TEXT: Psalm 1

SUBJECT: Kids’ Sermon #42: What the Happy Person is Like

Listen up, kids!

This is the second Sunday of the month and time for another sermon just for you. I hope everyone listens, of course, but especially the kids, because I prepared it for you and I’m going to stop and ask questions as we go along.

In word single word, can anyone tell me what Psalm One is about? Happiness.

It tells us what kind of person you must be if you’re going to happy—both now and when you die. Everyone wants happiness, but very few people want it badly enough to get it God’s way. The Psalms tell us what His way of happiness is. It starts—Psalm 32 says—with having your sins forgiven,

You’ll never be happy until your sins are forgiven—no matter how much you have or how many fun things you do. Nobody is happy unless he’s forgiven. God forgives us when we repent of our sins and believe in Jesus Christ.

If you’re not forgiven, repent, believe, and you’ll be well on your way to the happy life you want. And need to live.

But once you’re forgiven, you need to keep up your happiness and grow in it. This you do by living your life God’s way. The life is described for us in vv.1,2. The happy person, the Lord says, is one who doesn’t do some things, but does others.

What he doesn’t do is

This means he doesn’t like the company of bad people; he doesn’t follow their evil ways or take their godless advice. If your best friends disobey their parents, laugh at God, lie, steal, curse, or wreck other people’s things, you’ll never be happy. Proverbs 13:20 warns,

Instead of liking and listening to bad people, the happy person

He enjoys God’s Word and thinks about the Lord and His will as much as he can.

In the first two verses, then the Happy Person is described. But, then, in v.3, he’s compared or likened to something. Comparisons help us to understand things more clearly. Let me give you an example:

If I said, "Mr. Taylor ingests 30,000 calories each day", what would you think? Probably not much. But, what if I said, "Mr. Taylor eats like a pig!", then you’d know exactly what I mean. 30,000 calories a day is way too much to eat. But comparing Mr. Taylor to a pig makes the point much clearer, doesn’t it?

Comparisons help us to understand something—or to see it more clearly.

But there’s always a danger of comparisons. Sometimes we miss the point. If I said, "Bobby runs like a deer", I don’t mean he runs on four legs! I mean he’s fast.

In reading the comparisons of the Bible, we’re not to make them mean whatever we want them to, but only to understand them in the way the prophet and the Holy Spirit meant them. Most of the time, that’s pretty easy—if you read the verses around the comparison.

The happy man is "like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither".

The happy man is like a tree. But in what way? He’s made out of wood? He can’t move? Of course not! He’s like a tree in that, he’s

• "Planted by the rivers of water". What does water do for a tree? It takes care of the tree. Without water, a tree withers up and dies. In the same way, the happy man is well taken care of by God!

• "Brings forth its fruit in its season". This means it is alive and useful. A fruit tree that bears no fruit is sick and will soon be cut down. But the happy person is healthy, active, and useful which means he is devoted to God and eager to help other people.

• "Leaf also shall not wither". What leaves mostly do for a tree is make it beautiful. In the same way, the happy person is beautiful to God. He may not be handsome on the outside, but inside, he looks good to the Lord. And people who know him well also see his beauty.

• Do you want the Lord to be good to you? Do you want Him to take care of you, to answer your prayers, and to give you everything you need?

If you do, you’ve got to believe in Christ and life a holy life. In one way, God takes care of everyone. The Bible says,

But the Lord takes special care of His people. The Bible says,

Because the Lord take such good care of His people, they’re like "Trees planted by the rivers of water".

Note the word, "rivers"—not river. Think of two mighty rivers running together. Just above the point the come together, a tree is planted, with roots running both ways. Do you think it would have all the water it needed? It would. But what about in dry years, when there wasn’t much rain? When other trees dried up and died, it would remain green, strong, and healthy!

That’s the holy person for you! When hypocrites fall away from God and backsliders dry up, the holy person is alive and well. Because the Lord takes special care of him!

• Do you want to be useful to other people? Would you like to help them?

If so, you’ve got to be holy. What good is the advice of a fool? What good are the prayers of someone who doesn’t love the Lord?

No one is more helpful than a holy person. He sets a good example, he gives good advice, he encourages you when you’re down, he corrects you when you’re sinning. What a blessing he is!

He’s like a tree bearing lots of ripe and delicious fruit. Now, does the apple tree eat its own apples? No. The apples are for others. In the same way, the works of a holy life do others good. Good company is like a medicine for the sick soul and a feast for the hungry heart.

Do you want to be a blessing to your parents? Or your brothers and sisters? Or your friends? Or your church? Or to grandparents, maybe? Or anyone at all? If you do, you’ve got to be holy.

• Do you want to be beautiful to God?

Almost everyone wants to be good looking on the outside. Ladies put on makeup, men work out at the health club, even kids worry about their clothes and hair and so on.

There’s nothing wrong with looking good on the outside. But it’s even better to look good on the inside. What makes a lady beautiful on the outside? A pretty face, a good figure, soft hair, and so on. But Peter says there’s another kind of beauty for ladies—and it’s way better than the prettiest eyes or the brightest smile. He says,

In other words, it is holiness that looks good to the Lord! Not faked holiness—He hates that! But real holiness, the holiness of "Delighting in God’s Law and meditating in it day and night". That looks good to God! And His opinion is the only one that counts.

I want you think about trees for a minute. Think of your favorite fruit (mine is a yellow apple tree). Think about its roots digging deep into the ground, a big fat trunk, long, thick branches, rich green leaves, and big, fat yellow apples hanging down all over. Beautiful, isn’t it?

Now think of another tree. It’s old and twisted. The leaves are dead and there’s no fruit on it. You touch a twig and it snaps off because it’s so dry. That’s not pretty, is it?

A holy life is like the big green tree with apples all over it. An unholy life is like the dried out twisted tree. One brings joy to God and man. The other is good for nothing but firewood.

If you were a tree, which one would you rather be? The healthy fruitful one or the dead one? That’s the difference between holiness and unholiness. That’s the difference between delighting in God’s Law and walking in the counsel of the ungodly.

What kind of person will you be? Holy or unholy; fruitful or good only for burning?

Choose wisely. Your life depends on it. Amen.