church

INI
15th Sunday after Pentecost
September 25, 2011
Ascension Lutheran Church, Tacoma WA
Paul Naumann, Pastor

HAPPY ARE THE RIGHTEOUS
Psalm 1:1-6

Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen. The
text for our consideration this morning is found in the First Psalm, beginning
with the first verse, as follows:

Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in
the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; 2 But his delight is in
the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night. 3 He shall be
like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper. 4 The
ungodly are not so, But are like the chaff which the wind drives away. 5
Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the
congregation of the righteous. 6 For the LORD knows the way of the righteous,
But the way of the ungodly shall perish. This is the Word of God.

In the Name of Jesus Christ, Otherwise known as "The Lord our
Righteousness," Dear Fellow Redeemed,

One of America's favorite Christmas movies - indeed one of the favorite
movies of all time - is Francis Ford Coppola's "It's a Wonderful Life." In it the
main character, George Bailey, is driven to the brink of despair by the
impending failure of the savings and loan he manages. To George, the end of
his business signals the end of his life. He's convinced that he's a failure and
that there's no reason to go on. Then, through a series of supernatural
circumstances, George is allowed a special vision: he's allowed to see the things
that are really important in life. The things that truly make for happiness. He
learns that happiness doesn't come from money, or a successful business, or
high social standing. In the end, George comes back to his family with the
realization that true happiness has very little to do with material things at all.

Our text for today is about the same subject: happiness. In fact, it starts out
with the Hebrew word ashare, which literally means "blessed," or "happy."
Who is happy? Who is truly blessed in this life and beyond? Our text for today
reveals it all. Maybe you’ve been missing this happiness in your life lately.
Perhaps you've lost the sense of wonder and delight in God's Word, and the
things God's Word promises you. Maybe you're merely surviving in your
Christian life, rather than thriving. If so, then the First Psalm is definitely for
you. Do you want to be happy? Then let the Holy Spirit to revitalize your faith
this morning as we consider the theme,

HAPPY ARE THE RIGHTEOUS!

I. They avoid the ways of the ungodly.
II. They delight in the Word of the Lord.
III. They thrive where the Lord plants them.

Doesn’t it bother you when people skip to the back of a book and read the
ending ahead of time? It bothers me. But that’s what we have to do this
morning if we’re going to understand this text, because verse six holds the key
to the whole psalm. Verse six says, For the LORD knows the way of the
righteous, But the way of the ungodly shall perish.

If there’s one main point of this psalm, it’s to demonstrate how HAPPY ARE
THE RIGHTEOUS people. Which is all well and good, you may say, but who
do they mean by that? Who exactly are “the righteous?” Maybe you’re like me,
and you tend to mentally disqualify yourself whenever you hear something like
that. “Well, that happiness may be for others,” you say, “but not for sinners like
me. I certainly can’t consider myself a ‘righteous’ person!’” But my friends, the
wonderful news of the Gospel is that that’s not true! You ARE the righteous!
No, not on the basis of your record, and the feeble good works that you’ve been
able to do. The Bible says that “…all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags.”
No, you belong to that group of the “the righteous” on the basis of Jesus’
record. You see, your faith connects you to Jesus Christ. That means that the
blood he spilled on Golgotha’s hill has washed away all your sins. God looks at
your faith and He can see no more sin, He can see no more flaws or errors or
mistakes. All God can see when He looks at you is the pure white righteousness
of his Son Jesus Christ. If Jesus is your Savior, the Bible says, then God has
“…forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of
requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it
out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. – Col 2:13-14. By faith Jesus’
record, the record of perfect obedience to every commandment, becomes your
record. So I’d ask you to bear that happy truth in mind. When the Bible talks
about “the righteous,” it’s not talking about someone else. That means you.
When Scripture mentions “the saints,” “the elect of God,” “the royal
priesthood,” “a holy nation” – you’re the one they have in mind. By virtue of
your faith, all these names apply to you! You’re the righteous. And as the
psalmist points out, HAPPY ARE THE RIGHTEOUS!

Verse six says that the LORD knows the way of the righteous. And what is
“the way of the righteous?” It’s that narrow path that so few people in this
world find. It’s the same path of which Jesus spoke when he said, “Enter by the
narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction,
and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is
the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” – Mt 7:13-14. You
are among the happy few. Jesus directs you along the path, and in fact Jesus
Himself IS that path, as He said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one
comes to the Father except through Me.”

HAPPY ARE THE RIGHTEOUS. What is it that makes the righteous happy?
Well for one thing, they avoid the way of the ungodly. Or at least they ought to!
Our text says, Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful “Well,”
you may object, “we’re all sinners. What’s the difference?” The difference is
repentance. This passage is talking about unrepentant sinners. People for whom
godlessness is a way of life. Who continue in the same sins, week in and week
out, year after year, feeling no need for repentance and having no intention of
repenting. The Christian can only be happy by avoiding the way of the ungodly,
and unrepentant sinners.

You may have noticed a progression in this passage: walking, standing, sitting.
And that’s how sin so often starts, isn’t it – not as a point, but a progression.
You think, “Well, it won’t hurt that much if I go along with the ungodly. I’ll just
walk in their company for a bit and listen to their ideas. I can leave whenever I
want.” Pretty soon, though, they reach their destination and stop. And you stop
too – you linger for a moment in the pathways of the wicked, at the tavern, at
the inappropriate movie, at the raunchy website – you linger in places where
your conscience tells you a Christian has no right to be. And you think nothing
bad will happen, that you can escape in time, that there will be no
consequences. But as my old college professor once said, you can’t crawl
through a sewer without getting dirty. Many former believers have ended up by
sitting down and joining the ungodly. Perhaps never intending to do so, they’ve
ended up turning away from the Lord and joining the company of those who
have nothing but scorn for God and scorn His Word. My friends, this is a road
best not traveled at all. Don’t even start down it! The Bible says, Do not enter
the path of the wicked. And do not walk in the way of evil. – Pro 4:14.

British writer Mary Wollstonecraft once said, “No man chooses evil because it
is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness.” Sin is that way - it seems so pleasant
and attractive at first, as if it would bring great happiness, but in the end it
always so bitter and destructive. In contrast to this, the psalmist reveals where
the real happiness lies. HAPPY ARE THE RIGHTEOUS, he says. How much
happier you’ll be and how much heartache you’ll avoid, when you simply reject
the paths of the ungodly at the outset. For they “…are like the chaff which the
wind drives away. 5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, Nor
sinners in the congregation of the righteous.” John the Baptist gives a chilling
description of what Jesus will do to the chaff on Judgment Day: “I indeed
baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I
am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His
winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing
floor, and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with
unquenchable fire.” – Lk 13:16-17.

HAPPY ARE THE RIGHTEOUS, not least because – through faith in Christ –
they will escape that fiery judgment on the last day. But there’s another reason
for their happiness. It’s because they delight in the Word of the Lord. The text
speaks of the believer and says, his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in
His law he meditates day and night. By the way, the word “law” in this context
is not used in its narrow sense -- “law” as in the Ten Commandments, the Law
that condemns our sin. Nobody “delights” in that kind of Law. But here and
elsewhere in Scripture, the word “law” can also be used in a broad sense,
meaning the entire Word of God, both Law and Gospel. And in the Word of
God, you, the righteous, can take great delight!

Did you ever get a favorite song running through your head, a catchy melody
that stays with you all day long? That’s the flavor of the Hebrew word for
“meditate” in our text. The righteous delight in God’s Word so much that they
meditate on it day and night. To every situation the believer encounters, he
applies God’s Word. He finds himself mulling over a particular passage that has
special meaning in his life at that moment. If you don’t do this currently, why
not give it a try? Read a short section of your Bible first thing in the morning. I
use one of those 365-day Bibles that gives you a portion of the Old and New
Testament for each day of the year. Anyway, read your devotion and pick out
the passage that speaks to you, that says something to you about your life right
now. Then carry that with you, and meditate on that Word of God. Try to come
back to it frequently during the day, turning the thought over in your mind and
asking God to strengthen you through the power of His Word. If you’re
bothered by a particular sin in your past, for example, you might want to take
with you a passage like Isaiah 1:18, Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall
be as white as snow. Or I John 1:17, The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses
us from all sin. If you’ve got a big challenge in your life and you’re feeling
helpless and alone, you could take Hebrews 13:5, “I will never leave you, nor
forsake you,” or Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ, who
strengthens me.”

You may be surprised at how powerful an effect this can have on your life. You
might be surprised at how much happiness and delight you gain from this simple
thing (happy are the righteous!) And you might very well be surprised at how
far-reaching are the benefits when you meditate on God’s Word. Though none
of us should be surprised, of course, since that’s just what God promises when
he says, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall
meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is
written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will
have good success.” Josh 1:8.

Then you will have good success. And there’s another beautiful picture in our
text, one that makes this very point. It’s the picture of a thriving tree. HAPPY
ARE THE RIGHTEOUS, says the psalmist, because they thrive where the
Lord plants them.

Eight years ago, when we built the church, I was worried about the big maple
tree out here east of the parking lot. To excavate the holding pond we had to
carve the dirt out pretty close to the tree, and I thought it might kill it. I needn’t
have worried. Because whenever we get even a little rain, the runoff water of
course heads straight for the pond – and straight for the roots of that maple
tree! It’s no wonder the tree is thriving, taller and greener than it ever was
before. That’s the way you are, says the psalmist. That describes your life as a
Christian: He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings
forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he
does shall prosper.

What a happy lot is yours to be counted among the righteous, by faith in Christ!
To have a Savior who died for your sins and rose again for your justification.
What a happy lot is yours to have this promise that your life will be like a
thriving tree, a tree that never lacks nourishing water, that always brings forth
abundant fruit, whose foliage is always lush and green! The promise, in short,
that everything you do will prosper! And of course I’m not talking about
prosperity of the temporary, material kind, prosperity that’s here today and gone
whenever the stock market decides to take another nosedive. If I wanted to
preach that kind of prosperity, I’d apply for a job at one of those mega-churches
you see on TV. No, I’m talking about the real riches: sins forgiven, a quiet
conscience, membership in the kingdom of Christ and fellowship with all the
saints. The guarantee of perfect security in this life under the protecting hand of
your heavenly Father, and the promise of everlasting bliss with your Savior in
the life to come. O happy, HAPPY ARE THE RIGHTEOUS! In another
Psalm we read, The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree, He shall grow like a
cedar in Lebanon. 13 Those who are planted in the house of the LORD Shall
flourish in the courts of our God. 14 They shall still bear fruit in old age; They
shall be fresh and flourishing, 15 To declare that the LORD is upright; He is my
rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. – Ps 92:12-15.

When it comes to happiness, the world has probably as many definitions to
offer as there are people to offer them. Psychiatrist Thomas Szasz had an
interesting definition, he said, “Happiness is an imaginary condition. The living
think the dead have it. Children think adults have it and adults think children
have it.” But we Christians know a secret: happiness is not imaginary. And for
our purposes there’s only one definition that counts, the definition given us in
the Holy Scriptures. HAPPY ARE THE RIGHTEOUS! They avoid the way of
the ungodly, they delight in the Word of the Lord, and they thrive where the
Lord plants them. My prayer for you – you the saints of God, you the members
of the congregation of the righteous – my prayer for you is that you may have a
life filled with happiness. Not the shallow, temporary happiness of the world,
but the full, rich happiness that begins in this world and stretches into the
eternal world beyond. May God grant it, for Jesus’ sake, AMEN.