March 21, 2023 -- Psalm 1:3-6 -- Psalm Series: The Righteous and the Wicked and God's blessing

People loved by the Father, by the Spirit's power: Sh'ma ~ hear and obey Jesus!

He is like a tree
    planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
    and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
4 The wicked are not so,
    but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

5 Therefore the wicked will 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 wicked will perish.
Psalm 1:3-6 ESV

What is a Christian like? He is the man who drinks living water. Jesus promised in John 4 that His salvation is like living water that wells up in the believer unto eternal life. Jesus is the soul’s refreshment. Jesus is life’s fruitfulness. The prosperity of the believer is not an earthly prosperity, though God in His good pleasure may give that to some, it is security of belonging to God through Christ by the power of the Spirit.

Inevitably people ask if their neighbour who is kind, who is always shoveling the driveway of the widow and doing this for free and fixing things for others out of the kindness of his heart, isn’t he going to receive some consideration from the Lord? Won’t God be pleased with such things?

The wicked are those whose heart’s orientation is away from Christ. The greatest good any man or woman or child can perform is believing in Jesus Christ and through the power of His Spirit serving the Father Who sent Jesus. Anything less than this is wickedness. So a man who seems, by all appearances, to be one who does good deeds and is kind outwardly, does so drawing breath using the lungs God gave him. He is helping others using the skills God placed on him. He is spending time and money which God put at his disposal—and yet he spits in the face of God denying all these and countless other blessings.

The way of the righteous is known to God. This is the intimate knowledge of a husband who knows his wife. This is the intimate knowledge of the Creator Who hems His people in, before and behind and even their thoughts are familiar to Him. He knows us best and worst and for us He has given Jesus Christ, the reason why the Father has chosen to bless us, and to guard us in the way of blessing by His Spirit’s presence. This Psalm should prompt us to greater and bolder acts of evangelism because in it we see how we are filled and surrounded by the goodness of God.

Father of all blessedness and joy, great is Your Name and glorious Your salvation given in Jesus Christ. Thank You for the Living Water which wells up in us to eternal life, that soul-refreshment given by the grace of Jesus through Whom we are named children of the Most High God. Father in heaven deepen our understanding of Who You Are, give us whole-hearted, humble joy in knowing that You, Who inhabits the all the heavens, You also live in the heart of the humble. Fueled with such glorious understanding, move us to speak Your glory and praise to all whom we meet. Amen.

https://youtu.be/4iEgs0WKR-c Anthem Lights — Hymn Mash-up Part 1

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