Blessed Are You (2)…
Psalm 1
Psalm 1 and 2 are psalms that
prepare us to read the rest of the book of Psalms. Blessed is the one who is
attentive and receptive to the Word of God.
We are in the third and last
week of stewardship Sundays. As you realize, I approached the matter of
finances in a quite different way. I mentioned this before and let me stress it
again, “God does need our finances. God wants, and demands, our heart.” This
means according to our Psalm, blessed is
the man who is attentive and receptive to the Word. To be blessed is not
just material things. According to our scripture, to be blessed means
being hungry for God,
being empty and poor in Spirit and ready to be filled,
being receptive to His Word,
abiding in Him.
taking the Word of God seriously, loving God and loving the
neighbor and family like oneself.
Let us examine the 1st
psalm again. It starts with the word Ehser, or Makarios, blessed, content, happy for the man who
does not walk in the ways of wicked. The psalmist gets our attention by
defining the BLESSED in negative terms.
He does it intentionally; David wants to put a contrast between the man who wants to obey God and the one who refuses
to obey.
Choices, we
make choices. Do you want to perish or be blessed? The psalmist is very clear
and wants the hearer to make a choice.
I like the way he draws a
picture for the one who is receptive to the Word of God. The person is like a tree planted beside the water.
The best news is that God is our resource. God is our refuge,
God provides our spiritual food. Water, is a precious thing in the world and is
becoming more so in the future. Some experts say that there will be war between
nations for water.
I remember how life was so
dry in the deserts of
How about
This psalm was written in
The contrast to that image is
those who are not rooted near the river. They are like CHAFF (m.y.i bes) that winds
can blow away. The image of chaff, a useless thing, is used in the Bible many
times.
Psalm 35:5 “May
they be like
chaff before the wind,
with the angel of the LORD driving them
away;”
Isaiah 17:13
“Although the peoples roar like the roar of surging waters,
when he rebukes them they flee far away,
driven before the wind like chaff on the hills,”
Zephaniah 2:2 “before the appointed
time arrives
and that day sweeps on like chaff,
before the fierce anger of the LORD comes
upon you,
before the day of the LORD's
wrath comes upon you.”
David describes the righteous
in Psalm 1 by using 17 words. He
describes the wicked, ungodly by using 6
words. Please be careful with this concept. God does not want us to judge
people. David is not judging people. People who make
their choice in not abiding in God, make
their own judgment. The wicked is not described as a vicious person, but a
person who rejects God. Who thinks he/she knows everything. A
person whose ego is the center. I don’t decide who is in what group. God
is our judge. Your choices make a difference. King David is very clear in his
Psalm 1: one has to make a choice.
In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus
describes how a Christian is blessed. We call these the Beatitudes. There are
eight of those statements. Three groups of the CACC studied the Beatitudes in the
last months. I have read a good summary by Max Lucado
that has a sequence:
1. First, we recognize we are
in need (Blessed are in poor in spirit);
2. Next, we repent of our
self-sufficiency (Blessed are who mourn)
3. Then, we quit being in
charge and surrender control to God (Blessed are the meek)
4. Then we are grateful for
His presence so that we yearn more of Him (Blessed are those who are hungry and
thirsty for righteousness)
5. Next, as we grow closer to
Him, we become more like Him. We learn to forgive others (Blessed are the
merciful)
6. Then we change our outlook
(Blessed are pure in heart)
7. Then, We love others
(Blessed are the peacemakers)
8. Last one is we learn to
endure injustices (Blessed the persecuted ones)
In all these sentences, I do
not any see material blessings. Although God is a provider, and according to
His will he will provide, but the emphasis here is on our hearts. Where is our
heart? It starts from allowing God to transform our life. There is no time
management; there is self management. We learn to give when our lives are in
tune with God. We become blessed; we become content in Jesus; we become joyful
givers and happy persons.
I would like to end this
series by a prayer that King David
prayed. He had the desire to build a temple to the Lord. God did not allow
him, because his hand was full of blood (too many wars). But God allowed his son Solomon to build it.
In this prayer, David is thanking God for everything, for all the blessings
that they have. This prayer is written in the book of 1 Chronicles 29:10-20.
I will start from verse 14.
“But who
am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as
this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from
your hand.” (Do you remember last
Sunday when we said time belongs to God and everything belongs to Him.)
“We are aliens and strangers in your sight, as
were all our forefathers. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope.” God gave us hope through Jesus Christ. We are not aliens
anymore. He knows us by our names.
“16
O LORD our God, as for all this abundance that we have provided for building
you a temple for your Holy Name, it comes from your hand, and all of it belongs
to you. Again it is reminder that whatever we have- building, missions, Sunday
school, Christian education, Bible studies, badveli, secretary, caretaker,
everything belongs to God.
“17
I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity. All
these things have I given willingly and with honest intent. And now I have seen
with joy how willingly your people who are here have given to you.”
Vartan and his friends
willingly gave their life to the Lord. Today we can worship in Armenian because
many martyrs gave their lives for the sake of the Gospel. Today we leave in the
Amen