Psalm 1. The Prayer of Righteous Person Is Effective

 

Sermon One Psalm One

Prayer Week One – Psalm One – The Prayer Of A Righteous Person

You can watch the video of this sermon here

Introduction

What do you want for yourself, your family, your church and your community in 2023? What do you want to ask God to do? We are all here at different stages of our lives, some similar to others, but still very different. Some people here are retired and are grandparents. Some people are married with children at different ages. Some of you are single and maybe want to be married. Some of you are too young to be thinking about things like this. You may be still at school and have a whole different focus. We are all at different stages of our life, and there will be many different things that you will want this year.

Wherever it is you are at, and whatever it is you want from God this year, you need to keep in tension these two important and necessary biblical truths: We have a good God who wants to give us good things, “17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (Jas 1:17). And that we will face trials and hard times, “2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (Jas 1:2-4). Sometimes the good thing we need is to be refined under pressure. We need to be careful as Christians not to over emphasize either of these two truths but to instead hold them in tension.

Some of us lean towards the idea that we shouldn’t be expecting too much from God, because he has already given us so much. Others among us might think that God is the great vending machine in the sky from whom we can get whatever we want. But neither of these things is true, they are both extremes that we can fall into for different reasons.

The truth is it is good to want good things from God, and it is good to persevere through the struggles he brings on us to discipline us. But either way, we need to recognize that we should be asking God to be working on our behalf. God is our heavenly father, he wants us to ask him for things, and he wants us to be refined in what we ask for. Therefore, to kick off this year, we are going to start with a bit of a miniseries on prayer, based on Psalms 1-3. We won’t cover a whole theology of prayer, but I want to touch on a few principles from the Psalms, and other parts of the Bible, to build on, and to encourage you to pray more this year. Let’s begin.

Why the Psalms? Why are we basing this miniseries on prayer from the Psalms? There are many great passages in the Bible about prayer, and great prayers to choose from, like:

The Lord’s Prayer - This is a beautiful prayer, and serves as an important prayer for teaching people to pray,

“7 And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 Pray then like this:

“Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name.

10 Your kingdom come,

your will be done,

    on earth as it is in heaven.

11 Give us this day our daily bread,

12 and forgive us our debts,

    as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13 And lead us not into temptation,

    but deliver us from evil.”

The principle from this prayer is that when you pray keep it short, keep it focused on worshipping God, honouring God, your need for God to provide for you, acknowledge your sins and your need for forgiveness, daily.

We could draw out a lot from this prayer.

Hezekiah’s Prayer – This too is a great prayer, Isaiah 37:14-20,

“14 Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. 15 And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: 16 “O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. 17 Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. 18 Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands, 19 and have cast their gods into the fire. For they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed. 20 So now, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the Lord.”

You can tell Hezekiah was nervous when he prayed this prayer, because he repeats the word Lord so many times. Nervous prayers tend to do this.

But this is a wonderful prayer of a man in desperate need, who knows that his God can do something incredible.

Dead Martyrs Prayer – Or we could look at Revelation and see how the saints in heaven still seek God in prayer, and what we can learn from how they pray, Revelation 6:9-11 –

“9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 11 Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.”

We should not pray to these people, but we can learn from their prayer.

We see from their prayer that it is thoroughly righteous and good to pray for God to bring vengeance on the wicked. It also shows that it is normal for good people to wonder when God will bring an end to evil.  

There are many other examples of passages we could look at to learn about prayer in the Bible. The reason I have chosen the Psalms, and the first three Psalms, is because of this: prayer is ultimately a theological exercise.

Theology just means knowledge of God: Theo = God, Logos = Word, knowledge, science. So, theology just means thinking about God. Everyone then is a theologian, because everyone thinks or speaks at some level knowledge about God. The question really is how good a theologian are you? No one is a perfect theologian, and some are better than others.

But the reason I bring this up here, is this: if theology is how you think about God, and we all think about God to some degree, then it is important to understand that how you think about God will determine how you pray, and how powerful your prayers are.

That is why the Bible gives us the Psalms. It is an entire collection of prayers and songs from which we can learn to pray like the great saints of the past.

A lot of the “mysteries of God” or the ways we should live, or the ways we should think, or act, or what we should do in this life, or pray, are found in the Bible for us. And we could discover them for ourselves if we were to just read it.

This does not mean teaching is not important from the pulpit or in Bible studies and things like this. But a lot of the questions you want answered from the Bible can be answered by becoming familiar with the Bible.

Learning to pray really well, and know what to ask for, and how to ask for it, is just like anything else in the Bible. It comes from an intimate knowledge of God and his word, and from deep reflection and study, and anyone can do this.

The Psalms were specifically designed to do this, which is why we are beginning with these first 3 Psalms. What I want to do over the next few weeks, is give you a bit of an introduction of how the Psalms want you to think when you are praying to God, and then I want to encourage you to go further into the Psalms and meditate on them more and more as you pray this year. So, let’s get into Psalm 1.

Blessed (v.1) – The very first word of the Psalm is blessed, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;…” Blessed means sacred, happy, well off, taken care of, nourished, having received good things. It even carries with it a sense of divine favour, he or she who is blessed is blessed by God. You want to be blessed, I want to be blessed. To be blessed is the best thing. Prayer is about bringing down God’s blessings from heaven to earth.

Many Christians believe that the aim of life, the aim of things like marriage, work, Christian friendships etc, are not to make you happy, but to make you holy. That holiness is the highest priority. But this is backwards. The goal of all of life is joy, “11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Ps. 16:11). The highest goal in life is joy, the highest achievement is true happiness.

The question is, wherein do you find true happiness? You find it through holiness.

Happiness comes from holiness (v.1-2) – “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; 2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.” The goal of life is blessed joy, but this sacred joy, this blessedness, comes from avoiding the counsel of evil men, avoiding the ways of the rebellious, ignoring the mockers, and planting your life squarely in the teachings of the word of God. This is where true joy comes from, this is where true and powerful Christian living begins.

The world wants to throw wickedness in front of you, everywhere you go. It will seek to try and entice you with evil, to encourage you to find your joy in evil.

This works because sin and rebellion can be fun, for a time. It can be enticing. Our nature tends to it because we want to have joy, and because we can be lazy we like to get it by short cuts.

But true and lasting joy, blessedness can only come through seeking holiness. There is no short cut.

(v.1) You must avoid the company of those who can destroy you and entice you. If this means changing where you live, where you work, where you go to school, where and who you socialize with, then make that change.

(v.2) You must not just read the bible, but cultivate a delight in meditating on it. Old and New Testament. This comes about by meditating on it day and night and trusting in what it says.

The reason this is important for your prayer life, is because you can’t just keep knowingly sinning and doing dumb things and think you can pray your way out of it. The Bible warns us about thinking this way;

-        Psalm 66:18-19 – “18 If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. 19 But truly God has listened; he has attended to the voice of my prayer.”

-        James 5:16 – “16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”

-        1 Peter 3:7 – “7 Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.”

The Bible emphasizes again and again and again, that how we live impacts our prayers.

This does not mean we have to be perfect, not at all. If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. But prayer is part of the sanctification process. Our prayer needs to have a daily recognition of our sinfulness and therefore our need for forgiveness. As we grow in this understanding we become better at praying for the kinds of things that God wants us to pray for.

“The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” This is why the prayer of the righteous person is powerful and effective, the more you grow in your faith, the more you will come in line with the will of God. You start to think more and more like he would have you think.

Paul puts it this way, 1 Corinthians 2:16 - “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.”

This is a remarkable comment. In some ways it is hard for us to comprehend how God could grant us such a gift. But Paul is talking about how the Holy Spirit leads people into the truth and wisdom of Christ, and this happens as you are sanctified. The more you grow in the Spirit, the more you start to think the things Christ would have you think.

This is why Paul was such a powerful prayer. Therefore, it is so important that you deal with sin in your life.

Psalms is a book of prayers and songs, and it begins by talking about how important it is to live righteously, according to the word of God, because this makes a difference in how you will bear fruit in this world.

Bearing Fruit (vv.3-4) – The righteous man, the righteous woman, is like a bountiful tree that produces great fruit, “3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. 4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.”

It is magnificent how great a tree can grow. They can grow magnificently and spread a canopy across the sky the size of a small field. They bear all kinds of magnificent fruit. They say that money doesn’t grow on trees, but no one considers the coffee tree when they say that. Have you seen how much they charge for a coffee these days? Get a few of those and you can rake in the cash.

The righteous man, the righteous woman is like a bountiful plant. They bear fruit, and prayer and answer to prayer are both fruit.

Prayer itself is the fruit of a heart that knows how much it needs to rely on God.

Answers to prayer is the fruit of a heart that has learnt to pray as God would have it pray.

Some people might consider the idea here that the righteous man prospers in all that he does difficult to take in. Does this mean if we are righteous we won’t face trials? Does this mean that the righteous man or woman will not face hard times and loss? No.

Here is the where the tension we talked about at the start of this sermon comes in. The good man, the good woman, will face trials, but even in those trials you will prosper. You will not lose your faith, you will not be beaten down, you will not walk away, if you continue in faith you will overcome, because of the one you trust in.

Think about this, how many good and innocent men in the Bible ended up in prison? Yet how many of them won favour while in there? How many good and righteous men and women faced hard times, but found the faithfulness of God in those hard times?

There are even accounts of Christians in history winning their torturers to the faith.

The righteous man may become wealthy and popular, this does happen. But it might just be that you become the respected helper in a very humble situation. It means also that whether you are facing good times, or hard times, success is on your side, because you will ultimately be rewarded in heaven.

The wicked will not face this. Even in prosperity they will live in fear. Even in riches they will live in terror of losing them. Even in good health they’ll not have peace. Even in apparent success it will not last, “4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.”

They might appear to prosper for a time, but they don’t prosper for long. Remember how Asaph went into the sanctuary of God, and was complaining about the success of the powerful and wicked, but while he was there he discerned their end, and it is not a good end.

Judgement (vv.5-6) The righteous man knows how important it is for sin to be dealt with so as not to interfere with prayer, he knows how important it is to bear good fruit, and he also knows who he is going to face on that final day, “5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; 6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.” The righteous prayer does not just deal with their sin before God, because they want to pray more effectively and bear more amazing fruit. The righteous prayer also deals with their sin before God, because they want to hear those words from Jesus, “Enter my dear child, I knew you” or “well done good and faithful servant.”

Jesus says these powerful words in Matthew 7:21-23 –

“21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”

The righteous man, the righteous woman, who prays, doesn’t pray simply to bear fruit, or simply to have effective prayer. They also pray because they just want to see God work in this world as he wants. Their heart is aligned with the heart of the father, with the works of the father.

They know that at the end of the day the most important thing is not what you achieve in the life. The most important thing is this: did you know Jesus and did he know you?

“…for the Lord knows the way of the righteous…” Prayer is part of how we get closer to God, closer to knowing his heart, and closer to knowing that we are in the right way, the way of righteousness, the way that Jesus knows.

It is part of how we ensure we are among those who will be welcomed into heaven.

The wicked, they will come from all places and all walks of life, even the Church. Some of them will be famous public prayers. Jesus tells us that the hypocrites pray long and public payers. He tells us that the wicked are known for public acts of righteousness. He tells us that the wicked get the seats of honour and are often respected leaders among God’s people.

The righteous are those who know God and are known by God, and our prayer life is part of that.

Application – So for application, I want to ask you a couple of simple questions: What is your heart when you pray, is it to know God more, to be conformed to his image, to have your sin dealt with, and to have God’s blessings brought down to earth in greater measure? Or is there another reason why you pray?

Peter would tell us to examine our hearts.

Paul would tell us to continue to aim upwards in our call for Christ.

John would say, that God is love and love is found in those who truly love the Lord.

What is in your heart when you pray? Only you can answer that.

Conclusion – The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. Prayer is part of the vital lifeblood of our faith, let me encourage you to examine these passages we have explored this morning, so that you and I can have our prayer lives conformed more to ask for the things God would have us ask. Let’s pray.