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4501 Waller Road, Tacoma Worship 10:00 a.m Phone (253) 922-8736 |
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. |