Water for a Parched Tongue in a Dry Land

Psalm 1

I am tired. No matter what I do, I’m tired. I sleep but wake up not feeling refreshed. I have been taking naps which I have rarely done before. And still I am tired. And I am thirsty. I pour a coke with lots of ice and after I drink, I am still thirsty. I am tired and thirsty inside and out.

I thought this was just me but as I have talked with Christian leaders in this country over the past couple weeks I have heard that they too feel tired and dry. If it was just me, I could understand it. But when so many people are feeling this way, there is something significant happening.

I read the book of Acts and see the early church responding with boldness to the threats of the Sanhedrin. Then I look around in my world and I see a lot of people who are intimidated, tired and fearful. What is wrong with us? Are we not as strong in our faith as the early followers of Jesus?

After Peter and John had been threatened by the Sanhedrin, the ruling Jewish elders and teachers, they reported what had happened to the early followers of Jesus and then they prayed: (Acts 4:24–31)
“Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. 25 You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:
“ ‘Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
26 The kings of the earth take their stand
and the rulers gather together
against the Lord
and against his Anointed One.’
27 Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28 They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. 29 Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. 30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
31 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

That’s what we want. That is what many of us have prayed for, but that is not what is happening.

I have heard some people say they hope they are kicked out of the country. This way they will not be viewed as quitters; instead they will be viewed as martyrs and then they will be able to rest and escape the tension of living in this country.

Here is what I find myself longing for. I long for the peace and quiet of the meadow. I picture trees lining the side of a running stream, lush green grass, a country path alongside the stream with nothing more than the occasional bicycle passing by. This is a place where you could put a fishing pole in the stream and fall asleep on the softness of the grassy riverbank, hoping no fish bites to disturb your rest. Nearby is a deep pool with a small waterfall. I dive into the cool clear water and come up into the warm sunshine and dry off and lay in a hammock looking up at the blue sky spotted through the green leaves. I want this experience inside and out.

When I discovered that it was not just me but there were others with the same sense of tiredness and dryness, I decided it would be good for us to preach about spiritual refreshment for the next several sermons. So I went through the scriptures looking for passages talking about water and thirsting and being parched and was amazed at how many there are. What we are feeling is not unique to us. It is not the first time in history God’s people have felt this way. It has been a common experience.

So we will look at Psalm 1 today. Zak will preach next week from Psalm 23. Psalms 42, 63 and 69 will follow. Job 14, Isaiah 41, Isaiah 55, Jeremiah 17, John 4 and Revelation 22. We may not get to all these passages. We will feel our way along. If you have other passages you would like us to consider in this series, let me know.

The sermon series title is: Water for a Parched Tongue in a Dry Land.

I want us to focus on the refreshment Jesus offers us. We need to be encouraged. We need to cast off our fear. We need to be emboldened, not by the strength of our will, but by the empowering of the Holy Spirit. We need the water Jesus offers us.

I believe that as we move along in this series the passages we look at will teach us, correct us, encourage us, direct us and I hope that God will bring us the spiritual refreshment we are craving.

The first text we come to is Psalm 1 and this psalm, which serves as an introduction to all the psalms, begins with three negatives. Blessed is the man who does not.
Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.

This opening verse describes three degrees of departure from God. Does not walk, does not stand, does not sit. How do we enter into evil? First we walk by and listen, then we stand and participate and finally we sit down and live in our sinful disobedience.

This makes me think of Lot, the nephew of Abraham. When Abraham and Lot became too wealthy and the herdsmen of Lot were fighting with the herdsmen of Abraham, Abraham called Lot to a mountain overlooking the valley of Jordan and asked him to choose what land he would take. Lot chose the lush, fertile land of the valley in which lay the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Remember that God eventually destroyed these cities because as it is written in Genesis 13:13
Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord.

Psalm 1 describes the gradual move away from God. See how Lot followed this pattern as Genesis describes where Lot lived. In Genesis 13:12, after Lot chose the plains of the Jordan valley, we read that:
Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom.

After Lot made his choice, Abraham built an altar and worshiped the Lord but Lot pitched his tents near Sodom.

Later there was a battle and Lot and his possessions were captured. Notice where he is now living. (Genesis 14:12)
They also carried off Abram’s nephew Lot and his possessions, since he was living in Sodom.

Lot pitched his tents near Sodom and when the kings captured him he had moved and was now living in Sodom.

Then when angels arrive to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because of the great evil in those cities, where is Lot to be found? (Genesis 19:1)
The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city.

Lot pitched his tent near Sodom, then lived in Sodom and finally sat as a city elder in the gates of Sodom. Lot walked by Sodom, then stood in Sodom and finally sat in Sodom.

Psalm 1 tells us
Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.

Blessed is the man or woman who does not accept the advice of the world, who does not become party to the sin of the world and who does not take on the values of the world so that he mocks the things of God.

When RIC received the letter from the national leadership of EEAM demanding I step down and RIC sever its relationship with AMEP, I was asked if I took this personally. That was a silly question, of course I took it personally.

And over the past couple weeks I have wanted to do what the world says I should do. I have wanted to justify myself, to show how innocent I am and how guilty others are. I have wanted to pay back the leadership that sent that letter. I have wanted to seek revenge.

My desires are the first step away from God. It is like pitching my tent near Sodom.

Fortunately I have a godly wife and godly co-pastors who have advised me and kept me from following through on my desires and I have not taken the next step of actually doing the things I have desired. The RICEmail and other communications I have sent present a fairly balanced view of the events. I have to admit that I walked by but I did not stand and participate.

The third stage of distancing myself from God comes after I have listened to the advice of the world and after I have taken that advice. Now I sit in the gateway of the world and give approval to the actions of the world and mock those who object to the practices of the world.

When Paul wrote in his letter to the church in Rome about the depravity of the world, he concluded by writing: (Romans 1:32)
Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

Blessed is the one who does not walk by the world, taking its advice, who does not stand with the world, putting into practice what the world advises and thirdly who does not sit with the world, approving its actions.

Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.
2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.

This second verse stands in opposition to the first verse. Rather than walk in the counsel of the wicked, blessed is the one whose delight is in the law of the Lord.

There is a choice here, listen to the world or listen to God’s word and it is a critical choice because what shapes a person’s thinking shapes his or her life.

Abraham regularly built altars to worship God wherever he went. There is no indication that Lot ever build an altar. Abraham’s devotion to God protected him and blessed him. Lot had a terrible finish to his life, living in a cave, fathering children in a drunken stupor, testimony to his continually bad choices which resulted from his lack of devotion to God.

In light of all that God has done for us, Paul wrote in Romans 12, we are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices. And then he goes on:
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

It is by the renewing of our mind that we are to resist the patterns of this world and the way we renew our mind is by delighting in the law of the Lord and meditating on the law day and night.

Reading a verse in the morning and then rushing off to get on with the tasks of the day is not going to be sufficient.

Are you feeling tired and dry? Let me ask you if you have been spending time reading the Bible and meditating on what it says? I have to say that in the midst of the tension I was spending little or no time reading and meditating on the Bible.

Just when I most need its wisdom, I keep my Bible shut – and then I complain that I am feeling tired and dry.

In the world of computers they talk about the concept of GIGO, garbage in, garbage out. If you put bad data into the computer, you will get bad information out of the computer. The same is true with your mind which will reflect whatever you put into it. Psalm 1 offers the clear choice: fill your mind with the world’s advice or meditate on God’s word. What is going to shape your mind?

Paul wrote to Timothy: (1 Timothy 4:16)
Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

Meditate on the wisdom of the Old and New Testaments. Use what you read to help you stand against the advice of the world that will pull you away from God and his intention for you. Your life is at stake as well as all those you influence.

Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.
2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.

A tree planted by streams of water, that’s exactly what I want. That is my longing. When we meditate on the scripture that God has provided for us, our roots go down into the water of the stream that will sustain us.

But notice that the tree yields it fruit in season. For most of the year a fruit tree sits without any fruit. For most of the year you see only leaves. To get the fruit you have to wait. For an apple tree you wait through winter, spring and summer and only in the fall do you get the apples from the tree.

And you can’t plant a tree one day and then come back the next to pick its fruit. It takes two or three years before a tree that has been planted begins to bear fruit, in season.

Instant gratification is not the way of God. We sit down, read the Bible, think about it, maybe journal about what we have read and pray and then expect everything to be fine.

We sit down, put our roots in the water of the Bible and expect instantaneous fruit. That is not how God works. One of the fruit of the Spirit is patience and this is not a fruit we like to wait for.

Sit by the stream and sink your roots in the refreshing waters of the Bible and be patient. It is not a matter of days but weeks and months. If you still feel dry, persevere. Be patient. Over time you will build up a reservoir and out of that reservoir you will bear fruit, in season.

Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.
2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.
4 Not so the wicked!
They are like chaff
that the wind blows away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
6 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.

God told Joshua as he was about to enter into the promised land of Canaan: (Joshua 1:8)
Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

Those who meditate on God’s word will be prosperous and successful, but not so the wicked.

They are like chaff. They have no real substance. When wheat is harvested the threshers crush stalks to break apart the wheat kernels. Then the process of winnowing begins as the wheat and chaff are thrown up into the air. Because the chaff weighs very little, it is blown away by the wind and the wheat falls to the ground.

The wicked are like chaff. They have no real substance and will not remain. They may appear to be prosperous and they may appear to be winning the battle, but they will eventually be blown away. Just as we need to be patient to receive the water we need to fill our spiritual reservoirs, so do we need to be patient for God’s judgment. The wicked will not last. In the end they will collapse and perish.

The wicked will not stand in the judgment that is coming. They will be crushed and blown away. As wheat is separated from the chaff, so will the wicked be separated from the righteous.

Why will this happen? Because the Lord watches over the way of the righteous.

You who are tired and confused, fearful and intimidated, God is watching over you. There will be many more lessons coming in the following weeks, but this first lesson is clear. If you want the spiritual refreshment God offers you, sink your roots into the soil be the side of the stream. Meditate on God’s word. Read it and think about it. Let what you have read stay in your thoughts throughout the day. Be patient. Let God refill your reservoir. You will bear fruit, in season.