Devotion with the Psalmist: Caught between two worlds

Psalm 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; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. 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.
The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.


A poem by an unknown source says:

All the water in the world, However hard it tried, Could never sink a shipUnless it got inside.  All the evil in the world, The wickedness and sin, Can never sink the soul’s craftUnless it got inside.

As humans we struggle with suffering, pain, hurt, depression and anxiety. But as Christians we struggle with our mind and our heart being caught between two worlds. The world of righteousness and the world of wickedness.

We desire to be with our God, to know, to love, to worship, to give to Him and others, but we also desire to be by ourselves, to be known as great, to love ourselves, to get praise, and to be worshipped by others.

Yes, we are "caught between two worlds."

Psalm one is a fitting introduction to the Psalms. It calls us to the very core of the matter. There are two ways, the way of life and the way of death. We live in a place that we are caught between two worlds: the world of happiness, and the world of misery. It is here in this first Psalm that we see our hearts and lives exposed for what they really are, and our emotions and feelings exposed as well.

The happy man is the man who avoids falling into the sinful patterns and practices of the world. The happy man is one who loves every word that comes from the mouth of God, and makes these words his life practice. This happy man is then prospered because he lives as was intended by God. Every single decision and every single action is framed by what God wants. This man is protected by and guarded by the Lord.

The psalm is broken into three parts: verses 1-2, verses 3-4 and verses 5-6.

Verses 1-2 teach us that happiness comes from Yahweh’s word. Verses 3-4 teach us that delighting in Yahweh’s Word brings permanence and despising Yahweh’s Word brings impermanence, and verses 5-6 teach us that God knows the righteous but is against the wicked.

1. Happiness comes from the Lord.

The psalmist tells us that the happy man is the one who instead of taking advice from the wicked, listens to Yahweh’s Word. Yahweh’s Word has been clearly revealed to us in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, and from John chapter 1, especially verses 14-18, where we can see that Yahweh’s Word is Jesus Christ, the revealer of God. So the happy man is the man who listens to Jesus Christ, and keeps from the advice of the unrighteous, those who live immoral lives apart from Yahweh.

But it is not that he just listens to Yahweh’s Word, and finds happiness, but that he delights in Yahweh’s Word. Yahweh’s Word is a cause or source of great pleasure for the happy man. The one who is happy delights or finds great pleasure in Jesus Christ as the revelation of the true and living God, our Father. But it is not that he just listens, but he meditates on the Word as well. The happy man makes the Word his focus for a period of time. What is this period of time? It is both day and night. It is from sunrise to sunset to sunrise.

To sum these verses up: How happy is the man who doesn’t live in the advice of the unrighteous, but rather lives in the advice of the Word of God, Jesus Christ. How happy is the man who doesn’t take his stand in the ways of those who offend God’s standard, but rather takes his stand in God’s standard, Jesus Christ. How happy is the man who doesn’t live in arrogance and mock God and his Way, but rather lives and loves the Way, Jesus Christ.

So this is where we are caught between the two worlds. We desire to live like the happy man, but so often we are living for ourselves and our pleasure, even at the expense of our own happiness.

It isn’t that we can’t be a part of the world, it is that we have to have the source of our life as God, in Jesus Christ. We have to live on his very words, and have our passions and desires as his.

2. Delighting in Yahweh's Word brings permanence and despising his Word brings impermanence.

The way of the righteous, the one who delights in Yahweh’s word, instead of being blown away, stands firm in the Lord. The righteous one is transplanted firmly into the ground by the banks of a flowing river. This river provides the source of life for this tree, and because of the constancy of the sun, and the permanency of the water source, this tree always provides its fruit at the proper time. Every year, at the same time, we can expect it to bear fruit, and good fruit too. The righteous one is like the one Christ referred to who built his house on the rock, and not on the sand. The righteous one is like the one Christ referred to who bears fruit 100-fold.

But the way of the wicked is the way of worthlessness and emptiness. Yahweh says here that his way is like the way of the chaff. Chaff is the worthless hulls of wheat. In order to get the “good stuff”, they would pound the wheat in order to crack the hulls. The good wheat inside would not break, but the hulls would be loosened. They would then in a light wind, throw the wheat with the hulls up in the air, and the wind would blow away the hulls. These hulls were worthless except to be thrown away or burned. The hulls were a waste product.

3. God knows the righteous but is against the wicked.

Yahweh knows in a personal way the path of the righteous. He doesn’t just know who they are, he knows them in a personal way. He knows their name, who they are, and cares deeply about them.

Only the righteous will stand before God. Only those whose delight is in the Word of Yahweh, and on His Word they meditate both day and night. Only a righteous man can enter into the righteous and holy presence of God.

Psalm 1 has been fulfilled in Christ!

So here we are, at a very difficult place. How many of us have completely and fully delighted in the Word of God? How many of us have made our meditation be the Word of God both day and night?

The answer to this question is that none of us have. In fact, we are most of the time caught between two worlds. We want to have one foot in heaven, while we have another in hell. Most of us, in fact, cannot say that we have never, or never take advice from the wicked. Most of us on a day by day basis can’t say that we don’t mock God, and His care over us in either creation or providence. In fact, most of us can’t say that we are really worth anything in and of ourselves. Most days we feel like chaff. So what now????

First, Jesus was the man who truly avoided evil and dwelt on God's word. Jesus was the perfect man, the second Adam, who did everything right. He followed God perfectly and completely.

Second, Jesus was the only man who truly and fully delighted in the word of God. He knew the law, knew it perfectly, but also kept it perfectly.

Third, Jesus fully and perfectly dwelt in God. He fully and completely dwelt in God.

Jesus truly received and is receiving the blessing of Psalm 1. All that Jesus did prospered. He prepared the disciples to preach the good news, they did, and the gospel spread to the known world. He will not lose any of the ones he has been given (John 17), and none of his words will ever fall to the ground. Looking at the book of Acts, it is clear that the gospel spread, and looking 2000 years later, it is still spreading. His work in us through his Spirit is effectual and final, it will accomplish it's end, he truly is the fruitful one.

However, the evildoers who are not covered by Christ will be destroyed. Judgment already came upon Christ, for we truly have sat in the seat of scorners, and walked in the way of sinners. So Christ bore this for us, and truly and ultimately tasted this judgment. But those who continue to sit and walk in evil and do not embrace the gospel of Christ will truly bear the judgment of God.

This judgment of God will mean that they cannot see God, and means that those who sit and run as sinners will experience eternal separation from God. This is so horrible and frightening, that it even made the Deity, the God-man, Jesus Christ, cry out in extreme suffering and anguish, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me."

The conclusion then is that God, in Jesus Christ, protects his people, and fights against those who despise, ignore, or are complacent towards him. God is for his people, which can be seen ultimately in Jesus Christ.

He was so for us that he sent his Son to die for our sins. He is so for us that he sent us his Holy Spirit, who lives in us. He is so for us, that he makes sure that nothing but good comes to us. He is so for us that he is preparing us to see him. He is so good to us that only goodness and mercy will follow us all our days, and we will dwell in his house forever. This is the ultimate in being for someone.

Yet God is against the wicked. He may allow them to have a life of relative financial ease, or even luxury, yet their souls are tormented with no joy or happiness. They are empty, filled with nothing that will satisfy. God does not allow them to live in prosperity forever, and if not in this life, in the next stage, God will turn all of his goodness and blessings off, and turn his wrath and judgment toward them at max capacity, they will dwell in outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. This is the ultimate in being against someone.

Conclusion and application

First, we should exalt and treasure Jesus Christ, because he truly was the happy and blessed man. He was the right man, the perfect man, who did all that was required, and lived in devotion to God. His life was a fruitful tree that is still bearing fruit, even our souls, and the souls of countless others. We as believers are in Him, and His Spirit is in us, this means that we not only are partakers of Him, but we have His power in is. This can only lead us to one conclusion, we were washed, we were justified, we were sanctified (1 Corinthians 6:11).

So, put off the old way of living. We are to live and strive, because of our love, to be like our Savior both in our external actions and our internal desires. We are to delight in the law of the Lord. We are to meditate on the law of the Lord. When we do this we will be delighting in Christ, meditating on Christ, and because of our union with him, we will experience his blessings and joy.

Second, we should exalt and treasure Jesus Christ, because we were cursed, because we ran with sin, and sat in sin, and our judgement was sure, yet, Jesus took our punishment and gave us his perfection. And now, we can enjoy the blessings of being planted by the water, as a tree. We are planted by/in the living waters, even Jesus Christ. And one day, we will partake of the tree of life, and be face to face with him.

Our lives should be a testimony to the living water. We should be bringing life with our speech, with our actions, we should be sharing the hope that is in us with the lost, giving to the poor and needy, and pouring ourselves out as a living stream available to all. This is the picture here. We will be like a tree planted by water. A place for shade, bringing comfort and joy to those who are weary as they can find the true living water to quench their thirst.

Third, we should proclaim this message of hope and excitement to those who are running and sitting in their sin. Their hope is empty, their end is sure, and they desperately need our beautiful Savior. We should have pity for them, for their lives are empty, their hope is on things that rust, that the moth will eat, their barns can be taken in a moment, and so they are people who desperately need a Savior and need to live their lives so they can have meaning and purpose.

Fourth, and finally, to be happy we should look at what Jesus says about it. In Matthew 5, Jesus says that the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, the merciful, the peacemakers, and the persecuted, will experience happiness, because they will have the kingdom of heaven, they will have comfort, they will inherit the earth, they will be filled, they will receive mercy, they will see God, and they will be called sons of God. We are joined with Christ, through faith, and because of this, these things are a part of us, are in our new nature.

Thus, today, we need to look to Christ, run to him, and ask the Spirit to fill us anew and afresh. We need to live out the truth that is already in us.