FELLOWSHIP GROUPS SUMMER 2002

‘VALUES FOR LIFE’ July 9/11

PSALM ONE: ‘CHOOSE YOUR VALUES: CHOOSE YOUR DESTINY’

INTRODUCTION

: The Book of Psalms has been likened to a mansion with 150 rooms. In each room we make discoveries about God and about ourselves. Psalm One is the entrance vestibule, containing basic foundational truths. It tells us there are only two options in life, just two ways to live, two choices and two alternative destinies. The first word and the last word of the Psalm point to these alternatives: the way of ‘blessing’ and way of ‘perishing’.

• UNDERSTANDING WHAT THE PSALM SAYS

• Verses 1-3: LIFE THAT HAS GOD’S APPROVAL
• If we want a life approved and blessed by God, what will we NOT do? (verse1)
• in practice, what do these things mean?

• If we want a life blessed by God, what will we do? (verse 2)

(Note: ‘the law of the Lord’ means all God’s given instruction on how life should be lived)

• What, practically, does this mean?
• How can we do this? And from where does ‘a delight’ in God’s word come?
• If we live a life approved by God, how will we be blessed? (verse 3)
• In practice, what will this mean?

(For similar pictures, see Jeremiah 17.7-8. Psalm 92.12-15, Isaiah 44.3-5, Gen 49.22)

• Verses 4-6: LIFE THAT BRINGS GOD’S JUDGEMENT
• Verse 4: What word is used to describe the wicked?

What does this word have to say about the ‘worth’ and the final‘ destiny’ of the unrepentant wicked person? (See also Ps 35.5; Is 17.13; Luke 3.16-17)

(Note: The Psalmist has in his mind a common scene from the life of the day: threshing the corn. A hard flat surface, high on a hill, was used for the threshing floor on which the reaped corn in its ears was put. Oxen trod it. Then, at evening, when the wind got up, the corn was thrown up into the air by a large winnowing fan. The heavy valuable grain dropped down to the floor, but the worthless chaff blew away on the wind.)

• ‘the judgement’ : what is this?
• How serious are the implications of this for our living?
• ‘the way of the wicked will perish’: what does this mean?
• What is God’s attitude to ‘sinners’?

• UNDERSTANDING HOW THE PSALM APPLIES
• We are clearly discouraged from spending too much time with those who determinedly have no time for God (verse 1)
• What particular relationships, if any, do you think Christians should avoid?
• How does this affect our attitude to evangelism?
• Billy Graham has gone on record as saying if he had his time over again he would spend more time studying God’s word. Does that surprise you?
• Why is it so important to take time to study the Bible?
• Verse 6 states quite clearly that the wicked will ‘perish’. If we really believe this, how will it affect our priorities in life?