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This is week #11 of our journey through the 52 Key Chapters of the Bible. This clip is a quick overview of some of the blessings and treasures that I found this morning with my small group study. This is also an invitation to join us and start anywhere in the 52 weeks and start a journey through God’s Word. This is the most life-challenging, spiritually-changing study I’ve ever done. Over the course of these 52 weeks, you will study all the attributes of God and every key doctrine of the Bible. All that and more are distilled in these 52 key passages.

Transcript

Welcome to the book of Psalms. This is our 11th week going through the key chapters of the Bible. I would like to show you why the book of Psalms is so important and why Psalm 1 is truly the gateway, not only to the book of Psalms but it’s also the gateway to the whole Bible. More than both of those, it actually tells us in Psalm 1, the gateway to God Himself. Let me show you what I mean. Look down in your Bible, Psalm 1, and I’m going to read it to you. For those of you that are following along with this 52 Greatest Chapters of the Bible study, which I have right here in my notes, you can download this from Facebook. We have a special page that is all the materials for this course, that you can find on Facebook.

You notice we’re on week 11, Psalm 1, the blessed ones and the cursed ones. Let me read to you a little bit why this is so important. Why truly, for many people, the Psalms are the go-to book.

Psalm 1 says, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful.” The very first word of the Psalm is Blessed, which in Hebrew is hā’îš’ašrê.

Many of you, you’re following along either on YouTube or you’re in one of my small groups. We’re actually sitting and going through this, and you say, I haven’t been to Bible School yet. I haven’t gone to seminary. I don’t know Hebrew. Look now at this tool I have in front of you. In front of me right now, the MacArthur Study Bible.

This Study Bible, you notice it has all these sections. The title, the authorship, the background, the historical and theological themes, interpretative challenges, and an outline. Then over here, this is the 1st Psalm. Right there is Psalm 1 and notice that the scriptures are the top third of this page. The bottom two thirds are all notes. Right here, look. Look what it says in this note, here in verse 1, I’ll read it to you. Blessed from the perspective of the individual, this is a deep seated joy and contentment from God.

Look up from your Bibles. You can have the benefit of someone who understands the Hebrew language, the Greek language, someone who understands the whole scripture, by getting a study Bible. That’s why everyone that’s going through, either in person, in small groups, or here online, this 52 Greatest Chapters of the Bible study, they get their own copy of the MacArthur Study Bible. You say, why are you promoting just that one? I’m here in my library. I have over 7,000 books.

You can see, down in the corner I actually have 80 different study Bibles. I’ve read every one of them. I’ve read the notes. I’ve read the introductions. What I’ve found is the most consistent, the most thorough, and also the most closely attached to the scriptural flow in a Study Bible that I’ve ever found is this one, the MacArthur Study Bible. It was my privilege years back to teach at the Master’s Seminary. Dr. John MacArthur has put what I call a two year Bible College education into this Study Bible. I commend to you the value of this Study Bible.

Let me go through the 52 Chapter devotional plan, because this is just a quick video to encourage you to keep going. Here are my notes. The first element we always do, and this is week 11 in Psalm 1, we give a title to this chapter. The Way of Blessing and the Way of Cursing is my personal title. You can make any title you want. The goal of this is for you to get a grasp, a mastery feeling, like you really have a knowledge of the scriptures from cover to cover. The reason it’s 52 chapters, we cover one chapter passage each week. We work on it every day of the week. This is just like your kickoff launch for the 11th week to know the book of Psalms.

Number one, you write down a title. I sat this morning, I was praying and reading this and I said, this chapter really is about the way of blessing and the way of cursing. Because, think for a minute, the book of Psalms was Jesus’ favorite book of the Bible. Did you know that He quotes from it more than any other book of the Bible? It’s not His favorite author because the book of Psalms has seven or eight different authors. Isaiah was Jesus’ favorite author, but His favorite book was the book of Psalms. By the way, words from the Psalms are the last words on Christ lips before He dies on the cross. They’re the first words that He shares when He’s opening the scriptures to them at communion. Jesus was a man of the Psalms. Truly they reflect His life and everything that God portrays to us about Christ. The book of Psalms has many lessons.

The first part we do is title it. The second part of our studies, we note the lessons. If you can see here, I have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 lessons from this chapter. Number one, the blessed or the righteous are, and now look at verse 1, separated. It says they, “walk not in the counsel of the ungodly,” they’re separated from ungodliness. “Nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful.” Number one in verse 1, they’re separated. Verse 2, they’re satisfied. “His delight is in the law of the LORD.” Then, verse 3, they’re stable. “He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water.” In the end of verse 3 it says, “Whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.” I wrote down that they’re secure. The first lesson is the blessed are, the righteous are, separated from ungodliness and sinners. Satisfied, stable like a tree, and secure. They are bearing fruit.

Second lesson, the cursed… Look up from your Bibles for a second, remember I said this is the gateway to the Psalms, to the whole Bible? Did you know the whole Bible can be summarized by the 1st Psalm? It’s a contrast. The whole Bible is a contrast between the righteous and the unrighteous. Those who worship God and those who don’t. Those who are following God’s way and those who aren’t. That’s the whole Bible. The book of Psalms, as you’ll see in the Study Bible notes, explains practically what the life of the godly and ungodly looked like.

In this contrast, look back here. Verse 1 talks about the righteous. The cursed are starting in verse 4. See what it says, “The ungodly,” that’s the other, there’s the godly or the blessed or the righteous, and then there’s the ungodly or the cursed or the unrighteous. “The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away.” Chaff, that’s what’s left. When you are harvesting wheat in an agrarian economy, they would have their oxen coming with a sledge, grinding their harvested wheat, and they would throw it with a pitchfork in the wind. That’s why a threshing floor was on a windy hill. The wind would blow away the chaff.

See what it says in verse 4? The ungodly “are like the chaff which the wind drives away.” They’re driven, always going somewhere but nothing is lasting in their life. “Therefore the ungodly,” verse 5, “shall not stand in the judgment.” They’re doomed, I wrote my notes. “Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.” In my notes, I wrote there that they are deprived of the presence of God. By the way, an ungodly person, guess what they really want. They don’t want God. They don’t want His righteousness. They don’t like His people. They don’t like His word. They get to forever live without God. They’re deprived. In my notes, the last one I put is verse 6, they’re damned. It says in verse 6, “the way of the ungodly shall perish.”

The next lesson is a third lesson. The blessed or righteous are focused on meditating on God’s law. Notice what it says there, “His delight,” verse 2, “is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates.” In my notes I wrote down, look up Joshua 1:8 and the whole chapter of Psalm 19 that we’ll cover later is about meditating on God’s word.

The fourth lesson I found is, the blessed or the righteous are planted like a tree by waters in the desert. That’s describing Jeremiah 17. Jeremiah 17 says that we can be like, a tree in the middle of the desert. That the harsh desert conditions don’t dry us up and wither us, but we can flourish. What a way to live. What a way to share Christ. During my days in seminary, I was a corporate salesman. I used to travel. Los Angeles was part of my territory. I can remember many times, sitting, having breakfast before I went out to work, at a diner in downtown LA. I’d be sitting there, I had my Bible, and I’d be looking down reading it. The person sitting next to me, now this is Los Angeles in the 1980s, I would notice when I saw them out of the corner of my eyes, that they were going like this and trying to see what I was reading, and hoping that I would talk to them, and explain to them why in the middle of thriving Los Angeles someone would read that antique book called the Bible. It’s because I was like a tree planted in the desert. LA was like a dessert. They were looking for more, and more, and more of everything. Totally unsatisfied and restless. I was peaceful, and happy, and contented. See what Psalm 1 says? Blessed is the man contented, and full of joy is the person that walks with God. How does that happen? Being planted in the word.

The fifth lesson I found is, the book of Psalms, Psalm 1 in the Bible is summarized as the godly or the ungodly. There are two types of people. Two pathways of life. The way of righteousness and unrighteousness. Two destinations.

Finally, number six of the lessons I found is, worshiping God is the key to life eternal, and present joy and contentment. I reference Psalm 1 with Revelation 19. Let me read to you Revelation 19, verse 10. One of the blessings of studying the Bible is, the 10th verse tells us, “And I fell at his feet to worship him.” This is John, to an angel. “But he said to me, ‘See that you do not do that! I’m your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus.’ “ Here’s the key, “Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” The whole Bible is about worshiping God. The book of Psalms is the gateway to worshiping God.

There are two types of people, those that worship God and those that don’t. As you study this first chapter this week, and it takes you on journeys all over the Bible, I hope that you’ll see it’s the gateway to blessing, the gateway to contentment, to true peace.

Now the last piece, look down at my notes here. We title whatever passage we’re studying. Psalm 1: the Way of Blessing, the Way of Cursing. We find lessons. These are just the lessons I found this morning. There are so many lessons. These are just the ones I found this morning. Most people stop there. Don’t stop there. If this is the only week you watch a video, here’s the lesson. Never stop in your Bible Study with finding more information, that’s fruitless. Just information, as Paul said, makes us puffed up with pride. We have to apply the Word of God.

This is how Jeremiah said it. “Thy words were found, and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart.” What is eating the Bible? It’s applying it to my life. When I find a verse in the Bible, you know what my first thought is? Ah! I know someone that needs to hear this. My wife, my husband, my child, my employer, my employee, my neighbor, my roommate. No, that’s not what Bible Studies are about. Bible study is saying, this book is a mirror, I see myself reflected in that mirror and I see how far short of the image of Christ my life is. I asked God to change me.

Look down at my notes. You notice the bottom third of my page, it says prayer. I’m actually going to pray this so you can watch and listen. This is the prayer I wrote from this chapter. Lord, you have transplanted me into Your way, Your truth, and Your life. I’m so grateful for your blessings of joy, and peace, and contentment, and stability like that tree in Psalm 1. I want to walk your way, following you. Keep me from walking, standing, or sitting in the way of the ungodly like verses 1, 2, and 3. I hunger for your law. I want to meditate day and night in Your way. Help me to bear fruit for you. I rest in the truth that You know my way and are living in me and guiding my steps. For Christ’s sake I pray. Amen.

That’s the 11th week. I challenge you to join us going through the 52 Greatest Chapters of the Bible, the gateway to the book of Psalms, the gateway to the Bible, the gateway to God. God bless you in your study of His word this week.