Keith Simons teaches on Psalm 1, emphasizing the distinction between the truly happy person and the ungodly. He explains that true happiness comes from rejecting the counsel of the wicked and delighting in God's law, which leads to a fruitful and prosperous life. Simons contrasts this with the fate of the ungodly, who may appear successful but are ultimately like chaff, lacking substance and destined to perish. The sermon highlights the importance of meditating on God's word and living according to His ways for true fulfillment. Simons encourages listeners to understand the King James Version to deepen their faith and comprehension of biblical teachings.

Welcome to the second of our talks on how to understand the King James Version of the Bible. My name is Keith Symons. I'm a Bible teacher from England. The reason we look at the King James Bible is that it's one of the most literal translations of the Bible available today. That's still true after 400 years, and for that reason many churches choose to use it. But also it was the only commonly used Bible translation for about 300 years, and so if you wish to read the writings of many of the giants of the Christian faith, if you wish to read Wesley or Spurgeon, well they used the King James Version. So by looking at the King James Bible and by understanding its language, we can understand their writings better as well. Our method is to look verse by verse at a passage and see what we can learn from it. So today we'll be looking at Psalm number one, the first Psalm, and if you have a Bible at hand you might like to turn to it. If you're not a King James user you might still find this talk useful because as we go through the meaning of the words and the passages, well it'll teach you the Bible as well. So Psalm number one and beginning of course at the first verse. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. Let's look first at that phrase. Blessed is the man. Blessed. It means in the Hebrew truly happy. Sometimes blessed in the Bible means that God blesses or shows his kindness to a person, but this is a different word for blessed and it's a word that means his description of the person who is truly happy. Not that they're emotionally happy, but that they're in a happy state. They're in a good state, they're in a right state. And if we were to ask the question to the average person on the street who is truly happy, they might say someone who's wealthy or someone who's in good health or someone who's successful. But the Psalm looks at it in a very very different way. So who is truly happy? The man that walketh, walks not in the counsel of the ungodly. That does not walk in the counsel, that's the advice of the ungodly. The Hebrew word for ungodly has nothing really to do with God, it means wicked. So it could translate it that walketh not in the counsel of the wicked. Council means advice. So this is the person who doesn't walk in the advice of the wicked. In other words, walking is a word picture in the Bible often for how a person lives their life. How does this person live his life? Well, he doesn't follow the advice that wicked people give him. When wicked people tell him to do something, that's not how he is trying to live. So the truly happy person rejects the advice of wicked people. Where does he choose to make his stand? Well, he standeth not in the way of sinners. The way of sinners, the place where sinners are, people who do evil things. They choose to be in a particular place, he doesn't want to be there. It's not a matter of him avoiding them, not speaking to people who he considers to be evil. It's a case of not choosing to be a sinner, not choosing to do the things that sinful people do, not choosing to do the wrong things. He takes his stand away from what evil people are doing. And you notice poetry here, he doesn't walk, he doesn't stand, he doesn't sit, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. You see, this wicked man is slowing down, he's getting more and more into his wickedness. Originally, he was just a wicked person and then he was active in sinful or evil acts and now he's sitting in the place of the scornful, those who mock, those who laugh at what is good and what is right. He's taken a seat there because he is staying there, he doesn't intend moving from that, he doesn't intend changing from his mockery of what's right and good. That is how an evil man behaves and that is how a good person chooses not to behave. So the truly happy person, verse 1, is the person who rejects anything that is wicked or evil in his life. It's not that he refuses to meet with people who he considers evil, it's not that he tries to separate himself from the rest of the world, it's just he doesn't follow their advice, their counsel. He doesn't behave like them, as sinners. He doesn't mock at what is right and good and laugh at what is good. But that doesn't mean that this is just a negative thing, something he's choosing constantly not to do, because there is something that he chooses to do. If someone is truly happy, we ask what makes him happy. Verse 2 gives us the answer. His delight is in the law of the Lord. The law of the Lord, the Hebrew word is Torah, which really means teaching. And the phrase law of the Lord in the Bible applies especially to the first five books of the Bible. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. It's about all the books of the Bible that existed, more or less, at the time when the first psalm was written. This person delights in the Bible. What brings him pleasure is the Bible. And in his law, in the law of God, does he meditate day and night? Meditate, to think about, to let it run through his mind. There are types of meditation that other religions have where they tell you to empty your mind of all thoughts. But the Bible meditation is the opposite. Fill your mind with the word of God. Fill your mind with thoughts about God's law, about things that God says. Let it fill your mind by day and by night. When you wake up at night, be thinking about God and about his word. When you're doing your work by day, be thinking about it. Let God's law, what God says you should do, direct your thoughts. And then you are the truly happy person who is walking not in the advice of the ungodly, the wicked, and so on. And he shall be, that's the truly happy person, like a tree planted by the rivers of water. He's like a tree which has an abundant supply of water. Why? Because the source of what he needs in life is coming direct from God via his word, his law, his Bible. And it's the Bible that causes him to become like a tree. He shall be like a tree, future. This is what God is bringing about in his life. He's given his word, his law, his Bible to him. And nourished by that source of life, he becomes like a big strong tree that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. In his season at the right time of year, when the time is right, this tree brings forth fruit, his fruit, the fruit of the tree. So he's like a tree that produces abundant fruit. And although we don't see that success maybe yet, just as we don't maybe see the true happiness yet, but at God's time it happens. He shall be like a tree, future, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither. Wither means dry up, like a leaf that's fallen from a tree just dries up. But this truly happy person, just as constantly he's thinking about God's law, God's word, so he doesn't dry up. Why? Because he's planted by the rivers of water. In other words, God has supplied him with his word, God's word, so that he constantly has what he needs. And whatsoever, we say nowadays whatever, he doeth shall prosper. Whatever he does shall prosper. God is bringing about success in his life. God is bringing about that whatever he does does well. And what does he do? He delights in God's law. He delights in God's law and so he brings forth the sort of success that God wants from his life. And that is why he is a truly happy person. But then the psalmist in verse four turns to the other side now and looks at the ungodly or the wicked. The ungodly are not so. Oh you may think that that wicked person is making himself successful and wealthy, that he's happy and comfortable in life, that he has everything that he needs. But no, it's an illusion. Because Psalm 1 verse 4 says the ungodly are not so. The wicked are not really prospering. They might be wealthy, they might be healthy, they might seem happy. But no, they're not like that tree planted by the river's water. They are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Okay chaff. When a farmer harvests grain from his field, that grain in Israel is wheat or barley. You cut it on its stalk and so you've got the stalk and you've got the dried plant material mixed with the seed. If you leave it all together in a pile through the winter, the dried plant material is going to cause the seeds to rot and go bad and be wasted. So the farmer has to clean his seed from that dried plant material. And how does he do it? Well he crushes the entire lot and then he tosses it up in the air. And the wheat, which is heavier, falls to the ground. But he tosses it in the wind. The chaff that the wind driveth away, says the Psalm. He does it in the wind so that that dried plant material blows away. The big bits of it, the stalks of the plant, don't blow very far. And the farmer collects them. They're useful. Mix it with mud and you get a simple concrete. But what about all the dust? And if you saw a farmer doing this, you would see him throwing his grain in the air and vast clouds of dust rising up from it. Well they're driven away by the wind. So the chaff is the dust that's produced when the farmer is cleaning his grain. And quite literally, the wind drives it away. Great clouds of dust blowing away while the precious wheat falls to the ground to be collected and stored. So what's our comparison to? It's two wicked people. They looked so secure in their wealth. They looked so successful. But it was all an illusion. It wasn't true. Because they are like the chaff. The time will come when they will lose all that wealth. If they don't lose it in this life, they will lose it at death. What they have, what they've built up, what looks so successful is of no substance whatever. It's like dust that no one can weigh, that is so light that it will be constantly tossed to and fro in the wind till the end of time. Therefore, verse 5, the ungodly, the wicked, shall not stand in the judgment. They won't rise up when God judges all people. They won't rise to a position of honour. They won't rise up to take a place in heaven or in the new Jerusalem. Because when God is the judge, he knows who is the truly happy person who's rejected what's evil. And he knows who has chosen to live their lives on wicked behaviour. They will not rise up in the judgment. God's people are the righteous people. Righteous, we mean, well, good people who are doing the right thing. But they're not doing the right thing because of themselves. They're doing the right thing because God has worked in their life. They've studied God's law. They've meditated on God's law. They've followed the way that God has provided for them to follow. And God has cleansed them from their sin. And so the righteous gather together like a great crowd, a congregation. It's a congregation in heaven or in the new Jerusalem where sinners have no place. It's a congregation of the people whom God has changed, whom God has worked in their lives, whom God has forgiven and cleansed. And they gather together in heaven or the new Jerusalem, free from all that is evil, from all that is wrong. Why? Because they lived by God's law. Why? Not because they've earned their right relationship with God, but because God has given them that right relationship. It all depends on, verse 6, the Lord. The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish. The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous. The Lord God knows it. He knows it because he provided that way. He showed that way. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life, the true and living way. God knows that way. Jesus spoke of the way, the straight and narrow way that leads to heaven. God knows that way. This is the way he's set down. This is the way he's prescribed. This is the way he wants people to live. And it is the right and good way, the way of the righteous. There are two ways to live your life. You can live God's way, the way of the righteous, the way that God has provided, or you can live the way of the ungodly, the wicked. You can choose to live for yourself, for your own desires, for your own evil ambitions, for your own wealth and prosperity. And maybe if you choose that way, you will think yourself to be happy or truly happy. But that way will be destroyed just as you walk along the path and you're getting on fine when you're walking along the path. But suppose the path breaks away underneath you and the ground disappears, maybe falls into the sea. The way of the ungodly shall perish. You'll have no place to stand, no place to walk, no place to be if you've chosen the way of wickedness. Because God knows and proves and has chosen the way in which you should live, the way in which he can direct you, the way in which he has provided through Jesus. The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous. In a few moments time, I'm going to read through the whole psalm and you can see what you've learned from it. But let me give you my email address. I would love to hear from you. I'd love to know someone's listening to this podcast. You don't really know when you record it, whether anyone will hear it. So my email address, very simple, 333kjv at gmail.com. That's 333kjv at gmail.com. I hope to be back soon with another podcast for you. If you've been grabbing a pen, let me read that email address again and then I shall read through the psalm. 333kjv at gmail.com. Psalm 1. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. 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 ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind driveth 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.