In his sermon titled 'Like a Tree,' Scott Brown examines Psalm 1, focusing primarily on verses 3 through 6. He begins by reading the entire Psalm, which contrasts the blessed man who delights in the law of the Lord with the ungodly who are like chaff. Brown emphasizes that true happiness and prosperity come from what one does not do—specifically avoiding the counsel of the ungodly, the path of sinners, and the seat of the scornful—and what one does do, such as delighting and meditating on God's law day and night. The metaphor of a tree planted by rivers of water illustrates a life-giving connection to God, which brings forth fruit in its season and ensures that the leaf does not wither. Brown underscores that this blessed state is not naturally occurring but is the result of God's intervention, likening it to a gardener planting a tree. He further contrasts this with the fate of the ungodly, who have no roots and are easily blown away like chaff. The sermon also touches on the importance of strong, spiritually nourished women and the enduring strength and fruitfulness of those who meditate on God's Word. Brown concludes by celebrating the sustaining grace of Jesus Christ and the eternal impact of a life rooted in God's Word.

Please open your Bibles to Psalm chapter 1 Psalm chapter 1 I'm gonna read the whole psalm. We're only gonna cover verses 3 through 6 Primarily, but I want to read the psalm first and then zero in on the final verses. Verse 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. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. 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 he shall prosper.

The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish." O Lord, we need you to open up our minds and our hearts to receive these marvelous truths. They are so thrilling and so helpful, and let them be more thrilling and more helpful than ever today. Amen.

You know, as Lazarus and as Simon the leper, or Simon, formerly known as the leper, were sitting at the table with Jesus. I'm sure they had a thousand reasons to love the Lord. And this psalm gives us many reasons to love the Lord. One of the reasons I want to love the Lord is that the Lord is always taking me from where I am to where I ought to be, and I'm really grateful for that. The Lord is a little bit like my wife.

My wife is always taking me from where I am to where I ought to be, and I'm really grateful for that as well. But the Lord in Psalm 1 demonstrates this principle that God would take you from where you are to where you need to be. And it's another statement in the Bible, like many, that explains the sustaining grace of Jesus Christ in your life. He is your life. He is the source of your life no matter what you experience in life.

And Beholding the face of Jesus Christ is the heart of everything. Psalm 1 deals with that. Psalm 1 is a summary of all the other Psalms. All the other Psalms try to do the same thing that Psalm 1 speaks about principally. I believe also Psalm 1 describes a healthy church.

In the first two verses Are about what you don't do because your happiness also depends on what you don't do You know Blessed are those who do not who do not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, stand in the path of sinners, sit in the seat of the scornful. Your happiness really depends on what you don't do. Celebrating celebrities will steal your celebration of Jesus. If you keep celebrating celebrities in time you will hardly celebrate Jesus. This is the reality.

I don't know what you're watching and listening to but verse one needs to inform everything that you read or look at or listen to. And so then in verse two, happiness depends on what delights you and what you meditate on. So he begins negatively, but then goes positively and speaks about what happens to you when you delight and when you meditate and the powerful influence of that. And so the contrast is there. If you're meditating on worldly things and drinking from the fountain of worldliness and worldly celebrities, you'll get what you deserve.

You always get what you pursue. That's the way it is. You're always becoming what you listen to and look at. So be careful what you listen to and look at because you're going in that direction. Everything is like that.

Now the other thing here is that when you delight in the Word of God, you get a life. Not just a life, but life. And you become like a tree planted by rivers of water. You're like a tree that's connected to something that's life-giving. You're connected to living You're connected to living water, or the way Jesus spoke of it, bread, living bread.

And your soul is like a tree. But if you're not connected to living water, you're going to be like chaff. So this tells us that Christianity is not a dead religion, It's a life-giving religion. And so there are these two graphic images here in this passage. A fruitful tree and blowing chaff.

A fruitful tree and blowing chaff. It's almost like David is saying, take your pick. You're in charge. Go for it. Now, the beautiful thing about this to me is that God desires something better for us than we can conceive of on our own.

And God desires to make us fruitful. He desires us to be different than what we are, so He gives us a way to become what we ought to be. And that's what this psalm really speaks of. So let's talk about the tree, the man who is fruitful. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water." Isn't it wonderful how God gives us graphic illustrations about things?

He doesn't just give us the doctrine. He gives us a thousand illustrations. You know, when I was preaching through Isaiah a few years ago, I was blown away every single Sunday by the massive assault of imagery that Isaiah gives us to conceive of how beautiful the gospel is and how good the kingdom is over and over and over again. But God gives us imagery. He gives us a picture, and a tree is a picture.

And when you go outside and look at the trees today on your way home, remember this psalm, He shall be like a tree. Every time you see a tree, it would be good to have this come to your mind. You know, I was really struck when I moved my family to here from California, from the concrete jungle. I left the concrete jungle and I came to a wonderland of trees. And I'll never forget driving down I-40 with these massive beautiful trees, driving through the trees.

I've never seen anything like that, you know. And then, And then I bought this piece of property that was full of trees, and frankly, I love to look at the trees. They're beautiful. So He shall be like a tree planted by rivers of water. Now, let's be really clear about who this is directed to.

Who is the person that's like a tree? It's very restrictive, it's very exclusive. There's only a certain kind of person that's like a tree. Everybody can't be like a tree, like he's talking about here. It is the one whose delight leads him to meditate.

The one who is not celebrating the ungodly. That's the person. You can't have this without the condition. So if you are not like this tree, you are not the he in verse 2. He who delights.

He who is blessed. Now, notice the illustration is actually very detailed. He doesn't just say, look at the tree. He's talking about a particular kind of tree. It's a kind of tree that's planted.

In other words, something happened to the tree. Somebody did something to that tree. Somebody took that tree and they dug a hole and they put it by a river of water. The tree didn't walk over to the river of water. The tree was planted by someone else.

And that tells us that No one is a Christian by nature. In other words, you don't grow up in a Christian family and be a Christian. You don't grow up in a Christian society and be a Christian. A tree does not plant itself. Trees are planted by gardeners.

The kind of tree that he's talking about. Because this tree is planted. Now, lots of trees are just anywhere. That's not this kind of tree. This is a tree that's planted by a river of water by somebody who is taking care of it, a gardener who put it in a place where there was life and there would always be life and there would be no dryness.

And it's the idea that you are born from above. A force works on you, and you're born again. You become a child before God. But something happens to you. The force is from above.

You're born from above. That's the same thing as the tree planted, planted from a wise gardener. When Jesus said that we are not born by the will of the flesh or the will of man but of God, that's what he's talking about here. It's what the Apostle Paul spoke about in Romans 9 when he said, It does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. It's God who takes the action to plant the tree.

No one can be saved unless God comes and moves his heart, gives him a heart of flesh for a heart of stone, causes him to be born again, not by the will of the flesh, not by the will of man, but by the power of God. This is the planted tree. This is the whole idea of being chosen before the foundation of the world, that God elects those whom he saves, that he is the one that comes and he convicts of sin. He is the one who seeks and saves that which is lost. And he is the one that takes that tree and plants it.

Now, it's already a tree, right? It's already something, and then it's put somewhere that changes its life forever. That's what it means to be a Christian. God gives you what you never had before, and He makes you who you never could be before. And it all comes about because of this change of heart where you delight in the law of the Lord.

He's the one that makes you delight, and then He gives you every delight. The psalm says that He gives you drink from His river of delights and it's a continuous flow. You know Ezekiel prophesied about this in Ezekiel 19 verses 10-11. He says, Your mother Was like a vine in your bloodline planted by the waters fruitful and full of branches because of Many waters she had strong branches Is that beautiful Full of branches many waters strong branches. The more you delight in the law of the Lord, the more you meditate on the law of the Lord, the stronger you get.

That's how it works. You know, that's just how life works. There's no other way to get strong. It's very interesting that he uses the imagery of a mother, of a woman. A mother, it's the mother who's planted.

It's the mother that's fruitful and full of branches, and it's that mother that is strong. You wanna be a strong woman? You old women and you young women, you young girls, you wanna be strong? Here's how it happens. Fill your heart.

Feed your soul on the rivers of living water, and you'll be satisfied and you'll be strong. It's a tragedy when you find a weak woman. There are various kinds of weaknesses that a woman can have. Meditating on the Word of God solves them all. You young girls, you young ladies, maybe you're just in your teens now, or maybe you're in your 20s, let me just say something to you very directly.

There are going to be things that are going to happen in your life that are going to be so hard, unspeakably hard. It's going to happen. What will you do? Will you be strong? Will you be the kind of young girl that fed yourself on the rivers of living water?

Let me just so appeal to you, young girls especially, Be strong. Be strong women. Your husband is going to need a strong woman, by the way. I can testify to that. The root system must connect with the water.

It's the meditation that connects the Word of Jesus Christ. This really is something that continues on for all eternity. You might as well start now. At the very end of the Bible, in Revelation 22, we read these words, And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street on either side of the river was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each yielding its fruit every month.

The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations, and there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him, and they shall see His face, and his name shall be on their foreheads." That's life. This river is a river of healing. It's a river of strength. It's everything you need. So he's like a tree, but he's also fruitful.

You see this next phrase, that brings forth its fruit in season. What kind of fruit is it? On the one hand, you could say it's the kind of fruit that comes from obedience to all the ethical commands in the Bible, because they're all fruitful. Maybe an easier way to say it in more summary form would be to say that it is the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. He brings forth its fruit in its season. Think about the word in season. In season. What is that?

You go through different seasons. There are various dispensations in your life, various moments in time. You'll face moments of gratitude, joy, and pain in season. God will give you many different kinds of seasons in life. Seasons of loss, seasons of gain, seasons of frustration, seasons of open season.

You know, that's what you get. There are different seasons in life. Mature people understand that. But whatever season you're in, you can bear fruit. It doesn't matter what season you're in, you can bear fruit.

Remember I just mentioned Ann Steele. She's getting ready to get married tomorrow and today her husband dies and she writes some of the most moving hymns for the Church of Jesus Christ. They've strengthened millions. She was bearing fruit in season. She was ready.

Bear fruit in season. God will govern your seasons. God is governing every single season of every person in this room right now. And He's caring for you in that season. But what do you do in that season?

Drink from the waters of life and you will bear fruit during that season. God desires you to bear fruit no matter whatever happens to you. Winter and summer and springtime and harvest. Sun, moon and stars and their courses above. Strength for today, bright hope for tomorrow.

Great is thy faithfulness. This is what makes a Christian. He's filled with the fullness of God. He's filled with the divine nature. He eats bread from heaven that gives life to the world.

He drinks from the water of life. He is like a tree. David said this man is also like a deer Not just a tree but a deer we should go through the Psalms and pick up all the imagery Oh, you're not just a tree You're also a deer as the deer pants for the water brook so my soul pants for thee oh God so he's fruitful the next he stays alive his his his leaf does not wither now this is focus on what doesn't happen This doesn't happen to those who drink deeply in season, in the middle of the season that they're in. You know, we were going to bed last night and I was scratching around trying to find this psalm and I finally found it was Psalm 65, the river of God is full of water. Psalm 65, 9, The river of God is full of water.

Go there. And this tree, this deer, His happiness is not dependent upon his circumstances. He's not afraid of evil tidings. He trusts in the Lord. Christ sustains him in and through everything.

Attack, poverty, wealth. In Psalm 92, it's stated a different way. Those who are planted in the house of the Lord, wow. So here you're planted by a river. Oh no, but in Psalm 92 you're planted in the house of the Lord.

Planted there. Planted in the house of the Lord, shall flourish in the courts of our God." In that same psalm, it says that—and I like this one a lot. Are you ready? "'He shall bear fruit even in old age. How about that one?

I hope that's true. I can do all things who strengthens me. Okay, so celebrate the one who keeps you alive, celebrate the one who keeps you from withering. He'll never let you go. He'll never leave you or forsake you.

Well then, not only does God keep this man alive, but he's prosperous, and whatever he does shall prosper. Whatever he does shall prosper. When you read the word prosper, you shouldn't be limited in your understanding of prosperity. It's very important that we don't selectively define a word. When we read that word prosper, most of us think about money.

That's the first thing that I think about when I read that word. That's the wrong direction. It might include that, but it but it primarily has to do with prosperity in the midst of all things. God gives a blessed life, you can have it. It's a real life, it's yours, and no one can take it from you and you can prosper in the midst of everything.

You can be a refreshed and fruitful person who refreshes others out of this prosperity. God gives satisfaction to his children. You know, so many people, they live their lives and they wonder what it was all about. That won't be true of you if you're a real Christian. You know, when Voltaire was on his deathbed, he said this, I wish I'd never been born.

You won't say that. If you're a Christian, you won't say that. You will be so thankful that God gave you a life. You'll be so thankful for all the things that happened. You'll look back and you'll be amazed at every joy or trial that felleth from above.

And then the man is durable. He lasts forever. The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff, which the wind blows away. So he's making a contrast, but he's back to the ungodly, saying that you're not like this, you're not like chaff at all. The ungodly have no roots.

Without roots You are blown to and fro You're always going through a phase. You have nothing solid. You have no beliefs to hold you fast you have no protection against the things that will sweep you away, you have no doctrine, you have no practice, it's just whatever you feel or whatever anybody else is doing, or whatever pressure of your spirit will push you toward. You're like chaff, you're just going to get blown driven and tossed by the wind like James says just a driven and tossed by the wind the wind of every doctrine the wind of every cultural social ridiculous entertainment trend to make you more and more trivial every day. So that you get to the point where you're so trivial you're just like chaff.

You're not worth anything. You're not worth anything to anybody. Without Jesus Christ you have nothing, you have no stability, you have no fixed thoughts, you have no fixed direction. You're just subjected to the winds. Shifting sand blown away by the next social movement, the next advertisement, the next friend, the next lifestyle, you know, whatever it is.

And then he speaks of the ungodly, therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment of our sinners in the congregation, the righteous. Two things there. In other words, when judgment comes, that person can't stand. They have nothing to stand on. The Christian can say, on Christ the solid rock I stand.

The non-Christian has nothing to stand on. He can't stand in the judgment. He has no argument. He has no advocate. He has no substitute.

He has no sacrifice for sin. He doesn't have anything. He can't stand in the judgment. He's going to be wiped off the face of the map. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, verse 6, but the way of the ungodly shall perish." The psalm ends with the word perish.

The psalm begins with the word blessed. These are the first and the last letters of the Hebrew alphabet The first letter of the Hebrew alphabet is olive and the last is tauve or tauve however You want to say it? It's the A to Z of life, the olive to the tov of life. Everything you need to know about life is right here. Everything you need to know about how to survive in this world is right here in this one psalm.

Now then, in all the other psalms, David is going to deal with all kinds of customized situations that you might face. He'll bring them all up and then speak of how you deal with them in detail. So all of this is to declare the beauty of unity with Jesus Christ, the inestimable value of meditating on the Word of God day and night, the delights that happen to those who delight in the law of the Lord, the blessings that fall on those who run away from the wicked. So there it is. 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." Notice the progressive activity there.

But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. And look what happens to him. 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." In other words, it's all for eternity. It'll last for eternity. "'The ungodly are not so, but they are like the chaff which the wind drives away.

Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish." Praise God for the sustaining grace of Jesus Christ, the power of the Word of God to feed and nourish and make you strong. And may that be so right here in this church. Would you pray with me? Lord, we thank you for these marvelous words.

They're so good to our ears. We need them. Pray that you fulfill them all in all of our hearts this week. Amen.