Psalm 2. Kiss the Son, and you will be free.

Psalm 2

I remember a friend of mine at University utterly broken one Monday morning. I asked him what was wrong. Turns out he’d cheated on his girlfriend that weekend, and she’d left him. He was devastated. But what stuck with me was the words he said about cheating on her with this other girl. He said “I couldn’t stop myself. I didn’t want to cheat on her. But I couldn’t stop myself.”

He was free. Free to do whatever he wanted. And he found that that freedom was not freedom but slavery. He could not stop himself. Slave to his own desires.

Psalm 2. Kiss the Son, and you will be free.

(By the way, this is called Kiss the Son because the literal translation for v12 “Submit to God’s royal son” is “Kiss the Son”. I think it’s such a brilliant picture as we submit to this great King, we come forward to kiss him.)

We want to be free! Free from what? Free from God.

1. We want to be free from God

Ps 2:1–12 (NLT) Why are the nations so angry? Why do they waste their time with futile plans? 2 The kings of the earth prepare for battle; the rulers plot together against the LORD and against his anointed one. 3 “Let us break their chains,” they cry, “and free ourselves from slavery to God.”

The word “nations” is goy-yem – the foreign nations or Gentiles. That is those who are not God’s people. What the New Testament often calls “the world”. Why is the world so angry? Why is the world preparing for battle, making plans, plotting against the Lord and his anointed one?

The answer is in v3: they want to be free. 3 “Let us break their chains,” they cry, “and free ourselves from slavery to God.”

That is our default position as human beings. We do not want to serve God. We want to be God. Little girls dream of being the princess, not the scullery maid. Little boys dream of being the king, or the knight, not the wine-taster or the stable hand!

Our desire for self-glory rather than God-glory goes right back to our rebellion in the garden of Eden, when Eve, looking at the fruit that God said “do not eat”… reached out her hand, and took it, and ate. I will decide for myself what is right and wrong. I will decide whether God should be obeyed or not. I will be God in my life. I’m not going to listen to anyone else. Why should I? I want to be free!

Sounds good, doesn’t it? Freedom. You know what the problem with defining freedom like that is? Freedom without constraints, freedom to do what you want, when you want. The problem is that that definition of freedom has no place for love. Because love is a constraint. You love someone and you are no longer “free”. You are bound to them. Their ups and downs are your ups and downs. Their joys your joys. Their sorrows your sorrows. There is something very wrong with our idea of freedom when it has at its core not love, but selfishness.

See, we were made for love, for relationship. We were made to love God, and love each other. But we decided to love not him, but love ourselves. But “loving yourself” is not love – that’s selfishness. Unsurprisingly, basing our new world order on selfishness instead of love for God broke our relationships with each other. So much hate in this world. So much anger and heartache and war and cruelty. Even in our own lives we lash out at the ones we love. Say hurtful things. We let them down. We break promises. We lie. And they do the same to us. We’re in a mess.

And it is all because we decided to be “free”. What a lie that freedom has turned out to be! Being free to do whatever you want makes us slaves to ourselves – our every whim, every change of emotion. We can choose anything – but we’re terrified we’ll choose the wrong thing – so we do nothing. How many of us use our freedom to sit and do nothing, paralysed by indecision. How many just drift through life, never achieving anything. Freedom?

Remember my friend at University. He said “I couldn’t stop myself. I didn’t want to cheat on her. But I couldn’t stop myself.” His freedom turned out to be slavery: A slave to himself, his own desires.

We, the angry nations, want to be free from God. We want to be king in our lives – but

2. The Lord has already set his chosen King on the throne

Did you notice the first word in the Psalm? “Why?” Why do we fight against the Lord? Why do we lay plans? Why do we rebel? Because it is pointless. Why do they waste their time with futile plans? (Futile means useless, wasted, unsuccessful).

So, we shake our fists in rebellion against God. Like an army, we link arms and march together. Millions upon millions of us, throughout time and history – we march. We march against this God. “Who does he think he is”, shouts our Captain, our Commander, Lucifer, also known as Satan. “God wants to chain you down – will you be chained?” He shouts. “No”, comes our answering cry.

What is the response in heaven? Is there worry? Is there shuffling of plans, reorganisation of defences? Does the Lord send out a negotiator, to bargain with us? Come up with some power-sharing agreement?
No.
There is mocking laughter.

4 But the one who rules in heaven laughs. The Lord scoffs at them. 5 Then in anger he rebukes them, terrifying them with his fierce fury. 6 For the Lord declares, “I have placed my chosen king on the throne in Jerusalem, on my holy mountain.”

As the Lord looks on our terrible rebellion, he is not concerned. We are like a puff of wind, a speck of dust. It reminds me of one of my favourite verses which is from Revelation 20:8 [Satan] will go out to deceive the nations—called Gog and Magog—in every corner of the earth. He will gather them together for battle—a mighty army, as numberless as sand along the seashore. 9 And I saw them as they went up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded God’s people and the beloved city. What’s going to happen? You expect some sort of epic battle like in the Lord of the Rings, swords and heroism and desperate charges and big speeches.
But the next sentence is so brilliantly unexpected: But fire from heaven came down on the attacking armies and consumed them. That’s it. Done. The rebellion is over. Evil’s time is up.

Evil is no threat to God. It is his patience that delays the final judgement – that we have a chance to “Kiss the Son” before the hammer falls.

You can imagine the scene in heaven’s throne room. An angelic messenger running in – “Lord, they’ve surrounded us – a vast army.” And the Lord just bursts out laughing “Have they really. Oh dear.” And he walks out to see our might – and again laughs “Look at that. Is that the best you can do? Maybe I’ll give you a little puff from my nostril?” And at that the army is blown backwards.
Just do that now – blow through your nostrils. Not very powerful is it? But in Exodus 15:8 it is the “weak” breath from God’s nostrils that raises up the waters of the Red Sea and brings them crashing down again in judgement on the mighty army of Egypt. That’s what he can do with a little puff of breath from his nostrils!

Mighty does not begin to describe the power of God.

So it is unsurprising that he laughs at our rebellion. That he mocks our puny fists. We are no threat to him. We cannot bargain with him. We cannot demand to share power. We have nothing.

Actually, what I’ve just said about the army falling backwards in terror from the blast from his nostrils is not true – at least not here in Psalm 2. Because what is it that terrifies us? It is not a display of power. God does not get up there and flex his muscles. What terrifies us is what he says. It is there in v5 Then in anger he rebukes them, terrifying them with his fierce fury. 6 For the Lord declares, “I have placed my chosen king on the throne in Jerusalem, on my holy mountain.”

What do we find terrifying? That the Lord has placed his chosen king on the throne. It is too late! I will never be King. I cannot be King. The Lord has already chosen the King and he is not me! That’s what terrifies us.

Isn’t that surprising? When I first read the Psalm I thought that God was displaying his power or something. Thunder and lightning – shock and awe – that kind of thing. I read v5 and 6 separately. But v6 starts with “for”: because. We are terrified because his King is already established, and we cannot win. We are forever rebels, terrorists instead of freedom fighters. Our cause is not just, we are not right. And now it is too late. The true King is upon the throne, and he is all powerful. Our rebellion is pointless.

The Lord has already set his chosen King on the throne. So let us listen to the words of God’s King.

3. The King speaks

7 The king proclaims the LORD’s decree: “The LORD said to me, ‘You are my son. Today I have become your Father. 8 Only ask, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, the whole earth as your possession. 9 You will break them with an iron rod and smash them like clay pots.’ ”

Did you notice that the King speaks only what the Lord has said? He proclaims the Lord’s decree. He is King under God. That is what the king should be. The reflection of God on earth. The visible image of the invisible God. Now, as Christians we know that that King is Jesus. Indeed, we might even remember that Jesus said in John 14:24 “my words are not my own, but my Father’s who sent me.”

Jesus is God’s chosen King. But how did we get there? This Psalm wasn’t written for Jesus. The person writing it didn’t know. So why did he write it, how did he use it, and how did it come to so clearly be about Jesus? This is the work we need to do reading the Old Testament. We first need to understand it in its original context, then we need to ask the question “what difference does it make that Jesus has come”. And only then can we see how it applies to us. We’re on this side of the Cross, and so we have to take application from before the Cross through the Cross. Otherwise we’ll get into all sorts of trouble!

Well it seems based on the content of this Psalm that it was used in the coronation of Israel’s kings (when they were crowned king). And it’s all based on the promise God made to King David in 2 Sam 7. 2 Sam 7 is one of the great promises in the Old Testament, second only to the promise made to Abraham. In 2 Samuel 7 God promises David that from him will come a number of kings, leading up to the Great King of Israel who will rule the world forever and who will build the Temple of God, the meeting place between God and Man. So from David’s line would come God’s King who would bring man and God together.

So every time a new king appeared there was this hope that maybe this one would fulfil the promises of God. So they would sing Psalm 2. Maybe this one would subdue the nations and bring in a golden age of world-wide worship of God. But they also knew the track-record of the kings, and how often they sinned and ruined everything. So Psalm 2 was also a warning to them or a reminder to them of how they should rule as kings. That they have a decree from God to rule – but rule as He has said.

Jesus, we know, was descended from David. Jesus did only what his Father said. Jesus was the meeting place between God and man, the true Temple found in him, found in his own body: The God-man Jesus Christ. Jesus, too, was called the Son of God. 7 The LORD said to me, ‘You are my son. Today I have become your Father.’

Now if you remember back to our series on Exodus, you will remember the nation of Israel being called the son of God. Israel was God’s Son. So why is the King called the son? Because he came to represent the nation of Israel before God. In the King is the nation.

In the same way Jesus, the perfect King, is our perfect representative before God. And we who are in Christ are called sons of God.

We see this in Acts 4 in the prayer of the Christians: 24 O Sovereign Lord, Creator of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them 25 you spoke long ago by the Holy Spirit through our ancestor David, your servant, saying, ‘Why were the nations so angry? Why did they waste their time with futile plans? 26 The kings of the earth prepared for battle; the rulers gathered together against the LORD and against his Messiah.’
note how they now see Psalm 2 as pointing to the Messiah. Not just an anointed one, not just the king, but the promised Messiah – the rescuer of Israel. Why? Because they saw it being fulfilled. V27 continues 27 “In fact, this has happened here in this very city! For Herod Antipas, Pontius Pilate the governor, the Gentiles, and the people of Israel were all united against Jesus, your holy servant, whom you anointed. 28 But everything they did was determined beforehand according to your will.

When they saw the risen Jesus they suddenly saw with eyes of faith this same Jesus on the cross, crown of thorns upon his head, the charge against him above his head “the king of the Jews” – and instead of his failure they understood this was his coronation. The Cross was Christ’s crowning achievement! There was the King, the true King of Israel, taking his place once for all. Here was the true Son of God, our representative. Here was the King who only spoke what the Father said. Here was the King who was given the whole earth as his possession, the nations as his inheritance.
And here we are, the nations, gathered together by the King.

Jesus says in John 8:36 If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. He offers true freedom. Freedom to be what you were born to be. Freedom to serve the true King. And as we give ourselves to him we find our true selves. We find power to love, truly love others. We find compassion and truth and goodness in us which we didn’t have before. And the ability to say no to sin, no to that which is wrong, no even to our own desires. We are free from the tyranny of ourselves, and can relax, given over to our Heavenly Father, who does only what is good for us. True freedom is found in Christ.

Jesus is God’s King, and he is established on the throne. He was crowned on the Cross, revealed to be the King in power with his resurrection. There is none like him, and there is no-one who can take his place. He is the King forever. I am not the King. You are not the King. And no-one else is the King. Only Jesus.

And soon he will return. And anyone who stands against him will fall. So, what do we do? Well, Psalm 2 applies this for us.

4. Kiss the Son

10 Now then, you kings, act wisely! Be warned, you rulers of the earth! 11 Serve the LORD with reverent fear, and rejoice with trembling. 12 Submit to God’s royal son (lit. “Kiss the Son”), or he will become angry, and you will be destroyed in the midst of all your activities— for his anger flares up in an instant. But what joy for all who take refuge in him!

Be wise, you “kings”. Rebellion is foolish and ultimately futile. Rebellion will lead to being smashed like broken pottery by Jesus’ iron rod. There is only one King, and you’re not him. So submit to the King. Come forward and kiss the Son.

There are only two ways to live. For yourself, in rebellion, for a “freedom” that is not free – and he will become angry, and you will be destroyed in the midst of all your activities. Or live for him, take refuge in Him, and experience eternal joy and true freedom. But what joy for all who take refuge in him!

As I was preparing this I was listening to the soundtrack for the Chronicles of Narnia. In the Narnia books Aslan, the Jesus figure, is a Lion. One of the characters asks “Is he a tame lion.” The answer? “A tame lion?! Oh no, he’s not a tame lion. But he is Good.”

We do not serve a tame God. He is not domesticated – a pet to have around when we want or to dismiss when we want. Like Aslan the lion he is powerful, dangerous, able to tear you apart. Like Aslan he is good. But not a tame goodness “oh that’s lovely” – but Goodness, hard as rock, unyielding as iron, which wickedness and rebellion will be smashed against. So make right with him before you are smashed to pieces on the Rock.

There is no time to waste v12 for his anger flares up in an instant. When should you repent? NOW! Because you don’t know when he will return or call you home. When will you die and stand before the King? Don’t be like a friend of mine and say “Oh, I believe, but I want to have my fun now. Have a few years being “free””. That was twenty years ago. And he’s still living in rebellion against God. He is not free. He is bound by sin, his own desire to be king. And he cannot break it. Don’t be like him. Get right with the Son now.

We, the angry nations want to be free from God. But he has already put his King on the throne. Our rebellion is futile. It will only end in destruction. So cry out to the King – forgive me! Kiss the Son, and take refuge in Him. And this powerful King will smile like the noonday sun in all his brightness and glory and say – the price has been paid, you have been set free! Come in and join me, and rejoice!

Psalm 1: True Happiness

Psalm 1

Imagine if I told you there was a way to be truly happy. A guaranteed method to experience joy!
Do you want to be happy? I do! To be happy, full of joy, at peace. What a delight.

Well, that’s what we find in today’s passage. The path of true happiness.

Happiness is difficult to get, isn’t it? Buying things promises happiness – fast cars, big houses, good food – but they rust or need painting or give us indigestion, and it’s gone. Experiences promise happiness but they disappoint or all too soon they are over.
People, people can make us happy! But they are sinners like us and will let us down - especially if you burden them with the impossible burden of making you happy all the time.

Happiness comes when you’re not looking for it. You cannot demand happiness, buy happiness, force happiness. Because happiness is a by-product of unselfishness. Only when we stop trying to make everything and everyone make us happy does happiness sneak up on us! Why? We were designed to be happy! That’s where our need comes from. It is God-given. The source of our happiness is not found within ourselves but in Him or reflections of Him. God is our happiness.

V1 Oh the joys of those… v2who delight in the law of God. The words translated “joy” in v1 is the word eh-sher, often translated Blessed or happy. In the Hebrew it literally says Blessed, Happy is the man... who delights in the law of God”.
And the “law” of God is Jewish shorthand for the holy Scriptures: the inspired (breathed-out) word of God.

So: you want to be happy? Delight yourself in the word of God!

Now this morning we’re looking at the first “Psalm”. The word Psalm is a Latin translation of the Hebrew “Tehillim” which means “song of praise”. Psalms are songs or poems, yes, but they are more than that: They are inspired songs. Inspired means words that God has breathed out and caused to be written. These are his written words.

Let’s turn to Psalm 1 and find out how we can be happy!

1. Happy is the man who turns away from sin and throws himself into God’s word

Ps 1:1 Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers. 2 But they delight in the law of the LORD, meditating on it day and night.

The first key to happiness is… repentance. Repentance: turning away from what is wrong or evil, and turning towards what is good and right.

Do not listen to the wicked, to what they say is true and right. Because out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. So if they are against God, their words, their “wisdom” is anti-God. It pulls us away from God.

Just think about some of the things we’ve been learning recently, and what the world says in contrast.

The Lord says “Love of money is the root of all kinds of evil”. The world says “Love money, money brings happiness”. God says “be generous, all you have is a gift”, the world says “grab all you can, because you only live once. It’s yours! You deserve it!”
Jesus says “Do not worry about anything, what you will eat, what you will wear – seek first the kingdom”. But we seek first our own kingdom, and live in fear, trying to protect ourselves from everything that could go wrong.
Jesus says “Go into all the world and make disciples”. The world says “Faith is private and shouldn’t be shared.”
Jesus says “I am the Way the Truth and the Life. No-one comes to the Father except through me”. The world says “there is no such things as absolute truth – and that’s absolutely true!

The “advice of the wicked” is all around us. It infects us. It’s in the songs that we listen to on the radio, in our movies, books, articles, in our conversation. How do we not fall into just doing what the wicked advise?
By counter-acting it with delighting in the law of God. The more we fill our minds with His words, the less we will be fooled by the words of the world. When we know the genuine, the true, we will not be fooled by the counterfeit, the false.

And the battle starts here – in our minds. Rom 12:2 says Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may know what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
We start by transforming our mind – absorbing the mind of God as we study his thoughts, and we will start to think more like God, seeing his will, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Let me read v1 of Psalm 1 again, Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers.

Do you see the progression there: from following advice, to standing with sinners, to joining in with the mockers. We move from listening to wickedness, to approving of (standing with) wickedness, to joining in with those who mock God with their words or lives or actions.
And it’s easy. None of us ever sets out to sin, do we? But infected by worldly wisdom, we think “that sounds like a good idea – look at them, they look happy” and then in we go. Think about Eve and the forbidden fruit: listened to the advice of the serpent, stood listening to the serpent instead of leaving, and then joined in – mocking God’s word – “you know nothing, God!”.
And we’ve never stopped falling into the same trap as Eve!

If you’re battling with some sin, the first place you need to start is with your mind. You need to replace the lie with Truth. You need to delight in God’s word. If you’re struggling with greed – meditate on 1 Timothy 6. If you’re struggling with sexual temptation, meditate on 1 Corinthians 7. If you’re struggling with revenge or bitterness or anger or hate – read Galatians 5:19-22 The fruits of the Spirit. Or read the praise Psalms and simply rejoice in our great God. If your mind is filled with Him and His glory – everything else seems to fade away.

The first step in the path to happiness is repentance: turning away from what is evil, and turning towards what is good.

I’m sure many of you have heard the parable, supposedly told by an American Indian chief, of the two dogs inside? One dog represents the sinful or worldy man versus the other dog: the Spiritual man. And they are in a battle, a fight to the death. When asked which dog would win, the chief replies “The one I feed the most”.

There is much truth in that, and gets at what these two verses in psalm 1 are saying. Feed your soul, Christian! Delight in the words of God. Fill your mind with Him.

So what do we do with this?
Impossible application from this is to avoid going to church and Bible study, or to be lacklustre about it “I’ll go if I feel like it, I’ll go if nothing better comes up”. And to have an “oh, must I” attitude towards reading the Bible. The impossible application as a Christian is to resist God’s word. To be annoyed when he says no to things that you don’t want to do.

The true application is to delight in God and his word. To be filled with joy when we read his word or hear them preached. To love obeying him. To see that obedience brings life and joy and happiness. To really believe that happiness comes from obeying the Lord.

Possible application: Go to church and bible study. Make it number 1 priority – not the last thing you do, the first thing. No, it’s not a law. But it is weird if you don’t. Set aside time every day to read the Bible and pray. It’s not a law. But it is odd if the Bible says the man of God delights in the law of the Lord and we can’t even be bothered to read it.

So delight in the Lord and in his word. We know him. We love him. He loves us! That is deep joy.

Happy is the man who turns away from sin and throws himself into God’s word.

2. The man who delights in God’s word will prosper

3 They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do. 4 But not the wicked! They are like worthless chaff, scattered by the wind.

So many of us struggle in our lives. Often we feel like our lives are empty, purposeless. What are we actually here for? Our lives feel like worthless chaff - the bits of the wheat plant that can’t be used and at harvest time is just flung up in the air for the wind to blow away.

Well, if that’s how you’re feeling, maybe it’s because you don’t actually know the Lord? It is warning to you to get right with him.
Or maybe we do know him but we’ve stopped delighting in his word? Maybe we’ve stopped meeting with his people or reading his word – or I know what it says but I’m disobeying?

How often in my life have I felt uneasy, angry, snapping at Debby or the kids (or both) – feeling unsettled, without purpose. And I think “what’s wrong with me?”. And then I think – when was the last time I spent some quality time alone with the Lord? Sat down and read His word, not for a Bible study or a sermon, but just sat down with Him and prayed and listened to Him.

Because when we delight in His Word we are rooted. Life flows through us. Like a tree planted by a riverbank we give out life. We draw from His deep reserves of joy and generosity and truth and love. And we start to reflect Him.

Isn’t that the type of people we want to be?

Christian and Johanna are a great example of this delighting in God’s word leading to being like a tree planted by streams of living water. As they have put the Lord first, as they have thrown themselves into ministry, as they have made Bible reading and church and Bible study their number one priority, wow, have they grown! And their joy in the Lord radiates out from them, and is shared with us, with their neighbours, with their job colleagues.

Do you want to be like them? Then delight in the word of the Lord.

They’re not the only ones. Many of you have experienced the same thing. Many of you have said that this church has changed your life. And that’s right, that’s what church should do. Because church should be a bunch of people together delighting in God’s word. His word is our life! As Jesus says “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matt 4:4 quoting Deut 8:3).

Psalm 119, the biggest Psalm in the Bible, has, in almost every one of its 176 verses, the “word of the Lord”. The word of God is central to the life of God’s people. Our God is a God who speaks!

Much of the weakness, lack of power and error in today’s Christianity can be traced back to one thing – our attitude towards the “law of God” the words spoken by God once for all time. We substitute with music and emotion, with “prophecies” new words from God which are more acceptable to us, or we fill it with ritual and religion – anything to avoid reading and thinking about what God has really said. Or we just go full liberal and completely ignore his word and overturn what he has said.

Much of the weakness, lack of power, and error in our own lives can be traced back to one thing: how we view God’s word written here for us in the Bible. Do I avoid his word in my life?

And just in case you’re thinking but it’s just a book, that God threw a book at us and said read that and then left… no, His Spirit is here with us, and when we open the Bible those words come alive with the Spirit’s power. As we obey blessings flow out. Is that not true? Have we not all experienced that? As we obey, take that scary first step – in that moment we are suddenly aware that the Spirit has been alongside us all the time, and as we obey we see!

Delight in the law of the Lord. Embrace his word. And be not like chaff - blown by the wind – but like a tree of life deeply rooted in Christ’s life-giving waters.

Happy is the man who turns away from sin and throws himself into God’s word. Happy is he, because the man who delights in God’s word will prosper, deeply rooted, full of joy.

3. Happy is the man who knows the Lord, for he will be saved

5 [The wicked] will be condemned at the time of judgment. Sinners will have no place among the godly. 6 For the LORD watches over the path of the godly, but the path of the wicked leads to destruction.

It is a serious business with eternal consequences. The godly, the one who delights in the word of God, and avoids sinning - that person, they are the one who will not be condemned at the time of judgement.

So don’t fail. Because if you fail to delight in the Lord, if you fail to meditate on his word day and night. If you fail to bear fruit every season and prosper in all that you do – you will be condemned. Worthless, like chaff, scattered in the wind. Do not fail!
Sinners will have no place among the godly. The path of the wicked leads to destruction.

Let’s pray.

Almighty God, your word is clear. If we fail to delight in you, we will have no place among the godly. Please Lord, help us not to fail, because we don’t want to go to Hell. Amen

>>> Sit down

But wait a minute! I don’t delight in the Lord day and night. And, unless I’m very much mistaken, you don’t either. My life is not lived in complete obedience to Him. And neither is yours.
And if that’s the case, then we have a problem. Because according to Psalm 1, that means that we are the wicked!

This was a problem the Psalms understood. There is this tension throughout the book between knowing what the man of God should be and do – and the knowledge that, however hard we try we fall short.

A quick search of the book of Psalms for the word transgressions or sins gives 192 verses: and scanning through them we see how the Lord hates sin, the realisation that we sin, and therefore our only hope is confess our sin the Lord Ps32:5 I said “I will confess my rebellion to the Lord” – and amazingly the Lord has mercy. 32:5 continues And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.

Now to the Psalmists this was a mystery. How could God forgive those who continually fall short? How could God bless those who did not delight in the law of the Lord? How could he treat us, the wicked, as if we were the righteous?

I want you now to read Psalm 1 again. This time recognizing that we are the wicked; who then is the righteous one? Who is the Psalmist describing?
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Who did only what his Father willed? Who brought life wherever he went? Who prospered even amongst his enemies? Whose path did the Lord watch over, even unto death and beyond? Who did not advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers, but instead delighted in the law of the Lord?
Jesus. Jesus is the great hero of Psalm 1. And he is the answer to the Psalmists puzzle: How can God treat the wicked as the righteous?

The answer is through the great swap on the Cross, where Jesus took your wickedness and my wickedness upon himself, and walked the path of destruction, the path to hell that we deserved. And he gave us his perfection, his righteousness, his delight in the Lord. Given to us.

So we can say we are blessed. Blessed beyond belief! We have a new heart, new desires. We suddenly WANT to listen to God’s word. We WANT to be with his people. We WANT to be with Him. Just like Jesus because His Spirit lives within us.

That’s why someone who claims to be a Christian but doesn’t delight in God’s word – disobeys it, ignores it, is never in church or studying the Bible, someone who says “I know, but…” whenever confronted with the word of God – are they really a Christian? If you’re in Christ you become like him.

So if you’ve found yourself drifting away from the Word, being ho-hum about church, trying to ignore God. Whatever the reason: repent, turn around, away from wickedness, and embrace the forgiveness that is your in Christ Jesus.

And then, in joy, remember that His Spirit is within you and start living like it: taking delight in the law of the Lord. Rejoicing that this God whom we serve, this holy, powerful, pure, perfect God – has made a way for people like us to know him and enjoy him forever.

Because the wicked may be destined for destruction, but the forgiven are destined for Eternal Joy. A celebration of our God, a festival of delights, never-ending. That’s what we were built for, and, in Christ, that is our future. Put your roots down into that glorious truth, and spread the joy of knowing God.

Happy is the man who repents, knowing that he is forgiven in Christ, and so delights in the word of the Lord. For he is in Christ, and His Holy Spirit is a river of life in him.

Let’s pray (properly this time!)

Lord, we repent of disregarding your word. Help us to delight in you. Help us to put church and Bible study first, help us to set aside time to be with you each day, help us to obey you in everything, however hard or costly that might be. Thank you for your forgiveness.
Thank you Jesus for not stumbling, for delighting in your Word, and for giving us your Spirit that we may too delight in your Word. Thank you for taking our wickedness, so that we who were chaff can now say “The Lord watches over my path”. Oh how we bless your Name!