Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.highlandparkbaptist.net/sermons/95488/the-ever-blessed-man/.

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[0:00] I remember being in class in Bible college and a professor encouraging us not to ignore the scripture passages!

[0:25] Passages like Psalm 23 and Jeremiah 29 and John 3. These are often called coffee cup passages because you can see them plastered on a mug at Mardell's or put on a calendar.

[0:39] But he said beware of overlooking these passages because there is often a reason why God's people have felt drawn to these portions of scripture over time.

[0:49] Our passage today is one of these. It is as beautiful as it is familiar. A commentator once said of this psalm that it is the gateway through which we enter the rest of the book of Psalms.

[1:05] Would you rise with me then and together let us walk through this gate? 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.

[1:25] 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.

[1:40] 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.

[1:57] For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated.

[2:09] We're going to walk through this psalm together and talk about as much as we can while time allows. We are going to see the blessed man who is the ideal Christian.

[2:20] And I hope that we can be inspired by his example. We are also going to see the path of the wicked that leads to destruction. And it will be an opportunity for us to consider which path we ourselves are on.

[2:35] So firstly then, let's look at verse 1 together. It starts with, blessed is the man. Now the author starts off with a description of a blessed man. Blessed means, among other things, happy or fulfilled, satisfied.

[2:51] We see this word and concept appear throughout Scripture. We know that the Lord blesses his people. We read that the patriarchs like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were blessed.

[3:03] The nation of Israel was blessed. And praise the Lord, we can read what Paul wrote about Gentiles like us in Galatians 3, verse 9. So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

[3:19] But what does this word mean practically? If we are blessed like this man, does it mean that we will be, for example, wealthy? Does it mean that we will not be stricken with diseases and injuries?

[3:33] Does it mean that we won't face infertility or marital problems or children who walk away from the faith? That life will go great for those who love the Lord? Surely not.

[3:45] We know that if anyone was blessed, it was the Lord Jesus himself. And yet, in his sojourn on the earth, he finished his course in violence and in pain. But what about the Beatitudes?

[3:58] That's another coffee cup passage. Remember that last Beatitude that seems to sometimes get dropped off the calendar? Remember, Jesus says, Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

[4:16] Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Surely then, if the reviled and persecuted can be blessed, we too can be blessed according to Scripture and not be prosperous in the eyes of the world.

[4:36] I think that there are then two meanings for us here. Firstly, in a general sense, this is a psalm which is a part of wisdom literature. This psalm is telling us that if we live according to God's guidance, things in our lives will, in general, go better than the alternative.

[4:57] This is a general truth. And it has many exceptions, even in the word itself. We need to look no further than Psalm 17 or Psalm 73. In another sense, though, the meaning of this word blessed is used here just as Jesus used it in the Sermon on the Mount for the persecuted and the reviled.

[5:18] We are spiritually blessed when we enter into God's family through faith in Jesus and order our lives around His word. Will life be perfect? Will we be set free from employment issues and financial problems and illness and finally death?

[5:36] Of course not. We know that these are facts of life in a sin-cursed world, but we, the redeemed, no matter our circumstances, no matter our pain, can claim this truth, that we are God's children.

[5:49] And in the end, in that day, we will be finally and completely blessed because of what Jesus has done by justifying us. We stand in that blessed state now, but it will be more fully realized when we stand with the Lord in glory in that day.

[6:07] Now, please look again with me at verse 1. It says, Who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers.

[6:20] Now, here we see a distinctive aspect of Hebrew poetry called parallelism. We see this throughout Psalms and elsewhere in the Bible. Even in the New Testament, you will see that Jesus sometimes almost seems to repeat Himself.

[6:33] This was a common way for Israelites to emphasize a point. Now, in our day, when we write and we want to emphasize something, we can use capital letters or put it in bold font or underline it.

[6:47] But in their day, they didn't have this. So in order to fully convey a point, they would repeat themselves. In parallelism, the same idea is repeated, but the wording is slightly changed so that the idea is more fully developed.

[7:03] Notice here that we have three descriptions that all combine to form what one commentator called the totality of evil. Firstly, the blessed man doesn't walk with the wicked.

[7:17] Scripture often uses the verb walk to describe the normal course of one's life. Look, for example, at Ephesians 5, 15. Look carefully, then, how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time because the days are evil.

[7:32] We even use a similar construction today. We all know people, for example, who can talk the talk. But what we really want to know is if those same people can what?

[7:43] Walk the walk, exactly. And notice the normal course of this blessed person's life. It is not in the counsel of the wicked.

[7:53] The opposite of the blessed man is one who is circled up with other wicked people, and together they are hatching plots to do evil. Look at verses 2 and 3 of the next psalm in your Bible, Psalm 2.

[8:07] And what do you see? The rebellious kings of the earth taking counsel together against the Lord about how to overthrow His rule and the rule of His anointed. But you do not have to wear a crown to plot against the Lord and His rightful rule.

[8:22] You can do it at a drunken party or on a job site or in a school cafeteria. Anywhere people do not acknowledge and obey the Lordship of God in their lives, they are taking counsel together against His rule and encouraging each other in rebellion against Him.

[8:38] So, we want to be like this blessed man. Does this mean that we do not walk with sinners so that we are not in their counsels? Of course not. For if we did this, how would we ever reach those people?

[8:49] We serve a Lord who is often surrounded by some of the worst people of His day, sitting at parties with the dregs of society. Even of Himself. In Luke chapter 7, Jesus says, the Son of Man has come eating and drinking.

[9:04] And you say, look at Him, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. Paul also wrote in 1 Corinthians 5, I wrote to you in my letter, not to associate with sexually immoral people.

[9:17] Not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters. Since then, you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed or is an idolater.

[9:35] This means that we are not to shun wicked and sinful people. But we are not supposed to walk in their counsels either. We are supposed to be salt and light just as Jesus was.

[9:49] We are not to be impacted by unbelievers or adopt their way of seeing the world. We are not supposed to hold their opinions or laugh at their jokes or value what they value.

[9:59] This is what it would mean for us to be in their counsel, standing in their ways and sitting in their seats. Now I am confident that some of you like me can say, well frankly, I do this whole abstaining from sinners thing pretty well.

[10:13] I only associate with my family or members of the Highland Park Baptist Church. But if we do that, I think we are being too easy on ourselves. Counsel implies the giving of advice, the shaping of our decisions and attitudes.

[10:29] Personally, I doubt that your unsaved neighbor has this much effect on you. But what I do not doubt is the power of the time that you spend in front of a screen of some sort that is a direct channel from a digital world that is almost entirely aligned against the Lord.

[10:48] Have you spent much time on the internet? Talk about counsel of the wicked. Brothers and sisters, think about the content you consume through your television or your iPhone. For many of us, I think that these are our counselors.

[11:02] Are your digital counselors driving you towards Jesus or are they pulling you away from Him? Do your counselors encourage all that is good and right and true or do they do and say things that God hates?

[11:15] I myself was convicted even in writing this message of an online personality whose videos I was moved to forsake because of the casual way he jokes about things that are offensive to the Lord.

[11:26] Why was I opening myself up to His influence? Why was I sitting with Him and joining Him in scoffing? Brothers and sisters, for us to be like this blessed man, we need to be like Christ.

[11:38] We need to be in the world that we might reach it but never of the world. Let us be lights that shine out brightly but remember, the light impacts the darkness, not the other way around.

[11:51] So let's look at verse 2 together. It says, but his delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law he meditates day and night. Now here it is. This is the secret of the blessed man's life.

[12:03] Rather than spending time with the wicked and the foolish, he spends time with the Lord listening to what the Lord has to say. And notice how he perceives the word.

[12:15] The blessed man delights in it. A commentator said, delight here expresses all that makes the man of God happy. The law is more than his delight.

[12:27] It is his chief desire. I'll be honest with you friends. This verse pricked my heart as I was studying it. I delight in so much.

[12:39] I love to laugh at silly things. My delight in learning about history is truly inexhaustible. And those things are not wrong in and of themselves.

[12:50] You can ask Caitlin how deliriously happy I can be visiting some random old fort or running around a Civil War battlefield. The poor girl had no idea what she was getting into when we got married.

[13:02] And I know that you have things that you also delight in. But do we delight in Scripture? Do our eyes light up when we get to behold the words written to us by the eternal God?

[13:16] Are our Bibles our joy or are they ornaments on shelves and nightstands? Brothers and sisters, if you can't say that the Word is your delight but has rather become a chore, then pray today, even this moment, and ask God that He would work in your heart to make it so.

[13:36] Ask Him, the author of Scripture, to change your affections so that you love His Word. and be honest with yourself. If there is something that distracts you from delighting in Scripture, then consider setting that thing aside for a time in order to refocus on the Word.

[13:54] Or, if you are convicted by the Holy Spirit, then have the courage to cut that thing off from your life so that you might better pursue the Lord. I promise, you won't regret it.

[14:05] Notice also what it is that this man delights in. At this point, the author of this psalm probably just had the first five books of the Bible called the Law and yet he delighted in them.

[14:19] If he delighted in the Law, which tells just the beginning of our story, how much more should we delight in the completed revelation that we have today? Beloved, in God's completed Word, we have so much to be grateful for.

[14:32] I heard a story just a few months ago at work of a persecuted brother in China who was reduced to tears because his lawyer came to visit him in prison and was able to read him just one chapter of the book of James.

[14:48] One chapter. And it reduced this brother to tears. How valuable do you think access to the entire Word of God would be for that brother? And yet, we have it every day.

[15:01] I hope that we're taking advantage of it. Luke can see also that in addition to delighting in the Law, the blessed man meditates on it both day and night.

[15:14] Now, meditation is a complicated word in our culture because we live in a time when Eastern mysticism has infiltrated our culture. Eastern meditation primarily encourages us to empty our minds, to attempt to clear away all thoughts and just exist.

[15:33] Christian meditation, however, teaches us to fill our minds with God's Word. It is the opposite of what we hear out in the world. Psalm 119 is a great passage for us if we want to learn about biblical meditation.

[15:49] For example, it says in verses 15 and 16, I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes.

[16:01] I will not forget your word. Or in verses 23 and 24, even though princes sit plotting against me, your servant will meditate on your statutes.

[16:13] Your testimonies are my delight. They are my counselors. Or verse 27 of Psalm 119, make me understand the way of your precepts and I will meditate on your wondrous works.

[16:29] Now in Hebrew, the word meditate means to mutter or to mumble. The idea is that the blessed man will be reading God's Word to himself, probably out loud.

[16:41] He will then commit these words to memory and then recite them to himself as he goes about his normal activities. The blessed man is in constant dialogue with himself and with God throughout the day through the medium of Scripture, turning the verses over in his mind so that he finds new meaning and new applications.

[17:02] This process of driving God's Word into the heart is a part of one of the most significant commandments that God ever gave to Israel. Listen to what God said to His people in Deuteronomy 6.

[17:13] Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.

[17:28] You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down or when you rise. So you can see that this blessed man is not doing something new.

[17:40] Rather, he is fulfilling the commandment of the Lord in the very law that he's meditating upon. Meditation in Christianity has, for obvious reasons, long been connected to the memorization of the Word.

[17:53] We have to remember that in the day that this psalm was written, the vast majority of people did not have access to a scroll of God's Word. Because of this, memorization was key if they were going to be able to think about God's Word outside of the regular meetings of his people.

[18:12] We can also see from the New Testament that Scripture memorization was a large part of the life of religious Jews at the time of Jesus. For example, look at Mary's song in Luke 2.

[18:23] She was probably only a teenager and yet her heart overflows in a spontaneous song that weaves together quotations and allusions from throughout the Old Testament. She was a teenager probably.

[18:36] In Acts 2, at his sermon on Pentecost, Peter quotes great chunks of the prophets from memory. Paul constantly quoted from the Old Testament. When it comes to explaining our salvation in passages like Romans 4 or Galatians 3, Paul doesn't just use his own words.

[18:54] He quotes from Habakkuk in Genesis. But think of how often Jesus himself quoted from the Old Testament. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus was taking the Old Testament law and expounding upon it in front of a live audience or went out in the desert tempted by the enemy.

[19:12] Jesus didn't respond with his own words but with quotations from Deuteronomy and Psalms. And lest we forget, remember that as Jesus hung in agony on the cross and he said, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

[19:27] He wasn't using his own words. He was quoting from Psalm 22. Jesus was so steeped in Scripture that it permeated his entire ministry, fortified him when he was being tempted by the devil himself and was literally what Jesus was using his last dying gasps of breath to say.

[19:50] Oh, and notice that this blessed man, he meditates day and night. Now, of course, this means this man is thinking of Scripture at all times, just like Deuteronomy 6 talked about. But of this verse, Augustine had a helpful observation.

[20:05] He said he will meditate by day and by night is to be understood either without ceasing or by day in joy by night in tribulations.

[20:17] I want to live the way Augustine just described the blessed man. When in gladness, I want Scripture to be heard. And when in sorrow, I want it once again to be Scripture that frames my thoughts and fills my heart and my mouth.

[20:32] Now, rounding out this point, I want to share the words of the Puritan Thomas Watson with you. He said, Meditation is the measurement of the Christian.

[20:42] It shows what metal he is made of. It is a spiritual index. The index shows what is in the book. So, meditation shows what is in the heart.

[20:58] Would you read verse 3 with me? It says, 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.

[21:12] This verse uses the metaphor of a tree to describe the blessed man. And why a tree? Let's think about it together. Trees are strong and stable.

[21:23] Unlike grass, trees are long-lasting. Trees have deep roots. So deep, in fact, that the fires and floods of life often go right by a tree and the tree remains even if everything else near it is destroyed.

[21:37] Trees are tough, too. Ever seen a car smashed into a tree? Who won that engagement? We all know how it usually ends. I think that all of these ideas can inform our reading of the tree here.

[21:52] Brothers and sisters, are we like this tree? Strong and stable. Or are we blown to and fro by the challenges of life? Do our roots go deep into our faith?

[22:04] Or are we shallow and easily uprooted? Is there a toughness about our Christianity that means no matter what comes, we will stand with the Lord?

[22:15] Or are we discouraged and overwhelmed? And notice also that this tree is planted by streams of water that nourish it and help it grow. What are the streams of water in our lives that help us grow?

[22:28] I can't think of better ones than the Word and prayer and involvement in Christian community where God is praised, His Word is preached, and the Lord's Supper is observed.

[22:39] When we cut ourselves off from these streams of God's blessing, we endanger ourselves. It is interesting to think of it, but the Word we often use to describe ourselves during prolonged seasons of spiritual difficulty is actually dry.

[22:56] I know I've felt this way before. When Katie and I were in Russia, I felt so far sometimes from God and from His people. The Word was hard for me to read and it seemed that prayer was a burden.

[23:09] My heart felt drier then in those days than at any other time in my life. And how did God help me? I can tell you, He gave me a COVID lockdown, which meant that for months I was stuck in a tiny apartment and there was nothing to do but to relax and remember His goodness as I had known it in the past.

[23:30] For some of you, I know COVID lockdown was rough, but for Katie and for me, it was exactly what we needed after three years in the desert. But notice also that this tree is a fruit-bearing tree.

[23:44] it gives off something that is pleasant and sweet and useful to others. Now, I'm from Texas and our fields there are sometimes nearly overwhelmed with invasive cedar trees.

[23:58] These trees are short and ugly. They don't give any fruit. They don't give any shade and they choke out the native trees. I don't want to be a tree like that. I want to be the type of tree that is a blessing to everyone else.

[24:12] A tree that gives fruit to be eaten in shade to those who stop near it. Remember, Jesus said that a tree is known by its fruit in Matthew 7.

[24:23] This blessed man, this Scripture-soaked person is giving good fruit. Brothers and sisters, what kind of fruit are we giving?

[24:34] Are we giving the fruits of grace and kindness and maturity? Or is it instead the fruits of selfishness and of pride? It makes me think of the fruits of the Spirit from Galatians 5.

[24:48] Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. If we are in the faith that we profess, then these are the types of fruit that should define our lives.

[25:03] Notice also that the leaves of this tree do not wither. Life doesn't drive this blessed person out. You ever see an older person who's withering? I'm not talking about the body as much as I'm talking about the soul.

[25:17] You guys laugh at me, but you are the opposite of this. I was thinking about our older saints here at Highland Park and the example that you are to those of us who are younger. For many of you, your hair is white, but your leaf is still green.

[25:33] I want to be like you when I'm older. Notice also that in all that this man does, he prospers. But how can this be when the world is full of injustice and pain and loss?

[25:48] Remember, beloved, that all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purposes. Or as Spurgeon said of this passage, to the eye of faith, this word is sure, and by it, we perceive that our works are prospered even when everything seems to go against us.

[26:08] It is not the outward prosperity which the Christian most desires. It is soul prosperity he longs for. For it is often for the soul's health that we would be poor, bereaved, and persecuted.

[26:25] Our worst things are often our best things. As there is a curse wrapped up in the wicked man's mercies, so there is a blessing concealed in the righteous man's crosses.

[26:39] So now let's look at verse 4 together. It says that the wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Now here the psalm takes a turn.

[26:51] Everything good that we just said that applies to the blessed man, the opposite is true for the wicked, for those outside of the blessings of God in Christ. The wicked love to associate with people like themselves, people who do not push them towards God.

[27:08] If the blessed man is blessed, then surely the wicked man must be cursed. The wicked does not delight in the Word, but instead thinks of it as a boring collection of old fairy tales which has zero authority in his life.

[27:22] He is not like a tree rooted in bearing fruit, but is instead like the grass that will soon wither and disappear. You also see that the wicked are described as chaff.

[27:35] Chaff is the casing of the head of grain. As the grain was being threshed, the chaff would be thrown up into the air and the wind would carry it away. Chaff was literally useless.

[27:47] It served no function and was either blown away by the wind or thrown into the ovens to be burnt. In Matthew 3, John the Baptist preaches about Jesus and says, He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry.

[28:04] He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.

[28:19] This is the fate of the wicked. We need to remember this because I don't know about you, but the wicked often seem to be winning in this life. For my job, I read about powerful governments that are persecuting and killing God's people.

[28:34] They sometimes seem unstoppable. But one day, all of these governments and the soldiers and agents who uphold them will be blown away like chaff, useless, and forgotten.

[28:47] Remember that when you see the wicked prosperer, evil men and women rising up like an unstoppable tide, know that their end outside of Christ is destruction. And their names, which seem so important right now, will be cast into oblivion.

[29:04] So, if this is true, then let's go win those people for Jesus because we know that without Him, those people have no hope. Would you look with me at verse 5?

[29:19] It says, Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. Verse 5, Notice here that the judgment is declared as inescapable fact.

[29:32] Just as in Hebrews chapter 9, verse 27, the Scripture says, It is appointed unto man once to die. And then what? After this, the judgment.

[29:44] The deeds of men will be weighed and measured by the righteous and holy judge. Psalm 1 teaches us that there is indeed a judgment to come. Every crime will be accounted for and the things done in secret will be revealed.

[29:58] In heaven, there are no unsolved mysteries. In the same way that no one could escape the flood except for those who entered into the ark, no one will escape this final judgment except for those who are in Jesus.

[30:14] Now look again at the verse and notice the place the wicked will not stand. The congregation of the righteous. Friends, our destiny is to live in community with God and with each other.

[30:27] Because of this, our faith is always supposed to have a communal aspect to it. And we practice this in a form even now when we gather together. But there will be a day when we will stand in the congregation of the redeemed from all of time, from now in generations not yet born, all the way back through the saints and apostles and prophets of old back to Abraham and Noah and Adam.

[30:52] The scripture teaches us that this is what awaits poor and weak people like us. A place in glory amongst the people of God beholding and rejoicing in the presence of our Savior.

[31:04] So then, two questions about this congregation of the righteous for us. Firstly, do we prioritize unity and service in this congregation of the righteous that we are currently a part of?

[31:19] And secondly, do we live out our lives now on this earth always keeping in mind that there is an eternal home being prepared for us by the Lord and a place amongst the righteous?

[31:33] Our identity more than anything else in this world should be found in the fact that our citizenship is in heaven and we have a place amongst the people of God for all eternity.

[31:44] And finally, we come to verse 6. The Scripture says, For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

[31:57] Notice that we have the word way here. The way is the path that one walks on in life. The day in and day out habits and behaviors that defines one's life.

[32:10] And the Lord knows our way? Well, the Lord knows everything, so of course He knows our way. But a cursory knowledge is not what the author is talking about here.

[32:21] It means a deeper familiarity. To know God and to be known by Him is the highest of privileges. Remember what Jesus says will happen to some in that day.

[32:36] In Matthew 7, He says, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name?

[32:53] And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. Notice also what Jesus says in John 10, 27.

[33:05] Jesus says, My sheep hear my voice and I know them. and they follow me. We are known by God because we are called by the name of His Son.

[33:19] This means that in that day, at the end of all things, we need not fear condemnation for our penalty has already been paid in full at Calvary. But also, it means that in our struggles even now, in the loneliness and disappointments, in the surgeries and in the biopsies, we are seen and known by God.

[33:43] We are not alone and we are not forgotten. And see also that the way of the wicked will be destroyed. Remember the admonition in 1 John 2, verses 15-17.

[33:59] John writes, Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in Him. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life is not from the Father but is from the world.

[34:18] And the world is passing away along with its desires. But whoever does the will of God abides forever. The way of the wicked is even now decaying and passing away.

[34:32] But those who do the will of God will live forever. So then, there you have it. A psalm that teaches us how we should live that we might prosper.

[34:46] But friends, if we leave this psalm here, I fear that we lose out on the best part. Because the psalmist is describing a perfect man who abstains from all wickedness. A man who perfectly delights in God's Word and fills his mind with it at all times.

[35:01] A man planted deeply, ever giving the fruits of righteousness. This man seems perfect, indeed a heavenly man. If the moral of this psalm is that I need to be like this man, then brothers and sisters, I can tell you, I have already failed.

[35:19] I have walked with sinful people and enjoyed the counsel of the wicked. I have failed to delight in God's Word and I have loved other things more than Him. I have planted myself near false streams and then complained when everything in me began to dry up.

[35:38] I can't be this man. But Jesus was this man on my behalf. Jesus walked this sinful earth but was never corrupted by it.

[35:49] He perfectly delighted in fulfilling the Word of His Father and was hung up on a tree for the benefit of others. It is through Jesus alone that we enter into the congregation of the righteous and it is through Him that we know God and are known by God.

[36:06] Jesus is the ever-blessed man. When we read this psalm, of course we see a Christian ideal that we should hope to attain to. But brothers and sisters, more than this, we should see that Jesus has already attained this on our behalf and because of Him we fear neither death nor judgment.

[36:29] So, look not at this psalm and see sentimental beauty to stick on a coffee cup or just an encouragement to try harder and to be better. Look instead and see the greatness of our Lord and Savior Jesus, the ever-blessed man.

[36:45] Will you pray with me? Lord, we love You so much. We thank You for Your Word which we know is true.

[36:57] It is powerful. Father, we want to be blessed like this man. Help us not to walk in the counsel of the wicked nor stand in their ways. Help us to delight perfectly in Your Word and on Your law, Father, help us to meditate day and night.

[37:13] God, we want to be like trees planted by streams of water, yielding fruit. Help our leaves not to wither, Lord. In all that we do, in You may we prosper.

[37:26] Father, thank You so much for delivering us from the judgment that is coming for those who are outside of Your grace. We are not worthy of this gift and we are grateful. And Lord, we look forward to that day when we stand with You in the congregation of the righteousness.

[37:42]  Thank You for all of these blessings, all of which we have in Christ Jesus, our Lord. It's in His name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.