Psalms 1

Psalms 1:1-6

THE BLESSED MAN Psalms 1:1-6IN entering upon the discussion of this Book, and in giving an exposition of this first Psalm, we propose extreme brevity, little more than an outline. Our reasons for so doing are these:To set out for our readers such an outline as will be suggestive, leaving to the individual student, or the preacher or layman, the personal work of filling in, a procedure that is always profitable.The Psalm itself amounts to a plain statement of facts with which every observing man is familiar. All human history illustrates the first Psalm, for history is made up of two classes, the godly and the godless; and history recites two effects, blessings for the first and judgment for the second. The Psalm was written to recite the virtues of the first, and incidentally involves the vices of the second. Concerning the blessed man, it givesHIS VIRTUES He “walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly”. This plainly means that he does not company with them, confer with them, nor accept counsel from them. Paul, writing to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 15:33), states a uniform principle, “Evil communications corrupt good manners”. To the Ephesians (Ephesians 4:29) he further said, “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth”. James somewhat fully discusses the further evil of bridling not the tongue, and the evil results of that iniquitous practice (James 3:2-16), and then turns about and contrasts that with the wisdom which is from above (James 3:17-18). He “standeth not in the way of sinners”. Most men have their particular paths. They travel them daily; they are well beaten.

The sinner has his—it leads by the dance hall, the gambling hole, the lewd theatre, the house of ill fame; in fact, it winds past multiplied places of iniquity. The righteous shun that path and the companionship of the people who are in it; they know the peril of both. The hospitals, the prisons, the insane asylums, they are filled with proofs of this statement and are eloquent with warnings against “the way of the sinners“He sitteth not in the seat of the scornful”. There is always hope of salvation for the sinner. It matters not how scarlet have been his sins; but the scornful give one the impression of hopelessness. There is an old report that the scoffers of the Apostle Peter’s time were never converted.

When Jude writes of the scoffers of the last days he presents them as a company who will never believe the Gospel. Christ faced such in His time and frankly told them that publicans and harlots would go into the kingdom ahead of them (Matthew 21:31); while Peter, in his second Epistle, speaks of scoffers of the last days as men who will walk “after their own lusts”, contemptuously treat the promised Second Coming, and declared them willingly ignorant of the Word (2 Peter 3:3-5).

It is almost an evident fact that the scoffer’s state is the lowest possible even in a sinner’s life, and if all knowledge were ours, it would probably be seen that the scoffer is the Spirit-deserted man.HIS This Psalm does not stop with the negative side; it presents also the positive life.The blessed man truly loves God’s Word. He is more than a reader of the same; he is better even than a student; he indulges in that deepest of student experiences, “meditation” (Psalms 1:2).John Foster tells us that in the Royal Gallery at Dresden might often be seen a group of connoisseurs who stood for hours before a single painting. They came one day and returned the next, and for weeks they stood before that masterpiece of Raphael’s. Lovers of art could not enjoy it to the full until they had made it their own by constant communion with its matchless forms.It is so with the study of the Word, but it is a bit different; the artist studies the form with the thought of copy; the saint studies the Word, knowing its changing, clarifying, cleansing, keeping power. It is through the Word that men are regenerated; it is by the Word that men are instructed; it is in consequence of the Word that souls are cleansed; and the Word is spirit and life to them who meditate therein.Such a man lives a fruitful life. He is “like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither” (Psalms 1:3).The figure here is the figure of a tree that stands on the banks of a brook or river and pushes its root down to the very stream itself so that its veins are daily filled with the life-giving fluid and its leaves and fruit are brought to the full.

There is a vast deal in being rooted at the right place. Some years since a bird must have carried to the top of my house in Linden Hills a pumpkin seed.

It dropped down through the drain pipe and went into the ground under the sidewalk. There was but a tiny crack in the cement, and up through the same this new shoot pushed itself. When we saw its leaf we thought at first that it was a hollyhock, but shortly it put on such proportions as to disprove that idea. In the course of time my son began to tack supports against the side of the house. In a few weeks its three branches reached fifteen to twenty feet each and the multiplied blossoms gave promise of a pumpkin harvest. But we knew that pumpkins could not be supported in the air and we clipped all away but one blossom, and tied a towel under that to permit it to come to the full.That growth was an amazement to every visitor to the home and in a long lifetime on the farm I never saw so luxuriant a one.

The reasons for that growth were two—the rich soil in which it rooted and the constant water from the drain pipe. It is an illustration of a godly man.

His luxuriant growth is not in consequence of inherent virtues, but rather the result of the waters of salvation; and the fruitfulness of his life the product of the soil to which the Spirit, in regeneration, transplanted him.His influence wanes not! “He bringeth forth his fruit in his season, his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper” (Psalms 1:3).It is great to mark the growth of the godly. His path leads upward and onward. The circle of his influence increases; the fruits of his life multiply; the sacred effect upon his associates is growingly felt; and all flow from the favor of God.HIS DESTINY He is stable; the weak are unstable. “The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away” (Psalms 1:4). Paul knew in whom he had believed, and that trust resulted in his own stability and rendered him a wise counsellor to others concerning the same, hence his concluding words in the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians: “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord”.We have theological chameleons, and even chameleons in conduct as well as convictions. Such always leave behind them a question mark; were they ever converted?Again, he is secure; the wicked are insecure. “Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous” (Psalms 1:5). This is not merely the arbitrary judgment of God upon the second and the Divine assistance lent to the first; it is the establishment of a principle; sin unsettles, salvation establishes.He is saved; the wicked are lost. “For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish” (Psalms 1:6). The Lord not only “knoweth the way of the righteous” but He has declared its end. “The path of the just shineth more and more unto the perfect day”. The Lord not only knows the way of the wicked, but He has fixed its terminus also, “the ungodly shall perish”!“There is a way that seemeth right unto a man but the ends thereof are the ways of death”,