May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. (Psalm 1)

In Christ's name and to his glory, dear friends: It is quite natural for us to put others before us as role models. We admire someone and his characteristics, and we strive to be like him. This is especially true among the young; they need role models. I think it is also still true among adults, though maybe to a lesser degree. Now because of sin, we must be careful of who we set before us and why we set someone before ourselves as the ideal. There may be jealous envy; we want what God has given to others. We also may err in what we want. Especially the young and even the adults will think the ideal person is one who has power, popularity, money and the things of this world. All this God warns is like the chaff, the useless husks of the corn we leave outside in the garbage when we bring the cobs of corn into the kitchen. It is good for us, then, that God puts his ideal person before us today in this little inspired poem. It paints a beautiful portrait of The Lord's Ideal Person. But this is not art for art's sake. The Lord has a good reason for placing this picture before us. He asks us today: Is this a portrait of you? He doesn't want us to merely admire this portrait, but to have it effect us. Let us look closely, and may God be doing two things in our hearts. May he awaken, renew, a desire in us to be the Lord's ideal person; and may he give us his grace to be it as well.

From the very first stoke of the Lord's brush we see an important characteristic of the Lord's portrait of his ideal person. The Lord's ideal is a "blessed man." Blessed is the man.... The Lord's ideal is not a self-made man, but a man that is made by God's blessing, creative hand. Now, this is not to say that the Lord's ideal is laziness. God himself says, If a man will not work he shall not eat. (2 Thessalonians 3:14) It is to say that the Lord's ideal person is one who knows he is completely dependant on the Lord's blessing. The Lord's ideal person knows that every good and perfect gift is from above, (James 1:17) and so he prays as he works for his daily bread. And what is true of daily bread is doubly true for the eternal blessings of heaven. Our incomplete and soiled work of living the holy life God demands brings only a curse. But blessed is the man who sees that the Lord in Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us (Galatians 3:13).

And since the Lord's ideal person is dependant on the Lord's blessing, he loves to be near the means, the ways, God uses to relay his blessings to man. His delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law he meditates day and night. As a light bulb is useless unless it touches a wire that is connected on the other end to the power source, so we are not, cannot be, God's ideal unless we touch the Word which is connected to the grace and power of the Almighty. So the Lord's ideal person longs for time with the Word, carries it in his heart and ponders it much more than just the brief time of regular worship, and repentantly acknowledges that he often does not mirror the Lord's ideal person in this regard.

After this first bold stroke of the Lord's brush he begins to fill in the details of his ideal person. Because the Lord's ideal person is blessed, it follows, it's only natural, that he will be healthy, prosperous and wise. The Lord's ideal person is healthy. He is like a tree planted by steams of water...whose leaf does not wither. Do not be as the world and only think of earthly health. Think of the Lord's spiritual health through the merits of Jesus Christ our Savior. Yea though the Lord's blessed ideal persons walks through the valley of the shadow of death they fear no evil, for they are loved, forgiven, protected and will live even though they die (John 11).

The Lord's ideal person is prosperous. He bears his fruit in season...whatever he does prospers. Again, do not think of worldly prosperity. The Lord's ideal person prospers in bearing the fruit of faith. There is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22) because the Lord's gracious blessing is on this person. And even when sin and Satan harass the Lord works all things for the good.

And the Lord's ideal person is wise. He does not does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. The Lord's ideal person hates what God hates and so does not want to be around, knows the danger of being around, those who are not the Lord's ideal people. On the positive he longs for the company of the assembly of the righteous. As we sing in our hymn-there are the good and blessed, those we love most and best (I'm but a stranger here). And this blessed, ideal continues on forever. The blessed of the Lord will stand in the judgment.

But now the question that carries us from admiring this portrait to it having an effect on us--Is this a portrait of you? In general, a role model is on a pedestal. We are not what we see in our role model or it would cease to above us, toward which we strain. This is doubly true of the portrait of the Lord's ideal person. Let him who is without sin say, I am this portrait. Only he who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin (Hebrews 4:15)-only Jesus Christ, the GodMan, is this ideal. Looking at this portrait there is reason to repent and plenty of room for improvement.