Resolved to be Blessed
Another new year is coming, and it's hard to believe that we are entering into 2020. As a new year approaches, we normally make New Year's resolutions. Oftentimes, those resolutions are to stop doing something we shouldn't be doing or to start doing something we should be doing.
In an effort to help you make good New Year's resolutions, we're going to look at the first psalm in God's songbook to create meaningful resolutions. The main resolution of our passage is the resolution to be blessed. What better resolution could we make than to resolve to be blessed?
This psalm has us do both at the same time: things to stop doing and things to start doing. These things teach us to stop doing what we shouldn't and start doing what we should, causing us to be blessed. When we avoid the things Psalm 1 tells us to avoid and do the things it tells us to do, we experience blessing.
The word "blessed" in verse 1 is actually plural—"blessings." There are multiple blessings we can experience by following this passage. The basic idea of a blessed person is someone who is satisfied—content in their life, experiencing happiness. The Bible abundantly teaches that God's people experience happiness, but the problem is seeking happiness apart from God or in anything other than God and his good gifts.
A blessed person is pleased with God in their life. We often think of blessings when life goes right, with no difficulties, or when we have certain people or things. Social media perpetuates this superficial view of blessing. But Psalm 1 tells us God wants us to have far greater blessings—blessings not seen by others, known only to you and your Father in heaven. These are the blessings found in God alone, based on what he says and the direction he has for our lives.
There are seven resolutions from this psalm that lead to our overall resolution to be blessed.
1. Resolve to Be Blessed by Not Receiving Wicked Counsel
How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked! The term "counsel" means advice or plans. The blessed person does not receive wicked advice from wicked people—unbelievers whose lifestyle is characterized by wickedness.
A blessed person does not listen to an unbeliever's counsel if they want immovable, unshakable pleasure. Unbelievers can say true things due to common grace—doctors can give good medical advice, financial planners can help manage money, scientists can teach truths about creation. But they cannot explain why we should follow that advice or how it glorifies God.
This doesn't mean total isolation from unbelievers, but our interactions should not make us like them. Instead, they should hear the gospel. Unbelievers give counsel out of allegiance to sin and Satan, much like Satan's original questioning of God's word, which robbed Adam and Eve of blessing.
2. Resolve to Be Blessed by Not Living Like a Sinner
Nor stand in the path of sinners. There's emphasis on "stand" in the Hebrew, contrasting with the wicked who cannot stand in judgment (v. 5). The blessed person avoids standing—planting themselves—in the way of sinners, meaning their behavior and lifestyle.
The blessed person, redeemed by Christ's blood, is a new creation. As 1 John 3:9 says:
No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.
Believers do sin, but do not make a practice or habit of it. Habits are unconscious patterns. The blessed person makes habits of righteousness. Every sin disrupts blessing, especially repeated sins, which we practice and hide better over time. Private sins lead to public devastation. Don't fear exposure now; fear not standing in judgment later.
The blessed person's lifestyle looks dramatically different from unbelievers'.
3. Resolve to Be Blessed by Not Sitting with Scoffers
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers. A scoffer, per 2 Peter 3:3, follows sinful desires, mocks Christian beliefs (especially judgment), and boasts about their own. They interpret reality differently to justify sin—claiming the world has always continued unchanged, ignoring the flood.
Psalm 1 shows progression: walk (plan sin), stand (live in sin), sit (content with sin), callousing the heart. Scoffers miss God's blessings because they're satisfied with sin dragging them to hell.
4. Resolve to Be Blessed by Delighting in God's Word
But his delight is in the law of the Lord. What makes a person happy is not mere reading but delighting—taking pleasure in God's word, running to it like fleeing corruption.
Charles Simeon said the blessed person beholds exceeding promises like marrow to their soul and sees the way to glorify God. Job 23:12:
I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food.
Echoing Jesus in Matthew 4:4:
Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
"Law" (Torah) means instruction, pointing the right direction—like God's finger writing the Ten Commandments. It shows 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
And on his law he meditates day and night. Meditation crowds the mind with God's words, overtaking inner monologue. It means to proclaim, mutter, utter aloud—like preaching to oneself.
Don't let sermons go unapplied. The blessed person absorbs, memorizes, recites, and constantly speaks God's words.
6. Resolve to Be Blessed by a Fruitful Life
He is like a tree 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.
Delighting and meditating produces stability: nourished, immovable, productive regardless of seasons. Leaves don't wither—constant satisfaction amid changing circumstances. The wicked are movable; the blessed prosper in joy, advancing in good condition no matter what.
7. Resolve to Be Blessed by Knowing What Happens to the Wicked
The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away... the way of the wicked will perish.
Chaff is rootless, easily driven—like immature believers swayed by doctrines. Focus on God's judgments motivates holiness, not fear of losing salvation. As Peter says, knowing judgment, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and repentance?
The more we hear from God, the better we deal with sin, suffering, and ultimately satisfaction in God's will and presence. What God says deals with sin, strengthens through suffering, resulting in satisfaction as we savor God.
Resolve to be blessed.
