Who Are You Listening To? (Psalm 1)

Rev. Joe Dentici

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

So in the spring of twenty fifteen, so eleven years ago, I had a three-year-old daughter who went missing. It was big, big drama in our house. I used to be a campus minister at Penn State, and we had a bunch of students over for an end-of-the-year party, and everyone was leaving, and in the course of two minutes, everyone was gone from our house, and then I couldn't find my daughter. And my wife couldn't find my daughter. And so at first it's funny, ha ha, she's hiding. And then there's a sort of onset of panic that begins to increase, increase, and and it's it's just it's a quick curve. And so about ten minutes into not being able to find her, Melissa is on the she's on the verge of completely coming undone. And what does that mean? Well, she's out in the streets screaming, somebody help me find my baby. And many someones came. Neighbors that we hadn't met yet came and were looking for uh our daughter. Uh someone actually came up with this dingy old hat that had been like laying in the ground for on the ground for who knows how long. Is this her hat? No, it's not helping either. We called the cops. The cops are looking everywhere. Neighbors are now scouring through our house, and eventually, a neighbor found our three-year-old daughter at the foot of our bed wrapped in a quilt, laughing. She thought it was so, so funny. And to add insult to injury, that evening I was giving her a bath and she's got her Barbies in the tub, and she starts to put within the mouth of this Bobby, this Barbie, somebody help me find my child! Well, somebody help me find my child. I tell you that because all of us know all too well, on some level, what it feels like to hide from our Maker. That all of us know in our hearts what it feels like to not want to be seen, to not listen to his word. And yet the story of the Bible, from beginning to end, from Genesis 3 to the very end, is that the God who made us is a God who comes looking for us. That even in the garden, you hear God saying, Where are you? Not because he doesn't know, but because God is a God who seeks out for his people. In fact, we heard a few weeks ago Jesus say, I came to seek and to save the lost. This summer, we're going to take a break from the Gospel of Mark for a little bit. We're going to come back to it in the fall. But for the next seven weeks, we're going to look at different Psalms, and then we're going to look at Jonah for five weeks. And as we go through the Psalms, we look at different genres, different promises, different attitudes and emotions that we can return to God with, and promises that we can return to God in. And so as we look at Psalm chapter 1 this morning, we have sort of an intro to the whole book. And here we find a God who draws near, not only that we might hear him, not only that we might believe him, but that he might change us as he draws us to himself forever. So let me read this and pray and ask for God's help. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. 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. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will 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 wicked will perish.

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The word of the Lord. Let's pray and ask for God's help.

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Father, we thank you that your word tells us that you bless people like us. And so we ask that you would. We ask that you would dig out for us ears to hear, that you would give us eyes to see Jesus. And we ask that he might change us this morning, even in small ways, by his Spirit. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Alright, so my outline this morning, I've got three points, and each one is a little bit shorter than the one before it. So if the first one kind of drags a little bit, don't get too scared. Everyone is listening, everyone is dependent. Everyone is accountable. Everyone is listening. Everyone is dependent, and everyone is accountable. So everyone is listening. What does that mean? Everyone is listening to someone. There's no one, none of us, who never listens to anyone. As I said, we got in here this morning that we're all trying to make sense of this world. We're all trying to make the most sense of our life. We're looking for meaning. We're looking for happiness. We're looking for blessing. We're all listening to voices in our pursuit of that. And verse 1 says, Blessed is the man, the human, the man or woman who walks not in the counsel of the wicked. And I don't know Hebrew. Took some Hebrew classes a long time ago, but commentators who are way smarter than me note that there's probably almost a poetic sense when it says, blessed is the man, that it's almost like, oh, the blessingness. Oh, the happiness. And blessing and happiness are very similar here. Not a shallow happiness, but a deep abiding happiness in the God who has made us. Oh, the happiness. You see, what we find is that God's word, God Himself, is the one who offers blessing and happiness to the people who were made in his image. True blessing, deep happiness, and yet there are rival voices that tell us there are other ways to get it. There are other ways to find it. Already we're reminded of the New Testament reading we had, the gospel reading where Jesus goes through the Beatitudes, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And it's not a prescription, here's how to become blessed. He's saying, if you want to know what it means to be blessed, blessed are those who are poor in spirit. The psalmist is doing the same thing. He's not saying, here's the recipe. You want to find blessing? He's not saying that. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked. Blessed is the one who knows the true and abiding words, who knows the voice of blessing, as opposed to counterfeit voices. Blessed is the one who's not led astray from God. And so, right off the bat, we have some binary language. Those who are blessed, and those whom the psalmist calls wicked. So there's a binary language, but as we go through, we'll see there's some layers to this, there's some nuance to this. There's a council that corresponds to both lifestyles, and the psalmist is pleading, listen to the voice of the Lord. One of the biggest claims of Christianity is that the God who made all things, that that God is a speaking God, and that we can know his voice. And so if you would call yourself a Christian, the right answer, if somebody would ever say, has God ever spoken to you? What a strange question. But the answer is with a resounding yes. Every time we open his word and we read it, the God who made heaven and earth is speaking to us. It's an astounding claim. It's a remarkable claim. It's a powerful claim. The God who made everything has spoken to us. And not only that, his word begins to shape us as we hear it in faith. And you might not be convinced by this claim that we're all listening to voices. You might, you know, there have been times in my life when I would say, I don't listen to anybody. I make up my own mind. I think for myself. I'm an independent thinker. I'm not listening to voices. I'm evaluating and I'm making my own decisions. But we are all listening to someone. That there are some voices that we say, that makes sense. When they open their mouths and they speak about their experience, that resonates with me, and I want to live like that. We all find voices that we resonate with. We all find voices and say, that is reasonable. That makes sense. My life will go better if I think like that. And the psalmist is saying, of course, we're all being shaped by voices. Listen to the voice of the Lord. He says, You're blessed. If you don't walk in the counsel of the wicked, if you don't stand in the way of sinners, if you don't sit in the seat of scoffers, walking, standing, sitting. What he's saying is there is a counsel, there is a way of thinking that doesn't just inform how you think, it informs how you live. That all of us are not just listening to voices, all of us are being shaped by voices. And he says, Blessed are those who are not shaped by the wrong voices, but are instead being shaped by the right voice. The psalmist says we're all listening to those who have a vision for life that makes sense. And he says, I'm telling you that there are some voices that may seem to make sense and they will lead you to a path of destruction. But there are competing voices. Well, who are the wicked? What do they look like? You know, we're not looking for fangs. We're not looking for horns. Uh it's it's far more subtle than we think. And I think so often talking heads want to talk about competing voices, and we we demonize one another as if to say that everyone, you know, if you think this way, then there's no good thing that can come out of your mouth. The wickedness that the psalmist is talking about is far more subtle than that. And I think the first time I really kind of came to grips with this idea, I'm a child of the 80s, and if you some of you will remember the 80s was, you know, the war against drugs, right? And what I was taught explicitly over and over again, there are images that I saw as that there are going to be men in trench coats and hats and glasses standing by seedy alleys, and they are going to do their best to push their free drugs upon you. That they're take it, take it, take it. I mean, I was scared of this man in a trench coat, and then I realized when I was about 15 or so, and I was like, oh, no, the people that sell drugs are in my math class. I've laughed at their jokes. I enjoy some of the things they have to say. That what I'm looking for is far more subtle than maybe what has been portrayed as the enemy. So it is that when the psalmist says, Blessed are those who do not listen to the counsel of sinners, he's not saying, look out for the pitchforks, look out for the fangs. Deceptive words that draw us in are deceptive. Sometimes it's hard to recognize them for what they are. One of my favorite TV shows ever is Seinfeld. Um, I've realized my love for it renewed not too long ago. My dentist has a Netflix account and he says, What do you want to watch? And the person before me had been watching Seinfeld. Yeah, I'll do that. So every time I go to the dentist, I watch Seinfeld. If I'm ever sort of bored, I'll turn on some Seinfeld. It's funny. I love it. These characters, the whole point is the four main characters are terrible, terrible people. And it's easy to kind of miss that point. They're terrible. What they do in their world, they're not listening to God, and yet they have voices. They listen to voices. How do we make sense of the world? There's rules that you live by. And if you break those rules, you will be judged for them harshly. If you double dip that chip, you will be called to the carpet right then and there and judged. There are appropriate ways to talk to people, but if you're a soft talker, if you're a close talker, if you're a high talker, you will be excommunicated immediately. You cannot be our friends. It's the whole point of the show. They're terrible, terrible people. And here's what I'm getting at. If you were to actually be able to begin to hang out with these four fictional people, right? It's an absurd sort of thought exercise. But if you could, if you could befriend these people, what the psalmist is saying, you need to have your wits about you to understand that there is a voice, there is a way of living that would draw you in. This isn't saying don't watch Seinfeld. This isn't saying don't be around people who act like them, but recognize the voice for what it is. Because I can't recall a single time over the course of that whole show when anyone ever forgave anyone. When anyone ever leaned in towards mercy or grace. And instead, what happens is you become more and more rigid about your own rules, it makes you more and more self-righteous. You cannot love God or your neighbor. The counsel of the wicked is far more deceptive than looking for somebody who's got a t-shirt on that says, I am wicked. And it's not just out there. That voice comes from within as well. There are voices not just out there. That would be far too easy. The voices sometimes come from in here. We also know that there are other voices that whisper in our ear from other realms. The psalmist is asking: do you have the awareness to understand that there are competing voices that are not just trying to shape how you think, they're trying to shape how you engage in life in this world. They're trying to form you. And so maybe it's Seinfeld. Maybe it's a talking head on cable news. Or a social influencer on social media that our algorithm keeps putting on our feed. Do you know what it feels like to listen to somebody and like, oh, I've never. Maybe it is as bad as they say. Maybe that person is. We are formed and we are shaped by what is coming in. And the psalmist is saying, do you have the awareness to know the voices are there? And not just there actively trying to shape you into someone. When you were created to be shaped by the voice of the one who made you, it is his image that you were made in, and he is seeking to renew that image in you by speaking words of grace and mercy. Another way to think about this is who are the people in your life that you have access to on some level that you greatly admire, that you want to listen to, whose opinion really matters, and what is it about their life that you really want? Is it depth of character? Or is it being able to impress others by the ways that they speak? Is it how deep their their pockets seem to be? Is it their command of a certain knowledge? What is it about this person or this group of people that is so attractive? Why are we drawn to them? And how do they talk about their enemies? Do they scoff and mock those who do not think like them? Do they treat them with dignity? I mean, one of the heaviest things that I find on my algorithm is sometimes it's people who talk as Christians who can scoff the hardest, mock the loudest. This is not the way. So everyone is listening. Whose voice are we listening to? The psalmist goes on Blessed is the person whose delight is the law of the Lord, and meditates on it day and night. We can get into moralistic waters here real quick. I want to avoid that. And so let's think about the word delight real quick. The psalmist again, he's not saying, so start delighting in the Lord. Manufacture some feelings about the law of the Lord, and you will be okay. If you can do this, then God will love you and he will bless you. He's describing the blessed person much like Jesus does. They are blessed because they are poor in spirit. He is blessed because he delights in the law of the Lord. He meditates on it day and night. He's not describing the world's longest quiet time. He's not saying he read the Bible for 12 hours today. It's not just taking in knowledge. That's not what he's saying. To delight in God's word. We've already seen what delight looks like in another way. You walk in it, you stand in it, you sit in it. To meditate. Next week we're looking at Psalm 2, and he says, Why do the nations rage and plot in vain? That word plot and this word meditate, it's the exact same word. Your mind churns on it. He's not talking about how long physically did you read this thing. He's saying, Does it stick with you? Do you ponder it? Do you consider what does it look like in my life to be shaped by it? We're all plotting. We're all meditating on some word, and the psalmist is saying, there's a better word. Can you see that? Can you hear that? When you come to believe that God's word is the most reliable way to navigate this world, that God's word is the most reliable way to make sense of who we are as humans and what it looks like to live a human life, we're starting to delight in this word. Come to believe that there is one ultimate trustworthy voice by which we measure all other voices. We start to understand that there is a God out there who rewards those who seek Him. That we start to understand that we are in deep need of mercy and grace, and not just a list of rules to try and conjure up favor with God. We need a gracious word. We don't need more how-to's. I mean, think about your closest relationships. You may not delight in that person all the time, but what is the trajectory of your relationship with them like? If you want to delight in God's word, you have to know that it in it, it is talking about how God delights in you. You can only delight in someone who delights in you. This is the great difference between God's word to us and so many other words that are just telling us how to conform and how to do and say and think the right thing. And God's word is concerned about what we do and say and think, but behind it all is a word that says, I delight in you. Okay, so everyone is listening. Everyone is also dependent. Verse 3. He says, The one who is blessed, the one who delights in God's word, they are like A tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither, and all he does, he prospers. You know, it's helpful to know we know this, but it's helpful to be reminded this was not written about lush greenwill, where trees seem to do just fine wherever they are planted. This is written in a dry climate, where a tree that was not planted by streams of water might flourish for a season, in a rainy season, maybe. But when it gets dry, you look at it and say, look at those leaves. That tree needs water, it's dying. And here's the point. As trees are dependent upon water, so are we dependent upon our Maker. We read this line from Acts 17 in the prayers of the people, that in God we live and move and have our being. We are dependent upon Him for everything. And even those of us who rail against God and scream against God, we do so with the very breath that He has given us. That even in our anger, even in our rebellion, we use the gift of life that He has given us to do that. We are all, every one of us, utterly dependent. We can do nothing apart from God. Our dependence upon Him is objective. But faith is when we start to lean intentionally, subjectively, into that reality that apart from God, we can do nothing. Objectively, it's true. But to begin to live and to lean into, but I know it. And I want to cherish the one who has given me life, sustains my very breath, that the waters I need come from him alone. David says it makes us like a tree by the river. And before we take credit for it, David says that God put the tree there. He plants the tree by streams of water. And some commentators say this can also be translated transplanted. So the idea isn't that a seed was planted and then a tree grew. A little sapling, a little tree is planted by streams of water, as opposed to being planted in the desert. God plants us by streams of water that we might drink deeply from him. Other trees might flourish for a season. But eventually, if they're not attached to the water, they dry up. And you've had seasons, many of you, I'm sure, where you felt like you were withering. I have had a number of seasons, but one season I think of in particular, I was in college, I had not yet been what the I had not yet experienced what the Bible calls new birth. And I was looking for ways to flourish, and in so many ways I looked like I was flourishing. I laughed a lot and I smiled a lot, but my life was in chaos, and I was partying way too hard. I was exhausted, exhausted. And I was stealing work, I was stealing money out of the register at work, and I began to be deeply convicted. Deeply convicted. And I remember one Saturday morning after a late Friday night, we had a common room, me and my roommate on this couch, and we were sitting on this couch, and I worked at my nerve, and I confessed to him, and I sought what the psalmist calls counsel. And I said, Hey man, I've been stealing work, I've been stealing money from the register at work. And I kind of wanted him to rebuke me and say, What are you doing? That's wrong. And I'll never forget what he said instead. You gotta do what you gotta do. You gotta do what you gotta do. And I remember being confused in that moment because there was a sense of relief. Oh, I can be open about stealing with this guy. But there was also a heaviness that came to it because I think I was looking for a bigger relief. A bigger sense of relief. Because I was convicted. I sought counsel and I received wicked counsel. And for a season I continued in this advice. I continued to take money out of the register, but I was withering. Withering. My bones were wasting, the psalmist says in other places. And oddly enough, it wasn't until the Bible, I let the Bible label me a sinner, that I began to feel a certain amount of relief because I started to think, as I meditated on this idea, what if thou shalt not steal is holy language? And what if it's talking about something far bigger than I ever thought that it was? What if God uses language like that to put together people who were guilty? And I remember it it all started to click. This is what Jesus died for. He died for people who go against his words like this. And we all continue to do it, but he continues to tell us what is right and what is true and what is holy, that we might see for what is true that we are poor in spirit. That as we believe these words, we actually find blessing, not because it's crushing us, but because it's revealing who we really are, so that we can actually receive who God intends to be for us. I dusted off my Bible. I began to read it. And I remember trying to read Romans and it being the most frustrating and confusing and exhilarating experience all at the same time. I didn't know what he was saying three-quarters of the time. And yet I also saw grace and mercy, and I felt like God was pumping life-giving water into my veins. Delighting in God's word means on some level you have an appetite for it. Now, here's where we have to be careful. This appetite ebbs and flows. Appetites ebb and flow, but on some level, we are growing in an appetite for God's word. You know, I've had a Bible reading plan for almost 20 years, and you should probably not, or not all of you. Um that's not the point. A cheesy to-do list. But I will say, one year I finished this Bible reading program and I felt too proud of myself. And so I said, next year I will do no plan. And I remember at the end of that year, I was like, I think that was a mistake too. The pendulum swung too far. The point is not how much and how long are you reading the Bible. The point is, is there an appetite for it and is it shaping you? There are lots of ways to be around God's word. We're doing one of the main things right now. There are audio Bibles, there are songs and music that sing God's word. There's lots of ways to be around it. And I would encourage us to find a way that resonates with us where we can consume and meditate, be shaped by God's gracious word to us. Until we start to acknowledge our dependence upon God. Lastly, everyone is accountable. The psalmist says the wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows that the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. You know, one of the things that the Bible says from cover to cover is there is a day of judgment that is coming. And there's a way to be really heavy-handed and mean about that, but to never talk about it can be just as mean. To never acknowledge that there is a day of judgment coming, to not ever say that, I think is maybe as wrong as to somebody who is just beating people over the head with that idea. You know, returning to Seinfeld for a moment, obviously. Um the finale, I think, is kind of genius as it was polarizing. And there's a scene, it's the last episode, two-part episode, the four horrible people, you know, George, Elaine, Kramer, Jerry, they're on vacation and they watch this man getting carjacked. And I read I pulled up a scene yesterday just to refresh my memory. And Kramer's like, oh, I'm getting this on video. And not only do they, not only do they video the carjacking, on video, everyone makes fun of the man who is being carjacked. It's merciless. It is grace, it is graceless. And they're arrested for not keeping the Good Samaritan law. And as they go to court, as they go to trial, every single person that they have been mean to and judgmental give a character witness on the stand, and it gets worse and worse and worse because you hear everything they have said now in a new light. It's judgment. And they are condemned. The series ends, and the four of them are in prison. And the whole story had been to say they're terrible people, and then the day of judgment comes for them. And here's what the psalmist is saying, here's what all of Scripture is saying. When we listen to counsel that seems to appeal to us on some level, but is actually leading us to hide from and to run from our Maker, we are running headlong into judgment. That's what the psalmist is saying. And he's not saying, so put together a clean face. He's just saying, listen to the God who made you. Stop hiding from the God who made you. Listen to the one who moves towards you with grace and mercy. And you might think, I mean, you hear this a lot. I don't want to talk about Old Testament theology. I don't need Paul. I want to focus on the teachings of Jesus. And yet, do you know that of all the teachers in all of the Bible, it's Jesus who talks the most about hell. And it's not even close. He talks about it a lot. And Jesus doesn't talk about it a lot to sort of like wag his finger and to rub people's noses in the mud. He talks about it because this is why I came. I came to seek and save the lost. I came to draw near to those who were hiding. I'm here to say, where are you? Where are you? Jesus draws near to save us from where our hiding ultimately ends. And as much as I really did want to find my daughter when she was hiding on that day, Jesus is telling us he wants to find us so much more. That he's not come to give us a list of rules, of do's and don'ts primarily. He's come to speak to us and say, Do my words to you feel like life? The only way they're going to feel like life is if they first sound like death. Stealing is wrong. Stealing is hiding. It's not loving God or your neighbor. But if you've stolen, that's not the end of it for you. There is a word of grace. And Paul tells us throughout the New Testament, he uses language like Psalm 1. Do not walk according to human tradition, but walk according to Christ. You have been planted in Christ. It's the same sort of language. And the reason is the psalmist knows he's not trying to make us to be perfectly righteous people. So many of his psalms are psalms of confession. But what we see in the New Testament is that Jesus is the only righteous one. And that when we are planted in him, his death on a cross has dealt with our sin. And that death could not hold him because he's truly righteous. And to listen to his word, to be formed by his word, is to live now out of union with Christ. There is no fear of judgment for those who cry out for mercy in Jesus' name. And yet his word becomes more precious, even as it convicts us, because that conviction leads us out of hiding.

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Let's pray.

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Father, we thank you for your word. And we ask now that you would pursue us at this table, this visible word, that you would help us to believe the things that you tell us, that you would help us to find life by them. We pray these things in Christ's name. Amen.