2004-12-05 - The Blessed One

Psalm 1, Part 3

The one who seeks after God is called blessed or happy. This is the same adjective the Lord uses in the “Sermon On The Mount,” when He describes the condition of those whose goal is relationship with God. True happiness, joy, etc. come only from being in the Lord’s will, not from circumstances meeting our expectations. We cannot demand our comfort comes from things going our way, but we will be blessed by following God’s way.

We know the righteous are blessed because of the quality and focus of their life. First the Psalmist notes what the individual doesn’t do. What we have here may be the progression of sin. First, the believer doesn’t walk in the counsel of the wicked. He doesn’t go to the unbeliever for input, because it is tainted and can lead away from the Lord. Why can’t we go to them for advice? Dr McGee puts it this way, “Who are the ungodly? They are the people who just leave God out. There is no fear of God before their eyes. They live as though God does not exist.” ²

How can we go to the unbeliever for advice in an area which affects our walk, when we know they will leave the Lord out of the equation? Why are we so prone to get “professional help” to direct us in our lives, when their basic assumptions are in direct contradiction to the teachings of the Word?^* So the righteous don’t take counsel from the unrighteous.

The next thing the blessed one doesn’t do is to stand with the sinner. The downward spiral starts with taking advice from the unbeliever. Then as a result, the lifestyle soon becomes aligned with the sinner. To stand is to condone and to practice a similar mode of living. The sinner is one who misses the mark, who lives in a way that falls short of God’s practice. We are called to hit the mark – so happy is the one who doesn’t identify with the sinner. One of the difficulties with living in an “open society” is that it is too easy to become identified with the world around us. It takes a major effort of dependency on the Holy Spirit, to live separately from the world. “…Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2).

And if somebody takes advice from the unrighteous, then soon he is identified with that life. Finally, having identified with this way of life, he makes himself comfortable in it. He ends up sitting in the seat of the scornful or scoffers. This is the assembly which rejects God’s law, individuals who have turned their backs on all He has to say. It is obvious one can only be blessed by being separate from this group. So the righteous person is the one who doesn’t go down this path, or as one of the Jewish sages put it regarding the righteous one, “ Because he did not even walk (on the evil path), he did not pause. And because he did not pause, he did not sit.” ³

Let us not fall in a trap, for too often Christians want to be identified by what they don’t do.

² McGee, J. Vernon, Thru the Bible with J. Vernon McGee, Thomas Nelson, Inc., 1982, Vol. II, pg. 661.
³ Feuer, Rabbi Avrohom Chaim, Tehillim, Vol. 1, Mesorah Publications, Ltd., 1987.

^* Please note. Webservants ministries supports appropriate professional counseling and encourages it when it would be edifying.

Comments or Questions,
Geoff

GKragen@aol.com
http://www.cfdevotionals.org