recognize
that you reject God’s rule, look on to verse 3 and see if this is not the
cry of your own heart: (here is
what rebellious humanity says –v3)
“Let us break their chains” they say “and throw
off their fetters.”
(fetters are just cords that tie you up). Here’s the picture: God the Father and
His Son Jesus Christ have a big rope around you. What do you want to do with that
rope? What does your heart
say? It says, “Let’s break their chains, let’s throw
off their bonds.”
We don’t want any restraints, we don’t want any
boundaries, we don’t want any limits on what we can and can’t do.
Now in Hosea 11:4, God says ‘I am leading you
with cords of human kindness, with ties of love.’ (same words as here) God says, ‘I have
got a rope around you, but it’s there to catch you, to lead you and to
guide you. Every restraint I put
on you is for your own good – to lead you with kindness.’
What do our hearts say? ‘Let’s break their chains and throw
off their fetters.’
Think of that famous line in Titanic. Leonardo Di Caprio declares – “I am
the king of the world.” And you
think – no you’re not. Your
travelling 3rd class in a hulking great death trap. But that’s not how he feels, he’s left
the old country behind, heading to the new world, the wind’s in his hair
and he feels free. So he declares
himself king. But he’s not king
and the ship’s about to go down.
That’s a picture of you and me.
We try to free ourselves from Christ and make ourselves kings and
queens.
But Psalm 2 says: that is
mutiny and it’s all in vain.
Because, v6 and 7 tell us, God the Father has
installed His Son as King. The
ruler of my world is not me – however much I may mutiny, it’s all in
vain. Christ is the King and His
rule extends, v8 and 9, to all peoples, in all lands at all times.
And so this gateway to the Psalms ends with a
warning. Verse 10:
Therefore, you kings,
be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth.
No-one likes warnings,
but let me tell you, warnings are wonderful things. What those motorists in Minnesota
would have given for a warning. ‘The
bridge is out, turn back.’ But
there was no warning and so they plunged into tragedy. God the Father does not want anyone to
face judgement unwarned.
So here is His
warning, v11:
Serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with
trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry and you be
destroyed in your way, for His wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed
are all who take refuge in Him.
Here’s the warning. You’ve mutinied against Christ the Son of God to whom all
things belong. But He has been installed
as the true King and He is angry at this rebellion, so run. And at that point you think, too right
I’m going to run. But v12 doesn’t
say run away from Him it tells us to run to Him.
Blessed are all those who take refuge in Him.
Christ is coming, flee. But don’t flee away – you’ve done
enough of that in your life, flee to Him. Because Christ is not only our King
and Judge, He is also our Refuge.
What is a refuge? It’s a shelter which takes an
onslaught that you can’t take. So it rains, you take refuge under an
umbrella – it gets wet, so you don’t.
Or there’s bombs falling, so you take refuge underground. The ground is hit, you’re kept safe.
Verse 12 says – Jesus is a
refuge for rebels fleeing judgement.
He accomplished this at the
cross. There the King and the
Judge of All, took the onslaught of judgement on Himself so He could keep
us safe. We deserve for judgement
to be poured out on us for our unbelieving rebellious lives. But instead Jesus Christ is poured out
sacrificially for us. God should
have sent us a thunderbolt, instead He sends His Son, poured out on the
cross.
Now to those who take refuge
in Jesus, He becomes our refuge.
The Judge turns out to be our Saviour. And if the Judge is your
Saviour you really are safe. Can you
imagine being on trial for some crime and right before you go into court
your lawyer tells you, ‘Don’t worry I promise I’ll get you off.’ That brings you some kind of
comfort. But imagine that before
you go into court the prosecutor and the judge come up to
you and say ‘Don’t worry, I promise I’ll get you off.’ Then you’d feel pretty confident. The Christian has that confidence
about judgement. Our Saviour is
the Judge Himself, no-one will overturn His ruling.
Well here is the gateway to
the Psalms. Blessed is the Man
and blessed are all who take refuge in Him. And because this is the kind of gateway we’ve been
given we see two things:
First it tells us that the Psalms must be
related to Christ.
Second it tells us we must be related to
Christ.
Firstly, if this is the
gateway to the Psalms, it shows us that the Psalms are not a random
collection of songs, but they find their logic and centre in Jesus
Christ. The Psalms are centred on
Him. It’s a bit like Handel’s
‘Messiah.’ Handel organised all
his songs around Christ, to show Him off. And in the same way, the Psalms are an organised work
designed to show off the Messiah, the Blessed Man in whom is all our
blessing. All of the Psalms, both
individually and as a collection, work together to show Him off in a
different way. And this gateway to the Psalms sets us up for seeing the
ways the Psalms will do that.
This gateway has introduced us
to the four main characters that will inhabit the next 148 Psalms.
There is
(1)
the LORD;
(2)
the
Christ, the Blessed Man;
(3)
The
Righteous who take refuge in Him; and
(4)
The
Wicked who oppose Him.
All the Psalms are about the
interaction of these four groups.
In some, like Psalm 1, the Blessed Man is shown before the LORD
and then the righteous and the wicked are contrasted. In some, like Psalm 2, the righteous
complain to the LORD about the wicked and then He reminds them about the
Blessed Man, Christ. In some we have
simply the words of Christ. In
others we have the words of the LORD to Christ. In some we simply have the words of
sinners like us taking refuge in Him.
But all of the Psalms are about the inter-relation of these four
groups. And they all work
together to speak to us of Christ. Let’s be alert to that as we read the
Psalms, they are related to Christ.
Secondly, we must be related
to Christ. These Psalms tell us
Christ is the Man, the tree of life, the Anointed One, the King, the Son,
the Judge and the Refuge. He
couldn’t be bigger. But who are
we? We are only what Christ makes
of us. We are entirely defined by
which side of Jesus we stand on.
Either He is our King, our tree of life, our Refuge or else He is
our wrathful Judge. We run from
Him and are judged or we run to Him and are saved – either way He is
exalted as King.
So tonight, the LORD watches
over us. He knows on which side
we stand. But perhaps tonight
some of us could switch sides and take refuge in Him. Let’s close by looking down at our
Bibles. And let me draw attention
to some of these images from these Psalms. Perhaps for some here it will be an opportunity to turn
from rebellion to refuge.
Let’s everyone look down at
Psalm 1:3: Christ is like the
blessed tree of life. Will you
come to Him and say, ‘Please give me your life and blessing.’
Look at Psalm 2:3. The Father and the Son have a big rope
around you. Will you come to
Christ and say ‘I submit to your cords of kindness, save me, guide me,
lead me by them.’
Look at Psalm 2:6: The Father installs the King of the
world. Will you come to Him and
call Him your King.
Look at Psalm 2:11. Serve the LORD. Have you had enough of serving
yourself? Will you now turn and
serve Him?
Look at Psalm 2:12: Kiss the Son. He’s the One who died to make a
shelter for you. Do you have
affection for Him? Will you tell
Him you love Him?
Again, Psalm 2:12: Christ is
the refuge. Will you tell Him you
need shelter and allow Him to shield you?
Let’s pray:
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