What so Ever You Do Will Prosper: A Look at the 1St Psalm

CHAPTER 1

BLESSED IS THE MAN

Ps 1:1-6

1 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.

3 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.

4 Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.

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.

(NIV)

I have studied this psalm for over twenty years, each time I read it the Lord reveals more for me to contemplate. I have meditated upon this psalm every day; in the morning as I drive to my first sales call somewhere in the four states I call my territory in which I represent a manufacturer. I meditate in the afternoon as I return home from my last meeting with a customer and during my shower before dinner. I have preached sermon upon sermon using this psalm as the basis for a message. Unfortunately or perhaps fortunately there was no one to hear those sermons except me. Although I am able to preach during the Sunday evening service occasionally, the Lord has not directed me to share all of this information in my sermons. He has always given me messages along another avenue and thus I have not had any opportunity to share this information through preaching, therefore the reason for this book. Perhaps the Lord will direct me to preach on this psalm now that I have completed this book. But for now sit down enjoy a cup of coffee or tea and read it.

I must confess that this is not intended to be a commentary on the 1st Psalm. I will not be doing a verse-by-verse exposition of this passage. There are more than enough books already dedicated to that purpose. I will, however, from time to time explore a few of the Greek words, thus helping us to understand the intent of the writer within the context and culture of his time. The main goal is to examine the issues that are being dealt with in this Psalm. The issues I want to deal with are ideas that spring from the Word of God, ideas that apply to mankind and his relationship with God and with the rest of mankind. On a more personal note, I want to look at ideas which apply to you and me. Now I may challenge the way you have thought about some things or for that matter on how you are thinking about some things. I only ask for you to read and consider with an open spirit. I know all about having preconceived ideas and reading, comparing, judging if what I am reading agrees with my ideas. It is so easy to dig in to one way of looking at, or thinking about something, this is the main reason I refuse to write notes in my Bible. I know if I make a note alongside a verse, every time I read it again I will always think about my note, and may very well miss that new fresh truth God desires to reveal to me. So I simply ask you to set aside some of your notions about these ideas, read with a willingness to allow the Holy Spirit to reveal to you what he desires.

The first of these issues that I would like to examine is in the first verse.

1 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.

Although I said that I would not do a word-by-word verse-by-verse commentary, I think it is important to understand a few of the basics. Set the ground rules, if you please. The Hebrew word for blessed

835 ‘esher (eh’-sher);

from 833; happiness; only in masculine plural construction as interjection, how happy!

KJV—blessed, happy.

Note…. For those of you who may not be familiar with how these definitions appear

835 is the Strong’s Concordance reference number

‘esher is the English spelling of the word

(eh’-sher); is how it would be pronounced in English

from 833: means it is a form of a root word

The definition follows with instructions as to how it is used

KJV—Blessed, happy. These are the words you would find it translated into in the King James Version of the Bible.

As I look at this word, blessed, I am compelled to amplify it. Blessed, happy, content, fulfilled, complete, satisfied, in fellowship with God is the man that does not take advice from the unsaved. This, of course, would mean that the man who does take advice from the ungodly would not be blessed, happy, content, fulfilled, complete, in fellowship with God. This now impresses upon me a few thoughts as to what kind of counsel or advice a believer is not to take from an unbeliever.

At this point, I would like to interject a word of caution. I will be and have already used terms such as unbeliever, ungodly, non-Christian, and unsaved. All of these terms are, in some sense, interchangeable, that is, in the context of the Holy Scriptures they refer to anyone who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. I know that, especially, in America we call ourselves a Christian nation and many people who attend church refer to themselves as Christians, however many of those individuals do not see the need to be born again, which is another term I have used and will use from time to time which carries the same meaning as those I mentioned before. I will spend some more time later in detail regarding some of those terms. So with that in mind, consider this truth carefully; do not take advice from non-Christians, unbelievers, ungodly, unsaved people who are not born again. The scripture teaches us that we should not be unequally yoked.

2 Cor 6:14-18

14 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?

15 What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?

16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.

17 Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.

18 I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.

(NIV)

Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. Think about this! A farmer would use a yoke, which is a large piece of wood shaped to fit across the necks of two oxen, to unite them together. This would allow a farmer to use the power of two animals to pull a farming tool like a plow. The farmer knew if he connected two animals of unequal strength the team would only be as good as the weaker animal. Doing so would result in the weaker ox dragging down or holding back the stronger, thus not allowing the stronger to work at his fullest potential. The Greek word used here is heterozugeo (het-er-od-zoog-eh’-o), it implies to yoke up differently, i.e. (figuratively) to associate discordantly. Why doesn’t God want us to be yoked with unbelievers? Why would God admonish us to not be associated, in this certain sense, with unbelievers? I feel I must interject a comment regarding this statement of not being associated with unbelievers. I do not and am not advocating believers should isolate themselves from the unbelieving world. Quite the contrary, we should infiltrate the culture, causing it to change. The idea of not being associated is in the sense of being a partner with it, or having the culture infiltrate the believer’s way of thinking. The only reason within the text would be that God does not want the unbeliever, or the weaker, holding back the believer from being all He intended him to be. God does not want the weaker unbeliever dragging you down, keeping you from reaching your fullest potential. The truth seems simple. When a Christian takes advice from a non-Christian he is in fact becoming a partner with that unbeliever. He is taking the advice from the wisdom of the world, which is only foolishness to God.

1 Cor 3:19

19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: He catches the wise in their craftiness;

(NIV)

So accepting advice from an unbeliever whose wisdom is foolishness to God, and I must admit that is quite a strong position stating someone’s wisdom is foolishness, however I am only quoting that which is written in the scripture. Associating or being yoked with foolishness only brings the strength of the believer down to the level of the weaker ungodly person in a spiritual sense. I am not saying ungodly people are weak; however they are weak in spiritual matters. There are so many brilliant minds among the ungodly, so many extremely talented people, skilled craftsman all with knowledge far greater than you or I could ever hope to reach. However, they all are still weak when it comes to spiritual matters and their thinking, their ideas about God will drag you down if you allow yourself to be yoked together with them. This brings me to thoughts of why some believers are living a life not filled with victory, and overflowing with the blessings of God. Some believers are living a defeated, weak pitiful life, trampled on by Satan, consistently under attack, always seemingly to be moving from one crisis to another. Could this be a result of being too closely associated with the ways of the world? Yes! Could this be due to the believer living his life in accordance with the advice of the ungodly? Yes! I cannot stress this enough, living in the flesh and not living in or by the Spirit may well be the cause for many troubles Christians experience.

This passage in Jeremiah is much the same as the first Psalm, here it is phrased in the opposite talking first about the man who is not blessed, but rather the man who lives trusting the human way of doing things, the worldly wisdom.

Jer 17:5-6

5 This is what the LORD says:

"Cursed is the one who trusts in man,

who depends on flesh for his strength

and whose heart turns away from the LORD.

6 He will be like a bush in the wastelands;

he will not see prosperity when it comes.

He will dwell in the parched places of the desert,

in a salt land where no one lives.

NIV

Again, I will return to this idea later, for now let us move ahead with the concept of not being yoked with unbelievers.

What do the righteous and the wicked have in common? What do we have in common with people who do not know the Lord? Consider the times you have sat around the lunch table at work and listened to the talk of your co-workers. What is the central theme of their conversation? Then consider what kind of reaction they have when you try to discuss something you read in the Bible. How many of your old friends slowly stopped calling you to join them for a drink after work once they heard your life changing experience? What kind of reaction do they express when you offer some truth from the Bible? Family members don’t want to hear about it at those family gatherings. I remember the life I used to live many years ago before my encounter with Christ. I was not a nice person in the sense of godly behavior. We had several people we hung out with, Betty and Bobo, were two of them I will tell you a little about. We would spend hours just sitting and smoking some funny stuff discussing the wow things of the world. Once we attended a party, which did not start until eleven o’clock at night and about three in the morning, heading home, after more discussions of the wow of the world, we were cruising down North Ave. in Chicago, at about ninety miles an hour, reds lights and all. That was pretty foolish behavior, wouldn’t you think? But when we found the Lord, or rather He found us; we still got together with Betty and Bobo. We were so excited about our new faith, we just had to tell our friends so they too could find the real joy and peace we had. But they just brushed it off and soon things between us kept getting farther and farther apart until we just did not have any common interests anymore and no longer saw each other. It is a shame. And that is just how it is; there are just no longer any common interests. You are trying to follow the principles of the scripture and they are following the principles of the world. So then why would you take any advice from them?

What type of partnership can the believer enter into with an unbeliever?

A rhetorical question, the answer, none! This is the main issue of verse one of the first Psalm. Blessed is the man that does not take advice, and does not follow the wisdom of the ungodly. What common ground is there between believers and unbelievers?

What kind of agreement can a believer have with an unbeliever?

What I have done is sat and meditated upon these ideas. I have spent time in prayer and most of that time, I might add, was spent listening. I believe God in His infinite wisdom gave us two ears and only one mouth. In this way, we could listen twice as much as we talk.

I want to say I am an average person like you. Now, don’t misunderstand me, I should not be assuming you are average, perhaps you are above average and therefore I am not like you, but you understand what I am trying to say. That is, I am not placing myself high and lifted up, as some special person God is using to tell His people some profound truth. I am just another believer who needed to hear this truth from God for my life. I have been so overwhelmed by this truth I am compelled to share