Psalm 1 and Israel

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Good morning everyone. It is Friday, February the seventh, twenty twenty five. It is currently ten fifty am Central Time, and I'm coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here. In Abilene, Texas. Now, I know I'm supposed to be talking about that list I gave you yesterday and which things on that list are permanent, which things on that list are provisional, which things on that list are both. That's what I need to be talking about. But well, I got distracted, and I think what we're about to find out is that when it comes to our interpretation to some famous passages in the Bible, we should probably never say our interpretation is permanent because I think there's lots of times we need to change our interpretation, because I believe our interpretations tend to be very, very wrong. In fact, I'm I'm starting to think that the majority of our interpretations of Scripture are just completely fraudulent, wrong, self serving. We're self indulgent, self seeking. I don't even know all the different words they're They're all self focused. That's what's wrong.

1:35 I've talked about this a million times. The whole problem with the church, The whole problem with the church is the church is an organization where people come together so that they can talk about themselves. I mean, sermon after sermon, it's about us. It's about us. It's about us. It's about our problems, our needs, our wants, our desires, our struggles. Us us us us us us us. We go to the Bible and we make it all about us. It's me, me, me, me, mine, I you we it's it's it's that's that's what we do. And I understand why we want to go to church to hear sermons about us. I understand that. But the issue is what you want. Maybe even what you need shouldn't matter, because what should matter is when we open the Bible, what does it mean? And I know this, Every single book in the Bible was written to someone other than you or me. It was written to specific people in specific settings.

2:38 And I get so sick of. The Church saying, well, we have to consider the historical and textual context. Why you're going to mention it for five seconds and then your entire interpretation in most cases is going to abandon who it was originally four in the first place. So why even play the game? Why you know what you said? You just say the people the Bible was written to, they're all dead. They don't matter. It's all about us. That's basically what we should do. It's just playing a little game. It makes everyone feel ooh, my church cares about the historical context for five minutes. So I get really bothered by And this has been true within our study of Isaiah forty through fifty five. Sermon after sermon moves out the original recipients and moves us.

3:28 In, and they do so immediately. So as a result of that, I begin to question so many I begin to question basically the way most scripture is interpreted, especially in the Old Testament, because time and time again, I think, how did. We get how did we get inserted into this? Now? The reason I'm saying all of this is early this morning, I picked up the sermon's two point oh app I hit play on a sermon. I think it was in my feed tab. I think I was just looking around. Maybe I looked at newest sermons. I don't know. There was what three four in the morning. I have no clue what was going on. But I found a sermon entitled first Things. I'm like, okay, first Things. That sounds interesting, right, what are.

4:17 The first things? Why should I know about the first things? How important are the first things? All? Right? Do I have the first things? Do I need to get the first things? I need to know about the first things? And I hit play and immediately realize that this is a sermon on Psalm chapter one, the Book of Psalms, Psalm one, and I'm like, oh, okay, interesting. I don't remember anything in the sermon. I don't remember anything. I don't know if I slipped back into a coma. I don't remember anything. I think the only thing I remember at the beginning is there was. A lot of kids and it was loud. I don't remember. I don't remember anything that was said.

4:58 But immediately, like once I woke, I was thinking some one, some one. I don't remember anything about the sermon, and I started thinking. Huh, I would bet that most sermons make some one about us. Most would approach someone in almost a lordship kind of way. I wonder if all of those interpretations are completely wrong. I wonder if we could do a different one. Now I know that we should approach someone from a law gospel perspective. But I was thinking, maybe even that is not really being true to the original text. So I started working on it.

5:39 I have kind of a detailed outline of a new interpretation of some one, but you don't get that yet, because we're gonna go to this sermon that I don't remember. We're gonna listen to at least a little bit of it, just to see which direction they're going to go. I mean, for some I don't even know how it's possible. This is a sermon on Psalm one, and the sermon is twenty minutes long. How can you do a sermon on ps one in twenty minutes? That is right there. That's a miracle. Okay, people say miracles don't happen. It's a miracle. Okay, I'm being I'm being sarcastic here, So yeah, that's pretty amazing. But at the same time, let's be fair, right, I'm being a little being a little sarcastic, But now let me get serious. Kind of trying to be a little funny there, but let me be serious for a minute.

6:29 It is very possible that someone could cover Psalm chapter one and twenty minutes and do a far better job and be in a far more, far superior sermon than I could pull off in an hour and fifteen in an hour and twenty a right, because some people say you go too long, and there's probably sometimes truth to that, right, I could definitely manage my my I could structure things and manage things in a better way. So I'm just because you go long does not mean it's better. Just because you go short doesn't necessarily mean it's bad. But I'm just. Amazed that you could cover this and that short period of time. Now that maybe because you know, if I was a better communicator, I could do it in a shorter period of time.

7:11 So we're gonna at least listen to this. What we're what we're listening for, all right, what we're listening for is we're listening to basically capture his basic interpretive system, his interpretive framework for SAW one. I think it's gonna. Basically be kind of a moralistic Hey, guys, if you want to be blessed, you will do all of this, and if you don't, and I think there's there's some problems with that, and we will discuss it in a a little bit. We'll discuss it in a little bit from a number of perspectives. I my my, My default is to immediately go into a long Gospel interpretation of Psalm One, which I think is basically been abandoned by majority of Christianity, which I don't understand why, considering we supposedly aren't Catholics.

8:05 But that's okay. I think most of Protestantism takes more of a Catholic approach to it than it does a true, you know, law Gospel approach. But so I will mention that briefly depending on which way this goes, and then I'm going to get to the new interpretation. Right, So the law Gospel is not the new interpretation I'm going to offer. I'm going to offer a completely radical one that may ruin some one for you. All right, are you ready? Here we go. Let's at least listen to the beginning of the sermon and figure out exactly how they're approaching it. Psalm one, the first book of the Psalms. You'll turn there. It's the way of the righteous and the wicked. Blessed is the man who walks not in the council of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his life.

9:00 Ah he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit and its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaft the wind drives away. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the ways of the wicked will perish. Heavenly Father, as we prepare to hear your word, we humbly come before you, acknowledging our need for your Spirit to illuminate our hearts and minds. Your word is living an active sharper than any two edged sword. Yet without your guidance we cannot truly understand its depths or apply its truths to our lives. So we ask Lord, that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you would open our ears to hear, our minds to understand, and our hearts to receive the truth of Scripture. Remove any distractions or hardness of earth. It would keep us from listening to your voice. Help us to behold the beauty of Christ revealed in your word and be transformed by it.

10:07 In His name, we pray. Amen, you know what I'm going to say, Say it every single time, a million sermons, a million prayers for God to help us understand, to open our eyes, to give us understanding, to help us understand, to remove distraction, to show us what it means, to illuminate it, to enlighten our minds. Prayer after prayer, after prayer, after prayer, after prayer, after prayer, after prayer, after prayer, after prayer, after prayer, after prayer, after prayer, and after two thousand years, we don't agree on anything now. I don't know what you take from that. Pray, pray, pray.

10:48 God, open my eyes, God show me. God, give me understanding. God lead us to understanding, help us understand it, help us see, help us understand, help us understand, help us understand. And two thousand years later, no one can agree on one verse that has to. I don't know how else you can. I don't know what other conclusion you can come to than to say, guys, God's not helping us understand the Bible. He's not. If he was. After two thousand years, you think we could have figured out something, as we could have figured out baptism by now, don't you think? Don't you think we could have figured out the Lord's Supper by now?

11:28 I think maybe we could. Do you think maybe we could have figured out I don't know what's the proper governance of a church? I don't know. Is it congregational? Is it pastor? Is it elder? I mean, is it a prespiratory? All the different I mean, all the different ways? How should it be done? I don't know. You see what else? Do you think maybe after all of this time, God can help us figure out I don't know. Salvation? Do we understand it from a lordship way? Do we understand it in a Calvinistic way? Do we understand it in an Armenian way? What is the correct way? It's salvation? Secure? Is it not secure? I mean? On and on and on? What is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit? I can just go on and on. Scripture after scripture after scripture, where there are hundreds thousands of interpretations. We saw it just the other day. There's not even agreement on the audience for the sermon on the Mount for crying out loud like it is. Sometimes the smallest details which we don't understand. We heard just the other day a sermon where I think they gave this typical kind of statement of God giving us understanding, God helping us understand, and then they made comments about thirty three AD that were completely factually in error because they were borrowing information from sixty six AD. God did not intervene. God did not stop it. God did not say, let me explain to you how this really works, even though in that sermon they're supposedly a prophetess gave a prophet prophecy over this pastor's child about being musical, I mean,

12:59 for crying out loud out. If God is speaking like that, could he stop us from misinterpreting his word? And I know I get frustrated by it every single time we listen to a sermon. I understand that those are just that's just. What we're expected to pray, But at some point does anyone just go I don't get it. If the pastor is praying and God is answering the prayer of the pastor, then no one in the congregation can question his interpretation because he prayed for God to lead and guide him and in preaching and teaching, So then his preaching and teaching his influence guided protected by God. So the teaching has to be correct so that no one in the congregation can ever criticize the preaching. But if the people in the congregation are praying for God to open their eyes and help them understand, and they come to a different interpretation than the pastor, then the is God answering the prayer of the people in the congregation, but didn't answer the prayer of the pastor. Because how can two people pray for God to help them understand the scriptures and come to two different understandings? Man alive, I don't get it. That drives me insane, It really does, all right.

14:14 And guess what we're getting ready to find out? I wonder what's getting ready to happen? Here? Is he getting ready to offer an interpretation of some one that agrees with everyone in church history? Well, I can guarantee you that's not the case. So were the people in the past wrong and God led them in the rung? See, the minute you involve God in the interpretive process, you just end up with so many like is God playing a game on all of us? Here? All right, please take your seats. So tonight's sermon comes from Reverend Dale Ralph Phillips. Now he's a former pastor of Woodland Presbyterian Church in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and a former professor of Old Testament at Reformed Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi.

15:04 WHOA, So he's just going to read someone else's sermon. This is the most bizarre thing I've ever heard in my life. So he's just going to read someone else's sermon. Hey, tonight's sermon comes from this person. Here's his qualifications. So he's just going to read someone's sermon. Did that catch anyone else off guard? Tonight's sermon comes from So have you ever heard anything like that in your life? Hey, Tonight's sermon I'm going to I'm going to basically give you the sermon of someone else.

15:53 It's one thing to say, Hey, I. Heard this sermon from so and so, and that's going to be the basis of what I'm going to speak. But you think you would be engaging it, right, Hey he said this, but what about that? And he said this? And what about like that is I gotta back that up. That's the craziest thing I've ever heard of my life. Is it just me? Maybe some of you are used to this gonna. I'm gonna play this again. Hold in your word and be transformed by it. In His name, we prayed demen. All right, please take your seats. So tonight's sermon comes from Reverend Dale Ralph Phillips. He's a former pastor of Woodland Presbyterian Church in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and a former professor of Old Testament at Reform Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi. For my note takers, as we heard Pastor mcgail this morning, mission, the importance of taking notes.

16:51 Three headings. We're gonna be talking about the direction of the believer's life, the description of the believer's life, and the destiny of. The Okay number one. Okay, this whole thing is baffley. Where's my note takers? Why do they need to take notes if it's already If you're just reading someone's sermon, just give everyone a copy of the printed sermon and be done with. Why don't you just email every text everyone? Hey, here's the sermon for tonight. Boom, and but did you note the outline? Did you get the outline? Did you see what the outline did? Did anybody notice the outline? I'm going to back it up. Listen to the outline. Did you see it? Did you hear it? Come on, you had to catch it. Did you catch it?

17:35 Gotta back this. Up in Jackson, Mississippi, or my note takers, as we heard Pastor mcdail this morning mission on the importance of taking notes. Three headings. We're going to be talking about the direction of the believer's life, the description of the believer's life, and the destiny of the believer's life. So the direction to the description and the destiny. Did you get that? The direction, the description and the destiny of what the believer's life. So we're in some one and instantaneously we are inserted into the text. We're gonna look at Psalm one tonight under three headings, the direction of the believer's life, the the description of the believer's life, and the destiny of the believer's life. It is instantaneously, it's just like boom, someone us. Now I am going to go in a completely I'm gonna challenge this in a dramatic way. But let's at least let him take this just We're not gonna listen to a.

18:46 Lot of this. I'm already baffled here. So this is a sermon where he's reading someone else's sermon, and someone else's sermon took some one and instantaneously made it about us. Here we go. The first question we need to ask tonight is why Psalm one is Psalm one? Why is it placed here first ahead of every other Psalm? All right, now, that's a good question. I like that. I like that. Why is Psalm one Psal one? Why is it go. Before all the others? I think that's a great question. I love good hermeneutical and interpretive questions. I'm gonna be curious of his answer right now. If the Psalm is about us, then I'm assuming the answer.

19:36 Is going to have something to do with us. But if the answer doesn't have anything to do with us, then all right, we'll see how this goes. And the church today we need help with praise. So why is in Psalm one fifty ps one? And we need to learn to worship? So why is in Psalm one hundred or ninety five Psalm one? What could be more winsome than plastering the of God across the front page of the Psalter. So why isn't Psalm one O three at the beginning? Maybe we need to show how it tuned the Psalms are to human needs and troubles. So why isn't Psalm seventy three Psalm one? Or with the breakdown in family life, maybe Psalm one twenty eight should be here. Or perhaps we first need a grand view of the majesty and wonders of God, so we think Psalm one thirty nine should be Psalm one. So why is Psalm one Psalm one? Because it packs a matter of such supreme importance in this song. Two ways, two humanities, two destinies are clearly spelled out. If you turn to Matthews Chapter seven, Verses thirteen and fourteen, we see Jesus. We see where Jesus summed up the concern of Psalm one, says enter by the narrow gate.

20:59 All right, So his he's claiming that Jesus and Matthew seven is summarizing the concern in Psalm one. Now is the purpose of some one and the purpose of Matthew seven the same. Now, Matthew seven. Is that a part of the sermon on the mound now? Is? Oh? Get there's a lot of interpretive assertions being made there, right, I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna right now. I could get way off track here and I could start doing a little bit of work. And he's like, is he reading Matthew seven back into some one? Is he reading someone into Matthew seven? Or is it just like, well, these two passages seem to have described two different ways or two different paths, So I'm just going to just put them together because they seem.

21:52 To be similar. Again, I death by cross reference sometimes bothers me. I'm not saying that this should not be something, should that sh and be investigated. And maybe he's a well, it's not him onto something. The sermon he is reading could be onto something, but we'll let it go a little further. Again, he's making it all about us or not him. The sermon he's reading is making. It all about us. Let's we'll just let it play out and then we'll we'll take this apart. For the gate is wide, and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow, and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. Psalm one depicts this in terse, stark, black and white, as if announcing let the clarity begin.

22:41 The Psalm is saying to you, nothing is so crucial as you're belonging to the congregation of the righteous. The Psalm contrasts the righteous and the wicked. We will not ignore the contrast, but will develop the teaching from the angle of the righteous or believing person. This brings us to our first point, the direction of the believer's life. Notice what the Psalm highlights about the direction of the believer's life and verses one and two. Here the Psalm shows where the righteous man gets his signals for living, what drives him and moves him and leads him along, and as if he has no concern whatsoever for decent marketing.

23:21 The Psalmist begins with a negative in verse one. The righteous man is described by what he shuns. The happy man, or the man enjoying God's blessing is the separated man, a man who is not in neutral, but who has a biased against evil in all of its forms. The three clauses are meant to say that the righteous man rejects the totality of evil. However, Allah, Derek Kinder, we can categorize these matters a bit. Okay, he's just reading someone else's sermon. This is the craziest thing I've ever seen. Okay, it would be one thing if you were reading maybe a historical sermon, like you know, I'm gonna read from Spurgeon. I'm gonna read from Calvin or Augustin or Tertullian or Afthanacius or I mean, like maybe maybe pulling from some early church father and I'd be very difficult and worthy to read. But Okay, it's just weird. He's reading someone who's pretty pretty relatively modern.

24:17 I think the person may having to actually be alive. It's just I don't get it. I don't get I don't understand what is happening, right, So he's just reading it. That's why it's only like twenty minutes long. He's just gonna read right through this. There's no expounding taking a part, but you can already hear the basic premise. Hey guys, someone is what you are supposed to do, and the implication is you can do it. Someone tells you what to do and the implication is this is. What we must do, and this is what we can do. Now. I completely reject it outright from right there, all right, I think this is very important most pastors. Most pastors typically read someone as a prescriptive text, where the believer is viewed as being fully capable of obeying and thereby receiving the blessing. It's like, hey, you want to be happy, you want to be blessed, you want to have this wonderful life, Well.

25:19 You have to do this. Well you don't do this, and you do this. That's the way it's typically preached in church after church after church. It's how I was taught as a teenager. If I want blessing, I will not do this, and I will do this. It's prescriptive. That's how it's constantly to do this. Now, I will argue all the sermons who approach someone as a prescriptive text that. We can obey, that we can accomplish it. One thousand percent fails to account for both human depravity and the reality that no one, not one person, apart from Jesus Christ himself, has ever perfectly fulfilled the law of God.

26:06 No one has, no one. Has delighted in God's law anywhere close to perfect Well, no one, and we play this game. Oh wait, to be blessed, you have to meditate on God's law day and night. So what do we say, will have a morning devotional and doing the evening. See, that's that's that's that's that's a that's a that's day and night. There you go, you'll do a little morning devotional, you'll and then you'll do a little night time Even if you go with that, that fulfills it. Then if you do a morning devotional, you do a nighttime devotional. That fulfills it. Even if you were to go with that concept. You know how many Christians do not do morning and evening devotionals.

26:50 So then that means no one is blessed. And if the kid a blessing is meditating on God's day, day and night. The wand To Church only have services on Sunday or why do they only have services on Sunday and Wednesday? You think the church would be open Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. They would be open in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening. Because the way of blessing is coming to meditate on God's word. So if you're gonna make this a requirement that we can do well, then you can't water down the requirement. I think the problem if you look at what someone's describing, it describes the ideal.

27:34 The righteous man who delights in the law of Lord, meditates on it day and night, and they prosper in everything they do because they are being blessed because they are well. Guess what they're not doing. They're not walking in the council, they're not standing in the way of sinners, they're not sitting in the seat of this coreful. I mean, you have to do it, not do and do all of this stuff, but you would have to do it perfectly. No fallen human being, and I'm gonna be I'm gonna scream this. No fallen human being meets this standard, not even believers. No one meets the standard. Not you, not your spouse, not your pastor, not your small group leader, not your Sunday school teacher, not your kids, not your neighbors, not your friends, not me, No one on the sermon's two point oh app nowhere on Christian YouTube, no one meets it. And if anyone thinks that they do. They're literally insane. If Psalm one is read basically like a checklist, Hey, this is how you get blessing, then it will place the weight of obedience on you. It will place the weight of obedience on me, which ultimately will lead to either are you ready for this? It will lead to either self righteousness

29:09 because you'll think you're succeeding. You're gonna You're gonna have to convince yourself. You're gonna have to become self righteous. I do this. I don't walk into council, I don't stand, I don't sit. I meditate on God's law day and night. And you have to elevate and convince yourself, wrap yourself in a facade of self righteousness so that you think you pull it off. And if you think it you pull it off, you are delusional. You are delusional because you have a corrupt nature inside of you. So you either have to wrap yourself in a row of fraudulent self righteousness. You have to pretend and think and convince yourself that you're actually doing it, or you know what it.

29:54 Us also can lead to. It will either lead self righteousness or it leads to complete and total despair. Because you know what, you're gonna. Realize Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, just this week, you're gonna realize you're failing. You're gonna realize you don't do it. You're gonna realize you're never going. To pull it off. Never. Never. You meditate on God's word day and night. Meditate on God's word.

30:36 Day and night. You know how many times things. In your life gets in the way you and you're more preoccupied with this, and you're more preoccupied with that, and you're focused on your desires, You're focused on your wants, you're focused on self. I mean, wait, next Friday is Valentine's Day. People will be focused on their once, their desires. Now, I'm not saying that's necessarily bad. I'm just saying it's far different than Hey, I'm gonna meditate on God's word day and night. I'm gonna focus on that. I'm only gonna focus And people say, well, no, it doesn't really mean that. Yeah, because you got to lower the standard so it somehow fits all the things you want to do. Super Bowls on Sunday, right, so.

31:22 People are gonna be focused on that. Everyone. It's amazing that we can fit in all the stuff we want to do, and all the things we love to do, and all of our desire, and all our desire for pleasure and this and for family, for intimacy, we can we can pursue all of that, but somehow convince ourselves that we meditate on God's word day and night. That we delight in it above everything else. Come on now that we that we desire the word of God more than gold and silver, more than food. We love God with all of our heart. We love We love God above everything else. Our whole life is given to God. We speak a big game, maybe on a Sunday, but and as life plays itself out, well, it's about It's about me, it's about us.

32:10 It's about us. It's about us, it's about us. I mean, just think about how self centered we are. Sometimes in conversations we it's all about us, us us us, us us us us. And we barely even acknowledge anybody else in the conversation where we're self seeking. We like situations where I get what I want, I get what I need. I don't know if anybody else does, but I get what I want. That it is so common to the human condition. If you make some one, Hey, here a prescriptive list and how to become blessed. Now, I will argue it is a prescriptive list in this way.

32:54 It gives you law. That law, shows you your inability to do it, condemns you, makes you find yourself in the pit of despair, going I'm never going to be blessed. I'm never going to do this. And then you hear the beautiful words of the Gospel, where you hear of Jesus Christ, who did not walk in the council of the ungodly, he did not stand in the way of sinners, he did not sit in the seat of the scornful. His delight was in the law of the Lord, and he did meditate on it day and night. And you're like, oh, that's awesome.

33:34 And guess what. When you put your faith in him, his obedience to this is accredited to your account. And then guess what. In him you are blessed with all spiritual blessings. So all the blessings are not based off your obedience to this, but Christ's obedience to it. That's a law and gospel understanding. Of the Psalm. If you want to make it about us. So Christ is the blessed man. Christ is the blessed man and someone just as Christ is the blessed person in the Beatitudes. But as I was listening to that entire sermon, it makes it all about us, makes it all about you could say, you could tell it's all about us. It's about all It's the whole idea behind that Psalm is it's about us, and we can do it. We just have to do it, and if we do, we get the blessing. All right, It's the typical. There's nothing unique about that. The only thing unique about that sermon is it's a sermon where someone is reading someone else's sermon, which is just kind of bizarre, right, I don't even know, Like, even if I was to read someone else's sermon, I'd be stopping five hundred and twenty seven times to offer ideas and thoughts and conjecture and questions.

34:47 It's just interesting. Oh, but. Here's where I wanted to get to. I'm gonna throw it out as a question. Do you think think it is possible that Psalm one should be interpreted as speaking to Israel and their covenant relationship with God? Is it possible that we should keep our selves out of Psalm one, and we should understand Psalm one as being spoken to Israel in the context of their covenant relationship with God.

35:37 I think not only is it possible, I think it's plausible, and I think the church at large, for some weird reason, never even. Entertains this approach. So I had to utilize AI at this point, Right, I was gonna start structuring out my heart hermonutical challenge to everyone else. But I'm like, well, maybe I'm wrong here, So. Let me because I many times I bring my possible hermonutical, you know, approach to a text AI, and AI will say, a year out of your mind? What is this? This is? It doesn't say it exactly like that, but it will push back and challenge me. So I asked AI, Hey, do you think this is possible? Here's what AI said, It is very possible. I'm like, WHOA, I got a very possible. That's all right, Maybe I'm on to something.

36:33 Now I love this. AI said, it is very possible and even likely. WHOA, I've got a very possible and then even likely. I'm like, I'm on to something here, I'm on to something. All right, great, all right. Now I know look, I know this. I know, this blows up all the years you've heard sermon after sermon after someone you've talked about how great the sermon was. You probably went to the pastor my law goss approach to someone already blows that up. For many people. I'm about to just ruin some one for you. I'm about to utterly, absolutely ruin it for you. But at least AI says it's even possible and likely. And one of the reasons I love AI as a tool.

37:15 And I don't know why Christians. I still think Christians don't understand the amazing things. See just if I just did a search on Google for things about someone, I'm just gonna get all the standard answers, right, It's just going to give me this link, this article, this sermon, and it's just the same tired stuff that's been said a million times that I think in many cases is extremely wrong. At Least with AI, I can bring. A hermoneutical approach and it will It will engage me, challenge me, agree or disagree that that's amazing. And only that you see, now, if I go to other people, if I was to go to other people and say, hey, what about this about.

37:56 Someone they'd be like, you're I'm your right of your mind? What are you talking about that? We just immediately disagree with me and get defensive. So then those conversations are usually a waste of time. But with Ai, it's like, hey, it's very possible, it's even likely. Well, why is it possible and likely? Here's what AI said. It is likely that someone should be interpreted primarily in the context of Israel and their covenant relationship with God. This approach aligns with how blessing and curses function within the framework of the Mosaic Covenant. Yes, I know, I don't know why anybody else doesn't see this. Everything about someone screams Mosaic Covenant. Remember when we did the study on the dispensations, and for all the dispensations, we also looked at all the covenants.

38:53 Remember that. Remember that was a very important study. You need to go back. And listen to all of that. Well, if you were, remember the Mosaic Covenant. Even in our study of eschatology, we talked about some of these things as well. Right, we still need to finish the Dividic Covenant there, all. Right, But and the framework of the Mosaic Covenant as soon as you think. If you read Psalm one and you don't, your mind immediately, this is a weird thing. How can Christians read Psalm one and think about us and not read some one and go? That's Deuteronomy twenty eight, twenty nine thirty. But the Church trains you to read some one and go the believer's direction, the believer's description, the believer's destiny.

39:36 How about the believers nothing? How about Psal one? Mosaic Covenant? All day, every day, so Ai says, look at someone. And the context of the Mosaic Covenant. Psalm one presents a contrast between the righteous and the wicked, describing how the righteous men is blessed and the wicked are judged. This structure mirrors the blessings and curses found in Deuteronomy twenty eight and Leviticus twenty six, where Israel was explicitly told that obedience to God's law would bring prosperity, stability, and security. Well, disobedience would bring judgment and exiles. It's literally Deuteronomy twenty eight Leviticus twenty six in poetic form.

40:29 That's what it is. It drives me, It drives me crazy, all right? Then, Ai. Ai quotes this blessed is the man who walks not in the Council of the Wickeds on one one. This echoes the covenantal expectation that Israel was to separate from nations and walk according to God's law, exactly what God told Israel to do. Don't walk out after other nations. Don't be like other nations. You follow my law. Don't be like them. Separate yourself from them, don't enter marry with them, stay separate from them, walk not in the council of the ungodly verse three. He is like a tree planted by streams of water. In the Old Testament, Israel is often depicted as a tree or vineyard that was meant to bear fruit through obedience, and they reference Isaiah five and Jeremiah seventeen Isaiah five and Jeremiah seventeen. Let me state it again. In the Old Testament, Israel is often depicted as a tree or vineyard that was meant to bear fruit through obedience.

41:47 So it's even using. Imagery that would already be used in the Old Testament that would kind of point you not to you, but to Israel. Are like chef and the wind, or that the wind drives away Psawm one four. This reflects the judgment themes found throughout the Prophets, where Israel or the nations was warned about being scattered like chef if they turned away from God. You see this in Hoseiah chapter thirteen and Daniel chapter two, verse thirty five. So the tree imagery, the. Chef in imagery all used in the Old Testament not about you, but in relation to Israel and other nations and blessings and cursing that came with obedience or disobedience to the law. Thus, this is what Ai says. I'm quoting directly. Psalm one may not primarily be about individual believers in any era, but rather about Israel as a corporate people under the Mosaic covenant or obedience led to bl blessing in the land, and disobedience led to exile.

43:04 And that's exactly what happened. If you obey, you get the land. Everything's wonderful, everything is great. You disobey. Curses, no provision, exile, captivity. Psal one is the poetic expression of everything Israel needed to be reminded of. Now, if someone is rooted in Israel's covenantal framework, then the failure of Israel to fully embody the blessed man becomes evident. Just as Israel failed to keep the law and suffered exile, no individual Israelite except Christ could fully live up to the standard Psalm one sense. This interpretation strengthens Christological reading Jesus as the true and faithful Israel fulfilled the law perfectly.

43:59 Matthew five said, s he is the true blessed man, who delighted in the law day and night. He took upon himself the curse of disobedience Galatians three thirteen. Even though he was perfectly righteous in him, we received the blessings promised to the righteous Ephesians won three. Israel couldn't Christ did. Israel failed? Christ did not. Now you could argue, not only did it. I mean this is clearly to be about Israel, but if you want to insert us into it, we are just like Israel. We fail, We fail, and guess what happens under the law. We would get curse, punishment, exiled.

44:43 We are like chef thrown into the wind. I mean, what, however you want to describe it, we would be the same way. But we look to Christ, who fulfilled it. Then we are saved and then we become the blessed man in Christ. But it's about Israel. That's it's focus. That is the focus. Now I have here an in depth study of PSOne from an Israel Covenant interpretive framework. All right, I can do. A whole I'll just give you a little bit of just a little bit of this. I'm skipping way down in all of my notes here because I've been working on this throughout the morning, because I was just like, this is crazy. But let's just briefly consider the Mosaic Covenant as the framework for blessing and judgment. Someone must be read in light of let me state that again, someone must it must be read in light of Deuteronomy twenty eight through thirty, which outlines the terms of the Mosaic Covenant. I cannot right here above someone in your Bible.

45:52 You need to write Deuteronomy twenty eight through thirty. And if you don't understand Deuteronomy twenty eight through thirty, you have no business interpreting Psalm chapter one. And if you preach someone without mentioning Deuteronomy twenty eight through thirty, then you are then taking someone ripping out out of its historical textual context. You're making it about us, and then you're probably. Gonna make it prescriptive and you're gonna lead to either self righteousness or total despair unless you approach someone from a law gospel perspective. And if you're gonnapproach it from a law gospel perspective, I think you would want to go to Deuteronomy twenty eight and thirty because Deuteronomy twenty eight to thirty demonstrates exactly what's going to happen to anyone who attempts to live under the law, which is going to be all the curses, which is what Israel constantly God. See in Deuteronomy twenty eight through thirty, you have blessings for obedience. Deuteronomy twenty eight one through fourteen.

46:48 Israel's prosperity, stability, and security in the land all comes from from obedience. If they obey, they get all of those things. See if they obey, they Israel will be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. That's speaking of Israel. We want to make it about us, Hey, guys, if you obey, then everything you do is going to prosper everything you're gonna do, Oh, life is gonna You're gonna be like a tree planted next to the waters. You're gonna be fed. Well, now, now what some pastors will do, Well, that doesn't mean like in a physical, materialistic way. It means in a spiritual way. So I mean, you may obey God, but you know you still only get cancer. Your spouse may die in front of you, your child may be murdered, you may end up alone, you may end up without, Your life may be trash, but just know spiritually this is true. So then we try to back it up and try to make it just spiritual because we know it doesn't work out in a practical way. Now, some will try to make it a practical materialistic way, especially prosperity gospel, but the whole thing behinges on your ability to obey it. Well, if my, my, if God, if I'm even giving the spiritual blessings based on my obedience to it, you know where that's gonna lead me. It's gonna lead me to despair because no one is going to obey this even remotely, right, So that what a pastors do well, You're not gonna do it perfectly. As long as you do it somewhat, then you get the blessings.

48:15 But if I do it, then it just becomes a mess. But those blessings for obedience has promised in Deuteronomy twenty eight one through fourteen. For Israel, they never ultimately get them because they constantly disobey. Now the curses for disobedience is outlined in Deuteronomy twenty eight fifteen through sixty eight, National Disaster, exile, and divine judgment. Psalm one reflects the Covenant structure, reinforcing the idea that Israel's well being depended on obedience to God's Torah, God's law, the Torah as Israel's life and source of blessing.

48:57 Psalm one two emphasizes. Delighting in the law of the Lord, which refers to God's instruction, particularly as given in the Torah Genesis through Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy six six through nine commands Israel to meditate on God's law day and night, which. Mirrors Saw one two. Joshua one eight directly connects success and prosperity to meditating on and obeying the law, but that that prosperity that comes from meditating and obeying the law of God and Joshua one to eight is about Israel going into the Promised land. Even when they get the promised land, they've got to do all of this stuff in order to be prosperous and all get all the blessings.

49:40 Well, guess what they get to the promised land. They're not obedient, and guess what all the curses fall upon them over and over and over because anyone who places them in a system where obedience to the law is the key to blessing, they're never going to get the blessing because the law. Demands perfect. So if we want to start breaking this down Psalm one, Blessed is the man who walks not in the council of the wicked, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scornful. Blessed implies covenantal blessing, not individual happiness. Blessed is the man. This implies covenantal blessing.

50:27 This is the blessing that comes from Deuteronomy twenty eight. This is covenantal blessing. It's not about Hey, church, this week, we're going to talk about how to be blessed, and how to be happy, all the typical trash sermons that are preached over and over and over. It completely ignores the whole context. Here. Who walks not in the council of the wicked. The wicked here would be sinners, scoffers. They represent those who reject God's law, aligning with Deuteronomy's warnings against idolatry and foreign influences. And Deuteronomy they're saying, hey, when you go here, don't listen to them, don't do this, don't do that.

51:08 It's literally some one is Deuteronomy twenty eight. The progression walks stand and sit mirrors Israel's potential decline into covenantial unfaithfulness. The progression walks, stand, sit mirrors Israel's potential decline into covenant unfaithfulness. If you look at I think, is it Deuteronomy? Let me look here. I don't want to. I don't want to give you the scripture. I gotta verify this. I gotta verify something. Yeah, Deuteronomy, uh chapter eight, verse nineteen. And it shall be if thou'll do at all forget the Lord thy God, walk after other gods, serve them, worship them. I testify against you this day, that you shall surely perish as a name which the Lord destroyeth before your face. So shall ye perish because you would not obedient, be obedient unto the voice of the Lord your God. You get the idea of walking serving it. It's not perfect, but it's mirroring in part this. Hey, don't walk, don't stand, don't sit. It's it's the same kind of implication Israel.

52:23 Don't do, don't walk after, don't listen, don't heed, don't fall, don't take this downward path because you're gonna end up being destroyed, which is exactly what someone is saying. Someone mirrors it almost perfectly, all right. Psalm one too. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and he meditates it day and night. The Torah was given to Israel as their guide for holiness and national stability. Meditating on the law was not merely a personal practice, but a corporate and national responsibility. All Rightee, he is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit and its season, its leaf does not wither, and all that he does, he prospers. Israel, as often depicted as a tree or vineyard Isaiah five Jeremiah seventeen.

53:12 The tree metaphor aligns with Deuteronomy, where obedience leads to agricultural and economic prosperity. If you look at Deuteronomy, is it chapter eleven. I don't want to give you specific scriptures. Yeah, Deuteronomy chapter eleven, verse thirteen. It shall come to pass if you shall harken diligently unto my commandments, which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God, to deserve him with all your heart and with all your soul, that I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou may gather in the corn, thine wine and thine oil. I will send grass in the field for thy cattle. Thou may us eat and be full.

53:56 Take heed to. Yourselves, that your heart be not deceived. Turn aside and serve other gods and worship them. Literally, this sounds just like Psalm one. How do people Everyone talks about cross referencing and all of this we go cross reference something that many cases does nothing to help us actually understand the passage. Psalm one is the Book of Deuteronomy. Okay, oh Man the tree metaphor aligns with Deuteronomy eleven thirteen through seventeen, where obedience leads to agricultural and economic prosperity. This imagery connects to the promised blessing of staying in the land and experiencing divine favor Psalm one four through five.

54:36 The Covenant curses upon the wicked. The wicked are not so, they're like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked shall not stand in judgment, nor sinners and their. Congregation of the righteous. The wicked being driven away recalls Deuteronomy twenty eight, where disobedience leads to exile. Not standing in. Judgment likely refers to God's covenantal judgment, where those who break the covenant face divine wrath Assyria and Babylonian exiles. The congregation of the righteous refers to faithful Israel, those who remain loyal to the covenant Psalm one six. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish knows, and Hebrew is a relational meaning knows like Adam Nu eve right. God's protective care over his covenant, keeping remnant the way of the wicked perishing reflects covenant judgment, similar to how Israel was warned about destruction if they abandon God in Deuteronomy chapter thirty, verses fifteen through twenty. Psalm one is about Israel's national destiny, not individual salvation or individuals. Rather than a universal principle for all believers, Psalm one is primarily about Israel's corporate life under the Mosaic Covenant. It emphasizes the conditional blessing tied to obedience, the consequences of rejecting the law, and the contrast between the faithful rem and those who fall into idolla tree.

56:09 There. I want to call it a new interpretation. It shouldn't even be new. But we you know why you go to church, and when you walk into church, you know what you know what this should be, This should be the sign. And most churches enter in to worship self, enter in to focus on self, enter in to magnify self, enter in to glorify self. I know Christian to be like, No, we enter in to worship God. No, it's all about us. And then we go to text after text after text. Make it about us, Make it about us, make it about us, make it about us. If you want to understand Psalm one, understand Deuteronomy twenty eight, you say.

56:56 Well, how is it applicable to us? Just as Israel could not survive, could never get the blessings under that covenant, they failed constantly, we fail under the law. The law does the same thing for Israel. The law does the same thing for us as it did for Israel. What is that gives you a. Standard which you cannot keep, which will then reveal your inability. To keep it? Condemn you lead you to the pit of despair, and right when you feel like there is no hope, all hope is lost, that you're just going to slide into the abyss of hell and never return from it, then you hear the wonderful words of the Gospel. Christ obeyed it all for you. He did it all for you and our faith in him. That obedience is imputed to our account. If you want to make it about us, but it's about Israel first and foremost. There someone, Now, I went through that quick. I didn't even go through half of my notes there. I was skipping around in my notes like crazy. I was skipping all over the place.

58:22 Now you may disagree with it, I understand that you're gonna want to make it about us, make it about us. You probably got you probably want it to be in a more lordship way, right, you want and a more you know, prescriptive. This prescribes what you're to do. You want to be happy you do this, and you because you approach it from the idea that you can, well, if you think you can pull it off, then great. I just think, I think, I think there's I think reality constantly shows we don't pull it off. We don't. And I'm just so tired of the Church taking every text and making it about us. Maybe we start the hermoneutical approach this way.

59:03 It's not about you, it's not about me. In almost every situation, it's about them. It's about they, not I. Not you, not me, not we them they. All Right? That was fun, wasn't it. Well. I mean, I hope you find that somewhat interesting. I'm being a little sarcastic there, I think. I mean, I'm hoping someone's like, whoa, oh wow, oh yeah wow, never saw that before. That's awesome. I'm hoping someone thinks it's awesome. Most people are gonna be like, whatever, he's an idiot.

59:46 I don't care, you know, and just go around constantly handling someone the way they do. And I guess you can. But if you don't see Deuteronomy twenty eight through thirty, in fact, if you don't see the entire book of Deuteronomy, and someone I don't know what to tell you, I give up. I don't. I mean it literally is Deuteronomy, That's what it is. Go to any church. I tell everyone to do this on Sunday. Walk around, just walk around church. Hey, guys, someone is do you think it's about us? And do you think the things that tells us not to do and the things to do that we can avoid doing those things and doing the right things.

1:00:28 Do you think we can do it? Do you think we can obey it? I almost emphatically, I bet you, almost without fail, they're gonna say, yeah, it's about us, and yes we can do it. And then you should just just get in your car and drive away, go to the local liquor store, and then just I don't have a good Sunday because but it's sad. That's exactly what's going to happen. Hopefully my church wouldn't happen. I'm hoping. I'm probably gonna ask on Sunday, and then you're just if you're gonna hear the message, it's gonna be you're gonna hear me ask the question. Then all of a sudden, you're just gonna hear silence. You're gonna hear the door close, are open and then close, and then you're gonna hear the car start.

1:01:09 And then you're gonna hear me drive off. And you're like, well, he went to the liquor store, and you're gonna hear everybody sitting there going where did he go? What happened? What did we say? Wrong? Right? Okay, maybe it's a little hyperbole. All right, You'll have a great day. Thanks for listening. Have a great weekend to everyone. It is uh Friday, So have a great weekend if you can. If whatever you if you've got good things going on in your life, make the best of it, be happy for it, celebrate that. And for those whose situations may not be as well as great, well, I wish, I wish things would be different, but I the one thing is, I can't promise you that if you if you start being a good person and you obey really good, everything's good, You're gonna be like a tree planted by water, and everything's gonna be great, and everything's going to prosper even if if you try to make that spiritual and not in a material way.

1:02:03 I can't promise you anything. I know this that in Christ, though, you have all spiritual blessings, all spiritual blessings in Christ. So then if you have all spiritual blessings in Christ, then to make Psal one a way to get spiritual blessings by your obedience makes no sense since I already have all spiritual blessings in Christ, meaning I don't have to do anything to get the spiritual blessings in some one since I already have all spiritual blessings. So then you would have to. Make some one material physical blessing. Well, then what happens when you're obedient and you don't get all the Yeah, then everything falls apart. I mean again, sometimes when you just ask basic logical questions a lot of Christian Christian thought, it really shows how broken it is. All right, thanks for listening everyone, of a great day, God bless