The Divine Crash

For some reason my sermon always seems to do better at the second service than it does at the first service.  Today sermon was based on Psalm 1 and what it takes to be truly happy and to have prosperity.  You can click here to open iTunes, or at the bottom you can click play, to hear the sermon.Psalm 1 starts with “Happy are those.”  The word happy in Hebrew literally mean “To turn and go straight.”   So then, true happiness is not in sitting still or waiting for happiness to find you.  Being happy in a movement towards God.

Happiness is not found with wicked, sinners, or scoffers.

Psalm 1 uses movement to define happiness.

Happiness is not found when you walk with wicked.  It is easy to walk away from people who are doing things you don’t like.

Happiness is not found when you stand with sinners. It is possible to get away from people who you don’t do things but it is hard when you are just standing around.

Happiness is not found when you sit with scoffers.  When you are sitting around with people it is difficult to get up and walk away.

David is writing that happiness is found when we delight in the law of the Lord.

However, David did not have the New Testament, proverbs or most of the prophets yet so all he has is the first 5 books of the Old Testament.

To delight in that, is to understand the story of those first 5 books. That God created you, God loves you, God will rescue you, and God comes to those who are in need.

David wrote that when we delight in the story of God we become like trees planted beside streams.

This word planted is a verb that is more like transplanted.  It is this idea that you were once in a place that is not healthy, life-giving, or good for you and now you have been transplanted to a place that you can flourish no matter what happens.

But then David says we will prosper in all that we do.  I don’t think this has anything to do with money, jobs, or the size of your house.  It has to do with what you are doing that gives you delight.  According to Psalm 1 this is enjoying the teachings of God.  So when we take delight in the teachings of God we find more joy in doing that and do it more.

And so when we take joy in God and what God has taught we find that those things that hurt us are easier because we are next to streams, incidentally Jesus calls himself living water.

Psalm 1 goes on to say that the wicked are not like this, they are like the shell of wheat (called chaff) that blows away in the wind.

The wicked are the ones who label people and say “that guy would be happy if he wasn’t around all those sinners.” or “that guy would be better if he weren’t sitting around with all those weirdos.”

The wicked are the ones who chase after happiness as if they could catch it and then be fine.

This is where Jesus comes in, the one who forgives us for putting labels on people and for chasing happiness.

Sermon Audio

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Sermon by RevBT