Psalms 1:1

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper. 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 knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

Two paths, no gray area—Psalm 1 calls us to walk in the way of blessing.

A Day of Clarity, A Book of Clarity

We live in a day of nuance and variation. In nearly everything, there seems to be a subtle gradation, even in things that for all of human history were set in stone. Areas like gender, which used to be clear, are now treated as gray. But where the Bible is concerned, there is clarity. The scriptures often present an either/or, a very black-or-white concept. I suspect that is one reason some people have a hard time with the scriptures—the sword of the word of God cuts through all the shades of gray.

It makes the separation clear: between truth and error, good and evil, the righteous and the unrighteous. It reveals that there is a heaven and that there is a hell. Psalm 1 brings us to this clear separation again. Look at verse 6: there is the way of the righteous and the way of the ungodly. There is no middle place to be.

A Series in the Songs of Summer

We're beginning a series in the Psalms, the largest book of the Bible. Over the next eleven weeks we won't look at all 150—that would take us well into eternity, the way I teach—but we'll look at some of the standouts. You really can't study through the Psalms without starting here, because Psalm 1 is considered the primer of the book, even a summation of all 150 Psalms bound in six verses.

The Psalms sit in the section of Scripture called Hebrew poetry, along with Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, and much of the prophetic writings. When we read poetry in the Western world, we look for rhyming words and a certain cadence. You won't find that in Hebrew poetry. Instead the Hebrew poets wrote with rhyming thoughts and ideas, using a great deal of metaphor. Technically this is called parallelism. There is synonymous parallelism, synthetic parallelism, and a key one called antithetic parallelism—exactly what we see here, where two contrasting things are set side by side: the way of the righteous and the way of the ungodly.

The Cry of the Human Soul

The Psalms are not only Hebrew poetry; they are songs—the great hymnbook of ancient Israel, put to music and sung by the people. There is a section called the Psalms of Ascent that the nation sang as they went up to Jerusalem for the Passover. It's easier to memorize things when they're set to a song. King David, who played the harp and invented various instruments, would sometimes strum a chord, listen to its major or minor key, and write down the emotions and words it evoked. That became the Psalm.

These Psalms have been called the book of human emotion, the cry of the human soul. This is why they are a favorite of so many Christians—they can identify with that cry. I've been asking people their favorite Psalm, and I have yet to find someone who says they don't have one. It's also why we sometimes come across passages that make us pause, like David's imprecatory prayers: "God, break my enemy's teeth in their mouth." We come to those and think, this just doesn't seem to fit. Yet there is real passion, emotion, and truth in this book.

The Psalms were written by various authors—75 by David, two by Solomon, eleven by the sons of Korah, even one by Moses (Psalm 90). Hezekiah wrote about a dozen, a man named Heman wrote a couple, Ethan the Ezrahite wrote one, and a number are anonymous. But they all cry out with passion and emotion.

There Is a Way of the Righteous and a Way of the Ungodly

In these six verses David uses antithetic parallelism to contrast the way of the righteous and the way of the ungodly. There is no nuance and no gray area. That brings us to point number one: there is a way of the righteous and a way of the ungodly.

This is one of the biggest issues 21st-century Westerners have with the Bible and with God—the exclusivity claims of Scripture, the narrow path. The Bible reveals a broad way that leads to destruction and a narrow path that leads to life. This exclusive nature makes many people uncomfortable, and honestly, sometimes even we who believe and study it feel the discomfort. There is a wide gate and a narrow gate, a straight path and a crooked path, good trees and bad trees, good fruit and bad fruit, wheat and tares. The modern American mind, shaped by a society that wants to be all-inclusive, experiences grave discomfort with that either/or.

Blessed Is the Man

David writes, "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly." Some people trip over those very first words, reading them as a blessing only for males. This hypersensitivity to gender language is fairly new. "Blessed is the man" is all-inclusive for humanity. Scripture often uses "man" to describe all of humanity—Genesis 1 says God made man, "male and female," both included.

Notice there is no adjective before "man." It does not say blessed is the rich man, the tall man, the Jewish man, or the Gentile man. It simply says blessed is the man—blessed is the individual. Whoever will follow what is written here, the blessing is for them.

God Delights in Blessing

This blessing is available to any and all because, point number two, God delights in blessing. Some form of the word bless appears nearly 500 times in the Bible and 93 times in the Psalms alone. I'll make the audacious claim that God wants to bless you. That can be taken out of context, and some teaching attached to it causes serious issues—but Scripture is very clear that God delights in blessing and wants you to walk in it.

Because God delights in blessing, He describes many times how we can experience it. I'd call it the blessedness algorithm. An algorithm is simply a conditional statement: if this, then that. Scripture constantly gives us this in what we call a beatitude—a condition for blessing. Matthew 5 gives us the famous Beatitudes: blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, the peacemakers.

But those are not the only beatitudes in the Bible. Psalm 1 is an Old Testament beatitude. Psalm 2:12 says, "Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him." Psalm 32:1–2 says, "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven... blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, in whose spirit there is no deceit." Deuteronomy gives a whole list of blessings and curses, and the history of Israel that follows lets us see those words tested—God's word is empirically, experimentally true.

The Blessed Man's Practice

Psalm 1 focuses first on the blessed man, who verse 6 tells us is the righteous man. Verses 1 and 2 give us his practice; verse 3 gives us his privilege. Verse 1 shows the negative practices—what he does not do—and verse 2 shows the positive.

"Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly." In Philippians 3:18 Paul wept over those who walk in such a way that makes them enemies of the cross of Christ. We ought not walk that way—but David goes further: we ought not even take counsel from people who walk that way.

None of us lives without counsel. Whether we solicit it or not, we receive counsel constantly—from the news, from TV and entertainment, from books. "Follow your heart." "Just do it." "Obey your thirst." That's counsel. We can't predetermine all the counsel we'll receive, and some of it is bad. "Follow your heart" is bad counsel: "There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is the way of death." I've had many counseling appointments with people who followed their heart. We can, however, make good counsel more probable by spending time with people who follow Jesus. And we can always choose whether or not to walk in the counsel of the ungodly. Solomon, the wisest man, says in Proverbs 1:5 that a man of understanding will attain wise counsel.

A Progression: Walk, Stand, Sit

Secondly, "blessed is the man who stands not in the path of sinners." There is a well-worn path in this world that Jesus calls the broad way that leads to destruction, and most of the world is on that course. The blessed man does not continue, abide, or remain there. Paul says in Ephesians 6:11 that we are to stand against the wiles of the enemy—not stand in the path of sinners.

Notice the progression: walking, then standing, then sitting. "Blessed is the man who does not sit in the seat of the scornful." Now he's comfortable in a position he ought not be comfortable in. The blessed man will not be seated, will not rest there. The scornful, or scoffer, is described in Proverbs 21:24: "A proud and haughty man, scoffer is his name." Proverbs 22:10 tells us a scoffer causes contention and strife, and the common denominator of such a person is often gossip. The blessed man does not find his place there.

Delight and Meditation

David then turns to the positive in verse 2: "But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night." The blessed man doesn't only live by a negative purity—a long list of don'ts. He adds the positives: this is what I do instead. One writer noted the blessed man meditates on the Lord only twice a day—during the day and during the night.

We trip over the word meditate because of an Eastern understanding that involves emptying the mind. But the Hebrew understanding is filling your mind with the word of God—reading it, studying it, memorizing it, thinking on it. Joshua 1 tells Joshua to meditate on God's word night and day, and his way would be prosperous.

We all meditate, whether we like it or not, because our minds wander when we're unengaged. So the question is: what do you delight to think about? Where does your mind go? Is it politics, entertainment, sports—or the word of God? We've all driven home and not remembered the drive, operating mechanically while our minds were elsewhere. People fear autonomous vehicles, but most of our cars are already autonomous at five o'clock when our minds are somewhere else. The blessed man delights in the law of the Lord because he meditates in it day and night.

Where the Head Goes, the Heart Follows

This is point number three: where your head goes, your heart will follow. What we feed into our minds and mull over constantly draws our hearts in that direction, and ultimately leads our feet onto that path. This is why it is so vital to have your mind gripped by the word of God. Psalm 119 returns to this again and again: "Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." "How shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed to the word of God."

The Blessed Man's Privilege

Verse 3 moves from practice to privilege, into metaphor: "He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper."

This is not a wild upshoot, but a tree chosen, cultivated, and planted—planted by the Lord. Isaiah calls the righteous "the planting of the Lord." He is planted by rivers, plural, so that if one river fails he is still amply supplied. As a result, he produces fruit in its season. What fruit comes to mind when we think of the people of God? The fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5—love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, self-control, patience.

To bring forth fruit in its season is to produce the right thing at the right time, in the moment it's needed. Many of us know what it is when the moment required patience and we didn't have it, when it required self-control and there was nothing there, when it required love or gentleness and there was nothing—because in and of ourselves we are nothing. But the blessed man, planted by rivers of water, has the right fruit at the right time. His leaf does not wither; he is an evergreen even in the hottest drought. And then, breaking the metaphor, "whatever he does shall prosper." That is the kind of prosperity theology I can get behind.

The Ungodly Are Not So

David now turns to the antitype. "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." Everything said about the blessed man does not apply to the ungodly. They follow unwise counsel, abide with sinners and scoffers, are not planted by rivers of water, and bring forth no fruit.

Instead they are like the chaff. In ancient times wheat was threshed on a hard surface, then thrown into the air; the heavier wheat fell to the ground while the wind carried away the worthless chaff. The ungodly are unuseful chaff. Therefore they shall not "stand" in the judgment—they will not be able to endure it.

An Appointed Day of Judgment

This is point number four: there is an appointed day of judgment. This is the conclusion the psalmist of Psalm 73 finally reaches about the wicked who seem to prosper—"then I went up to the house of the Lord and I saw their end." The Bible's revelation of an appointed day of judgment is another reason people resist it. Sinful scoffers will not endure it; they will not be present in the gathering of the righteous. Verse 6 tells us why: "For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish"—utterly and completely.

Walk in the Way of Blessing

In his final words to Israel, Moses said in Deuteronomy 30:19, "I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; choose life that you might live." A passage like this brings us to a choice. So the simple exhortation, point number five, is this: walk in the way of blessing. There are two paths, revealed clearly in Psalm 1 and throughout Scripture. Choose wisely.

Closing Prayer

Father God, I thank you for your word and for these simple six verses. I pray that you would stir hearts here today to commit them to memory and to meditate upon them. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in your word, and in your word he meditates day and night. You make that person like a sure planting by rivers of water that brings forth the right fruit at the right time in the right season; his leaf will not wither, and whatever he puts his hand to shall prosper. Lord, help us to walk in that kind of prosperity, studying and meditating upon your word and watching it transform us from the ungodly sinners that we are by nature into the righteous. Thank you that by your grace you have made us righteous through the Son of your love. We praise you and we thank you. In Jesus' name, and all those that agree say, Amen.