19. “The Way of Wisdom” (Psalm 1)

Psalm 1

I know some of you have watched one of the interviews with Ben Sasse in the last few months.  If you’re not familiar with him, Ben Sasse was a senator from Nebraska; he’s also a Christian.  And back toward the end of 2025, just a little over 6 months ago, he was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer.  Since his diagnosis he’s done a number of interviews and as someone who knows God and knows the grace and love of God in Jesus, his courage and faith and hope in Jesus has been a powerful testimony as he faces death.  If you’ve not listened to any of the interviews he’s done, they are well worth your time.  

In one of those interviews – he’s being asked about his thoughts on American life and where we’re at as a nation.  

He speaks of how we are living in the midst of a digital revolution that’s both glorious and horrific at the same time. If we consider the changes that occurred during the industrial revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries – really incredible change occurred – society changed as factories were built and people moved into cities, as goods were now able to be mass produced, as things like trains could move goods and people further and more quickly than before – work and the economy changed, human community and relationships changed –   

And something like that is upon us – we are living in the midst of a digital revolution.   AI and tech is going to change human life.  Things that used to take time are going to be fast and easy.  Things are going to get cheaper – jobs and work will look different.     

In describing all this – Sasse says in the interview that whenever he has spoken at an event – doesn’t matter what the event is or what he was speaking on – one of the questions he gets is some version of – will AI and all these tech advances – will it bring heaven or hell? Is it going to make life awesome?…… Incredible? ……….Or terrible and miserable?  to which he answers – yes.  It’s going to bring both.  On the one hand there is likely to be the experience of abundance –  it will get easier and cheaper to do things; “we’ll have robots that build robots…” And yet – at the level of human meaning – he says – it’s pretty scary.  

What he goes on to say is, in essence, what we need is wisdom – To know what really matters and how to live in a way that fits that. And I think he’s right. 

What good is having abundance – what good is having incredible ease and comfort if our lives are not rooted in wisdom?  

The riches and the abundance – won’t be worth anything if we don’t have the wisdom to know how to live. What if we have riches and more stuff than we know what to do with – but life is devoid of meaning?  

It makes me think of the line in a T.S. Eliot’s poem – written almost 100 years ago, where he writes, 

Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?

Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

If I remember correctly, as a little kid we had a number of volumes of encyclopedia Britannica.  These were books……. With articles…… if you wanted to know something about science or history or art or geography or a variety of subjects you had to pull out a volume, find the page, read the article, and learn.  

Consider now the amount of information we have and can get on those square devices we have in our pockets is incredible, amazing – we are flooded with information  – and yet with all that information what have we lost in knowledge?  Can we put things together in a meaningful coherent whole?  And what about wisdom – what about lives rooted in truth, in sound moral conviction, in growing character and virtue –  What have we lost in wisdom?   

Isn’t this what we need?  When you think about your own life – navigating work and career, navigating relationships, experiencing at times the fog of uncertainty – not knowing what to do….. when you have various desires stir within you and wondering —  what’s the best way – how should I respond?  How should I live?  What should I do? How can I help?   You need wisdom.  

When you think about the next generation – that could be younger siblings, your own kids, your grandchildren or great grandchildren, ….. isn’t this what they desperately need?   Wisdom.  Having meaningful lives rooted in what really matters, in what really counts, in what is truly valuable.  

This morning we’re looking at Psalm 1, which along with Psalm 2 that we will look at next week, form an introduction to this whole book of Psalms.  The book of Psalms, as you may know, is largely a book of prayers – prayers where people with every conceivable emotion relate to God and cry out to God – sometimes in joy, but often in pain, confusion, misery, doubt, heartache.    

What’s interesting is Psalms 1 & 2 are not prayers, but they orient us with what we need to read and pray the rest of the book.  

And Psalm 1, in particular, begins by calling us to reflect on a life of wisdom, the way of wisdom. 

Wisdom in the Bible is not about knowing information – as if wisdom was simply amassing lots of correct information in our heads –  wisdom is about skilled living – knowing how to live well.  The Psalm opens by speaking of this “blessed man” – “Blessed is the man” – by which it means – “this is the good life”  – This way I’m about to describe – this is the best way to live; it is the way of flourishing.   

And as is typical in OT wisdom literature in the Bible, this Psalm teaches us the way of wisdom by contrasting two distinct ways – two opposite ways.  The Psalm cuts through the grey, the ambiguous, and shows – there are ultimately two paths, two ways.  These two paths go in opposite directions. And these two paths – they look different, they end different, because they are rooted in different loves.

If you have a bulletin or Bible out that would be helpful as we look at this passage together.

The two paths look different – they manifest differently in a person’s life – consider the contrasting images in v. 3-4

The person who is blessed, who is living the good life, living in the way of wisdom, the way of flourishing  – we are told what this person is like – 

1. 3 He is like a tree – Think of that image of a tree, what comes to mind?  

For me growing up my grandfather had a number of trees on his property – lots of apple trees, at least one peach tree, various other trees, some that were great for climbing.  When you think about a person’s life described like a tree – you think of a life that is rooted and firm – it’s not pushed over easily.  A person who is described like a tree can be blown by strong winds, they can go through storms and difficult seasons and yet survive.  This person is rooted;  this person is truly alive.   

The way of wisdom looks like this in a person’s life – rooted, alive, drawing from the source of life – after all this is a tree planted by streams of water – this tree, yields it’s fruit in it’s season – it’s not that it’s always producing fruit, like it’s some kind of productivity machine – not, it draws up the streams of life giving water ……and it grows……it takes in life and in due time, in it’s season, it produces fruit.  

I remember, as I was growing up, working in my grandfather’s garden and on a hot summer day there was a perfect peach hanging off the branch that was ready to eat – I pulled the peach off the tree branch and bit into it – it was the most delicious, rich, juicy peach I can remember.  

This way of wisdom results in a life like that – a fruitful life.  It produces something that comes from the life it has received, just as the waters are taken up by the tree, nourishing the tree so the tree can produce something that carries forth that life that can be enjoyed, this person is life-giving to to others.  

The opposite couldn’t be more different – v. 4 we read “The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.”  

We’ll come back to that term “wicked” in a few mins – it is the term most used in the Psalm to describe the opposite of this blessed path, this way of wisdom.  In each of the contrasts in v. 1 and 2, in v. 3 and 4, and in v. 5 and 6 – we see this term “the wicked.” 

Just as we got a picture, an image of the person who is blessed, the way of wisdom, we get a picture of the way of the wicked.  

And think about it – it’s not even a comparison of two trees – like one tree is fruitful, while one tree is fruitless.  The image of the wicked is of “chaff” – chaff is the outside part, the husk of a grain of wheat that’s removed when the grain is harvested, it’s light and weightless and has no value.    

Compared to a tree, chaff isn’t rooted in anything – it has practically no weight; it is blown away by a small gust of wind;  It isn’t alive and it doesn’t produce fruit.  

You see these two ways – they look different.  But they also end different – v. 5 makes this point as it says – “Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgement.”  This way leads to ruin.  And it is a logical ending – to choose the path of the wicked, the way of life that was ultimately rootless, detached from the source of life, the life that was shallow, disconnected from truth and substance will will ultimately be judged as such by God.   They will not stand; they will perish.  

The images are stark and extreme – but they are meant to help us ask the very important question – Where is my life going?  What do I want my life to be? 

Because – Don’t I want a life that is rooted, not easily blown into oblivion?  Don’t I want a life that is truly alive, that is connected to the source of life, that is able to take in that nourishment such that my live spread life to others – to my friends, my neighbors, my family. Don’t I want a life that in the end will stand and will last?

If we want that life – the Psalm tells us what we need.  (And it’s this that I’d like us to really sit with this morning)

The reason the way of wisdom produces this life that’s described like a fruitful tree, a life that will stand in the end – is because this life is founded on ….it’s rooted in a particular love.  And that is the Love of God and his word.   

One of the most important and central texts in the Hebrew Bible, the OT, is Deut 6.  This passage – called the “Shema” – it’s a call to love God and do all of life as those who hear and take in and remember God’s word.  

Deut. 6:4   “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 

The way of wisdom is this way – a life that loves God, a life where the everyday conversations  and thoughts are absorbing, and mulling over God’s instruction. 

And if we look at v. 1 & 2 – this is exactly what we see.   

The path of wisdom – of the truly good life – is one that avoids what we could call the “anti-deut 6 life” the anti-Shema life – 

The anti-Shema  life is the life lived – one step at a time, walking in the counsel of the wicked.  Which sounds really extreme – until we see that one of the defining marks of “the wicked” as this term is used in the Psalms, is practical atheism.  It’s actually very normal – It is living like God doesn’t matter.  

Instead of Deut 6 – absorbing and having one’s thoughts occupied with God’s instruction as they go about life – The wicked – “walk” one step at a time – living practically speaking, like God and his word are irrelevant.  They may believe God exists or not – but their way of life doesn’t take God into account.  Like all people – they plan, they dream – they deal with other people – they face difficulty and challenges and hardships – but they do it …… as if God didn’t exist or is practically irrelevant – he doesn’t matter.  

The anti-shema life – is one that stands firm with others who live life on their own terms – who stand on the principle – it’s my life – so it’s my rules. 

It’s a life that’s gets comfy in the seat of scoffers (as v. 1 puts it) – scoffers, sometimes translated “mockers” are those who can’t benefit from wisdom because in their own pride and arrogance they are sure they are right – If you’re comfy in the seat of scoffers – repentance – turning to God and finding life, having God work in and change you – is a distant, near practical impossibility for you – how can you allow God’s instruction to form you, change you, speak into your life, turn your toward God – if you assume you know what’s what – if you are sure and confident and think you’re right.  

All this, is what the blessed life – the way of wisdom avoids – because the good life – is founded on the love of God and his word.   V. 2 

his delight is in the law of the LORD,

and [so] on his law he meditates day and night.

We all delight in something  – We all aim our lives at something – there is something we are after, something we love, something that drives us. We delight in something.  The Good life, the way of wisdom belongs to one who loves, who delights in “the law of the LORD.”    

The word here “law” – is a bit misleading because when we read this we likely think of literal laws or commands or rules – the do’s and don’ts.  But the word here is “Torah” – This person’s delight is in the “torah” of the LORD – this is a word that means teaching or instruction.  Torah includes laws and commands, but it is much wider in scope – it is the bigger story – It is God’s teaching, his word, his revealing to us the bigger story of Creation – he is the God who made this world and made us to know him; it is the bigger story of his covenant – that he chose to bind himself to his people and be faithful to us even in the midst of our sin and failure; it is the bigger story of redemption – he is the God who saves, who makes a way when there is no way – he is the God forgives and restores. 

I’ve said it before and I never get tired of saying it – we all live in some story – some way of understanding who we are, what kind of world we live in, what’s the point of our lives.  We all have some story that tells us who we are and what we should hope in.

We live by some story and some story will be our meditation – it will be the thing we think about, dwell on, hope in….   As you think about your life – what occupies your thoughts – what are you hoping in for the future –  When you dream about your happily ever after – what is that story about?  – Is it rooted in God and his promises, his character, his instruction?  

Here’s the thing – The vast majority of people who are not on the path of wisdom – I don’t think it’s because they woke up one morning and said to themselves – I would like to live on the path of the wicked.  I would like to live on the way that leads to destruction – the way that lives as if someone or something other than God was really what life is all about.  

There’s a writer who puts this so well, I think, when he says this about idolatry – about the ways we end up living for something other than God.  He says,

“Our idolatries are less like conscious decisions to believe a falsehood and more like learned dispositions to hope in what will disappoint…Idolatry is caught more than it is taught.  We practice our way into idolatries, absorb them from the water in which we swim.”

We are going about life – and the most natural thing is to absorb the story of the world that those around us are telling – they might not be literally telling it, but they tell it in their practices.  Practices that say – what matters most is your performance – you have to win, you have to advance.  Or The busy life is the fulfilling life –  OR The way to a flourishing life for kids is to fill their schedules with as many extra things as possible.  OR What matters most is getting more – more vacations, more money, more stuff, bigger house.  These and hundreds of other stories like them float around us, we see them in those living around us – we are told that this is where the good life is.  

This Psalm is saying – No – how happy, how blessed is the person who loves God and God’s instruction. 

But what if you say – I want this – I want to love God, I want this life, I want to delight in God and his word – but If I’m honest I also want other things – And sometimes I want other things a lot more than I want God….. 

There’s a song that I listen to sometimes when I’m running – If I’m having sort of a more dark day or week – I’m probably listening to John Mayer when I run – Mayer is Sentimental, Existential, despair …. with some killer guitar lines.  So much of his music is about the struggle of life – of desires – of feeling a helplessness in the patterns of brokenness and dysfunction that feel normal and feel “like me” even while I’m seeing how living into these makes life hard, sad, and difficult – 

His Song – “In the Blood” – really gets at this question of change – he’s reflecting on what you could call – Generational sin – brokenness in his life and the life of his family – and the song is all about the question – can we change? – in chorus of the song he sings: 

I can feel the love I want, I can feel the love I need
But it’s never gonna come the way I am

He states well, I think – what we can sometimes feel – I can feel the love I want, I can feel the love I need, but it’s never gonna come the way I am ….  So what am I supposed to do? 

The Bible has good news for us – 

Because – This way of wisdom – it’s not just a way, like some set of practices – a Christian version of  “Atomic Habits” or any of the other life hack books out there by which we can change ourselves/ 

The Way of Wisdom is Ultimately a Person – it is Jesus Christ – he is the living breathing instruction of God, embodied … in a person.

Jesus Christ is the ultimate blessed man of Psalm 1. 

• He lived loving God with all his heart, soul, and strength.  

• He delighted in God’s word – at every point in his life – think about it – at every point – the story of Scripture and the words of Scripture flowed from him.  When he faced temptation, when he faced rejection, when the disciples said to him – no master – you will not die surely this will not happen to you –  AT EVERY POINT – his life was rooted in the promises and words of God.  he said – “have you not read…” “how else will the scriptures must be fulfilled.”

• Rooted in the promises and faithfulness of God – he went to the cross – 

• Delivered over for our transgressions, punished for our sins, and even here he’s holding on to the word of God – Ps 22 – My God, My God, why have you forsaken me; Ps 31 – Into your hands I commit my spirit. – at every point – loving God – relying upon God and his word.  

And God raised him up –  and in him, by faith we are numbered with the righteous able to stand.  We are forgiven, we are secure, we are rooted in the love of God – through him.  In and through him our lives are connected to the source of life.  

And he changes us – we receive him – all he is and all he has done – and being rooted and growing in him we are transformed by him.   He loves us into life – he grows us in love for God and God’s word.  

Which is why what we’re doing right now is so important.  Think about what we do on Sunday morning – 

• We come together to worship Jesus – to meditate together on God’s word   – We sing songs that root us in Scripture and in the truth of who our God is and what he has done.  We confess each week – often using the words from Heidelberg – my only hope in life and in death is that I belong to my faithful savior – Jesus Christ 
• We hear God’s word as it instructs us and points us to Christ.  
• We confess our sins – because of Jesus we can finally be honest about where we are and seek the grace and help of God which we can be confident of because of Jesus.  
• We come and eat at the table – by faith we are nourished by God and strengthened by Jesus.

This is an incredibly rich time we have to be together and to be strengthened together.  

Think about the difference it makes to follow Jesus together – just think about the difference all this will make – think about when you or someone you love is diagnosed with a terminal illness, or when tragedy strikes.  Your life will not be blow away –  Your hope for life is rooted in Jesus – and because Jesus has you – your life is secure and firm in him. No matter what happens – he has you.

Think about the different this makes for kids – we live in an area that cares deeply about kids and wants kids to thrive.  Think about how many things we have for kids – and yet – what do kids need most? 

– as important and good as many of these opportunities are – what they need most isn’t another trophy, or a few more points on their SAT, or any number of other things we could list – what they need most – is a life rooted in wisdom – rooted in the person who is wisdom – who alone can tell us and them – who we are, why we’re here, why we matter, how he has loved us and how we can belong to him and the certain hope that is ours through him. 

This and really so much more is what we receive through the one who is himself the way – who calls us to himself to learn from him and grow in him.