“Blessed” (Psalm 1:1).

Psalm 1 functions as the introduction of the Book of Psalms. Psalm 1 tells us what the entire psalter is all about. In fact, you could say that Psalm 1 tells us the purpose of the entire Bible.

The very opening word of the Psalm tells us the topic of the psalter – “blessed.”

The entire book, and the entire Bible, is about how a follower of God can live a life that is blessed. In the coming days we will be looking at Psalm 1 together.

Blessed – the Hebrew word for blessed is esher. It means to be blessed or happy.

• God gave us his word so that his children can be happy and blessed.
• Jesus tells us the purpose of his coming in John 10:10, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” And the reason God wants his children to live a blessed and happy life is that a blessed and happy life brings God delight, joy, and glory.
• Jesus tells us this in John 15:8, “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit.”

The first question and answer of the Westminster Shorter Catechism is, “What is the chief end of man? Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.”

If our chief purpose for existing is to glorify God, what does God’s glory look like? What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear, “the glory of God?”

I don’t know about you, but I picture bright light.

But here’s the thing. Bright light doesn’t help me. I don’t know how to do bright light. I don’t know what that looks like in my life.

This is why what Jesus tells us in John 10:8 is so helpful. Jesus tells us exactly what God’s glory looks like – “That you bear much fruit.” It is when we live lives that bear much fruit, lives that are blessed, lives that are happy that God is glorified.

You see why “Blessed” and “Happy” are such important words for God? The entire Bible tells us how we might live blessed and happy lives.

Blessed. How cool is that?

How are you bearing much fruit today? How are you enjoying God and his blessings today?

“As for me, I call to God, and the LORD saves me. Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice” (Psalm 55:16-17).

I am writing this as I work from Starbucks. Many of you know that I work out of a Starbucks a couple of hours every day. It’s not just the coffee. It’s the smells, the sounds, the atmosphere. For whatever reason I get my best work done in a cafe setting.

My wife wonders how I can concentrate with all the commotion and noise at a typical cafe.

There are around 8,000,000,000 people on planet earth right now. At any moment, there has to be thousands, if not millions of people crying out and praying to God at the same time. How is it even possible that God can hear our individual prayers amidst the noise and the cachophony of sounds of the millions of prayers? How can God separate out each individual prayers?

I think I get how that works. Starbucks shows me that every time I work at one.

You see, there are multiple conversations going on around me. There is the noise of all the workers and their machines. There is the activity of people entering and going. Yet, I have no problem concentrating.

Do you know where I can’t do this? It’s at home. It’s the church office.

I normally have music in the background because I don’t work well in total silence either. It tends to put me to sleep. Even when I wear noise cancelling headphones with music in the background, when I am at home the voices and activity penetrate my concentration. It is impossible to not hear my wife or kids. Impossible.

But at Starbucks, I don’t know any of the voices. I don’t care for the voices at Starbucks the way I care for the voices at home or in the church office.

That’s why when a parent is at a play ground and they hear their particular child cry out out of the dozens of kids at play and screaming and laughing, not only can the parent pick out their child’s particular cry but they are able to know in an instant whether the cry is a hurt cry.

Why? Because the voice of their beloved penetrates.

That’s how it is with God. Even though there are millions of voices that are lifted up, every one of those voices penetrates. God cannot ignore them. God cannot block them out because they are the voices of his beloved. And when a hurt cry is lifted up? Oh, man. God responds.

Starbucks…that’s how I know God hears our prayers.

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

I love this verse. I love this verse because there are times when my world is troubled. There are times when life hurts. There are times when life feels totally unfair.

I love this verse because of the context. Jesus did not promise peace to give his disciples the warm fuzzies. Look at the context. Jesus says in the verse before our verse, “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone” (v.32).

Jesus tells the disciples that things will get so bad that every one of them will desert their Master and Lord. Life is going to get hard.

There are difficult times. That’s life. Loved ones get cancer. Loved ones die. We get into a car wreck. We lose our jobs. Countries go through recession. Countries go to war. People betray us. People quit on us. That’s life.

Thank God there is more to life than the difficult times. But, difficult times are a fact of life. And it is precisely for such times Jesus reminds us, “Take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Look at where Jesus tells his disciples peace can be found.

Yup.

“In me you may have peace.”

Peace has a name. His name is Jesus. Do you know him?