Resolved to be Blessed (Part 1 of 2)

Introduction: The Resolution to Be Blessed

Another new year is coming, and as we enter 2020, we often make New Year's resolutions—typically to stop doing something we shouldn't or start doing something we should. To help us make meaningful resolutions, we'll look at the first psalm in God's songbook. The main resolution from this passage is to be blessed. What better resolution than to pursue blessing?

This psalm calls us to both stop doing certain things and start doing others, leading to blessing. When we avoid what Psalm 1 warns against and pursue what it commands, we experience blessing.

How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night.

The word "blessed" here is plural—blessings. It's not merely material, financial, or relational gain, though God gives good gifts. Blessing is a state of satisfaction, contentment, and happiness found in God alone. God's people experience happiness, but not apart from Him or in anything other than God and His good gifts.

We often equate blessing with smooth circumstances or visible successes seen on social media—fancy trips, crystal blue waters. But Psalm 1 offers greater blessings, often unseen by others, known only to you and your Father in heaven. These are eternal blessings based on God's direction for your life.

Psalm 1 presents seven resolutions to achieve this overall resolution to be blessed.

1. Resolve to Be Blessed by Not Receiving Wicked Counsel

How blessed is the one who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked! "Counsel" means advice or plans. The blessed person rejects wicked advice from wicked people—unbelievers whose lives are characterized by guilt and ungodliness.

A blessed person does not listen to an unbeliever's counsel if they want unshakable happiness. Unbelievers can say true things—doctors give health advice, financial planners offer money tips, scientists explain creation—due to common grace. But they cannot explain why to follow it or how it glorifies God.

This doesn't mean total isolation from unbelievers, as Proverbs advises engaging fools to expose error and share the gospel. Our interactions should make unbelievers like Christ, not us like them. Unbelievers give counsel out of allegiance to sin and Satan, often questioning God's word, just as Satan did with Adam and Eve.

2. Resolve to Be Blessed by Not Living Like a Sinner

The blessed one does not stand in the way of sinners. "Stand" is emphasized in Hebrew, contrasting with the wicked who cannot stand in judgment (v. 5). The blessed worry about not standing in sinners' ways now to stand in judgment later.

Believers are future-oriented, focused on Christ's return and eternity, making present decisions that secure eternal pleasure over temporary ones. As Thomas Watson said, "What fools they are who for a drop of pleasure drink a sea of wrath."

The "way of sinners" refers to their lifestyles, not streets. The redeemed do not plant themselves there. If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). As 1 John 3:9 says:

No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

Believers do sin, but not as a habitual practice. Habits form without premeditation—we don't plan to yell at spouses or be mean. Yet Christians make habits of righteousness, not sin. Every sin disrupts blessing, especially repeated ones. Practicing sin makes us better at it and hiding it. Private sins lead to public devastation.

Don't fear church discipline—it's a privilege proving sonship. Fear not standing in judgment. Blessed lifestyles differ dramatically from unbelievers', making evangelism clear: call them to a higher, transcendent life.

3. Resolve to Be Blessed by Not Sitting with Scoffers

The blessed do not sit in the seat of scoffers. A scoffer follows sinful desires, mocks others (especially Christian beliefs), and boasts in their own (2 Pet. 3:3). They interpret differently—claiming the world continues unchanged, ignoring Noah's flood.

Scoffers reinterpret to justify sin. Psalm 1 progresses: walking (planning sin), standing (living sin), sitting (content with sin), callousing hearts toward tolerance.

Resolve not to dwell with scoffers, who find satisfaction in sin dragging them to hell, missing God's blessings.

4. Resolve to Be Blessed by Delighting in God's Word

But his delight is in the law of the Lord. What makes one happy isn't mere reading—it's delighting, taking pleasure, running to Scripture like fleeing corruption. As Charles Simeon said, it reveals promises like marrow to the soul and ways to glorify God.

I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food (Job 23:12).

Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God (Matt. 4:4).

"Law" (Torah) means instruction, pointing the right way—like God's finger writing the Ten Commandments. It reveals our need for Christ, whose perfect life and death justify us. Trust in Christ now for unlosable blessing.

5. Resolve to Be Blessed by Concentrating on God's Word

In His law he meditates day and night. Meditation crowds the mind with God's words, overtaking inner monologue. It's proclaiming—muttering, uttering aloud—like preaching to oneself.

Don't let sermons go unapplied; absorb and speak God's words constantly. As Charles Bridges said, "He who waters should also be watered himself."

6. Resolve to Be Blessed by a Fruitful Life

Psalm 1 shows effects: He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers.

Blessing means more than a vague label—it's fruitful stability, enduring prosperity in God.

The Stability of the Blessed Person

What happens when the blessed man delights in the law of God, takes pleasure in it, meditates on it? They internalize it and remind themselves of it on a regular basis. According to the law, put it in every possible visible place for constant reminder. They meditate on it, preach it to themselves—it's also the idea of memorization and recitation.

He is like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. (Psalm 1:3)

The leaves don't drop, they don't change colors, they don't fall off and die. The person who delights in the word of God, meditating day and night, is like a tree with a constant source of nourishment—making it strong, immovable, and spiritually productive to the glory of God and their own good.

So when bitter cold winters or dry scorching summers enter your life—no matter how difficult the seasons—the blessed man or woman experiences constant external changes in circumstances without changing the way they experience them. Like a tree constantly watered, it's an experience of satisfaction, happiness, and pleasure.

This is the difference between the blessed person and the wicked. The wicked are totally movable, changeable, with no consistency—constantly reacting to circumstances in a way that's unsatisfying, unhappy, and lacking pleasure.

No matter what the blessed man does, he prospers. Prosperity here has nothing to do with material or financial success as the main idea. The blessed person can have financial and material success, but the focus is succeeding in remaining in the joy of the Lord no matter the circumstances. The Hebrew term for success also means a good condition and the ability to advance—to move forward.

Have you ever felt stuck, unable to move, nothing changing or getting better? Even if circumstances don't change, what can change is the joy in the Lord.

Resolve to Be Blessed by Knowing What Happens to the Wicked

They are like chaff—not like the tree planted by rivers of water. Not firmly rooted, not unchangeable regardless of seasons. Easily driven away. This echoes the New Testament: Paul on spiritually immature people driven by every doctrine, James on those driven and tossed by the wind, the author of Hebrews on those unable to distinguish good from evil.

It's important for Christians to focus on the judgments of God. Those are for Christians too—not because we can lose salvation, but God uses His judgments to motivate us to greater holiness. Peter in 2 Peter 3 talks of scoffers and the judgment on unbelievers, then says, knowing these things—what sort of people ought you to be in holy lives and godliness?

Knowing the judgment on the wicked motivates repentance, where we can look forward to and hasten the coming of Jesus.

The more a Christian hears from God, the more effectively they deal with sin. The more they deal with sin, the more they handle suffering. The more they handle suffering, the more satisfied they are with God's will and presence—savoring God as sublime.