Begin With the End in Mind

Message Transcription

It is my pleasure to be with you this morning. It's been a while since since I've had the pleasure of proclaiming a scripture to you. Carl came to me several weeks ago and he said, You know, it's time for our summer series. And and so we're kicking off the summer series, going to call it the summer playlist. And and he said, and I want you to kick it off, by the way, I'll be out of town, So. Carl, you're going to get what you asked for. I appreciate the opportunity to be with you. So this morning, we're going to take a look not only at Psalm one, but before we do that, I should tell you that the summer series is going to be taking a look at individual individual psalms through the summer. And what Carl asked me to do is give just a brief overview of the Psalm collection. We call it the Psalter, and I'll do that. And then we then we'll take a look at at Psalm one. So the Psalms collection, this is a 30,000 foot overview. Most of you are familiar with the Psalms, and our experience with them usually is that we will just dip into the Psalms. We have our favorites, and as we look at them, we. We usually don't discern any kind of pattern. And so what I want to do this morning is say something about what I think is a kind of overall pattern.

You'll see the graphic up on the board, and I hope you can see it. But most of you know that the Psalms are divided into five books. So as you open your Bibles. Psalm one, right above it, it'll say book one, and then you go to Psalm 42 and it'll say book two and so on. But really, there is a kind of organization to it. Now. You have to squint a little bit to see the organization. I'm going to suggest to you here. But the Psalter, this whole collection really didn't come together until probably maybe 100 years or so before Jesus. And the whole arrangement begins with Psalm one and two on the front end and Psalm 146 through 150 on the end. Now, Psalms one and two, you'll see in the graphic, Psalms one and two depict the ideal Israelite. And at the end, 145 or 146 through 150 show the ideal future of Israel. And in between these two, we have two major blocks. Those two major blocs begin with Psalm two and go through Psalm 89. Those are books one, two and three, and you can see how they're divided up. And this if you squint, you will see that this first collection between Psalm two and Psalm 89 traces something of the history of the kingdom under David and his descendants until the exile, until the destruction of the temple. So the first book, Psalms three, actually, and I'll explain why in a moment.

Psalm three through 41 is about David, but David represents Israel and here David trusts in Yahweh. And that's what the an overarching theme of this section is. But then at the end of Psalm 41, moving into Psalm 42, we begin to see a shift. And that shift begins probably under the divided monarchy. And here Israel is in decline and we see Psalm 42 through 72. There is a decline. And actually in Psalm 72 is a psalm about Solomon, about Solomon's reign and his descendants and about God remembering the covenant. And then the third book in the center is the darkest part, if you will, of the Psalms. And this third section is rather short, but the the language depicts Israel's death. The temple is destroyed. Israel is looking for hope and it just doesn't seem to find any. But its hope comes because of the covenant. Now, chapter two, Psalm two and Psalm 89 are bookends of this section, and both of these are about God's faithfulness to his covenant. So from the heyday under David to the darkest days of the destruction of the temple, it's bracketed by the faithfulness of God. And then the exile happens and the exile begins dark. But then light emerges because the exile comes to an end. And this section, Psalm 90 through Psalm 145, The exile is this section of book four. In this section, Yahweh is depicted as king. He's the one who is ruling, not the leaders who can fail.

And then we just see starting in 107 praises, praises of Israelites returning back to their homeland, of returning back to a restored temple. And so the whole book, the whole Psalter is from 30,000ft. Again, you have to squint. But the whole Psalter is a sort of history of the people of Israel, of David and of his descendants. And then there is this ideal future which points forward. And we're still living in the between, say, Psalm 145 and 146. Hopefully that will give you some sense over the summer as we look at the Psalter and you can see and put the psalm that Carl and others will bring to us, you can see how it fits. And today I want to take us back to Psalm one. I'm convinced that Psalm one and 146 to 150 were the latest ones written. They were written by the editor who put it all together. And Psalm one tells us how to read the Psalter. So if you'll just settle your minds for a moment and then we'll take a look. At Psalm one. Lord, we thank you for our time together. We pray that you would bless the reading. And the preaching and the hearing of your word. Guide my faithful words. Into the heart of everyone here. Let my words touch. The target that you intend. In Jesus. Amen. So Psalm one, I've titled my remarks this morning.

Begin with the end in mind, and some of you may actually remember that phrase. You may remember hearing that phrase from a book that was popular about 20 plus years ago by Stephen Covey called The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Chapter one Begin with the End in mind. And whether Covey had come up with that on his own, I don't know. But it's a really important idea because we who are believers, we who are God's people, can never simply stay attached to the past. We can never simply stay in the present moment, but instead we're always looking forward, always trusting that the God in whom we believe is at work and that his work is bringing about a most glorious future for us and for the whole world. And God intends to do that work through people, through particular sorts of people. And Psalm one, as I said, written as a sort of introduction to the whole Psalter, Psalm one sort of gives us an insight into who the people of God are. And we want to go through Psalm one carefully and take a look at the sort of people that hold in their hands the Psalter, and take their formation from it. It begins by talking about the blessed or the Blessed. And as soon as I read this, because I was raised more on the New Testament than the old, as soon as I hear blessed are those, my mind immediately goes to the Beatitudes jaws.

Maybe Jesus knew his Psalter. I think he did. Blessed are those who let's talk about this word blessed, because it's it's really important that we understand what blessed here intends to convey. The word is not the typical word for blessing or someone who is just who is blessed by others, who's blessed by their circumstances. No, it's a deeper word. The word blessed here sometimes is translated how happy or how fortunate, and it's just really hard to grasp the idea. But the idea here is this This blessedness is of a whole mode of existence. This blessedness is that existence of the person who lives their life continually, consciously. Under the good and watchful care of God. The blessedness is. As we read the things here, it's the blessing is not this will be your blessing if you do these things. It is instead a status, a characterization. These are the sorts of people that choose however you will, across the world. These are the sorts of people that others look to and go, There's something up with them. I may not know exactly what it is. I may not be able to put my finger exactly on it, but there's something different. They seem to live in a whole different realm from the rest of the world. These are people who are unruffled. These are people who are who bring stability in times of trouble. These are people who who are Guideposts.

This is the kind of person that the editor of the Psalter begins with. It's a sort of promise, as we'll see. But notice what it does. It doesn't give them a name yet. Blessed are those who. And we're ready. Who? What? Who don't. Who don't. That's right. Who don't. You see, there are some things that stable people, the people of God, there are some things that they don't do. And I want you to see what these are. And there's a very interesting progression here. I want you to notice that each of these three things begin with a verb. Blessed are those who do not walk in the counsel of the wicked. To walk in the counsel of the wicked is to conduct your life, to shape your thinking, to have your way of understanding the world shaped. Be sure that your understanding of what the world is is shaped. It is shaped by the people around you. It is shaped by what you read. It is shaped by what you watch. It is shaped by what you listen to. Blessed are those who do not walk in the counsel of the wicked. That is, they don't listen to the advice, the guidance of those who do not know God. Immediately this begins to limit the sorts of people. That those who are blessed associate with and who know and where they take their information from. It says that there are some things that they just, as a habit know are off limits.

And the first thing that's off limits is, do you know God? If you don't know God or if you don't care for God, or if you don't pay attention to who our God is, if you are averse to God, we don't listen to you. They don't walk in the counsel of the wicked. Their thinking is not established there. And then there's something else about them. They don't stand. Think about. This progression of walk. Stay. Stand, sit. They don't stand in the way or in the path with sinners. You say. But then who? Who would I. Who would I be with? We're all sinners in the Psalms. This word sinner has more specific meaning that sinners here are those in the Psalter sinners are those who plot error, who are looking for ways to get around what they know God is up to. Who look for ways of skirting the truth, of skirting their moral intuition, and to stand with someone, to stand and have the conversation in the pathway. Is to be engaged in that conversation in a way that is different from simply listening. To the counsel of the wicked. To stand with them is to begin to buy into and to begin to join yourself with them. And then these folks who are blessed, whoever they are, they don't sit. They don't sit among the contemptuous. Or we could say it this way they don't sit in the meeting of the contemptuous.

The idea here is, well, maybe it's just best illustrated. Have you ever been in a meeting? Where it seemed like it was nothing but an arranged gripe session. Have you ever been in a meeting? Where? You felt embarrassed at the way the conversation was going and it seemed like everybody was piling on and jumping in. Have you ever been in a meeting where maybe that's what was happening, but you weren't embarrassed because you may have been joining your voice to the rest of them? You see, to sit in the meeting of the contemptuous. This is the culmination. This is the end. The road goes no farther here. You have identified with them to the extent that you're throwing in along with them. And. And what is it that you're doing? You're contemptuous. Contemptuous. I saw Betty before. Before we began and said, I'm really glad you're reading Scripture this morning. And she said, Yes, yes, but you would give me the word contemptuous. It's kind of hard. And but our translations may say the seat of scoffers or the seat of mockers, but the idea here is worse than that. It's contempt. Do you know people who are characterized by contempt? That is nothing is ever right. No one is ever right. They are very good at picking things apart and completely oblivious to themselves, completely unself aware. They hurl charges against others. The contemptuous are unteachable.

You try to get your point in and they interrupt you. You try to say something that would give them some insight and they don't want to hear it. There's something wrong with you. They're the only ones who can be right. They hold everything in contempt. Their ears are closed. Their eyes are closed. Their mouth is wide open. The psalm tells us. To begin that those who are blessed and we'll see how they're described in a moment, that those who are blessed don't participate in the moral formation that takes them away from God. They don't walk and listen to people who would draw them away. They don't stand and contemplate and dwell on it. And they certainly don't sit and take their pot shots. Instead, there is something they do with their time. Instead. Those who are blessed. The Lord's instruction is there to let. Your translations will say. Their delight is in the law of the Lord, the Torah of the Lord. The word instruction is a better translation here. The Lord's instruction is their delight. Just think about this. You see what we saw earlier about moral formation the blessed don't do. Instead, they spend their time with the Lord. They spend their time day and night, or we might say all the time. Everything else compared to hearing from and meditating on the instruction from God. Everything else takes a back seat. Nothing is as important. I'll tell you, I'm convicted by this.

If you were to look on my iPhone, one of the things that you would see is that if you look at how I spend my time, you know, you can do the things screen time or it tells you which app is open the most. Youtube. I'm afraid that's true of me. I wish it weren't. And I was convicted as I was thinking about this. For others of you, it might be Facebook. For others of you, it might be a game. For others of you, it might be. A playlist of songs. All I would say to be gentle to myself and to be gentle to you is. If you want to be the sort of person who is blessed. This opening psalm tells you how to spend your time. And it says not simply that we read our Bible. It says that we meditate on the instruction of the Lord day and night and this word meditate beautifully picturesque word. The word meditate is a word that means to to chew over and over like a cow chews its cud. I know that probably isn't one of the. Best things to visualize for the moment, but it is exactly the idea. You take it in, you, you chew it, you swallow it, you let it do its work. Oh, here it comes again. And you listen. And you chew it some more and you swallow it and you meditated on it. Oh, there it is again.

Have you ever noticed, have you ever noticed in your life that as you read Scripture, as it becomes a part of you, that there are times in your day that there are situations in your life where out of the blue so it seems, here comes that word of scripture, here comes that passage, and it is a response to what you're asking for, to what you're seeking. Or maybe it just kind of pops up out of the blue and you go, Oh, yeah. Oops. And it's a reminder. Do you know what I'm talking about? This is what happens when we meditate, to meditate on the instruction of the Lord day and night. You know, from the days of David all the way until today, people have read the Psalms. And in fact, the instruction of the Lord is probably pointing to the Psalter here. They read their Psalms. The early monastic movement of among Christians in the third and fourth century. One of the one of the expectations if you were joining a community of monks or of or of nuns, one of the expectations is that very quickly you would learn all 150 Psalms by heart and you would recite it all 150 as you did your work in a day. What in a day all 150 psalms. You would recite them in a day as you did your work. You think I can't do that? Well, just to show you, over time, it became the habit.

Instead of doing it a whole Psalter once a day. Other monks, eventually they would do the whole Psalter in a week. And that was good. Okay. A week I think I can do. A week is good. And then now the prevailing is once a month, the whole Psalter once a month. And in fact, some of you are aware of reading programs that can take you through the Psalms, all the Psalms in a month. In fact, my newest collection, I teach Psalms at L.s.u, and this is the newest book to my collection. It's called Psalms in 30 Days. And I'm thinking, what do we do about those days with 31? And I guess we get a day off. But Psalms in 30 days. And it actually has the Psalter almost in exact order arranged for morning and for a short midday and for evening reading the Psalms in 30 days. There are other books that do much the same thing. But. But you don't have to buy a book that does that. You've got a book. You whether whether it's a physical book or on your phone. There are easy ways to do this. So if you're looking for something practical, here it is. Write it down. You've got notes on the back. You can just write it down here like I did. Three ways to keep the Psalms in front of you. And one is just take five a day. Just take five a day.

When you come to Psalm 119, it's kind of long. Skip it and then you can. You can read it if you want, but you can save Psalm 119 for days or for months with 31 days. And Psalm 119 is for 31. That takes care of that. But just read five a day or another way to do it is just take the date. Let's move to June 1st. Makes it a lot easier. Just the date and then every 30th Psalm after that. So on June 1st, we read Psalm one and then Psalm 31 and then Psalm 61 and Psalm 91 and Psalm 121. And then on June 2nd, we read Psalm two and then Psalm 32 and 62 and 92 and 122. You see how that works and you get all the way through it that way in a month and 31 comes and I guess you just spend your time in prayer. This is the way of those who are blessed. And what do we get from this? The psalm describes these blessed people in a very picturesque way that is important in its context. They are like trees rooted beside streams of water. This is my translation, by the way. And what Betty read is my translation. I should have instead of streams of water, I should have translated it as channels. And there was a very specific reason because we're not we're not talking about streams of rivers. They can move instead.

These are irrigation channels. Trees routed by irrigation channels, always stuck beside their nourishment. Always their nourishment doesn't move. They're like trees or rooted. Rooted beside its source of nourishment. And what is that? They meditate upon the Lord's instruction day and night. In the ancient near eastern world. The picture here is an oasis, desert, desert, desert all around. But in the middle of the oasis where there is water, trees, trees rooted. And what about them? They bear fruit in due season. The rewards of meditating on the Torah, the rewards of knowing who God is, means that at those times when it is essential to know how to respond, to act, you do. The fruit comes in due season. You're not without. But not only that, their leaf never withers. It doesn't fall off. You think? Okay, what's the point? The point is that this tree is not exactly like any other tree that we know. This is a metaphorical tree. A tree of wisdom. It's always green and it's rooted. Remember I said that these blessed people are those who are stable. They're unmoved. These are the blessed. We still don't have a name for them. Just a description. And the psalmist says, and this is what happens. This is their end. And the Hebrew is really interesting here because it is all whatever they do all whatsoever. They do all things that they attend to flourishes. Don't you wish that everything you participated in, that everything you touched, flourished with the life of God in it?

This.

Is a promise to us. But there's a contrast. Very interesting to me. Whenever the contrast comes, it's real short. The wicked are not so. What do you mean? Well, all that I just described. That's not them. Well, who are they? They're the wicked. We've already met them before, remember? At the beginning, you don't walk in the counsel of the wicked. The wicked aren't like that. Why? Why don't we get a whole description? Don't need to. Don't need one. Instead, we start at the point of formation of the counsel of the wicked. And already we know the wicked aren't like that. Instead. I mean, the psalmist spends no time here instead. The wicked and all that they do is like chaff driven by the wind. Living in West Texas. I think we understand this really well. Driven by the wind. I mean, this is like the haboobs that we get every once in a while when unless something is like tied down, it blows. And the point is that nothing that they do is permanent.

Nothing. It's chaff.

And if you're in the midst of it, you've ever been in the midst of one of those haboobs? You ever been out there all alone and the wind blowing things at you? I mean, now leaves become torpedoes. Everything is like chaff driven by the wind. And then what is their end? It's very interesting because here here there is an end in mind and it's really long range. And I want to spend just a little bit of time with you on this, just a little therein for this reason, the wicked will not stand at the judgment, that is. Some of your translations will say they can't withstand judgment. Almost like you think they can't handle criticism. That's true. They can't. They can't handle criticism. But that's not the point. The wicked will not stand at the judgment. This is a picture of deep Israelite theology that we get the best picture of this from Daniel, Chapter 12. At the end, the resurrection, the resurrection of the righteous who will shine and the resurrection of the wicked. But here are the psalmist doesn't even let them stand up. They don't even stand. They get no say in the end. They're just obliterated. They're gone. And sinners. That's second category. Sinners will not stand in the Council of the Righteous. Now, finally, we get this group of those who are blessed named.

They're the righteous. There are those who see. Right. Who think. Right. Who hear right. Whose hearts are right. Who understand. Who can penetrate. The situation with their spiritual insight and no. Sinners will not stand in the Council of the Righteous in this Council of the righteous. This is a new idea probably to most of us. But in Israelite theology, there is a sense that after the end that the righteous will participate with God in deciding and in doing the rest of the creation story that's ongoing. And you think, well, I've never heard that before. Oh, but you have. But you have. You may not have recognized it. Let me show you. There's a little piece in First Corinthians. First Corinthians six says this. This is just an illusion. He says, when one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the righteous, instead of the counsel of the righteous? Don't you know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Don't you know that we are to judge angels? Wait. What? You see, the righteous will be raised to participate with God in the ordering of the affairs past the end.

Really? Yes, really. There's another passage also that you know. And that other passage. Is from Revelation. Listen to this carefully. And they sang a new song. This is from Revelation five Worthy. Are you to take the scroll and to open its seals for you were slain. The righteous one. And by your blood you rescued people for God from every tribe, language, people, and nation. You've made them a kingdom and priests for our God. And they shall reign. On the earth. Rain. Rain rule. Rule how? With God. How? In the Council of the Righteous. It was always God's intention to have his people go all the way back to Genesis, to have his people participate with him in the ordering of the affairs of our world. But we blew it. But God's never given up on that intention. So then why? What's the why? The psalm ends this way because. The Lord knows attends to supervises watches over the way of the righteous. The Lord is on our side. Because we're on the Lord's side, because we know who he is and he can give judgment and counsel into our hands if we have been properly morally formed. But here's the problem. It's also the way of the wicked.

We'll be destroyed.

It'll vanish. The wicked will not get the final say. The wicked don't get any say. Why read the Psalter? Here's why I read it and I encourage you in it. I read the Psalter because I want to be the kind of person who, when the gale blows, when the storms are raging, all about it can be said of me. That I am a guidepost. That I can point the way to God. You may have noticed, we right now live in the midst of a culture that is nothing but running after the counsel of the wicked. You may have noticed that we live in a culture where it is very easy to stand and listen and interact and converse with those who don't know their head from a tree stump whenever it comes to moral formation. And you may have noticed. That our world has lost its ever loving mind in many ways and contempt. Is to be found on all sides. Contempt is not a mark of the people of God. Not knowing which way to go is not a mark of the people of God. Not knowing who God is is certainly not a part of the people of God. Our world needs. People who know God. Not. The latest song by Taylor Swift. Not. The latest happenings out of Washington. Or Moscow. Or London. Our world needs people who know the way. Do you know who you are? The righteous will stand with God in council and we will be restored to our position of giving guidance under the benevolent, watchful care of God to the universe. Are you ready for that? Do you want that responsibility? Because God wants you to have it. This is how important we are. And if you want to know how to live this life, if you want to know how to be formed in it.

The Psalter.

Spend your time in the Psalms and meditate on the Lord's instruction day and night. I promise it will rub off on you. And you will know. And the most righteous, the most blessed is our Lord Jesus. He is the embodiment of that entire Psalm and Psalm two. But Psalm two, maybe someone else will pick that one up. Let's pray. Lord were your people. And we are a mess. We are a mess because we would rather spend and often spend our time doing many other things instead of listening and meditating on who you are. Our hearts are not fully formed. Lord, you know, mine certainly isn't fully formed the way you want it to be and the way I want it to be. But, Lord, you have called us to be your people and we seek the blessedness that comes from knowing you. And so, Lord. By your spirit. Search everyone in this crowd search and see those hearts that are open to you. And I pray that the words. But I speak. And the open hearts. We'll be joined by your spirit. And will bear fruit in due season. Lord, I thank you for these people. I thank you. That you have given us your Scripture. And I pray, O Lord, that you would continue to form us. No. Our way. Oh, Lord. Deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.