Psalms 1 - Wisdom / Psalm 1
A special welcome to everyone here today. I trust you are all doing well. A special welcome also to those joining us via video in various places all over. I’m so glad you’re hanging out with us as well.
If you have your Bibles—and I hope you do—I would love for you to open to what might be the second most familiar Psalm in all one hundred and fifty. If I asked you what the most common or familiar Psalm is, most people are going to say Psalm 23: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” By the way, that one is usually best quoted in the King James Version for effect.
Psalms 23:1 (NASB)
A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.
I want you to turn to Psalm 1. We are talking about one hundred and fifty different choruses and poems, assembled together very strategically with intent and purpose, not the least of which is Psalm 1. It is placed at the beginning not because it was written first chronologically, but because the assembler of these Psalms—most likely Ezra the scribe—inserted Psalm 1 as an introduction to the entire Psalter.
This Psalm defines what the blessed life really looks like: what a life in relationship with God looks like, and what a life in relationship to the Word of God looks like. Remember, most of the Psalms are showing us different facets of who God is. In Psalm 1, the psalmist wants to give us a picture of what life in relationship with God should produce.
Before we jump into the text, it’s important to spend some time on this idea of being “blessed.” We throw that term around so casually. We say, “Oh wow, that guy is really blessed,” or, “Man, what a blessing that must be.” Oftentimes, we are assuming something that isn’t the biblical picture at all. When our culture says “blessed,” we usually mean, “Nice car! Boy, that must be a blessing,” as if physical goods, material wealth, and financial prosperity are the true signs of blessing.
Depending on what TV channels you watch, you will see some jokers telling you that if you just pray and have enough faith, you will be blessed. What they mean is: if you sow a seed of faith, pray enough, and send a donation to their ministry, God will pour out monetary wealth upon you. That is not the biblical picture. That is not the essence of what this passage is talking about.
When the psalmist uses the term “blessed,” it literally carries the idea of being happy, highly favored, and deeply satisfied. Think of it as having a full, complete life connected directly to a relationship with God. Have you ever met someone who has a ton of money and is just awful to be around? Money doesn’t produce blessing. On the flip side, have you ever met someone who is materially poor, but in their poverty they are rich? I remember going to Kenya and spending time in the slums. You talk to these people living in corrugated tin shacks with cardboard walls, and there is more joy in them than you will find in any gated community. That is the blessed life. It’s not about what’s in your bank account; it’s about what is happening on the inside—a full, complete, satisfied life.
The Progression of Compromise
The psalmist begins by describing what the blessed person avoids, and then what they embrace.
Psalms 1:1 (NASB)
How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
This passage is given to every first-year seminary student in hermeneutics class because the road signs are massive. A five-year-old can see the progression happening in verse 1: walking, standing, and sitting. The blessed life does not walk, stand, or sit with the wicked, the sinner, or the scoffer.
Notice that progression. “Walking” carries the idea of casual association or taking advice from someone whose heart and life are not submitted to God. The blessed person doesn’t do life based on the counsel of those who don’t know the Lord. The book of Proverbs reminds us of the danger of leaning on our own worldly wisdom.
Proverbs 14:12 (NASB)
There is a way [which seems] right to a man, But its end is the way of death.
Think back to when you did life without Jesus. Maybe you made a decision that seemed like a great idea in your head, but you never asked what the Word of God had to say about it. Or maybe you had a friend who said, “Hey, you know what we ought to do tonight?” and rolled out some nonsense where you thought, “We’re going to get arrested for this,” but you did it anyway. That is walking in the counsel of the wicked.
Next, the psalmist says the blessed life does not “stand in the path of sinners.” The word “sinner” describes someone who behaves in an ungodly manner and is actively disobedient. This isn’t just listening to bad advice anymore; now you are lingering in the path of someone who is walking in disobedience. The Apostle Paul warns us about this very dynamic.
1 Corinthians 15:33 (NASB)
Do not be deceived: ‘Bad company corrupts good morals.’
There is not a better passage to define my five years in college than that verse. When you stand in the path of people whose lives are defined by disobedience, have you ever noticed that you start picking up their mannerisms? You pick up their language, and eventually, you pick up their actions.
Finally, the blessed person does not “sit in the seat of scoffers.” A scoffer is someone who mocks the things of God, sits in outright defiance, and opposes God’s truth. Sitting implies settling in and taking a position of belonging or even leadership.
If you have ever read through the book of Genesis, you see a picture of this in the life of Lot. When given the choice of where to settle, Lot first looked toward the plain and pitched his tent as far as Sodom. Keep reading, and next, he is living in the city of Sodom. Keep reading further, and you find him sitting at the city gate of Sodom, which meant he was an established leader and authority in the city. The gravitational pull—the tractor beam of sin—drew him from looking, to living in it, to sitting in authority over it.
The psalmist is saying: you can live like that if you want to, but it will never yield a blessed life. Sin always looks good on the surface. That is the whole point. To a fish, the lure always looks appetizing. The better the fisherman, the better the lure looks. But the wages of sin is death, and once you bite, the hook is set. The blessed person recognizes the danger and refuses to let their heart drift in that direction.
Delighting in the Word
Instead of being drawn into the world’s compromise, look at where the blessed person’s heart gravitates.
Psalms 1:2 (NASB)
But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night.
The blessed life finds joy, treasure, and pleasure in God’s Word.
When my wife and I first met, we were doing college ministry in Denton, Texas. Her maiden name was Gibran, and everybody called her Zee. Zee was untouchable. If you could get five minutes of time with Zee as a guy, blessings to you! All of us dudes thought she was amazing. At first, I tried setting other guys up with her. Then finally, I thought, “Wait a minute—I want to hang out with her!”
So I went to our college pastor and said, “Hey, can I spend some time with Zee? She works with the ladies, I work with the guys, and I just want to make sure it won’t be weird.” He looked at me and said, “Well, first of all, get in line, because every guy in our ministry wants to spend time with Zee. But if you think you can get her, go for it.” So I went for it.
We started hanging out and writing letters back and forth. I remember getting a letter from her. Now, this was Neanderthal Brad getting a letter, and something strange was happening in my chest. I think it was called a “feeling.” I didn’t know what to do with it! I would open her letters and do all the things guys make fun of ladies for doing: “Oh, what did she mean by that word? Why did she phrase it like that?” For me, in that moment, my heart leaped with every single word on the page. It was like grabbing hold of an electrical outlet—an absolute jolt.
We have been married almost twenty years now, and she still writes me letters. But if I’m honest with you, on a bad day, familiarity sets in, and I don’t always delight in her words the way I did when we were dating. It’s not her fault, and I still love my wife deeply, but familiarity can dull our affection.
The same thing happens with Scripture. I came to faith in 1993. I had never read the Bible before in my life. I didn’t know the difference between the Book of Job and a job you go to on Monday. I was living in the Bulldog Apartments on the second floor above the manager’s office, and I would yell across the apartment to my roommate, who was a pastor’s kid: “Brandon, this Bible is incredible! Did you know the Bible says you shouldn’t get drunk? This is awesome!” I was completely enthralled. Every page was lighting me up with fresh, life-changing truth.
That was 1993. If I am being completely candid with you, there are times now when I open the Bible and catch myself thinking, “Yeah, yeah, I know this passage. I underlined that five years ago.”
Do you ever feel like that? The blessed life is one that fights against that familiarity and continually delights in the Word of the Lord. Sometimes I have to shake myself and say, “Brad, your wife wrote you a letter. Sit down, read it, and let her words move your heart.” And I have to do the same thing with the Bible. I come to God and pray, “Lord, show up afresh on this page. I need Your Word to speak to me today, because if I live without Your Word, my life starts looking like me, and that is a train wreck. Open my heart to enjoy Your truth again.”
Notice that the blessed person not only delights in the law of the Lord, but meditates on it day and night. This echoes the charge God gave to Joshua when he had to step into Moses’ massive shoes.
Joshua 1:8 (NASB)
’This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.
When we hear the word “meditate,” many people think of Eastern mysticism or yoga—emptying your mind. Biblical meditation is the exact opposite: it is filling your mind with truth. It means you read the Word, think about it, set it down for a bit, bring it back up throughout the day like a familiar friend, and ponder it. The Word of God stays on your mind constantly.
Planted by the Water
When you are mindful of your influences and you delight in God’s Word, what does that life actually look like? Verse 3 gives us the picture.
Psalms 1:3 (NASB)
He will be like a tree [firmly] planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers.
When people hear that Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, they often picture the forest moon of Endor with Ewoks, or getting lost in the California redwoods. But the wilderness in Israel is barren, dry, and brutally hot. There aren’t many trees, and there certainly isn’t abundant water. If a tree is going to survive, it must be intentionally planted right next to a constant source of nourishment.
The blessed life is firmly planted by streams of living water, which allows it to bear fruit in season. There are moments in life where you will be called upon to bear fruit for the Lord—in times of crisis, when someone around you is hurting, or when someone desperately needs a word of hope. That fruit comes directly from abiding in God’s Word.
Notice that the text says it yields fruit in season. If there is an “in season,” that means there is also an “out of season.” Anyone in agriculture knows that a good harvest depends on what happens during the dormant season. When a tree goes dormant in the winter, it isn’t dead; it is sending its roots deeper into the soil and building reserves for the next harvest.
When I first read this passage, I thought the blessed life meant you are constantly producing visible fruit every single day. But there are seasons in your walk with God where you might feel dormant, like you are just a bunch of bare sticks. Let me encourage you: even in the quiet, dormant seasons, God is anchoring your roots deeper into His grace. The fruit will come at the proper time.
The psalmist also notes that its leaf does not wither. If you have ever tried planting a garden in the Central Valley during July when it’s 105 degrees, you know very few things flourish in that blistering heat. I have a Japanese maple in my front yard that looks fantastic for about three weeks in the spring. Then the summer heat hits, and it looks like somebody took a blowtorch to the leaves. But the tree described in Psalm 1 doesn’t wither in the heat because its roots reach all the way down into the water source. It endures the scorch and continues to provide shade, prospering in whatever God calls it to do.
Prosperity here doesn’t mean the Midas touch where everything you touch magically turns to gold. It means walking with the steady confidence that God is with you, guiding your steps toward His eternal purposes and filling you with His joy.
The Contrast and the Ultimate Blessing
Verses 4 through 6 give us the sober contrast.
Psalms 1:4-6 (NASB)
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. For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the wicked will perish.
The wicked are not like a deeply rooted tree; they are like weightless chaff that the wind blows away into judgment.
As we look at this Psalm, two fundamental questions emerge for us:
First, what are the influences in your life? Who are you walking with, standing with, and listening to? We are called to be salt and light in the world, which means we must love and engage our neighbors. But there is a massive difference between influencing the world for Christ and allowing the world to shape your values. What voices are you allowing to direct your steps?
Second, what is your relationship with the Word of God? Do you delight in it? If you have struggled to read the Bible because it feels confusing, don’t quit. Keep reading. The more you read, the more your understanding will grow. We have wonderful pastors and ministries here specifically to help you understand Scripture.
When you open the Bible, remember that you aren’t just reading text on a page to check a religious box. You are getting to know the Author—the Almighty God who created the heavens and the earth. Nature can tell you there is a powerful Creator, but creation alone cannot show you the way of salvation. God’s Word reveals His heart, His redemptive plan, and ultimately, His Son.
Jesus confronted the religious leaders of His day who read the scriptures constantly but missed the entire point.
John 5:39 (NASB)
’You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me;
From Genesis to Revelation, this Book speaks of Jesus. He is the Word made flesh, the agent of creation, the exact representation of God, who lived the perfect life, died for our sins, was buried, and rose again on the third day. True blessedness is found in Him. He is the only one who can rescue us from the path of wickedness, forgive our sins, and plant us securely by the living water of His grace.
A Call to the Blessed Life
I don’t know where you find yourself today. Maybe you feel spiritually dry, or maybe you are caught in patterns of compromise that you can’t seem to break on your own. Turn to Jesus Christ today. He breaks the power of sin and invites you into the full, satisfied life you were created to live.
Let’s pray together.
Father, thank You for Your Word. Thank You for this familiar Psalm that reminds us of who You are and how You designed us to live. We think back to Your original design in the Garden, where Adam and Eve enjoyed unbroken fellowship with You until sin brought brokenness and chaos. Yet in Your amazing grace, You pursued us and provided the way back through Jesus Christ.
Lord, make us like trees firmly planted by streams of water. Deliver us from worldly counsel, and give us a deep, enduring hunger for Your Word. May our roots go down deep into Your truth so that when the heat of life comes, we will not wither. Produce fruit in our lives in Your perfect season, that our families, our neighbors, and our community might experience the shade, nourishment, and grace of a life rooted in Christ.
We love You, and we pray all these things in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.