Psalm 1
Psalm 119:17–18 (NLT)
17Be good to your servant, that I may live and obey your word.
18Open my eyes to see the wonderful truths in your instructions.
A 17 year old young man went to church for the first time because the shoe salesmen who had led him to Christ told him he needed to learn more about the Savior he had just received.
After the normal service time and singing and announcement the minister got up to speak. He said, “Turn to 1 Timothy 5.”
Turned to the first pages of the Bible which his friend had given him and thumbed through Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Joshua, Psalms . . . No Timothy.
Ah ahh! The table of contents. After he finally found it, 1 timothy was on page 319. So he promptly turned to page 319 and found himself smack dab in the middle of Joshua. He looked again at the table of contents and it was 319 so he flipped backed. They made a mistake.
He went back to the table of contents and then he noticed that there were two books and he finally figured out that 1 timothy was in the second book. Where is the second book? He found it. He turned to page 319. There was 1 Timothy and he felt quite relieved and satisfied only to look up at the minister and here these words, ”Let’s bow our heads for the closing prayer!” He missed the sermon!
What would you do? Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who just go along and fake it – or drop out feeling totally lost. Let me finish this story.
By God’s grace this young man developed a desire to know God’s word thoroughly. He became a minister and it is said that he may have led a million people to the Lord. He later founded a Bible institute that today trains over a 1,000 students annually in the Word of God.
Moody Bible Institute – Dwight L Moody.
There are at least three things you can take home from My Moody’s story.
It seems to me that he shouldn’t have just been shoved into the culture of the church without someone coming alongside and helping him in his Christian walk; teaching him something as so basic as how to find a book of the Bible.
The acknowledgment that the Bible is a very different book when compared to almost every other book we own or that is printed. It is actually a library of books; some historical, some prophetical, some filled with poems, some with doctrine, others with encouragement and still others with correction.
If the Bible is our source for our knowledge of God, and our comfort, and our hope, and our growth, and our wisdom, and our assurance, and our conviction we need to find out how to include it in our lives and glean from its pages. We need to make a commitment to make it a part of our lives.
So this morning I want to do two things. First I want to review what God says about His word and its importance for us. And secondly, I want to share with one plan, and there are many, that might help you in this matter of interacting with the Word of God.
| What is trueNobleRightPureLovelyAdmirableExcellentpraiseworthy | Love thingsLove ecstatic sensationsLove independenceMeasure success by how many things you gatherSays you can have it allDrink the right beerMaster the possibilitiesMake pleasure a god |
Grab all the gusto
Go for it – regardless
If you can’t be with the one you love . . .
Everybody else does it
If you want to get somewhere in life
Nobody is looking
There is no god
There are no absolutes
You can’t make judgments on anything or anyone
Read Psalm 1
Do you want to be blessed – Happy?
Enriched – contented – fulfilled
It is clearly more than good feelings resulting from pleasant circumstances
As one reads the Psalm there are two things that should be very clear – What the blessed person does – and what they do not do.
Let’s look first at what the blessed person does not do.
Note a progression
He/she does not walk in a certain path
Not stop and stand in a certain way
Nor sit down with certain people
To sum this up – a blessed person does not hang around with sinners. They do not think like them, act like them or become like them.
Because if you think carefully about this, what the writer is saying is that you don’t buy into what they think – how they act – and what they are
What you think and do you ultimately become
Take for instance the counsel of the person who leaves God out of the picture
He will tell you essentially that our origin is nothing more than an accident
Death is nothing more than an accident – here and gone
We are just an accident suspended between accidents!
This progression leads to disappointment at the very least and ultimately to perishing.
What does the blessed person do?
He delights in the law of the Lord
Psalm 119:17–18 (NLT)
17Be good to your servant, that I may live and obey your word.
18Open my eyes to see the wonderful truths in your instructions
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet
Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin
Isaiah 55:8–13
8“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. 9“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.
10“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth And making it bear and sprout, And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; 11So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.
12“For you will go out with joy and be led forth with peace; The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, And all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
Desire the sincere milk of the word
The word is alive and active – pierces right down to where things really are
Computers – lots of power – great software
But it is displaying an error sign that you can’t figure out.
The expert comes and hits a couple of keys and bam! – it works.
And then he helps you understand how to tap into all the resources of that computer.
The Holy Spirit is the I.T. guy of the Word of God and he will train you how to tap into it power.
He meditates – we are going to talk about being in the word of God
Chew on it!
Look at the conclusion:
The winds will come! What will your life be built on?
The thinking – behavior and character of the ungodly
Or on the eternal truth of God