Though Psalm One is the focus, I need to begin with John 8:36 "So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." To be set free, we had to have been captive to something. Before bowing to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, we were confined in bondage to sin. We had a primal instinct for sin. We were prone to hurt, and with that came self-pity. We may have dealt with anger over not getting our way, and our pride grew, standing our ground to be right. There is so much we were captive to and were set free from in Christ. We were prisoners to how others thought of us, treated us, or made decisions for us. We were captive to our self-esteem, self-promotion, and self-occupation, a by-product of all other sins. It all leads to self-protection. In the end, it all leads to death.
Romans 6 Paul talks about sin as our master. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 3:17, "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." The truth about freedom in Christ is replete through the pages of the New Testament. We see it lived out in those who believed and followed him. Their lives were changed forever, and then at Pentecost, they were sealed forever with God's Spirit. We have been set free from the bondage of the past. Past hurts, past abuses, past self-serving, past indulgences, the past is not gone, yet we are free from living from it or for it. Yet, we see from many folks in churches there is no difference in how these things are handled from how the world deals with them. We would think these things impact us differently now as those who have not been set free by the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Scripture implies they should.
Many followers of Jesus talk as if their past still has a hold on them. They continue to wrestle with their issues as if still imprisoned by them. Here's the biggest detriment to not understanding how freedom should look in Jesus, we will not live free to minister to others from our varying past experiences, struggles, hurts, etc. We stay in bondage. As salt and light, believers seek worldly counsel to deal with these issues, not living in God's gift of counsel in His Word. They are walking, standing, and sitting in the counsel of the wicked, ungodly, and scoffer with "their" own individual "truth." And we wonder why the people in our circle do not see hope in Jesus from us.
When we blend or conflate the world's way of seeking help with what Jesus has died for, we become "like chaff that the wind drives away." We all have a past. Many have a painful past. Others have a past they are ashamed of being exposed. A believer must answer, "How did Jesus set us free from living in the pain, guilt, fear, or insecurities of the past and then live in that freedom?" The simple answer is to believe and put your weight in the reality that you are free from it. As we begin to study the Scripture, walking out that Truth begins to take shape in godly living. We will address how that looks further down.
What many do is blend Scriptural Truth with the wisdom of the world. That is where the amalgamation of the two ideologies crosses, and sadly we cannot serve two masters. God's Word encourages us to seek counsel when we don't know the direction God wants us to go. The other side of the coin is knowing the counsel being given is Biblical. Passages that speak of godly counsel, Proverbs 27:9; 15:22; 12:15; 24:6; 11:14; Isaiah 11:2; Psalm 16:7; 73:24. With many of those Scriptures, you will find that it is God, Himself, through His Word that is the Counselor.
First, we must take ownership of our faith just like the Bereans did. In Acts 17:10-15, Paul was in Berea teaching them the Word, and it says of the people in this town, "they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so." That is an example of taking your walk with the Lord personally. You do not allow yourself to be taken in by what sounds good but may not be biblical. You examine what is said by what is written. This is not a lazy activity. It is a process. It takes time.
Second, the warning and encouragement of Psalm 1 are essential. There are six verses. The first three speaks to the godly person, whereas the second three speak of the ungodly. The conclusion of verses 5b-6 is the outcome of each. Let's examine how we can walk in the freedom for which Christ has set His followers free. We are never told to rehearse our pain. We are never told to relive our hurts. We are never told to wait for others to ask for forgiveness. Those become our considerations for getting over our past when we seek the world's counsel. Psalm 1 says, "Blessed (happy) is the man (person) who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers."
Too many followers of Jesus are paying for secularly trained counselors to tell them how to get over their history. Most of what comes from that is not biblical but can make them believe they are being given freedom. True counsel does not make us beholding or dependent on the counselor. True counsel pushes us to depend on God's Word. That is why Psalm 1 continues, "But his delight is in the law (Word) of the LORD, and on His law, he meditates day and night." When I counsel or teach individual women or in groups, I aim to ask questions and cause the person or group to learn how to find the answers for themselves. I am not interested in anyone becoming dependent on me for answers. If I give answers, I try to give the different aspects of Scripture or doctrines believed throughout the history of the Church and then point the person in the direction of finding more for herself. In other words, my goal is to "teach her how to fish, not hand her the fish." She becomes a Berean and will become a discerning Christian, knowing the difference between worldly and godly counsel.
One of the reasons I'm a stickler about memorization is matched by the text, "he meditates on day and night." To act on this distinction of the godly is to store God's Word in our hearts. That is the only way to meditate on it day and night. Psalm 19:7 gives us a result of this practice. "The law of the Lord is perfect (the perfect counselors), rejoicing the soul..." As we meditate on God's Word, it puts our past into perspective. We recognize that sin impacts everyone who lives longer than a day. It makes its way into our lives and onto our lives through others. We also recognize that we need not be paralyzed by it but propelled into opportunities to use it for ministry, not rehearsal, and self-pity.
Psalm 1 tells us our proper standing, no matter our past, due to the freedom we have been given in Christ, "... He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers." This not only speaks of the beauty of our freedom. It declares so much more than mediocre Christian living. When we choose the counsel of God, we will be fruitful. We will not be exhausted by our past. We will live resilient lives of freedom. Too many Christians are held captive to their past so that their lives appear no different than the world. The Scripture says that should not be so. Our lives become fruitful when we receive Jesus' freedom, walk in it, and meditate on His word. Ministry through our past and from the life God delivered us from bears out in fruitfulness in our lives and falls off into others' lives. The Scripture speaks of nothing but the power of God's Spirit walking in us, working through us, and waring on our behalf in prayer as we seek counsel and obedience to the godliness required of us. You will not see anyone who lives this way, crippled by their past.
Paul mentions his past, Acts 8-9, 26:9-11; 1 Corinthians 15:9; Philippians 3:5-6 but not so others would commiserate with his history and pity him. He speaks of it to show how God can rescue, through His Son, anyone and everyone surrendered to Him. His past was a launching pad. It was a reason to testify of the goodness of God. That is what we are missing. We don't need a hard luck story, but if we have one, God can use it. We don't need an abuse story, but God can use that. But we don't have a continued story of bondage in Christ. We have a freedom story. How do you change the former to the latter?
What do we do if our past continues to reach the front of our thoughts?
1. We delight in Jesus' salvation, Philippians 4:4 "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice!" That encouragement comes from Paul, the man with a past that did not seek worldly counsel. Paul was beaten, imprisoned, shipwrecked, bit by a snake, and others thought he must have done something evil. His past was actually great. He went from being a top dawg. His freedom was counting those things according to the world as good; he called them dung. His past would have been considered quite lucrative in the world's eyes. We don't all have a bad situation past. Some have a thriving past, but that thriving was for everything contrary to freedom in Christ. Those things may have had to be set aside to know Christ and live in his freedom.
2. We must learn to "give thanks in all circumstances" 1 Thessalonians, also written by Paul. We have so much to be thankful for. Even from our past lived experiences. Meditating on Scripture helps us see that God did not abandon us in our circumstances. We learn how to forgive. We learn how Jesus died for us while we were his enemies. If we land in the Old Testament, we can see how God's love for nations that hated Him caused Him to offer opportunities for their salvation. In other words, we can put our situations in light of all God offers a sinful world, then be set free and not live in the crisis of our past. This should foment thankfulness for who He is and all He offers. No matter our past, whether we've been hurt or we've hurt others, or we were established in the world's ways, we are offered repentance, which God receives and is "faithful and just to forgive us..." That alone is a reason to give thanks.
I must clarify a common refrain; worldly wisdom tells you to "forgive yourself." Now while that sounds so humble. It is not biblical. We are commanded to repent. We are commanded to make things right with others. We are called to live in peace as much as it depends on us. We are never told to forgive ourselves. If we adopt that treatment from worldly philosophy, we have blended it with godly counsel. I say that because Christians have encouraged others to do this, which the Bible does not teach.
Lastly, these things are not an exhaustive list of actions to live out the freedom we received from Jesus. We need to stay in constant prayer. Meditating on Scripture offers opportunities to pray those passages back to God as our thoughts weigh us down. We capture our troubling thoughts by trading them for Biblical truths we have memorized, meditated on, and then pray through. As we humble ourselves to God, declaring our need for Him in the weakness of the thoughts running through our minds, His Grace comes into rescue.
Freedom and Fruitfulness are what Jesus came to give those who have claimed Him as Lord, and He looks for in us. Psalm 1 lays out how the godly person walks through this relationship. We are directed where not to seek counsel, then how fruitfulness comes. The latter will not happen if we blend the two. This passage speaks of not blending the world's counsel with the counsel of the Scripture. If we want a fruitful Christian life, the only way to have it is to meditate on God's Word. And to do that day and night. When our past haunts us, we meditate on God's word. When emotional pain pushes in, mediate on God's word. When insecurities whisper in our ears, we meditate on God's word. Experiencing the freedom Jesus died to give us is obeying His word's instructions.
It may seem odd or contrary to the direction of the world. Too many are following the familiarity of the world's counsel. Psalm 1 tells us the end of those "are like chaff that the wind drives away." Blending the counsel of the world and God's Word is not to have the latter at all. God knows your lived experiences and did not send His Son to keep you and me imprisoned by them.
"Who the Son sets free is free indeed." The world doesn't understand that. Don't look to them to help you find it. Freedom cannot be found in their counsel. Psalm 1 ends with this encouragement, "For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish," so will their counsel. Don't desire it. Live in Jesus' freedom.
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