“There's Within My Heart a Melody”

A Life-Song being Sung for God

•  The Unique Nature of the Psalms and Psalm 1

•  Foundations Needed to Understand the Psalms:

1. Psalms are NOT studied in the same way as historical narratives (Gospels and Acts) or even
like the epistolary literature (Romans – Jude).
a. We don't “break down our songs” into small sermonettes (“so they make doctrinal
sense”).
1) Quite frankly, this has been a real challenge for me. I am far more
comfortable in working with God's words that were written to impact our
minds than those written for our hearts!

•  As an example, if we were going to “teach” the song Jesus Loves Me , it would sound like this…
1) “Jesus” (Son of God, Lk. 1:35 – Son of Man, Dan. 7:13 – One with the
Father, Jn. 10:30 ).
2) “loves” (Gift, Jn. 3:16 - Off./Sac. Eph. 5:2 - Nature I Cor. 13:4ff - God is
love I Jn. 4:8 )
3) “This I know”: “Know” sometimes refers to knowing the facts about
something ( Jn. 3:2 ). Other times it means to “know” something
experientially ( Jn. 1:10 )!

•  Yet wouldn't most of us agree that our hearts swell to over-flowing and these words have a far greater impact when we sing, “Jesus love me this I know…”!!!
1) Worship is to be “...in spirit & in truth,” ( Jn. 4:23 ).
2) It is in singing that our spirit is moved!

2. The Psalms were used during the temple worship as well as for private worship.
“Worship” = The decision to enter into the presence of God!
a. Clearly the Psalms were used during the communal worship in the temple.
1) “For the choir director”… : Psalm 12 , “upon an 8 stringed lyre,” Psalm 22 ,
“the hind of the morning.” These directions for a “choir director” show that
these psalms were intended to be song by the congregation.
2) Psalms 120-134 , are, “Psalms of Ascent,” worshippers going up to Jerusalem. 3) ( Psa. 26:12 ), “In the congregations I will bless the Lord.”
4) ( Psa. 122:1 ), “I was glad when…, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.'”
5) For all these reasons God continues to command us to sing together to Him,
( Eph. 5:19 ), “Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord.”

b. Yet on other occasions, the Psalms are more of an individual devotion to God.
1) After the prophet Nathan convicted David of adultery with Bathsheba and of
murdering her husband, David wrote Psa. 51 in which he said, “I know my
sin, my transgression is ever before me.” v. 3 .
2) When he considered his life he was reminded of how earlier he had been the
shepherd of his father Jesse's flocks. So he wrote, Psa. 23 in which he said,
“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He make me lie down in green
pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul.”
3) Does your heart ever move you to sing to God? ( Jms. 5:13 ), “Is anyone
cheerful? Let him sing praises.”
4) These private times of worship take us out of the congregation & into our
daily lives.

•  Psalm 1: The Song of Our Choices

1. Movement #1: Our Choices Determined Our Direction, (vs. 1-2)
a. “How blessed is the man who does not walk in the council of the wicked, nor stand in
the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the
Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.”
1) Our song begins in transition (crescendo vs. diminuendo). These deal more
with the directional trend a life is taking rather than where it currently is found
in any single moment of time! Lives are filled with transitions…
a) Lot, ( Gen. 13:10-12; 14:12 ), “Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the
valley of the Jordan … Lot chose the valley of the Jordan … Lot
moved his tents as far a Sodom.” Eventually Love moved into Sodom.
b) Peter, ( Lk. 22:54-57 ), “…Peter followed at a distance … sat among
them … ‘Woman, I do not know the man!'”
c) In Lot's case the transition happened over a long period time. In
Peter's case the transition only required an hour or so.
d) Our choices, therefore, determine whether we crescendo/diminuendo
towards our Lord.
2) Yet the one who chooses God's word as their companion & guide will be
“blessed” !
a) “Blessed” = approved of by God! ( cf. Matt. 5:3ff ), “Blessed
[approved] are…!”
b) So does the song your life sings receive the approval of God because
of with what we decide to associate (e.g., the world or the word)??!

2. Movement #2: The Physical Consequences of Our Choices, (vs. 3-4)
a. “He will be like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does he prospers. The wicked are not
so, but they are like chaff which the wind drives away.”
1) “Trees… water… fruit,” these are always blessings from the hand of God!
a) We could, once again, spend a lot of time going into biblical
descriptions of these blessings: Trees = Kingdoms ( Ezk. 17:24 ),
peoples ( Num. 24:6 ), or individuals ( Matt. 7:15-23 ), Water ( Jn.
4:14 ), Fruit = godly character ( Rom. 6:22 ), good works ( Col.
1:10 ), worship/praise ( Heb. 13:15 ).
b) But spending too much time on each note takes away from the beauty
of the entire song!
c) What we need to remember is, the person whose “…delight is in the
law of the Lord, and who meditates on it day & night,” is the one
whom God approves, i.e. blesses !
2) On the other hand, “chaff” is not a blessing. Nor is it a curse either. It is
merely useless!
a) So, trees, water, fruit = blessings; chaff = worthless, insubstantial. It is
not “rooted” in anything, and thus it blows in whichever direction the
wind is blowing (popularity, public opinion, what the majority thinks,
etc.). Chaff stands for/on nothing!
b) ( Matt. 3:12 ), “…God will gather His wheat into the barn, but the
chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.”

3. Movement #3: The Spiritual Consequences of Our Choices, (vs. 5-6)
a. “Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of
the righteous. For the Lord approves of the way of the righteous, but the way of the
wicked will perish.”
1) A return to v. 1. – Notice, the righteous will not stand with the wicked in this
world, and the wicked will not stand with the righteous in the next!
2) Thus, our choices not only determine our direction but also our destination!
3) These choices are the musical notes of the life-song we sing to the Lord.
4) So, what song is your life singing?!

CONCLUSION: So…, where are you today? Where are you walking, standing, sitting – ultimately, where is your life taking you?
If you are one of the family… ( Acts 3:19 ). But if you are a guest, why not make a new choice, ( Mk. 16:15-16 ).