Devona Brazier:

Good morning. My name is Devona Brazier, director of outreach here. If we haven’t met, and we’re entering a new sermon series where we’re going to be in the Psalms. So in order to engage with the Psalms as works of art and poetry when possible, when they’re the right size, we’ll read each psalm in its entirety. And today’s Psalm this morning is from Psalm 1.

Psalms 1:1–6 (NIV)

¹ Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, ² but whose delight is in the law of the Lord and who meditates on his law day and night. ³ That person is like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do 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 leads to destruction.

This is the word of the Lord.

Tommy Branagh:

Thanks be to God. And thank you, Ivanna, for reading our first psalm of this series. Well, good morning and welcome. If we haven’t met before, my name is Tommy Branagh. I’m one of the pastors here, and I’m just so delighted to be with you. And I also want to welcome our online viewers who are, to me, but a camera. But we know that you are out there and we’re so happy to have you with us.

And as we start today, I actually want to spend just a minute reflecting on this season in the life of our church. Last week, if you were with us, we closed our service by praying a prayer of blessing and sending over Bart as we sent him on his sabbatical. And on Tuesday, we were able to do something similar with our staff. And then later that evening, a session as Bart’s final thing before he went out into sabbatical, just to pray over him and for him. And it was a really beautiful moment.

And before we dive into today’s new sermon series and text, I just want to reflect briefly on, I think, two opportunities and one invitation for us in this season of Bart’s sabbatical. And the first opportunity is the chance to reflect on the gift that God has given us in our lead pastor. I know Bart well enough and have experienced his humility enough to know how uncomfortable this moment would make him. But he’s on sabbatical, so he can’t say no. But truly, Bart is a man of remarkable wisdom and kindness and humility. And over the last five and a half years, this church has been so blessed by his love for the Lord and his love for this flock. And over these next few months, we really are going to feel his absence. Bart’s going to be missed. And I think we would miss an opportunity as a church if we don’t allow this to be a season of deep gratitude for what God has done and is doing here through Bart’s leadership. So that’s the first opportunity that this season gives us.

But the other opportunity is the chance to be reminded that the church belongs to the Lord and not to any one person. So in some senses, a pastoral sabbatical is just this wonderful way to guard against making a deity out of your pastor, which is a pitfall that a lot of churches fall into. In Acts, chapter 14, there’s this moment where the people want to worship the Apostle Paul. And he responds by saying to them, friends, why are you doing this? We too are only human like you. And in a very tangible way, this is what a sabbatical can be. A reminder that even the best pastor is only human, just like the rest of us. So those are our two opportunities to let Bart’s absence be a moment for gratitude and to let his absence be a reminder that ultimately the foundation of the church is the Lord.

And so those are the opportunities. Now, my invitation. And the invitation is to pray. Pray for Bart and pray for WCPC. Every time you think of Bart, ask God to bless him and his family to fill this season with joy and rest and delight. And whenever you think of WCPC, pray that God would be building this church on Jesus Christ, the solid rock. Pray that each and every day we would be more deeply rooted in the truth of the gospel.

Okay, now let’s get to our new sermon series, which I’m so excited about. So this summer, as you’ve heard, we’re going to be living in the Book of Psalms, and we’re going to be exploring the art of prayer. And this morning, our text is Psalm 1, and we’ll get there in a little bit. But first, I want to talk a little bit about that phrase, the art of prayer, and what we mean by that. What are our hopes for that in this series?

Now, if you were to go into a bookstore and you were to ask for the books that have the phrase the art of prayer in the title, you would get pointed to one of two sections. One of the sections would be full of books offering to teach you practical skills. These would be books like the Art of War, the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, the Art of French Cooking, the Art of Happiness, the Art of the Mountain Banjo. And what these books are offering is insight on how to gain proficiency in this skill or practice. So, just as one example, the blurb for Julia Child’s classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking says this: Mastering the Art of French Cooking offers something for everyone, from seasoned experts to beginners who love good food and long to reproduce the savory delights of French cuisine. So in other words, this book will help you learn how to cook French food. So that’s one way that we can understand the phrase the art of. It’s through this lens of a skill or practice.

But going back to the bookstore again, and you walk in and you ask for all the books with the art of in the title, the other section that you might get pointed to would be a section filled with books like Peanuts, the Art of Charles M. Schultz, or the Art of Pixar, the Art of the Impressionists, the Art of Picasso, the Art of Frida Kahlo. And all of these are real books. And these are not books that are teaching a practice, but these are books filled with works of art to look at, to contemplate, and to enjoy. And so the question for this series is, which way do we mean the phrase the art of? Is Psalms a book on the practice of prayer, or is it a book full of works of art? Is Psalms more art of French cooking or art of Van Gogh? And our answer for the whole summer is both. On the one hand, we will be looking at the Book of Psalms as a teacher who can help us learn how to pray. And at the very same time, we’re going to be looking at it as a gallery, a collection of art that can move and inspire us. And my prayer for this series is that both ways of engaging the Psalms will form our faith and help root us more deeply in Jesus.

So the next question is, why do we think the Book of Psalms can do these things? How can we have such lofty hopes? Well, the Book of Psalms is a collection of 150 prayers. And in these prayers we find guidance on how to pray in any and every circumstance. There are prayers of deep trust and simmering rage. There are Psalms of delight and despair, of triumph and defeat, of past deliverance and future hope. So the Book of Psalms is going to help teach us how to bring the whole breadth of our human experience into conversation with God.

But the Book of Psalms is not just a collection of 150 prayers. It’s also a collection of 150 poems, many of which were written as lyrics and were meant to be sung. So Psalms is often called the hymnbook of the Old Testament. And if you want to get the full effect of this book, we have to engage each Psalm not only as information that we’re comprehending, but also as art that we are born holding.

I had just a really wonderful experience about how to hold these two things in tension. A few weeks ago, my wife and I went to an exhibit at the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco. And it was extraordinary. And when I go to a museum, normally I’m going to spend 80% of my time reading the signs and, like, 20% looking at the art. I’m a sign reader. I love reading the signs because I love the information. I want it all. But on this particular visit, Megan suggested that we choose one of the paintings, and we just take 10 minutes contemplating it, just look at it and think about it. An uninterrupted period to let it soak in. So we decided to do it. We looked at the whole exhibit. I did still read every sign, but then we chose one of the paintings. It’s this one by Wayne Thiebaud. It’s called Surfer Ridge. And for 10 minutes, we looked at it, looked at it up close and far away, looked at it from the left and the right, and it was so captivating and so moving. And that experience offered me something that was totally other than what reading the signs, full of information, offered. And my prayer for this series is that we would have the same experience with the Psalms, that we would read the Psalms, we would learn what there is to learn, but that we would also soak in the beauty of the poetry. I hope that the emotion and the feeling they express would work its way into our hearts and our minds and our souls.

And to that end, during this series, I’m inviting all of us into what I’m calling the 10:10 challenge, which, here’s what that means. Each week, I want to challenge you to read the Psalm from the previous Sunday. So this week, that will be Psalm 1, to read it either 10 times or for 10 minutes, whichever comes first. Some Psalms, like Psalm 1, are short, so 10 minutes, you might be able to read through it a whole bunch of times. And some of the Psalms are long, so ten minutes might only get you through one and a half times. But either way, the goal is to engage in the Psalm in a way that really lets it sink into you. So that’s the 10:10 challenge. Each week, read the Psalm from the previous Sunday 10 times or for 10 minutes. Either one is great.

Okay, now let’s turn our attention to Psalm 1, our Psalm for today. There’s a 4th century pastor and theologian named Jerome, and he said that Psalm 1 is the main entrance to the mansion of the Psalter. And that’s a sentiment that many commentators have echoed. This sense that Psalm 1 is really an introduction to the whole book of Psalms. It sets the scene for everything that’s to come. And because this is more brief, I’d love to reread it for us. Which, if you’re going to take the 10:10 challenge, you’ll come out of this morning with two readings already done. So we’re helping you do your homework. But let me read Psalm 1 for us one more time.

Psalms 1:1–6 (NIV)

¹ Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked, or stand in the way that sinners take, or sit in the company of mockers, ² but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. ³ That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do 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 leads to destruction.

So right off the bat, we know that Psalm 1 is laying out a vision for living a blessed life. And if that phrase opens this psalm, blessed is the one. If it feels familiar, it might be because last summer we walked through the Beatitudes in the Book of Matthew, where we heard Jesus use this refrain over and over and over again. Blessed is the one who and here in Psalm 1 we have that same reflection. It’s describing a life that is blessed. And according to the author of this psalm, what kind of life is blessed? Well, we hear it clearly in verse 2. He says, Blessed is the one whose delight is in the law of the Lord. And a contrast is drawn with those who do not delight in the law of the Lord. And these people are called the wicked or the sinners, or the mockers. And the basic idea of this whole psalm is that a life of blessing is found by delighting in God and delighting in his law, and that any other path will ultimately lead to destruction.

Now that’s a simple message. But as the rest of the Book of Psalms will show, it can get complicated really fast. Because the truth is, life is not simple. Life is hard and life is messy. And very often in life, it does not appear that following God and obeying his law is a blessed way to live. So you only have to jump ahead to Psalm 13, where you will find these words. The psalmist cries out, how long, Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? Or in Psalm 37, we read, I have seen a wicked and ruthless man flourishing like a luxuriant native tree. So the things that Psalm 1 declares the rest of the Psalms wrestle with.

Philip Yancey, reflecting on prayer, wrote this. He said, most of my struggles in the Christian life circle around the same two themes, why God doesn’t act the way we want God to, and why I don’t act the way God wants me to. Prayer is the precise point where those themes converge. And that is so much of what we see in the Book of Psalms. The larger context of the whole book is the truth that’s proclaimed in Psalm 1, which is the best way to live, is rooted in God’s love and truth. And the rest of the book is this big, messy jumble of how that truth works itself out in practice. So we find these psalms of praise, thanking God for the times when walking with him feels like a blessing. And then there are psalms of lament and anger, when life feels terrible and everything is going wrong. There are psalms of confession from people who’ve wandered away from God and want to be restored. And there are psalms crying for justice, asking God to bring the blessing and the judgment where it is needed, but where it is lacking. But in every Psalm, there is this orienting core of truth that really does rest on the confession of Psalm 1, that a blessed life truly is found by delighting in the law of the Lord.

And something that I think is so important for us to understand as we embark on this journey through the Psalms is how is it that the authors of the Psalms came to this conclusion? What allowed them to root their trust so deeply in God, even when it can be hard to see God or to trust God or to obey God? Where does this sense of faith come from? And I think the key to understanding it is found in verse two, which, if you’ll recall, says that the one who is blessed delights in the law of the Lord. And to really get to the significance of that, we actually need to go back to the book of Exodus, the second book of the Bible. At the end of the book of Genesis, the people of God have moved to Egypt to escape a famine. And then Exodus picks up 400 years later with the Israelites still in Egypt, but now in very different circumstances. They have now been enslaved by the Egyptians. And so we’re actually going to read a little bit of Exodus, chapter three. And we’re going to encounter Moses, who is introduced a little bit earlier in the book of Exodus. But he’s out in the wilderness, and he notices a bush that appears to be on fire, but it’s not burning. So Moses goes to look at it, and this is where we’re picking up.

Exodus 3:4–14 (NIV)

⁴ When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”
And Moses said, “Here I am.”
⁵ “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” ⁶ Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
⁷ The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. ⁸ So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. ⁹ And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. ¹⁰ So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
¹¹ But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
¹² And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”
¹³ Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”
¹⁴ God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.'”

So let’s just follow this for a second. The Israelites have found themselves in a hopeless situation. They’re enslaved in one of the superpower nations of their day. And in their desperation, they cry out for help. And incredibly, their cry is heard. Someone out there is moved. And that someone comes to Moses and begins his plan for deliverance. And Moses, finding himself in quite the situation, says, well, who are you? Who is sending me on this mission? And the answer comes to Moses. I am the God who called Abraham. I’m the God who led you to Egypt. I am the God who heard your prayers. And my name is I am. And I am, in Hebrew, which is the language the Old Testament was written in, is Yahweh. And what does Yahweh the I am, proceed to do? Well, he proceeds to bring Israel out of slavery. He makes a covenant with them, giving them the law to guide them and promising that he will work through them to bless the whole world.

Now, if we were to read Psalm 1 in the Hebrew that it was originally written in, and we got to verse two, and we read that blessed is the one who delights in the law of the Lord, reading it in Hebrew, we would see that the word translated as Lord is Yahweh. The Psalm is a reminder to the people that Yahweh is the one who hears our prayers. Yahweh is the one moved with compassion. Yahweh is the one with the power to rescue and bring justice. The declaration of Psalm 1 is that there is a real and specific God. Our prayers are not just wishes that are thrown out into the cosmos. They are dialogue with the great I am who hears us and who cares. Psalm 1 is this beautiful reminder that your life is meaningful to Yahweh. And if you root yourself in his promises, if you were attentive to his covenant, Yahweh will bless your life.

Now, one of the tensions that we as people here in Walnut Creek in 2025 live in is that we actually have a more full revelation of God than the authors of the Psalms had. Because the psalmists had received a promise of a coming Messiah. They knew that a king would come. And that’s this kind of theme actually throughout the Psalms. It’s looking forward for this promised king, this promised Messiah. But we live on the other side of the Messiah. The king has come, Jesus has lived. So what does that mean for us as we read the Psalms? Well, the New Testament actually provides us this really helpful answer because we can look at how Jesus himself read the Psalms, and we can see how the early church read the Psalms. And what we see from them is that the truest and fullest understanding of the Psalms actually comes by reading them in light of Jesus. So in other words, as people living after Jesus, we should allow our knowledge of Jesus to inform how we read the Psalms. So let’s apply that to Psalm 1. How does our reading of Psalm 1 get shaped by knowing about Jesus? What does it mean for us as we seek to delight in the law of the Lord? Well, it means for us that as we think about the law, we should think about the New Covenant, which is a fulfillment of the old Covenant. And as we think about the Lord, we should think about the triune God who is Yahweh. But who we also know as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And when we think about the one who delights in the law of the Lord, we can be reminded of the only one who has ever done that perfectly, and that is Jesus. So Psalm 1 is this reminder to plant our lives in the truth that Jesus is the one who is righteous. He is the one who perfectly delights in the law of the Lord. And it is only by delighting in him that we can experience the blessings that Psalm 1 describes. So this psalm really should spur us to pray, to trust, to repent if we find ourselves becoming among the crowd of the wicked or the sinners or the mockers. And this psalm should turn our attention and our affections towards Jesus.

So I would kind of describe what we’ve done so far as a lot of reading the signs. We’re getting a lot of information. We’re trying to understand what’s happening here in this gallery. But I want to close by spending a little time contemplating the art and sitting in the poetry, because Psalm 1 gives us this amazing image of the blessed life. It says that the person who delights in the law of the Lord is like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever they do prospers.

The front of my house gets baked by the sun, and we have this young tree planted there that I hope will someday grow big and leafy so it can provide lots of shade. But the first summer that we lived there, my hopes for this tree were dimming because the heat seemed to be too much for the tree. The warmer it got, the worse the tree looked. Leaves were getting dry. A lot of branches had no leaves at all, and it just wasn’t growing. And what it needed was obvious. The tree needed streams of water. So over the past few years, via my hose, I have brought streams of water to this tree. And it’s incredible what a tree does when it has enough water. What was once dying is now flourishing. It is this deep, vibrant green, and it keeps sending out new branches, growing higher and wider. And now, no matter how hot it gets, the tree does not wither because it has now been planted by streams of water.

And that is the image we’re invited to rest in. The promise of Psalm 1 is that you can be planted by streams of living water, by delighting in the covenant of grace that we have in Jesus. You can have leaves that never wither, and you can have a life that bears beautiful fruit. So delight in the law of the Lord. Meditate day and night on what Jesus has done, because that is where blessing is found. Amen.