Feb 18 The Blessed man

Feb 18

Blessed is the Man

Ps 1:1  Blessed is the man…

Along with warnings to the ungodly the Bible contains blessings for those who follow Him.

Have you counted your blessings lately?  It is a good and pleasant thing to do, and will produce a thankful spirit in us. Sometimes we get so busy with the frustrations of daily life we focus on our problems, what we do not have, how we can get what we want, and enough concerns to crowd out our abundant blessings.  Stop and count 10 of your best blessings. I will count mine with you.

1.    I am a child of the King. I know Christ as my personal Savior and have received His matchless gift.

2.    I have a born again wife. I am reminded of the book of Proverbs

Pr 18:22  Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing,

and obtaineth favour of the LORD.

3.    I have God’s Word to guide me and am blessed to have a library for study

4.    My wife and I are in good health, and accept the aging process of..of..oh I can’t remember!

5.    We have a warm and comfortable home. God has provided us shelter.

6.    We have full bellies. God has provided us an abundance of food. Just look at my belly!

7.    We live in a country where we have freedom.  I can attend whatever church, go where I please, vote as I want, and enjoy the blessings of liberty.

8.    We have friends who are a blessing to us.

9.    We have challenges that help us enjoy the carefree days.

10.  I have a tractor with a snowblower and a heated cab. Now that is a great blessing!

I only listed ten, but could have done 100. Every day as I care for what needs to be done I am thankful that God has blessed us so richly.  

      I am blessed, not because of what God has given us over the years. I am thankful for what we have. When we decided to go to college we quit our factory jobs and our income dropped in 1968 from $33,000 to $3300 the next year. Why do I tell you this? Because we cannot remember when we were any less blessed, felt we were being deprived, or any other emotion that you might expect when the change on your dresser determines what you have for lunch.  We also were making house and car payments. God provided all we needed and even a few of our wants. We were young and happy. Now we are old and happy.

          The point of telling you these personal details is not to brag.  It is to tell you that happiness, blessedness, is not found in things but in the Lord. You do not need to have things, or perfect circumstances  or get rid of people who bug you, or be in the right mood to be blessed.

     Now what about the man in psalms 1? Why was he blessed?  There are things he does not do.

Ps 1:1  Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel

of the ungodly,nor standeth in the way of sinners,

 nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

 First we should understand what the word blessed means. To say it merely means happy is like saying an athlete who has won a gold medal is just OK with winning. Blessed is a plural in the Hebrew and could be read “blessednesses”.  Webster says “…pleasure, contentment and good fortune.”  When I read blessed I read “Double happinesses” 

He is blessed because he is not on the pathway of the ungodly.  His steps are not directed (walketh not) by what ungodly people say. The false philosophy of the world holds no appeal for him.

  He does not take any delight in standing with sinners, feeding on their way of thinking that omits God.  We see here a progression.  1.He does not walk according to the latest celebrities advice 2. He does not stand around with people of that crowd and exchange a way of thinking that excludes, no, denounces God. 3. He does not sit down, become comfortable, and join them in scorning those who have chosen a more righteous Godly path. He does not start walking according to their ways, or stand around discussing their way of thinking, and he certainly does not get comfortable and sit with the ungodly and join them in making fun of Christians.

What he does is in verse 2.

Ps 1:2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

His delight is to understand who God is, what He has done and what God wants for the blessed man’s life. He studies the Bible. He memorizes special verses. He seeks God’s will and allows God to lead him through life. He thinks about what God’s word says, he offers simple prayers as he is going about his day, and he thinks about the verses that give him instruction on how to live. He meditates on them, as a cow chews it’s cud. He does it because it is delightful, not burdensome.  He does not do it out of fear, or demand, or decree, but because he finds delight in doing it.

     Yes he is a blessed man. You and I are also a blessed people.  Now go delight yourself in the Lord.