Rev. Dr. Hae-jae Lee (RU Professor of Old Testament Studies)
Blessed Are Those (Psalms 1:1-6)
Rev. Hak-Jae Lee
“1 Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; 2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night. 3 He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper. 4 The ungodly are not so, But are like the chaff which the wind drives away. 5 Therefore the ungodly shall 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 ungodly shall perish.”
Introduction
Thank you all for letting me sit before you all. Today we will be going through the Psalms 1:1-6, the main scripture. I will read the scriptures again in Hebrew so you can hear it in the original language so you can feel it. From here, it says that we are blessed people in the passage. In Korean, it doesn’t say anything about a “man” but in English, it says, “man.” Here, we can see people who are not blessed. Those who don’t have the gospel, they are not blessed. “Rasha’im” means the wicked. This also means criminal, the one who breaks the law. “'Chata’im' (verses 1, 5), sinners.” Thirdly, the blessed person is not like the ‘Leitzim’ (verse 1), the scornful. Those who have the gospel, we are not those words as described above. “Rasha’im” means the wicked, the ungodly. When you see plan, it means we can see someone’s plans, purpose, and motives. These are people who don’t follow God’s plan and will. “Chata’im” means that their actions and intentions are not of God. “Rasha’im” talks about their motives and plans and “Chata’im” talks about their actions and the way that they live. “Leitzim” means the arrogant one, the ones who scorns others. They think that they are above others and think they are better. They think that they are better than everyone else and they are boastful. These are all talking about sinners. Their motives, actions, and plans are of sinners. All sinners live their lives sinning and these are sinners who don’t know God. That is why the Biblical passage talks about those who are blessed, we are not like the sinners.
Verse 2 - The blessed one says that we find our delight in the law of the Lord. If you look at it in other ways, this means that the law of the Lord is referring to the word of God, the Bible. It is the gospel, Jesus Christ. We can find our delight in the word of God, in the gospel of Jesus Christ. When we speak about Jesus Christ, we mostly refer to Him in the New Testament but Jesus also appears in the Old Testament. The most regretful people are the Jews because the original text of the Bible was written in Hebrew, the language of the Jews. I wrote this and I am one of the few Old Testament scholars in South Korea. This is the blessing of Aaron. The Old Testament was written about 3,000 years ago. The first books were written 350 years ago. The problem is that the Jews lost hold of the Bible even though it was written by their ancestors because their nation collapsed. That is why many Jews could not read Hebrew so that is why the Bible was translated to Greek, the universal language at that time. During the second century, the original text, the standard version was written. So that many people could understand because during that time, many people could speak and read Greek. The Bible today is made up of Hebrew and Greek. That is why if you really want to study the Bible, you need to understand both Greek and Hebrew. You believe that the Bible was written entirely by God and it is the word of God. We need to believe in that. The Jews do not believe in this. The Jews don’t know Jesus Christ. That is why you shouldn’t just believe in the Old Testament or the New Testament, you need to believe in both. I respect that you have passion for world evangelism but what is amazing, many Muslims are turning to Jesus Christ. Why is that happening? Do you think that Jesus Christ appeared before them and told them to believe in Jesus? These great works are arising because we are praying and it is by the power of the word. If we love the word and believe in the power of the word, but what we need to hold onto first is that we need to love Jesus Christ first.
Our delight in the law of the word. Those who are blessed, their delight is found within the word of God. In the book of Psalms, all of these scriptures represent each alphabet of the Hebrew language. There are words that depict the gospel and the word of God. The word, “Torah” means teaching and instruction. There are words such as “ 'Chok' (statutes), 'Mishpat' (ordinances), 'Pikkud' (precepts), and 'Mitzvah' (commandments). It refers to the 'Derech'—the way, life, and actions people live by. The Word is all of these, and it represents sound, writing, and holistic living. It is also about the relationship with God through His Word, a life of covenant and 'testimony' (Edut).” Also, words such as 'Amar' (spoken word) and 'Davar' (speech).” If we understand these words then we can understand deeper the gospel and the word of God. In the Old Testament, the word of God is God, Himself. In the New Testament, the gospel is Jesus Christ. I want to share that the gospel came from the word of God. It is the fulfillment of the word of God that was written in the Bible. We have many new translations of the Bible but we need to look at the original text. I am interested in the Bible and I have staked my entire life to understand the Bible. From the Old Testament to New Testament, I have retranslated the entire Bible and will publish a book about it next year. I want all denominations to have their versions of the Bible as well. The recorded word of God is the gospel. If you want to maintain enjoyment from the word, you need to find your source of power, strength, and passion from the word of God.
Verse 3 - It is the same parable that Jesus spoke about in John 15, the growth of the vine. This speaks that Jesus is our foundation and we find our source of power from Jesus. Our passion for souls and evangelism come from Jesus Christ. Our joy from the word comes from Jesus.
This is the life of 'success' or 'prosperity' ('Tzalach'), as seen in Genesis 39:23 “The keeper of the prison did not look into anything that was under Joseph’s authority, because the Lord was with him; and whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper.”, which refers to a 'successful' life. 'Prosperity' and 'success' are the same concept. Success is when we are with God. You can see in Joseph in Genesis 39:23 but we can see that Joseph prospered in everything that he did. Being prosperous and successful is not based by the standards of the world or how much money they have gained. I am not sure what kind of level and status you are in but what is the most important is that we have the gospel. Do you read the Bible every single day? Do you apply the word of God to your life every single day? Do you love the word of God so much that you write it out and inscribe it out? I find so much joy in writing out the word of God. There was a time when I sat in my room for 3 months straight and wrote the word of God from the Bible. There are so many people who don’t even bring their Bibles to church because you have it on their phones. You have to love the word of God. You have to inscribe it within your heart. If you are really people of the gospel, you need to find your delight in the word of God. Whether you evangelize and bear fruit or not, it is not up to you but what you need to do is to love the Bible and the word of God. What kind of people are we? We are the righteous ones. How did we become righteous? Because of Jesus Christ. We were once sinners and we had no place in heaven. Those who do not know the gospel and the word of God, you have no choice but to know only your ways and when you die, you have no choice but to go to hell. The only people that God knows are the righteous people. If it is not for the righteousness of Jesus Christ, we would’ve not known the gospel or Jesus.
Today I spoke about the gospel with you through Psalms 1. The restoration of the gospel is the restoration of the word. We spoke about how sinners have no choice but to live without the word of God. The only thing that discerns the righteous and the wicked is the word of God. Do you delight in the word? Do you find joy in the word of God? Change into those people. When you hear the word, “gospel” think of the word of God, the Bible. May you become people of God who love the word of God.
Verse 6 – In conclusion, we are 'the righteous.' The end for those who are not righteous, the 'Rasha’im,' is judgment and destruction. God will not recognize their names in the Book of Life (Revelation 20). Therefore, we must live a life of ministry through the Word, a movement for the restoration of the Word, and the recovery of the Gospel, enjoying the blessings of the Word. Even in Psalm 1, we see that we must live a life of power, bearing fruit, and reaping results through the law, the Word, and the Gospel. Rather than a life that fails to resolve the problem of sin by the standards of the world, we must live a life that enjoys righteousness through Christ. The righteous must live as those who love the Word.
コメント