Psalm 1- A Blessed Life

Part 2- How do we lead a blessed life?

In part 1 of this series, we talked about what it means to be blessed. We said that being blessed doesn’t necessarily mean that we will be happy all the time, but that we have a deep fulfillment that only comes from God. Because we have this deep fulfillment that only God can give us, we remain content and satisfied with what we have in life. We can also deal with the suffering and trials that come our way as we lead our “blessed” life. We are blessed because we have God to turn to in our suffering and hard times. So….how do we stay blessed in the Lord?

Today, I want to focus on the rest of Psalm 1:1. It reads, “Blessed is the man (person) who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful;”. What is God trying to tell us in this verse through its writer? It is actually a warning to us. It also shows us the progressions of how sin can enter into our lives, and then grow and fester until we are dead spiritually. Just like we can become septic physically, and eventually die a physical death from whatever infectious toxin has entered our body, we can become septic spiritually from the toxicity of sin, and die a spiritual death. So how does this progression begin? Well, it all starts with who we choose to listen to. First, we are told to watch who we take advice or “counsel” from. It says that we are blessed, if we “walk not in the counsel of the ungodly”. (Psalms 1:1) If we need help in making difficult decisions, where should we turn? Of course, we know that we should turn to God through prayer and through His Word first and foremost. But…sometimes we need help discerning what God’s Word says. This is especially true when we are new Christians. And even mature Christians need godly advice from godly people during times of great distress. Stress can cause even the most faithful of people to not think clearly, and need the guidance of godly friends. Let’s go back to 2 Chronicles 10 and think about a young king named Rehoboam who had a choice to either listen to the wise counsel of “the elders who stood before his father Solomon while he still lived” , (2 Chron. 10:6) or listen to the unwise counsel of “the young men who had grown up with him” (2 Chron. 10:8). His decision caused the kingdom of Israel to eventually divide. After King Solomon’s death, Jeroboam, who had been a former official of the king, came with all of Israel and asked King Rehoboam to lighten the burdens that his father had put on them. (2 Chron. 10:3-4)  Rehoboam asked the elders who had counseled his father to advise him in this matter. They gave him great advice! They said, “If you are kind to these people, and please them, and speak good words to them, they will be your servants forever.” (2 Chron. 10:7) But did Rehoboam listen to them? No, he listened to his buddies who he grew up with, who were young and inexperienced just like he was. This is how King Rehoboam’s young naive friends told him to respond to the Israelites’ request, “My little finger shall be thicker than my father’s waist! And now, whereas my father put a heavy yoke on you, I will add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scourges!” (2 Chron. 10:10-11) Rehoboam didn’t really want the counsel of the elders. He was only going through the motions of asking the right people. He knew all along that he wasn’t going to take their advice. Rehoboam was on a power trip, and his friends were going along for the ride with him. Ten of the twelve tribes of Israel revolted against him causing the kingdom to be divided, with Jeroboam being crowned as king of those ten tribes. Rehoboam was king of the Israelites that remained in Judah. (2 Chron. 10:17) If only Rehoboam had listened to the good advice that was given to him. Things could have been much different for him. However, because of his unwillingness to listen to good advice, Rehoboam did not have a blessed life. He had a life of turmoil between the divided nation that he caused. However, all of this turmoil made no difference to God. He still carried out his plan to perfection in bringing us Jesus. God works everything out for His purpose for the good of all of us who are faithful to Him. (Romans 8:28) But we can learn a lesson from Rehoboam’s mistakes and not take bad advice from ungodly people. Let’s take the advice that lines up with what God wants us to do. Didn’t it sound like the elders who gave Rehoboam good advice were godly men? It certainly did to me! If the people from whom we are getting our advice are using God’s Word to advise us, then we should definitely heed their wise counsel. God always puts people in our path to help us if we will simply recognize them, and seek them out for help. Godly people giving us godly advice help us lead a blessed life. The word path brings me to my second point. What path are we on?

Let’s move on to the next part of the verse. It says we are blessed if we don’t “stand in the path of sinners”. (Psalms 1:1) In the above paragraph, I said that God will line our path with godly people who will give us good advice along the way. This only happens if we are on that righteous path. But….do we sometimes go off-road and get advice? Does this normally work out for us as Christians? Well….first of all, straying off the path of God for any reason at all never works out for us as Christians. It leaves us confused and lost. If we are seeking advice from someone off of God’s path, then we were probably beginning to get off the path to begin with, or toeing that line very closely. Proverbs 4:14-15 says, “Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of evil. Avoid it, do not travel on it; turn away from it and pass on.” This is a straightforward warning from God’s Word. It doesn’t get much plainer than that. Of course, staying on the right path includes seeking advice from the people who are on the right path along with us. Have you ever had a time in your life when you sought out and took advice from someone who was either not a Christian or not a faithful Christian? Why did you do it? I know why I did it. First of all, I already had one foot off the righteous path anyway. Plus, I did it because deep inside, I didn’t want to hear God’s advice through godly people. I wanted my actions to be justified. I wanted to do what I wanted to do, and I wanted someone to tell me that I was fine. And I heard what I wanted to hear from those folks, which was something like this…… “You are a good person, and that is all that matters. God loves you no matter what. What you are doing is no big deal. There are a lot worse things you could be doing. If you are happy, that is all that matters. You are not hurting anyone. God doesn’t expect you to be perfect. Nobody is perfect. You are just enjoying life. No worries friend.” Does any of that sound familiar to anyone else besides me? These are some words of advice that I have gotten in my lifetime when I was toeing that line, and listening to my friends who were not Christians or not faithful Christians. I need to also be honest and say that I have been the unwise counsel to some friends in the past. I said things like that to others which saddens my heart. I justified my friends’ sins with some of the very words above. You see….justifying their sin helped me justify mine. Do you see the progression of sin in a person’s life? First, the person listens to bad advice. Next he/she acts on the advice. And then eventually, the person who first listened to the bad advice, is the one giving more bad advice to someone else. It is a snowball effect. I ask you, did any of that advice above come from God’s Word? The only thing that lines up with God’s Word is that “God loves me no matter what”, because He certainly does. He loved me while I was yet a sinner. (Romans 5:8)  But does that mean He is going to let my willful sin slide? Romans 6:1 says, “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not!” God also knows that I am not perfect, but He expects me to strive for that perfection as best I can. Am I striving for perfection if I am involved in willful sin and trying to justify it? Sisters, you know the answer, even if you are in a place in your life where you don’t want to admit it. If that is the case, just know that I have been where you are….and I’m so thankful that I did a 180, turned back to God, and turned to some of my godly sisters in Christ to help me get back to where I needed to be. If you are where I was, then I’m here to tell you that you can make that turnaround anytime. As the Nike slogan says, “Just do it!” Don’t procrastinate what you know you need to do for your eternal soul. And remember…..anytime someone gives you advice, hold that advice up next to God’s Word and see if it matches up. If we want to lead a blessed life, we need to seek out godly advice from God’s Word and from godly people, and stay on the path that leads to an eternity in heaven with Jesus. Jesus gave us some good advice about what path to take in Matthew 7:13-14 when he said these words, “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.” I believe this verse speaks for itself, and needs no explanation.

What happens if you stay in the path of sinners? And you continue to take bad advice from ungodly people? And you continue to hang out with the wrong crowd? Friends, if you listen to the wrong people long enough, and stay on the wrong path long enough, you will eventually find yourself sitting in the “seat of the scornful”. (Psalm 1:1) At this point, you are far off the righteous path, and nowhere close to leading a blessed life. What does it mean to be scornful? To be scornful means to express extreme contempt. (vocabulary.com) Some synonyms that I have found for this word are: contemptuous, mocking, scoffing, and jeering. (Thesaurus.com) A scornful person is someone who makes fun of others for doing what is right according to God. They laugh at Christians for using God’s Word as a guide for their life. And they don’t do this in private! They do it openly, in public and on social media. They make fun of us for not going along with society’s norms. A scornful person may be very nice to start with….that is, until you say something that is opposite what they believe to be true. Then they will become arrogant, defiant, and hateful towards you. Many of these people are miserable, because of the life they are leading. They are usually negative, pessimistic, and cynical. They need Jesus. We need to pray for them to somehow be led to the truth. 

Specifically speaking, there are also people in other religious bodies who are scornful towards the church of Christ in particular, because we don’t compromise God’s word in any way. We don’t have musical instruments, because the New Testament church did not use them. It’s simple. We are told to sing, so we sing. (Colossians 3:16, Ephesians 5:19) Other religious bodies criticize us because we teach against having manmade musical instruments included in worship to God. We also don’t believe that a person is saved from their sins until they are buried with Christ in baptism. This goes against the norm of what other religious organizations teach. However, we have scriptures to back all of this up which include every conversion story in the book of Acts (11 total), but we are still ostracized for our stand on this subject. Some folks think it is ridiculous that our members are “baptized for the remission of sins” in order to “put on Christ”. (Acts 2:38) (Galatians 3:27) But not only do we believe what the apostles say in Acts about baptism, but we believe what Jesus said about baptism as well, not to mention that Jesus was baptized Himself. He did this as an example for us, not to wash any sins away since He had none to wash away. If Jesus was baptized and God was pleased, why wouldn’t we think it was necessary? Check out Matthew 28:18-20 and Mark 16:15-16 to find out Jesus’ words about baptism. If Jesus said for us to do it, then why would we argue with Him? So….if anyone reading this is not a member of the church of Christ, here is where we stand. We speak where the Bible speaks, and we are silent where the Bible is silent. We follow the Bible as closely as we possibly can without adding to it or taking away from it. (Revelation 22:18-19) We use book, chapter, and verse so that it is God who determines and authorizes everything that we do or don’t do in our worship to Him. And also…..when we share our faith with you, it is because God has told us in His Word that it is up to us to bear fruit for Him by spreading His message. We are His vessels. If we don’t stand up for the truth of the gospel, then we will be cut off from Jesus. (John 15:1-6)  Plus…..we love your soul, and want to help you learn the truth, and go to heaven. Don’t take chances. As Peter says in 2 Peter 2:10, “….make your calling and election sure…”, which means, make sure about your salvation. Make sure that you are saved. If anyone out there reading this needs help in understanding the truth, please reach out. I would love to help you or put you in contact with someone who can. Every word that I write in my posts is written out of love for souls. 

Now…..here is a question for myself and my sisters in Christ. It may be a tough one to think about. Can we be found being scornful towards others who don’t believe the way that we believe? I believe we can, and that is not ok either. You see…everything that we say and do has to be done in the spirit of love and kindness, but without compromising God’s Word. Sometimes it feels like we are walking a tightrope, doesn’t it? It certainly does, but remember….the path that Jesus told us to walk in Matthew 7:13-14 is a narrow one, maybe even as narrow as a tightrope sometimes. It is easy to be non-confrontational and just nod your head in agreement with everyone else, even when we know that what they are saying is wrong. We have all been there, and it is not easy to be the only one speaking the truth in a group of people. People may become obstinate and possibly scornful towards us in this type of setting. And then comes another challenge for us. We have to be careful not to cross the line, and become scornful in our response towards those people. It can be hard to keep our cool, can’t it? Another challenge for us is watching what we say about others who we either know or assume are lost. Do we ever make light of people who are lost? Maybe they look different or dress differently. They may look completely outlandish to us, and we can’t figure out why they would want to look so different. We must remember that we don’t walk in anyone’s shoes. We don’t know why people choose to do the things that they do to themselves. We don’t know what they have been through in their lives. Let’s remember to be kind, speak to all people that we come into contact with, and smile at those people. Just remember that God made them just like He made us, and He loves them just as much as He loves us. Remember God wants ALL to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9) We don’t need to stare at someone, and then look away when that person notices us staring at them. That is not how we would want to be treated. The reason that I bring this up is because I have caught myself doing this myself, and then scolded myself for being so rude and insensitive. I realized that I was breaking Jesus’ commandment for me to do unto others as I would have them do unto me. (Matthew 7:12, Luke 6:31) We certainly don’t want to find ourselves getting down on the same level with the scornful. If we have the attitude of a scornful person, we most definitely will not win anyone to Christ. In fact, we will instead turn them away from the truth, and that would be on us if we did. What a scary thought!

In conclusion, the progression in Psalm 1:1 is so clear. There are three verbs in the verse……walk, stand, and sit. First, we begin to walk close to ungodly people and places. Maybe we are curious about these people and places. We know that they are not Christian people, but they seem nice and fun to be around. We begin to listen to their mindset and way of thinking. We may think, “I can still be a Christian, and get to know them a little. It can’t hurt just to check it all out, right?” And I can almost guarantee that part of the reason that we are buying into this mindset, is because we are not in God’s Word the way that we need to be. Next, we stop and stand with these people, and realize the sin that they are in. But do we get away from them at that point? No, we continue to hang out with them sometimes. Eventually we begin to dabble in sin along with them. We may think, “It can’t hurt just to do this every now and then, right? It is really not that big of a deal.” Before we realize it, we are sitting with them, and they are our best friends. At that point, we are deep in sin, with scornful people who have no regard for God at all. This is how Satan uses people, places, activities, and basically anything that he can to lure us away from God. So what is the point? The point is….don’t even walk towards sin. Don’t be curious about it. Stay away from it. The truth is….if we are tempted to walk towards someone who is involved in something that we know is wrong, then we will probably be tempted to do what they are doing when we get there. If we fall to the temptation and continue in the sinful activity, then it will lead to our spiritual death and separation from God. I’m certain that Eve was probably curious about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and we can certainly see where her curiosity got her. You can see the progression from curiosity to sin in her story. We can see the sin progression in the story of David, Bathsheba, and Uriah. What started with David taking a closer look at Bathsheba as she bathed, turned into adultery and murder. There are also three descriptive words in the verse…..ungodly, sinners, and scornful. This is the progression of the types of people in our lives if we allow ourselves to be led in the wrong direction. We can never lead a blessed life with God while taking advice from people who do not have God in their life. This will only lead to the deterioration of our relationship with Jesus and our brothers and sisters in Christ. Let’s take the advice of the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 6:14 when he says, “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?” And let’s always remember that we are to be in the world, not of the world. (John 17:11, 14-15) The only reason that we should be walking towards the ungodly is to teach them the truth in love. If we have any desire in our hearts to be like them in any way, then we need to stay away so that we won’t be dragged down with them. So…let’s all stay on the path with people who help us lead a blessed life in Christ. And let’s help others to lead that blessed life in Christ. You’ve heard the saying, “She’s livin’ her best life!”. I want to live my best life with Jesus by my side. Don’t you? My best life is a blessed life in Him. 

Have you started your “blessed” life in Christ yet? If you need help understanding how to be saved, please reach out. I can help you or put you in contact with someone who can help you.

God’s Plan of Salvation

Below is the plan that God has set forth in His Word, for mankind to receive His grace that leads to salvation and an eternity with God in heaven. 

We have to hear His word. (Romans 10:17) 

Upon hearing the message of Jesus, we believe it. (Mark 16:16) 

Then, we confess Jesus’ name before men. (Matthew 10:32) 

Next, we repent of our sins. (Acts 2:38, Acts 3:19) 

Finally, we are baptized into Christ for the remission of our sins. (Acts 2:38, Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:16, Romans 6:3-4, Acts 22:16, 1 Corinthians 12:13, Galatians 3:26-27) After baptism, God adds us to His church. (Acts 2:47)

Then, we remain faithful in our commitment to Christ until death. (Revelation 2:10, 2 Peter 2:20-22)