Psalm 1 – True Happiness  “The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings.” Robert Louis Stevenson  But are we? How happy are kings?  To what extent can we control happiness? Circumstances, make up, background, mood  We will have eternal happiness!  What about this life? 1 Cor 15:19, Ps 3, 5, 10 Happiness must not be our chief aim - but if we can move towards it legitimately, we should! Happiness at the expense of God and others ends in tragedy anyway (Gal 6 7:10)

Who are the Wicked? v1  Psalm 1 contrasts the righteous and the wicked  Who are the wicked? Particularly bad people? Non-believers? Believers who don’t avail of God’s resources? Anyone who is a bad influence? Anyone who put’s God out of the picture?  Do not let the world squeeze you into its mold (Rom 12:2) 1 Jn 2:15  Walk, stand, sit – progression towards allegiance to wicked  Jesus stands at the door and knocks – we don’t answer

Delighted - v2  How can we develop a greater appetite for God’s word? (We have more of it now than at that time.)  What dominates our thought life (Mt 12:44, 2 Cor )  Do we know how to meditate? To reflect on – to contemplate Good at worrying! Good at dwelling on injustices! Good at coveting!  We need to make the world grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace

C.S.Lewis on Faith  "Now Faith …is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods…  Now that I am a Christian I do have moods in which the whole thing looks very improbable: but when I was an atheist I had moods in which Christianity looked terribly probable. This rebellion of your moods against your real self is going to come anyway. That is why Faith is such a necessary virtue: unless you teach your moods 'where they get off', you can never be either a sound Christian or even a sound atheist, but just a creature dithering to and fro, with its beliefs really dependent on the weather and the state of its digestion.  Consequently one must train the habit of Faith.”

5 Tree by Streams of Living Water v3  Think of Rev 22 again.  Trees look beautiful and provide fruit and much else.  A tree needs light, water, roots, nourishment  Are we more like fake trees, cut flowers, tumbleweeds?  We must be: Separated from the world Saturated by the word  The law is all about God.  To bear the fruit of the Spirit, we must allow the Spirit to work in us and through us Gal 5:19-25

6 Not So the Wicked  Chaff is utterly useless for anything.  They will have no part in the New Heaven and New Earth.  They do no good in this world – unless God uses them for his purposes despite themselves– (Rom 9:17)  Will not stand in the judgment Some try to “run with the hare and hunt with the hounds” The LORD will separate them out Matt 3:12  LORD watches over the way of the righteous God declares us righteous when we believe. God makes us more righteous throughout our lives. We will be righteous in the heaven.  To perish isn’t to fade into non-existence – see Revelation!