Setting:Traditional Worship
Length: 30:21

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Title: The Present and Future of the Blessed, part 2 of 2
Commentary: part 2 is an emphasis on the future
Main Scripture: Psalm 1
Main Topics:

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Review of part 1:

-this man is happy…..because, he has chosen NOT to do certain things

          -NOT…walk in the counsel of the wicked, #1
          -NOT….stand in the way of sinners, #2
          -NOT….sit in the seat of mockers, #3

-we saw how this song speaks powerfully and poetically about a degenerative process that happens in our lives if we are not careful

Ps.1:1
The man in Psalm 1 is blessed….happy…fulfilled because his life is NOT like that
-because….his delight is in the law of the LORD,
       and on his law he meditates day and night.
-instead of a life spiraling out of control, the blessed life delights in the “law” or the instruction of the Lord
Tree

Not so the wicked!
         

threshing floor

winnowing

-the tree vs. the chaff

-the everyday unbeliever is like chaff
….problem is…we don’t always view the unbeliever this way
-they don’t look like chaff to us

Asaph….in Psalm 73
          Surely, God is good to Israel
                   To those who are pure in heart
          But as for me, me feet had almost slipped
                   I had nearly lost my foothold
          For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked

-UNLIKE the happy man in Psalm 1 who delights in the law all day long, Asaph wrote in v.14
          All day long I have been plagued
-the success of the unbeliever and Asaph’s inability to understand it….was driving him crazy
-the first 16 verses of Psalm 73 is an honest-gut-renching confession of a believer’s confusion about the present life
…BUT, verse 17 of Psalm 73 provides a dramatic turn
-Asaph, in stunning revelation, writes…
          Til I entered the sanctuary of God;
                             Then I understood their final destiny
-in other words, entering the presence of God and seeing things as God sees them….helped him to understand the present life
          -that THIS present life is really just a prelude INTO another life
                   -that the present prosperity of the wicked is NOT a guarantee of their future happiness
          -and this FUTURE perspective helped him understand the present

-and THAT is what chaff does in Psalm 1:4
          -when it describes the unbeliever as chaff
          -chaff is more than a description of their present condition but an   indicator of their future destiny

4  they are like chaff
-this is where the song takes a dark and dramatic turn
         

-so, by using chaff, the songwriter, under divine inspiration to write the Holy Word, he SUDDENLY ushers in the FUTURE

-they are like chaff

Verse 5
5  Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
          nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

-the blessed man makes his decision in the present and his decision is
fully realized in the future

For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, v.6

the way of the wicked will perish

-in other words….before you read the other 149, read this one first
-read it first and understand it’s simple message

Listen to part 1:

Here's another sermon about looking into our future

Compare Psalm 1 with Matthew 5:3. Their unique positions in the Bible are similar.

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