Psalm 1- A Blessed Life- Part 5

Am I the tree or the chaff?

God, through the writer of this Psalm, makes an absolutely beautiful analogy of what a blessed woman’s life will be like as she follows Jesus. On the flip side, the writer also describes the life of a woman who is ungodly and does not follow Jesus. The top picture attached to this article represents the peace and tranquility of living a blessed life in Jesus. In contrast, take note of the bottom picture which represents the person who is either outside of Christ or is a Christian, but is not living faithful to Him……Need I say more? Look at the difference. 

“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. The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish.” (Psalm 1:3-6)

Today, as I write, I feel like writing in the first person to make it personal for me. If you read it in this way, you can make it personal for you as well. So here goes. The Psalmist says that if I am delighting in and meditating on God’s Word (Psalm 1:2), then I am like “a tree planted by the rivers of water”. (Psalm 1:3) If I am that tree that is planted beside or close to a river, then I am going to have an unending supply of water to nourish my roots for as long as that river flows. My strong roots will grow, causing my trunk and branches to grow and become sturdy and immovable even in the worst of storms. I will be able to withstand the heat of the sun, because of the waters of the river that continuously flow into the soil around my roots keeping me hydrated. When I became a Christian, I was planted with Christ in baptism. When I came up out of the waters of baptism, I was a new person in Christ. At that point, I was a babe in Christ. In the analogy of the tree, I was a seedling at that point. As a seedling, I need the water from the river to flow into my roots so that I can grow. I also need just the right amount of sunlight. That water allows me to get the right amount of sunshine without too much heat from the sun to damage me and stunt my growth. As a Christian, God’s Word is the flowing water of the river that will nourish my roots in Christ. Like Jesus told the woman at the well, he said that he could give her “living water”. Just as a young tree cannot survive without water, a babe in Christ cannot survive without the living water that is God’s Word flowing into her heart and mind. What happens as I grow as a Christian?

What happens to the “tree that is planted by the rivers of water”? The Psalmist says that it “brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.” (Psalm 1:3) Eventually, because I am getting the continual water from the river, I begin to grow stronger and bear the fruit that is synonymous with the type of tree that I am. If I am an apple tree, I will produce apples. The process is the same for the new Christian. If I continue allowing God’s Word to root and ground me, I will never wither, or become barren, and I will continually bear fruit for God. The verse says that whatever I do as a Christian will prosper. Is this talking about material or worldly prosperity? No, it is talking about spiritual blessings. It is talking about God’s kingdom, the church, prospering with new growth. A Christian prospers by bearing fruit for God, and in turn, the church also prospers. So…..I will prosper as a fruit-bearer for God. As a Christian, spiritual prosperity should be more important to me than earthly prosperity. If I am a Christian, I should be involved in producing other Christians through the spreading of the gospel. Like Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3:6, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.” Paul is saying that He was the first to introduce the gospel to Corinth by planting the seed, then Apollos came and taught them in a more in-depth way by “watering” what Paul had already planted. But they both had a hand in helping the Corinthians learn the gospel. But…..Sisters, let’s never forget who gets the increase! Who gets all the credit when we help someone learn the gospel? God does! Why? Because it is God’s message. We are only His vessels. The greatest so-called preacher in the world is nothing if he isn’t preaching the whole truth. As a Christian, if I am truly listening to God through His Word….His Living Water, then I should want to share it with others. I should want my family and friends to know about Jesus. We tend to talk about what we love most, right? Our families? Our children? Our vacation? Our favorite sports teams? Our hobbies? Where does Jesus fall into our everyday conversations? Do we love Him enough to talk about Him? Do we love others enough to talk about Him to them? 

What happens if I am a tree that is not watered properly? What if I become a Christian, but do not water my roots with the word of God? As a tree, without water, I will remain a seedling with shallow roots. Without strong, deep roots, I will be uprooted by a storm, or I will be burned up by the heat from the sun from lack of hydration. It is the same situation in my Christian life. I must have God’s Word which is the water of life. Without it, I will not grow as a Christian, and I won’t be able to withstand the storms of life that Satan throws at me. Without it, I won’t be rooted and grounded in Christ. I will be sort of like the seed that was sown on stony ground that had shallow roots. (Matthew 13:5-6, 20-21) Without God’s Word, I will grow discouraged with life. Every bad thing that happens will get me down, and eventually I’ll just give up. I’ll start to grow bitter about things that I have no control over. That bitterness will destroy me in the same way that the sun’s heat can destroy the young seedling. Without God’s Word, I am more susceptible to temptations, and easily drawn into sin. Just like the seed that is sown on thorny ground is choked out by the thorns and has no room to grow, God’s Word is choked out of my life by sin, and has no room in my heart to grow. (Matthew 13:7, 22) Without God’s Word to ground me, I will not remain in a blessed state for very long, will I? What happens to me when I am not truly grounded in God’s Word?

Then comes the flipside of the blessed person, “The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.” (Psalm 1:4-5) What is chaff? According to bibleref.com, “chaff refers to the husks of grain that are tossed into the wind and blown away in the winnowing process. Just as chaff is worthless, the ungodly lifestyle is worthless in God’s sight.” If I am a woman who does not know Jesus or has fallen away from Jesus, then I am like chaff. If I am not a Christian or if I’m not a faithful Christian, I am like chaff. I am blown from one sin to the next, and one heartache to the next. I am always looking to the world for answers, but sadly, I never find them. I will forever be searching…..never finding the answers I truly need. I have no true joy. I have a void that I may try to fill with material things such as substances (alcohol and drugs), food, entertainment, a job, or man-made religious doctrines. I try to fill the void with my family, but even that doesn’t fill it. I am “tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting….” (Ephesians 4:14). In this verse, Paul was warning the Christians at Ephesus, as well as us today, not to be gullible and “tossed” around in this way. This is how my life could become “like the chaff”. If I am still “like the chaff” when I pass from this life, then I won’t be able to “stand in the judgment” . (Psalm 1:4-5)  Jesus will not be able to mediate between myself and God, because I did not follow Him. I will not have a case to plead before God at that moment. There will be no defense on my part. I will be without excuse. I will be alone…without a Savior. I will have no other opportunity to follow Jesus at this point. No second chances. No do-overs. Is this scary to any of us? I have to say that writing this in the first person is super impactful for me. The thought of this actually being one of my loved ones or myself……or anyone for that matter……is terrifying. Sisters and friends, let’s make any changes that we need to make so that we are not “like the chaff”. Let’s “be even more diligent to make our calling and election sure”. (2 Peter 1:10) Whether you need to become a Christian or rededicate your life to Christ, I encourage you to not put it off. And…..let’s not let the world deceive us into thinking that God is going to tolerate willful sin on judgment day. Psalm 1:5 says that “sinners” will not stand “in the congregation of the righteous.” I can’t live a sinful lifestyle or leave sin unchecked and expect Jesus to provide intercession for me with God. I can’t stand with the righteous on judgment day if I am not counted among them. And I can’t ride the coattails of the Lord’s church into heaven by being a member in name only, if I don’t live a faithful life and have His kingdom first in my life. 

So what does all this mean in conclusion? “For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish.” (Psalm 1:6)  God knows His people. He knows us if we are trying to live a righteous life. He knows our hearts. He watches over us, and knows what is going on in our lives. He is with us in good times and in bad, in joy and in sorrowing, in health and in suffering. We have nothing to fear in this life, because we know where we will be when we leave this life. We will be with our amazing Creator and Father for eternity. Of course, if we follow the path of the ungodly, what will happen? If we follow what men say instead of following God’s Word, what will happen? If we follow what the world thinks is right, what will happen to us? The Bible is clear….we will perish. Ask yourself, “What do I want my life here on earth to be like? Where do I want to be when this life is over?” The answers are most definitely related. We teach our kids that in order for good things to happen, we must make good and wise decisions. Have you made Jesus your choice in this life? Are you walking in His footprints? For myself, in regards to this beautiful chapter, I want to be that tree that is planted by the rivers of water. I want to bring forth fruit for God. I want my roots to run deep in God’s Word. Storms have uprooted me in the past, because of shallow roots. I wasn’t keeping myself hydrated with God’s Word. I wasn’t involved and invested in the Lord’s church the way that I needed to be. But….I changed. It started small. I simply began to open God’s Word more and pray more. Then, I began to study and dig deeper to understand God’s plan for me. I also began to get more involved in the work of the church. Finally, I was compelled to write about God’s Word. And eventually, I was encouraged to put my writing out there for others to read. But…am I finished growing? It all started with the realization that I had to be “all in” for Christ, and then I took that first step towards making that happen. It didn’t happen all at once. It is a process, and it is different for everyone. And I still have a ton of growing left to do. I will never be finished growing. I can’t ever be satisfied, and say that I am doing enough. Nothing will ever be enough. Let’s face it …in the past, I was a Christian….but I was still “like the chaff” for a long time. Why? Because I wasn’t “all in”. Sisters and friends, being a Christian is an “all in” decision. And ladies, believe me….I know that we can’t be perfect. There is no   possible way that we can. If that were possible, then Jesus wouldn’t have had to die for us. I speak for myself in particular, because I know that I make mistakes and sin on a daily basis. We all have different weaknesses….some are harder to deal with than others. However, there are things that I can say with confidence that I can strive for in this life. I can strive to be fully committed to God’s purpose for me. I can strive to be fully committed to following God’s Word without compromise in a world that compromises it continually. I can strive to be fully committed to Christ’s church when there are tens of thousands of different types of churches following different doctrines that are not found in the Bible. All of that is possible, ladies. God never asks us to do something impossible. Our Father in Heaven has never asked us to be perfect. He has only asked us to strive for perfection, and be committed to Him and His purpose for us, which is to save souls. He wants us to love Him, love others, and continually acknowledge His glory and majesty as our Creator and God. Nothing in this life will matter when we see Him face to face, and He says to us, “well done good and faithful servant…..enter into the joy of your Lord”. (Matthew 25:21)  Sisters and friends, let’s not let anything keep us from hearing this someday.  Love you all.

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)

Source

biblegateway.com

bibleref.com