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;
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
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. – Psalm 1:1-3
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
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. – Psalm 1:1-3
As I was praying this morning and pleading with the Lord
because I felt weak and weary, He showed me what it is that is sapping my
energy. Some of you are not going to like what I have to say this morning. However,
some of you will rejoice in it.
Rebuke a
wise man, and he will love you. – Proverbs 9:8
For the past year, I have repeated myself hundreds of times
and said only one thing over and over again:
Humble yourself and exalt Jesus.
Now, please understand that I must share in this rebuke,
because I am not perfect in this regard either. I have wandered off track at
times and pushed my own pride out in front of the will and glory of Jesus
Christ as well. As I write I am overwhelmed with my own guilt, but that does
not dismiss or lessen what needs to be declared. Here it is:
WE HAVE NO SUBSTANCE
What proof do I have of this? Go look at your social media
pages. What did you do yesterday? How about the day before that? What have you
done in the past week or month? How many people have you argued with, cursed,
belittled, accused, judged, been offended by, etc.? Over what statements or
subject matters have you been most focused? Are you being tossed from one
subject to another? Consider this:
“And then many will be offended, will betray one another,
and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and
deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow
cold.”
Does this sound anything like what is going on all over the
internet and news and with almost every interaction we are engaged? Some will
be surprised to learn that this is a statement from the mouth of Jesus. Most of
you will be surprised to learn where it comes from; Matthew 24:10-12. This is
the very chapter so many have been focusing on to argue their theories about
the return of Jesus, but do they ever discuss this passage? No. Why? Is it
because it is a reality that strikes a little too close to home?
What have you been arguing about on social media? Why are
you contending against others? Who are you lifting up when you do those things?
Are you lifting up yourself or lifting up Jesus? I can accuse you no more than
I can accuse myself. Even in rebuking and correcting false teachings and false
prophesies, I have, at times, gloried in myself and in my own wisdom; patting
myself on the back.
What does it mean to humble yourself and exalt Jesus?
In most cases, and this is going to be pretty blunt, it
means to shut up and listen. Shut up and listen can be said in another way…
Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted
in the earth! – Psalm 46:10
I will never forget the harsh tone of my grandfather
whenever we were trying to corral a bunch of cattle and my chattering and
carrying on was bound to spook them and mess up what we were trying to do. He
was normally pretty patient with my eagerness, but in those moments, he would
very sharply say, “Be still!” Consequently, when I read the above passage, I hear that same rebuke.
In our eagerness to defend our beliefs, our principles and
even our faith we have come to a point of chattering rather than being still
and listening. We put a high volume of stuff out there, but how much of it has
any substance to it? This is where I want to return to the scripture passage
that headed this post. I want to start off with the phrase, “Blessed is the
man.”
For a very long time, about 40 years, I believed that this
was a statement of reward for whomever fulfilled whatever came after it like:
Blessed is he who mourns, for he shall be comforted.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the
sons of God.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of
God.
And then I came to another passage that was different:
Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.
This was said of Jesus as He entered into Jerusalem riding
on the colt of a donkey. Wait! Wasn’t He already blessed before He came? He
most certainly was. He never stopped being blessed. So, how could, “blessed is
He,” mean a reward for something that He did? What if that phrase means… “He
who is already blessed…” When I tried it out in that form, a whole new
understanding of scripture opened up to me. Let’s look at the passages again.
The man who is already blessed will mourn, but he will also
be comforted.
The man who is already blessed will be a peacemaker and will
be called the son of God.
The man who is already blessed will be poor in spirit, but
will inherit the Kingdom of God.
I challenge you to read the fifth chapter of Matthew in this
manner. It is extremely enlightening what Jesus promises to the regenerate or “blessed
man,” not as a reward for what he does, but as something those who abide in
Jesus already have the potential of becoming. It really hits home when we come
back to Psalm 1. Paraphrased it says:
The man who is already blessed will not walk in the counsel
of the wicked, will not stand in the path of sinners, will not sit in the seat
of scoffers, but he will delight in the law of the Lord and will meditate on it
day and night…
A person filled with the Holy Spirit, a "blessed" person, will
follow after these things. These things will shape his or her attitudes. These
things are attributes of the new person you became in Jesus when the Holy
Spirit entered you and caused you to become a new creation.
This is who you really are!
I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill
the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the
Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do
not do the things that you wish. – Galatians 5:16-17
Brothers and sisters, we are chasing after things that do
not matter. We are arguing beliefs and principles, and we are contending
against each other and against others over things that should be, to use Paul’s
own language, “counted as rubbish (Philippians 3:8).”
We dash about whipping up
memes, liking or sharing ones we agree with, passages of scripture and quotes
from great theologians or not so great theologians. We pass along things that
sound good, but are not really true. Most of the time, we aren’t even reading
what we are arguing against or passing along! We pass along prayers and songs
and stories about supposed miracles and… sigh… blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Are we not weary of these things? Are we not burdened and overwhelmed? Are we
not weighing ourselves down so much that we are completely ineffective? Read it
again:
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;
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
Are we? Is what we are doing the whole substance of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ and the righteousness of our Lord? Do we meditate on the
Lord, His law and His righteousness even for a moment, let alone day and night? Keep these things in mind as we read the
last part. The blessed man:
…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.
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.
Is that your life? Are you a firmly planted tree beside a
river of water that brings forth fruit? How often does your leaf wither? Are
you built up in Jesus? I switched the tense, not because I’m not included, but
in order to make these questions more personal to you. Do the things that you
do prosper? I’m not talking about money, health, success, etc. Do the things
that you say and do have true substance and redemptive value in them? Does anyone prosper from
what you say and do, including yourself? Are you humbling yourself and exalting
Jesus in your place?
A "blessed man" will do these things when he walks in the
Spirit rather than in the flesh. I am heavily convicted by Romans 8:13,
especially when I read it in the King James Version:
For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
Mortify the flesh. Kill it! Do not continue to allow the
desires of your flesh to grow alongside the new creation you have become in the Spirit. Walk in the Spirit! Be a tree planted beside rivers of water. Bear
fruit! That is what your new life is meant to do and be!
Let me finish with a story I heard. I do not know the
veracity of this, but the imagery is certainly something to awaken your
understanding. It is said that in Tarsus, the place from which Paul haled,
there was a particularly firm punishment for murderers. Allegedly, the person
who was murdered was tied to the back of the murderer and left there. As the
corpse upon the murderer’s back began to rot, it would, of course, begin to rot
the flesh of the living person as well. In this way, the murderer would slowly
die for his offense.
If this story is true, then you certainly understand Paul’s
urgency for you to live and walk in the Spirit rather than walking around with
rotting flesh tied to your back. Jesus Christ bore your sins for you on the
cross. He made it possible for you to have new life. He sent His Spirit to fill
you and make you into a new creation which is suited for the Kingdom of Heaven.
He tossed that dead, rotting corpse off of your back. How much longer do you
intend to put it back on there and carry it around?
Brother or sister, your lack of substance is killing you!
Humble yourself and exalt Jesus who is your substance!
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