Everyone Wants To Be Blessed
Everyone Wants To Be Blessed
Everyone wants to be blessed. Everyone wants to live a life of joy and fulfillment, of significance and purpose. So what is the path that will lead us there? As simple as that question is, it strikes at the foundation of each person’s life. Your answer to that question is the rudder that steers you.
The Law Library of Congress (in Washington, D.C.) is the largest library in the world. It contains over 2.9 million volumes. Can you imagine scrolling through the shelves, book by book, exploring the cacophony of information conveyed therein? Yet how small this library seems when compared to the boisterous noise of the world’s never-ending factory of ideas on how to be happy. Everywhere we turn someone is claiming to have found the way to joy, meaning, fulfillment, security, etc. Around every corner some new purchase or experience or relationship or pursuit is touted as the missing keystone that will finally uphold the bridge to personal peace.
Will you be honest with me? We have all been misled by these hucksters. We have all emptied our wallets on the counterfeit joys offered by the panhandlers of this world. We have all pulled anchor and set sail toward the latest and greatest fad of culture. And we have all—after experiencing the short-lived sugar-high that such things offer—found ourselves slinking back to the same search for enduring satisfaction.
So What Is the Path To Real & Lasting Joy?
So what is the path to real and lasting joy? In plain language, the first half of Psalm One provides the answer:
1 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;
2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.3 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.
As simple as Psalm One is, its message is timeless and priceless for those who will receive its counsel. It starts by identifying the very thing that everyone is searching for: blessing. It then addresses the very place that all of us (as sinners) are prone to look for it: the world. Having shown us our error and need for a better way, it then points us to our only hope: God. It doesn’t take a nuclear physicist to grasp the central message of these ancient verses. According to the Bible, the blessed man is the man who forsakes the world and walks in trusting-obedience to God.
“Trusting-obedience” is an inseparable combination and an essential component to the blessing of God which is promised. There is a popular approach to Christianity in our present day that claims to trust God while simultaneously rejecting much of his Law. Sadly, many who confidently call themselves Christians and expect to dwell with God in eternity do so while living in open rebellion to his commands, (Eph. 5:6). But it must be asked: Is this the path of blessing which Psalm One sets forth? How is the blessed man described?
2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
According to God’s Word, the blessed man is not one who ‘tolerates’ the Law of God as a begrudging nuisance. To our great surprise, neither is the blessed man even described as one who externally ‘obeys’ the Law of God. Rather, the relationship of the blessed man to God and his Law reaches much deeper; it presses in all the way to the heart. The blessed man—or the true Christian believer—is described as one who “delights in the Law of the Lord.” He is one who sees in the Law of the Lord the goodness, wisdom, and grace of the Lord of the Law. For the blessed man, the Law of God is so desirable and sweet that it saturates his thoughts throughout all of life—it is his “meditation day and night,” (Ps. 119:97). In other words, true Christian happiness and true Christian holiness are the closest of friends. It is impossible to have a meaningful relationship with the one without likewise knowing and enjoying the other.
The Psalm goes on to double-down on this distinction between delighting in the world and delighting in God:
3 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.
In verse three it is promised that the man who delights in God by walking in trusting-obedience to his Law will flourish throughout his life. His blessedness is not like the fleeting pleasures of this world which come for a season and then wear out. No, this man’s blessing endures through every season. Unlike the frail spring flowers of worldly satisfaction which quickly fade, the blooms of the blessed man “do not wither” or wilt under the changing climate of life’s circumstances. Rather, of this God-fearing man it is said, “in all that he does, he prospers.”
A Warning Issuing From Love
Finally, before concluding, the psalm provides a loving warning—the kind of warning that comes from a faithful friend who will speak the truth to us even when it is hard to hear. What will become of those who refuse to listen to the counsel of God offered in this psalm? What will become of those who continue to follow the course of this world and seek the satisfaction of their lusts and pleasures in the face of God? The answer is plainly set forth:
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.
Where is your delight, friend?
Will you repent and turn to God through Jesus Christ?
The Only Truly ‘Blessed Man’
There is only one truly Blessed Man who has kept the Law of God perfectly and his name is Jesus Christ. As the perfect Son of the Father, Jesus has obeyed God’s Law impeccably in our place, (Matt. 3:17). He has delighted in the Law of the Lord with all his heart and made it his meditation all the day long. He has turned away from the paths of this world and trusted God even unto death upon the Cross, (Phil. 2:8).
Just as the source of life for the blessed tree in Psalm 1:3 was the “streams of water” which provided blessing to it, so it is with us. Our blessedness as sinners can only be found in what Jesus provides to us—he is the “river of life” for all who trust in him, (Jn. 7:38; Ps. 46:4-7; Rev. 22:1). The Lord Jesus Christ promises to share the blessing of God which only he has earned with everyone who will turn away from their sins and place their faith in him as Lord.
Yet for those who are truly united to Christ through sincere repentance and faith, they too will begin to follow the course of the truly Blessed Man. They will learn to live as Jesus lived and walk as Jesus walked, (I Jn. 2:4-6). More and more, by his grace at work within them, they too will strive to live their life in trusting-obedience to their holy Father in heaven, (Eph. 5:1; Tit. 2:11-14).
To all sinners whose hearts cry out, “What is the path of blessing and life? What is the way of forgiveness and peace?”, (Rm. 7:24). The Lord Jesus Christ replies, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me,” (Jn. 14:6).