Living Manna

Are you happy today? Psalm 1:1-6 right at the beginning of Psalms, it talks about a blessed man. A blessed man is a happy man. Number 6:24-26. God wants us to be happy more than we want to be happy. He is giving us the way to find happiness through the bible. The word “blessing” or “blessed” in both Psalm 1 and also number 6, is “esher” which literally means blessings with the connotation of happiness. According to Deuteronomy 33:29, we are the happy ones, the blessed ones because we are saved and called by the Lord our God, we belong to Him, and He protects us.

1. Who is the unhappy?

(i) Process of becoming unhappy
Psalm 1:1 speaks of how blessed are the ones. From here we get a hint of how the unblessed ones are.

a. Walking in the counsel of the wicked
The word “counsel” is etsa in Hebrew which means advice or counsel. Mankind has fallen because Adam and Eve took the advice of the evil serpent. 2 Samuel 15:31 talks of Ahithophel who was supposed to counsel David but he took the wrong side of Absalom. The evil counsel of the wicked is always trying to take us away from being with God, from making God into the centre of our life, from worshipping God as our only God, from serving God as the king of all kings. This counsel of the wicked leads us away from uprightness. Uprightness is being honest and being in line with God, having no deception, taking in no deceptive Word, but receiving the Word of God as it is. (Romans 8:5, Romans 7:25) Psalm 1:1 this “walk” connotes our daily conduct, direction, pace. Enoch walking with God means he walked with God with the same purpose, looking at the same destination at the same time. Following the counsel of the wicked means, we are walking the wrong way. (Psalm 5:9-10, Psalm 36:1-4)

b. The next step is standing in the path of sinners.
“Stand” is amad, which means to stand or take one’s stance. It speaks of your views, your spiritual state and spiritual position, where you are located. Psalm 17:4, Psalm 119:104. Taking a stance in the path of sinners means that path has become your place. If so, we need to hurry up and turn around, that is repentance.

c. Sitting in the seat of scoffers
Sitting is settling down, being comfortable in that place. The word “scoffer” in Hebrew is litz, which means to scorn, to talk big, to mock, to humiliate others. Sitting around gossiping and talking and mocking and talking big. Meaning, making up and blowing up things, deception. Proverbs 15:12 is a state where they will not receive the Word and advice anymore from the bible, or from people of God. He will not go to the wise, the wise is referring to Jesus Christ eventually who alone has great wisdom. What about our lives today? Are we avoiding the truth? (Hebrews 12:6, 8) These are the unhappy in Psalm 26:4. May we not stand in the path of sinners nor sit in the seat of scoffers. Where is your place today?

(ii) What is the end of those who follow and walk in the counsel of the wicked, stand in the path of sinners and sit in the seat of scoffers?
(Psalm 1:5 NKJ) Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
They cannot stand in the judgment, they cannot persevere because they don’t have the Word that will take them through to the end. They do not have the Word that will last through the trials and judgment and tribulations of the end times. (Psalm 1:4) This wind is the wind of tribulations and it will be blown away by the tribulations. (Proverbs 19:29, Hosea 13:3) It is only when we have the Word of God that gives us peace. (Psalm 1:5-6, Proverbs 10:25)

2. Who are the happy ones?

For you to be happy, you need to be satisfied with what you have, where you are, and who you are. The one who is truly happy is the one who is able to give thanks today, rejoicing and smiling on judgment day, the one who will enjoy the eternal blessing in the kingdom of heaven. That is the true victor and true blessed happy one. In order for that to take place, for us to be the happy ones, we need to invest. Where are we to invest and put our hope?

(i) Delight in the law of God (Psalm 1:2, Philippians 4:11-12)

(ii) We have to meditate on the Word of God day and night.
Meditate in Hebrew in “hagag” which means to think deeply, delve in, really try to understand. Is the Word of God affecting me, and changing my lifestyle around, and giving me peace, taking me away from sinful ways?

3. The blessings when we live and construct our lives on the Word

(i) The blessing of yielding fruit in its season
(Psalm 1:3) The blessing is when you do work, God will bless you with the fruit of your work, there is result, joy, delight, reward, satisfaction. What a blessing it is to feel that satisfaction and reward after our work daily as we come home from work, when there is satisfaction and thanksgiving.

(ii) Leaves will not wither
The blessing of our leaves not withering, our body not withering away, our strength not withering away. Still fresh like an evergreen tree. (Jeremiah 17:5-8) These people will be like trees planted by streams of water and will never wither.

(iii) Prospering in whatever you do
Our children growing up in faith, God protecting them from the influences and wrong counsels of this world. (Proverbs 1:3, Psalm 1:6, Job 15:8)

AMEN