Which Way Shall It Be #2

The righteous man delights in the word of God day and night. He has rejected the way of sinners.

He has rejected their counsel. He has rejected their thinking for the sake of pursuing this word and the word to which this word testifies. Have you received God's word as the defining affection and authority in your life? Thanks for joining us on the Truth Pulpit with Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Hi, I'm Bill Wright, and today Don continues his message, Which Way Shall It Be?, a study based in Psalm 1. Last time Don set forth the two ways a person can go in relation to God, toward him or away from him.

The psalmist terms these directions the way of the righteous and the way of the wicked. We saw that the righteous man rejects the course of this world. Today Don will discuss what the believer receives and also what he or she resembles.

Have your Bible open to Psalm 1, and let's join our teacher now in the Truth Pulpit. The righteous man is known by what he rejects, that's true, but he is also known in a positive way by what he receives. What he rejects, what he receives, and we see what he receives in verse 2. At his core, this man loves the Word of God. It is that simple, plain, and evident. Look at verse 2.

But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. Notice a couple of things about this. First of all, that there is a contrast, right?

You see that. There is this path of the world, and yet there's this contrast in verse 2. I've left behind the world as I go into verse 2. I've rejected that and now as I move into verse 2, I'm moving into a different realm. I'm moving into a different realm of desire, a different realm of what I esteem, of what my priorities are. In verse 1, he's left behind what the world thinks and what the world does and what the world says.

He's left behind the scoffing and the mocking of the world toward the things of God. And now in verse 2, as if he's walked into a beautiful ballroom, he's stepped off the street, out of the gutters of the street, and he's walked into a five-star hotel room and he's walked into this gorgeous ballroom with a completely different decor, a completely different setup. It says, ah, this is where I will set.

This is where I will plant my life. Verse 2, look at it with me again. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. Notice that it's stated there twice, in the law of the Lord and in his law. That's the focus of this verse. Now the word for law here, it can refer to the first five books of Moses, the Pentateuch, the Torah is the word that's used here.

It can refer just to that. But more broadly, this word refers to God's instruction, to God's written revelation in the Bible, and that's the way that we should take this. The totality of what God has revealed in Scripture, that's what this man loves. He loves a book.

He loves God's Word. He studies it. He reads it. He thinks about it. Brothers and sisters, he goes further. He obeys it. This man, this woman, this young person, has his mind on the Word of God day and night. Let me say something that should convict many of you, many of us should be convicted by what is about to be said. In the righteous life, there is not room for the principle of compartmentalization, to say, I'll be in church on Sunday, but I have these worldly activities that I love, these things that are kind of sinful but I'm going to enjoy them, these things that are anti-God in their tone, in their music, or whatever, in their entertainment, says, but you know what? I don't care. I want that too.

Doesn't work that way. There is a day and night monopoly on this man's affections, on this man's thinking that comes from the Word of God, and the entire desire, the unifying desire of his heart is to bring the totality of his life in whole and in its parts under the authority, under the blessing, under the clarity, under the revelation of the Word of God. And that is no burdensome yoke to him that he resents.

This man loves that. Look at verse 2 with me again. It says, his delight is in the law of the Lord. This is what he wants. This is what he builds his life around. Around the Word of God.

Now, here's what I want you to see. Stepping back and taking a really big picture look at things. Having a righteous life starts with your mind. It starts with your affections. It starts with the inner man. It starts with asking this question, what have I set my heart upon? And when a man, when a woman sets his heart upon the Scripture, here's what happens.

Here's why the outcome of Psalm 1 is guaranteed. When you love the Word of God, when you read the Word of God, when you think on the Word of God, when you study on the Word of God, when you obey the Word of God, it changes the way that you think. And when your thinking is changed, what you love, what you desire is changed. The mind drives the heart, and the heart drives the behavior. And so, a man who wants to live the blessed life, the man who wants to know the goodness that lies at the end of the blessing of God, says, I'm going to set my heart and I'm going to direct my affections to seek and to pursue and to understand God's holy Word.

That will be the desire of my heart. And so, the question is, as you, this is a really searching psalm, the question is, do you love God's Word like that? Do you love God's Word, and you know, I realize that we're not all going to be monks and reading the Bible for 14 hours a day and all of that.

That's not the point. This is not talking about a quantity of time. It's talking about a quality of heart. Is God's Word what you have set your heart on?

Is it what you value more than anything else? If it's not, you're not in the camp of the righteous. If you don't love the Bible, this psalm teaches us, you're not in the path of the blessed. You see, the blessed man, the happy man, rejects the world and receives God's Word.

It says, I will set my heart on this Word. I want you to turn to the book of Ezra, Ezra chapter 7, which is just before the Psalms. You need to turn back before Job, before Esther, before Nehemiah. It is likely that we have the book of Psalms compiled in this form from the hand of Ezra. But I want you to look at Ezra chapter 7 verse 10.

Here's the takeaway. Here's the illustration. Here's the model for you to follow in your own life.

Compact, clear, concise, understandable. Ezra chapter 7 verse 10. Ezra, actually verse 9, ends, the good hand of his God was upon him. Verse 10, for the good hand of God was upon Ezra because Ezra was this kind of man. He had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to practice it and to teach his statutes and ordinances in Israel.

Look at that. He set his heart. He gathered up his affections and with a deliberate intent of his mind, he said, my life will be pursuing this Word. I will embrace this Word. This is what I will study.

This is what I will think about. This is the most important priority in my life is that I understand this Word and that I conform my life to it. He wasn't just someone who studied it.

He wanted to practice it. And so there is this wholehearted orientation of the inner man that says, this book is my love. This book is my hope. This is the object of my affection. This book is that to which I give the kiss of submission and allegiance.

That's the idea. You say, to a book? Yeah, this book is precious because it came from God. This book came from our Creator. This book, this written Word of God is the one that testifies to the incarnate Word of God, the God who became flesh to be the Savior of men by giving his life on a cross to save us from sin. You know, look, I realize I get animated about a lot when I'm up here preaching, but how could you not love this book? How could anyone not love a book that comes from the infinite Creator of the world that testifies to the way that our sins can be forgiven and that is pure, that is true, and that leads us to the path of God's eternal blessing? How could you not love a book like that? And how, beloved, how could you not reject, how could you not separate, how could you not disown the environment that is opposed to this Word?

How could that be? I mean, we have to examine ourselves, and we have to think about life from these most fundamental perspectives. What is it that I love?

What is it I'm after? You can't have it both ways. The young person, the man, the woman that wants to keep his foot in both camps, you need to understand something. If you're trying to keep your feet in both camps, one in one and one in the other, understand that both of your feet are in the camp of the wicked because the righteous man delights in the Word of God day and night. He has rejected the way of sinners.

He has rejected their counsel. He has rejected their thinking for the sake of pursuing this Word and the Word to which this Word testifies. And so, do you love God's Word? Do you build your life around it?

That's the question. Have you rejected the world? Have you received God's Word as your defined... think about it this way. Have you received God's Word as the defining affection and authority in your life? Is the Word of God the defining affection and authority in your life? That's what this is calling us to.

The defining affection, the defining authority. Now, what happens to a man like that? What's the outcome? You see, there's consequences. It matters whether you go left or right here at this juncture.

The interstate that you choose when you're driving takes you to a destination in a far greater way. The way that you respond to this very principle determines the destination of your entire life. Nay, it goes further and echoes throughout your eternity. There's so much at stake. For those of you that love God's Word, for those of you that do understand, I have repented. I do reject the world.

I do love God's Word. What's in it for me? What's going to happen now?

What's the outcome? Well, those of you that are that kind of person and you come in discouraged, drink from verse 3 and see what this righteous man resembles. We get an illustration.

There's a simile here. He compares this righteous man to a position of blessing, and he describes it in verse 3. So we've seen what he rejects, what he receives, and now we're going to see what he resembles in verse 3. What happens to this man who stands alone under the affection and authority of God's Word? Verse 3.

It's a beautiful picture. He will be like a tree, firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit and its season, and its leaf does not wither, and in whatever he does, he prospers. It goes well for this man.

A tree planted near water will flourish regardless of the surrounding elements. In the same way, the man who loves God's Word in the way that we've been describing is going to thrive regardless of his life circumstances. There will be a spiritual fruitfulness to him. There will be an ever-developing growing maturity, a strength, a courage of character. There will be productive things that come out of his life. It doesn't define what those things are.

It states it in the most broad terms. Look at it at the end of verse 3. Whatever he does, he'll prosper. There will be seasons where there is just fruit coming out of his life.

He'll be an evergreen. He's not going to shrivel up under the weight of adversity because there is a life-sustaining spiritual water coursing through the branches and leaves and twigs of his life. There is a vitality of spiritual energy fueled by the Holy Spirit that animates everything that this man does, thinks and says. He is carried on eternal wings. He is born by a spiritual current that leads to blessing. There is a power at work in him that is outside the realm of this world that guarantees this outcome of life for him. And whether his spiritual excellence is displayed in the quiet simplicity of being a godly family man unnoticed by the world, whether it is a spiritual excellence that gives him prominence amongst God's people, whether it is a spiritual excellence that leads him to the martyr's grave at an early age. There is excellence. There is spiritual prosperity. There is a godly vibrancy about his life that transcends the external circumstances and defines the very quality of who this man is. And as you trace it all out, as you see those different effects that we just described, one man prominent, another man martyred, another man just quiet faithfulness. Beloved, here's the thing that you have to understand. Here's what you have to recognize from Psalm 1.

Here's what you have to discern as you understand and make judgments about life. You trace each one of those illustrations. You trace them back and you find the common root that defines the different ways in which those branches have spread about across the world. And you come back and you see, oh, the common root is that was a man of God. That was a man who loved God's Word.

And you look for that common root to define and explain what you see. It's not about the external manifestations or about which particular leaves your branches uphold. The spiritual prosperity described in Psalm 1 traces its root back to this book that is on your lap. When you realize the consequences of it, when you realize how much is at stake and that this speaks not only of earthly blessing and spiritual productivity, but this defines blessing throughout all of eternity, you realize that what is sitting on your lap is an instrument either of your blessing or of your cursing.

That what is on your lap is more powerful than the gas that fills your tank in the vehicle that you're going to drive home. That there should be a sense of reverence and respect and desire for this book, that you view this with a sense of deference and respect and affection that says, I have to take this seriously. How I respond to this book defines how life comes out for me. How I respond to the Christ to whom this word testifies defines my eternity.

This book is of awesome, unspeakable, incalculable importance. And as you're looking at it, you should just, you know, I know, look, most of you are probably like me. You've got 20 Bibles in your house, some of you.

Some of you more. You know, and they're almost fungible items. You can take them or leave them.

They get worn out, you throw it out, you get another one. Don't let the availability of the printed product diminish your sense of respect and reverence for God's Word, because you hold on your lap that which determines the blessing of your life or that which will rise up and judge you in the end. We have to take this seriously. I want you to hold that Bible on your lap and say, wow, this is really precious.

This is really, really important. I'm going to make this book the delight of my mind, because I want to be that tree that's firmly planted. That's it. That's what Psalm 1 is teaching us to think about the Word of God. Now, what comes next? What comes next is a jarring and a sharp contrast. Beloved, listen to me. There are times where you just despair of trying to do justice to the Word of God, and that's how I feel right now. In the first three verses, we saw a negative and a positive contrast of the righteous man, what he rejects, what he receives. In the brilliance of the mind of God which inspired the writer of this Psalm, you have another contrast going on. The righteous man is defined by contrast, what he receives, what he rejects. Then there's this bigger contrast that we're about to step into in the last three verses, the next two verses I should say, that contrasts that righteous man that we've just seen with a wicked man. And so there are all of these clear contrasts that are going on throughout the Psalm, and what we have now is a jarring, sharp contrast. We have just seen a description of the way of the righteous, and we say this is a path of blessing. He comes out like a tree, flourishing.

This is so good! And then you move into verse four, and when you read it in the original, it says this, not so the wicked. Not so.

Not them. Look at verses four and five. The wicked are not so, but they are like chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. Who are the wicked? They're the reverse of what I just described. They are the contrasting image.

They are defined by the opposite of what we just saw in the first three verses. Well, Pastor Don Green has covered what awaits the person who follows the way of the righteous, but a stark contrast does indeed lie ahead of us as we focus on the way of the wicked next time here on The Truth Pulpit. Join us as Don concludes his message in Psalm 1 titled Which Way Shall It Be? But right now, here's Don with some exciting ministry news. Well, my friend, today I have an opportunity to offer you something for free that goes beyond what we've done on our radio broadcast. It's a 10-message CD album titled The Bible and Roman Catholicism.

It's a series I recently completed at Truth Community Church, taking scripture and evaluating what Catholics teach and believe about the pope, about Mary, about the mass, and about the whole nature of salvation. It's a resource that you really need to have in your hands, either for yourself or for your friends and loved ones, to know how to interact with them. And it's available for free at the place that Bill's going to point you to right now. Just visit us at thetruthpulpit.com and click on Radio Offers to learn more. And while you're there, you can also find podcasts to download so you can revisit Don's messages at your convenience. That's all at thetruthpulpit.com. I'm Bill Wright, and we'll see you back here next time on The Truth Pulpit.