The Blessed Man

Psalm 1. First Psalm. I doubt that this message that I'm going to give will reach the intensity of what we just heard. I do hope and pray it will be a help.

Thank you for that. And I am thankful for people who do care and who do help. And we were considering, in a collective sense, those that to stand and the value of that.

There is also something very, very valuable to God on an individual level. A godly life. A life that we all, I'm sure, who are saved want to attain to, want to live in the light of.

We have in Psalm 1, before I commence to read this, you will note that as we start in reading of it, ultimately it gives us the presentation of the Lord Jesus Himself. The man. And you'll note that it is contrasted with the masses of individuals.

That there are single individuals. And so let us commence to read Psalm 1. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth, I've been hearing about standing. This is not the idea that this man simply does not stand, but he stands, he takes a stand against.

Nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. You'll note the obvious progression from walking to standing to sitting. But his delight is in the law of the Lord.

And in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither.

And whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The idea is prospering before God. The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away.

Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish. As you read the book of Psalms, we have various writers.

There are various compositions. There are various categories of the psalms that we have. There are some psalms that are what are called imprecatory psalms.

They are psalms in which the writer is calling down judgment, calling down lightning upon his enemies. Send them in the pits. Put them, cast them aside.

And those are judgmental psalms. There are halal psalms. There are penitential psalms, where the psalmist is in remorse.

He's writing in repentance. There are messianic psalms, which speak of the Messiah. For example, Psalm 69 that we looked at this morning is a messianic psalm.

If they pertain and are quoted in our New Testament as having to do with the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, they can be labeled as messianic psalms. There are psalms of degrees, psalms of ascending, ascent, different types of psalms. But this psalm that begins this book, the Book of Psalms, are one of a classification that begins with the word blessed.

They're called Asher psalms. That means simply blessed. There are five of them.

And so as the psalmist begins this song book, we use a believer's hymn book or a new believer's hymn book, whatever, and that's our song book. Well, for Israel, the Book of Psalms was their song book. And it's interesting that the longest book in the Bible begins with the thought of blessed.

Blessed. It's the idea that God wants to bless and that the aspect of this individual is blessed by God. But there are conditions.

There are conditions. It's not just automatic blessing. There are conditions for this individual who does not move in with the stream of this world, but who's dedicated to living before God in testimony.

And he doesn't walk, he doesn't stand, he doesn't sit with those in that stream of a condemned world, and he is living for God. Now, I don't want to look at the second half of the psalm. I want to focus on the first half and these verses.

And these conditions that are given to us and the blessings that result from it. Because, really, there are conditions in life. Conditions in living a godly life.

Isn't that what the judgment seat is all about? Conditions. It's not automatic reward. It's living in the light of the Word of God and in a devoted life to the Lord Jesus, to God.

Luther, Martin Luther, called the Book of Psalms, he actually called it the Little Bible. The Little Bible. And the psalms are rich in human experience.

At times, as you go through the psalms, it sounds with the din of battle, and the noise, and the clanging of swords. And at other times, there's the hush of being into the inner sanctuary. At times, the world is seen as our enemy and the enemy of the author.

And the wicked, at times, in the psalms are sometimes even contemplated as those who are closest to us. But often, the greatest enemy in the Book of Psalms is self. The one that we always have with us.

And so, it is significant that it begins, this Book of Psalms, with the man. The individual. The blessed man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor who sits, nor who stands, and nor sits with those in companionship that will derail him, that will enable him to lose his communion, his effectiveness.

And so, as I speak on this, I'm speaking to an audience of, yes, there's three sections, and there's groups here, group here, group here, but it's individuals. Every one of us, individuals. I want to divide this into just a few simple headings.

Number one, I want you to think how it begins, the declaration of the Lord. Because while it begins with this aspect of blessed is the man, this is a statement of God. This is God making this statement to us, and to all who will read.

And this is something that is very, very valuable to him in a world that has gone its own way. In fact, the psalmist writes in Psalm 12 and verse 1, help, Lord, he says, for the godly man ceaseth. Where is he? The faithful have failed.

And so, as this hymn book begins with the resonating tone of music, it's going to start with this declaration from God. It's almost like the Beatitudes that Brother Larry was reading yesterday. I thought yesterday this would have fit in perfectly with what he was saying.

Blessed is the man. What does that mean to be blessed? We think of getting things. We think of, boy, that man is so blessed.

He has this, he has that, he's blessed. Well, the idea in our Bibles, it has several different connotations, but one of them is to speak well of. To bless means to speak well of.

Another idea is the idea of happiness, but more than happiness, happiness that flows from a sense of well-being, of separation, of rightness. And that individual who lives accordingly in light of the Word of God is a blessed individual. Now, the flavor of the world that keeps us from trying to live that kind of life, the streams, the current, the flow of this world, it has never changed this recipe.

It has never changed the characteristic of attack, but the one thing that has happened as time has gone on is that the access, the availability, the accessorization of that has tremendously increased in availability. David never had social media. David never had television.

David never had the ability to travel as we do. There was not the ability to to go from here to there, to be brought together with large groups of people in the way that we can do that now. Communication was never the way it was as it is now.

And all of these things are used. Brandon mentioned the cell phone and so on. And so this is important that we recognize as we read this, blessed is the man.

This book is the gateway to the Psalms, and if I can stress that now, that what is going to happen is that what Psalm 1 is written for is the idea that this, that he is going to set the tone for the rest of the book, that this man who is separated. In fact, as I heard even the messages yesterday, I was thinking how it went along. We heard about Nehemiah and separation and building.

Who is the only individual that really can build for God? It's a godly man. You take that aspect away of separation, you will not be able to build. Not for God.

You can build treasure cities for Pharaoh, but you won't be able to build for God. And so as we look at this this Psalm that begins, it's the idea of, what was it, D.L. Moody that said there's a, he said the difference between a ship sailing and a ship sinking. He says, ships are made to sail in the sea, but God helped the ship when the sea gets into it.

And so we are meant, we are here now, we are not, we are in the world, but upon salvation we have been now taken, as it were, from out of the condemnation of the world, but we're still moving in it. We're ships sailing, but we don't want to be ships sinking. And so we have this first Psalm that begins, and it tells us actually of, in plurality, because that word blessed is actually in the plural.

It's the manifold blessings, the blessednesses of this godly individual. So it's in its plurality. He brings before us, and we don't know according to this Psalm who wrote it, but we do have the New Testament to thank, that we know from the New Testament that David wrote it.

This is one of the, what are called the orphan Psalms, and I would encourage you, read Psalm 1 and Psalm 2 together and look at the contrasts between them. They both begin that way. We have its plurality.

We have a path of blessing, that this is the idea of continuity. It's not just certain steps, and then so on. It's a continual path.

There's this position of blessing, that there are obstacles that will be put in the way. Who hasn't encountered them? Sometimes they come in relation to events, events that you are going to have to make a choice about. Am I going to go? Am I not going to go? Am I going to be part of this? Am I not going to be part of this? Because this Psalm brings before us both the positive as well as the negative aspects of separation.

And it's interesting that it really begins with the negative, because we live in a world, I don't know how often you hear educators, psychologists, and so on, they stress the aspect of, you need to reinforce the positive. You need to reinforce the positive. But what does this Psalm begin with? He does not.

He does not. He does not. And so God is emphasizing, in the spirit of God, the negative before the positive will be seen as well.

I want you to think not only of the declaration of the Lord in relation to this man, but I want you to think of the direction of this individual, because that's what you have. You have a direction. You have a trajectory, as it were.

There are nine characteristics in this Psalm, nine, of this blessed man. You mark them down, you'll see them. But what is interesting is this, that here is a man who is living, or a woman, now let me emphasize that, or a woman, who is living a fruitful life.

Nine characteristics. What does that remind us of? The nine-fold fruit of the Spirit. When you come to Galatians.

So that there are nine characteristics. This is an individual who is living a spiritually fruitful life. These are not human characteristics that are simply enhanced, or enlarged, or expanded upon.

They're not simply a person who's kind of a milquetoast personality, and because of that he can bear and be very patient. These are spiritual characteristics. They are formed and forged by God in an individual.

They are not humanly reproduced, nor can be. This man is first and foremost blessed by God. And so the direction of this individual is seen.

Now there is a direction, but there's also a progression of separation. And in contrast to that, there's erosion. There's erosion.

No one ever just goes off in the distance. There's erosion. There's a subtlety of things that progress, that move on, that is a downward course.

And wise is the person who can at least recognize that downward course. And also, as we've been hearing, if there are individuals who will at least help someone, warn someone, tell someone, thank God for those people who do it out of a heart of godly concern. And so you have his direction here.

It says, he walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. That's the first thing. The counsel of the ungodly.

In other words, he's not moving in circles where his thinking will be affected in such a way that it will be twisted, that it will be dumbed down, that it will be turned aside. He's not listening to the counsel, the advice, the influence, the so-called intelligence that the Bible tells us professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. And so this individual, man or woman, is not going to move in that counsel, that direction, his thinking.

We have secular philosophies today. We have humanistic views. Whether it's science, education, or religion, we have science today that excludes God's introduction in things.

Evolution, you name it, going on on evolution, and there's far more in science. Science is reaching proportions that are seeking to do the blasphemous. Education.

One of the greatest spheres of damage today is education. And some of you younger ones here in the halls of universities and so on are bombarded by anti-God, by reproachful scorn upon the things of God and the reality of God. Educational systems.

We talk about danger in terms of the school systems of violence and people bringing guns and school shootings. Listen, they are one-offs. They're not good.

I'm not saying they're good, obviously. But there is something that the students go through every single day, all the time. That is a continuous bombardment upon your thinking.

And that is why you need to guard your thinking with the Word of God. You need to garrison your mind. Because as a man thinketh, so is he.

And so he walks not in the counsel of the ungodly. The thoughts. He takes God's thoughts.

You can think of characters for these three things. I can think of Enoch. He walked with God.

In the day and age in which a world was walking against God, here's Enoch and he's walking with God. That shows us, shows you, continued communion. Then you have the next thing.

Nor standeth in the way of sinners. Nor standeth in the way of sinners. The word way here is a Hebrew word where we actually get, it's the word Derek.

It's where we get the idea of something that is like a like a trench. Something that's built in. He doesn't get himself into the rut of the course of this world.

In other words, he's moving, he's resisting the lure of the crowd. I like something that Brandon said a couple, I think it was in Stout. He said, when you see a stampede on the broad road, just stand still because you're not on it.

That was really good. You resist the lure of the crowd. Where is the crowd going? Hell.

That crowd, that mass of individuals that so many times we want to fit in because peer pressure is difficult. Nobody wants to be the lone wolf, as it were. Nobody wants to be that individual who's just almost ostracized and marginalized.

But if you are going to be a godly man or woman, a blessed man or woman, you're going to have to do just that. He resists the lure of the crowd. Peter, unfortunately, didn't do that.

He warmed himself. We were hearing about that in the fire. He was pressured by those around him and he caved.

Peter. If Peter can do it, we can all do it. But then I think of the opposite, what it says about Paul.

And here's Paul and he's walking out and here's Acts 17 and it says, he went to Mars Hill. And as he's walking on this walk, he says, I beheld your altar. And it says, Paul stood.

Paul stood on Mars Hill. And it's not just that he thought, tsk, tsk, those terrible pagans. But he actually exposed their wrong thinking with his right thinking.

That's what we're here for. We're not just here to be to be those who are just hunkered down. But God is using us to speak to them.

And if we don't do our jobs or if we're just like them, then how can we do that? And so, he standeth not in the way of sinners. The seat of the scornful. That's not, now that's the place of, that's not counsel like the first one.

It's not a course like the second one. But it's actually the idea of contempt. Contempt.

It's not simply a refusal by the world, but it is actually a sneer. Contempt. Scorn.

Ridicule. You do this? You actually, you actually go to church every week? You go to church during the week? What do you do? I remember a man, he came one time and we were up in Canada and he was my manager and he always said, I'm gonna come to church with you one time. And he came and it was a Sunday morning and I thought of all times, why would you come Sunday morning? I thought, well could he come to a gospel meeting? So he comes Sunday morning and afterward he said nothing.

Very quiet. And I said to him, so Peter what did you think of what you saw today? He said, it was okay. I said, it was okay? He says, yeah, well, he says, you want me to be honest? I said, I wouldn't ask you if I didn't want you to be honest.

He said, well, I'll tell you the truth. He said, you know, everybody just kind of said the same thing. I said, what did they say? He said, well, everybody, one person after another, all those men, they just got up and they kept thanking God for the Lord Jesus and they just said the same thing.

They thanked God for the Lord Jesus and he says, that was kind of boring. He says, and that's what you do, huh? I said, yeah, yeah, that's what I do. I said, you want to go to heaven? He said, well, yeah, sure.

Everybody does, doesn't he? I said, well, I'll tell you what. I said, if you ever end up there, I said, like you are now, you'd be the most miserable person up there. I said, because that's what we're going to be doing forever.

We're going to be thanking God for the Lord Jesus, thanking God for the one who saved us from our sin, from this condemned world, and from guilt, and from the penalty of our sin. I says, you didn't see that at all. He looked at that with a sneer, with contempt.

What is this? Didn't they do that with the box, the alabaster? Why this waste? Look at that. It could have been used for something else, and that's how the world will look at your life. If you are living for God, now you have a choice to make.

Everyone here, young, old, whether it's in the workplace, whether it's in the school environment, whether it's even in that assembly, because even assemblies have levels, it's sad, who are more committed and who are less committed. Christians who are more carnally minded, and Christians who are more spiritually minded, and I have actually seen in assembly environments where there are individuals that will sneer at believers who want to live godly lives in obedience to the Word of God. I said, does that happen? Yeah, it does.

In the seat of the scornful, he does not sit in that seat of the scornful, and there are individuals who will even rise to power, and they will do that on the shoulders, so that they can rise of others. I'll give you biblical examples of this very quickly. There was a man named, talk about the seat, actual seat, in 1 Kings chapter 22.

If you go there, there are two kings, Jehoshaphat and Ahab, and they're sitting in their seats, and they're preparing for battle, and they want to find out, should we go? And so, Jehoshaphat, who's a godly king, he says to Ahab, you know, you've heard from your prophets, but isn't there a prophet of the Lord here beside, that will be able to tell us, give us a word from the Lord? You know what Ahab said? He says, yeah, there is. He says, but he never prophesies good unto me. And he says, and not only that, he says, I hate him.

I hate him. Jehoshaphat says, well, bring him in. And he comes in, and of course, after one initial little, kind of a bounce, he says, yeah, you're going to be defeated.

And Ahab turns and says, didn't I tell you? He always prophesies evil. In other words, he knew what to expect, and Micaiah did not disappoint. Sitting in their seats, Ahab scorning.

It says, let me tell you about his delight. His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. This is the law.

Psalm 119, if you were to move forward ahead, you're all familiar that that is the Psalm of the Word of God, right? There are various labels for the Word of God in that Psalm. You have, for example, it's addressed as the statutes, the testimonies, the precepts, and so on. But here, it's called law.

This blessed man, his delight, it's not that just he reads it. He delights in it. This is what he loves.

He longs. Can I ask you something, everyone here? Do you actually like to meditate on the Word of God? Or is it something that you just kind of grab on the fly because, you know, if I don't do it, I'm going to, you know... Or maybe you don't do it. Because you can tell there are individuals, just by the way they talk and the way they act, they're not reading, they're not studying.

Do you? Is it your delight? But let me get back to my thought here. This is the word law. In his law doth he meditate day and night.

You know where the first time the word law is found? I'm not talking about, like, son-in-law or father-in-law. I'm talking about the actual law. The word here is Torah.

The Torah. You know the first time where that's found? Exodus chapter 12. Exodus 12 and 13.

First time. And it's in association with redemption, with a people being blood-bought, with a people that God has claims upon, of ownership. And so it's not the word statutes.

It's not the word testimonies here. It's not even the word precepts. It's the word law.

So that the idea here is, is governance of life. It's parameters. It's God giving his law.

When you drive down the highway, you are seeing the law. It is telling you how to go down the highway. This is what the government is imposing to control your safety on that road.

So the psalmist says here, his delight is in the law of the Lord. He's telling us that the yardstick for our lives and fruitfulness for God cannot be self, cannot be the world around, cannot be the religious world. It has to be the Word of God, his law.

And the first time that law is mentioned is in relation to redemption, ownership, claims of God. God is giving us both negative and positive here. And as we go down here, it says, in his law doth he meditate day and night, so that there is a desire, there's a longing.

And so he's emphasizing both negative and positive here, what we do, what we don't do, and as a result of not walking in the council, not absorbing their thinking, not allowing their teachings to influence us, or the way they conduct themselves. This is for both men and women. We are literally saturated in a world that we know in an environment where you know what everybody else is thinking.

TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, you are saturated, we are saturated with imagery, with comments, with people who are putting believers, who are putting themselves out there on social media, who are presenting, whether it is suggestive thoughts, suggestive images, whether it is suggestions. I was shocked when I saw believers who were actually putting out there on Facebook a concert that they had been to and their children were going to. This was a, I won't tell you where it was, won't tell you who it was, of course, but it was a concert of a worldly performer, a performer that was terribly suggestive in all of her life.

And these were assembly believers and they put it right on Facebook. And you know what was even more amazing? That there were other Christians, there was no shame in this, this is bragging, absolutely no shame, and no hiding it. And there were believers who had liked it, liked it, liked it.

I've seen where sisters have put that they've got their hair cut right short, maybe it's a new hairstyle or something, and it's out there and says, hey, there's my new hairstyle, and assembly believers will, hey, hey, that's beautiful, like it, like it, like it. What is happening? Are we allowing our thinking to be so turned by what is the prevalent view of the masses that we've moved away from the Word of God because we're seeking approval? Are we that starved for approval, that the approval of God is lessened? That sensitivity to being like the world in which we were saved out of means more to us than what God says in His Word? I heard and I appreciate what Brandon just said. Parents, you know, it does start in the home.

What are parents, what are mothers, what are mothers here teaching your daughters? How to dress by your example, how to look, how to talk, how to act by your example. Mothers, you need to do that with your daughters, and you need to take the Word of God to do it as your template, as your guidance. You need to teach them what to expect, what is right to expect from men.

Fathers, we need to teach our sons how to behave, how to treat women, how to treat the world in that sense, how to guard against it, and so on. How to be men. Men need to be men, godly men, and women need to be godly women.

That is what God has called us to. That is what God's desires. The world will want you to be something else, and sadly, you imbibe enough of their thinking, you will want to be something else, and you will become something else.

No, you can never lose your salvation, but you will be fruitless. You will be ineffective. You will be, perhaps, looked upon in a certain way, a way that you don't want to be looked upon, really, by this world.

And yet, putting yourself out there, some of the sisters, let me just say, even the way as you dress. I was thinking, reading John 19 this morning, those that stayed at the cross, would you be, the way some dress, would you be okay with standing at the foot of the cross that way? I'm not trying to be harsh. I'm really not.

I'm just trying to call all of us, myself included, to the reality of this. We are drifting further and further and further away. Psalm 1 is a call back.

It's a call from above. Blessed is the man, oh the blessednesses of the man or the woman that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. Doesn't think that way.

It says, in his law doth he meditate day and night. You know what the word for meditation is here? It's the idea, the Hebrew word literally means to moan, to mourn, to growl. It's like an individual takes hold of something and he's meditating on it.

He's holding it over and it's the idea that he's contemplating it so seriously. It's a deliberate engaging of the mind and the heart upon Scripture. With the idea of how will this relate to me? Meditation, intelligence study, careful, thoughtful, systematic approach to study.

One thing I appreciate and we need, brethren, is expositional teaching of the Word of God to present the truth of God to the people of God to apply it to their lives. We cannot jump here and jump there and nothing against anything that's been said at this conference, but there is an absolute necessity for that. Men who can teach the Word of God and will bring it before his people so that there will be an intelligent, scriptural, spiritual response to behavior before men and God.

If you don't know what you're doing, you really won't be able to have a basis for doing it, if you don't know why. And so I'm going to leave you with a question, a few questions, as I get my last point here. That study will produce this.

Number one, are there any sins to avoid in my life? Are there any promises from the Word of God to claim? Are there any teachings to learn? Are there any links that I need to make? Are there any truths to incorporate? Romans 12 tells us about the renewing of the mind. Philippians 4 tells us if there be any praise, if there be any virtue, think on these things. Keep a notepad handy.

Write down things, then apply them. Where's my weaknesses? Where do I need work? Lastly, I'll just mention the distinction of this psalm and this man, because there is a distinction as we end between the ungodly and the blessed man. One has fruitfulness, the other is chaff.

He's rootless, fruitless, lifeless, weightless, just blown away. No stability, no security, no sustainability. Nothing.

Interesting. He speaks about the waters here. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water.

Here's provision. This is continually. This is the difference between rain drops and rivers, okay? What do you want? You want to drop a rain or do you want rivers? The individual who meditates day and night, who longs to do this, who lives in accordance with the teaching of the Word of God and fills his mind and shapes his mind by the Torah, the law, he will be as a tree planted by the rivers of water.

There will be a continual fresh supply of spiritual food, spiritual energy, spiritual power. There'll be a freshness about him. It says not only the waters, but a tree, not a piece of grass.

There's permanence, so there's provision in these rivers of water. There's permanence in the idea of the tree, not something that's mowed down like grass, but there's roots that are down. There's a hidden tap.

There's stability. So when those things come along, when maybe those associations or that world bombards, attacks, belittles, scorns, ridicules, reproaches, you will be able to stand because you are a tree. You're not some piece of grass.

You're not something that just waves and wafts in the winds. You are a tree. You are rooted.

You are grounded. You are stable. The rivers of water have fed you.

The spiritual resources and reserves have strengthened you. And the idea of planted tells us about purpose. You are like a tree planted.

You're not just some random blade of grass. There's purpose here. God has purpose for your life.

A tree planted. When God saved you, there was purpose there. You know what's interesting here? It says here, his leaf also shall not wither.

You know that word there for leaf? It's the idea, the literal, the Hebrew word is ascending. Ascending. There's an offering.

One of the offerings is called, the first offering, is called the burnt offering. And in the burnt offering, it's the idea of the ascending offering, right? It goes up. It's ascending.

It's all for God. It's going up. That's the word here, ola.

I'm not speaking Spanish. It's Hebrew, ola, okay? And it literally has the idea of to turn upwards. To turn upwards.

It's the idea that the individual who is this blessed man or woman, they're turned upwards. They're focused. They're parabolic antenna, so to speak, as a leaf is focused on what is God saying.

They're filtering out what men are saying. They're filtering out what's happening around them. I've heard people say, oh, you know, that individual, he's or she's so heavenly-minded, they're no earthly good.

That's ridiculous. And it's a lie. Because the individuals who are the most heavenly minded are the most earthly good.

Because this earth, this world, has nothing for God. Nothing. And you're a young believer.

As soon as you learn that, the better off you'll be. This world has nothing for God. So, he says, bringeth forth his fruit in its season.

I'll leave you with these two last thoughts. I'm looking at people here all different ages, all different walks of life, all different backgrounds. You know what? Wherever you are, maybe you're in high school, maybe you're a believer in grade school, maybe you're in university, maybe you're in middle-aged, maybe you're older, but every one of us are in our particular season.

And God wants us to bring forth fruit, you to bring forth fruit, that is particularly in relation, and it's seasonable, to where you are. The one thing that is very, very clear here, meditation is going to take time. To do this is going to take, this doesn't happen overnight.

I love things to happen overnight. Trees don't grow overnight, right? He shall be as a tree. There's the idea of growth, fruitfulness, progression, time.

But you start now. And keep going. And the great difference here in this is that eternity, the ungodly are not so.

They will not stand in the day of judgment. They will not stand blown away. There's consistency, stability, security, blessedness in the man or the woman that says, I am not going to walk in the counsel of the ungodly.

I am not going to stand, I'm going, in the way of sinners, I'm going to be, I'm going to pose, I'm going to fight for what's right, as you've been hearing, and I will not sit in the seat of the scornful. I do not want those positions that will cost me compromise, and will bring me into a place where I will not be blessed, and I will not be fruitful. May God help us to carry out the truth of Psalm 1, and you will sing throughout the rest of the book.