Psalm 1
Psalm 1 is the gateway to all the Psalms. It is a text of which the remaining Psalms are a sermon. C. H. Spurgeon says: “This is a preface Psalm. It is the Psalmist’s desire to teach us the way to blessedness and to warn us of the sure destruction of sinners.” The Psalm starts with a wonderful word: “Blessed” or happy. It reminds us of the start of the Sermon on the Mount. The Hebrew word is actually plural so it could be translated “O the blessings of the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly”. How true this is! How many blessing we have as believers! Psalm 1 tells us the way we can find happiness and fulfillment in this life and in the life to come. It is by delighting in and walking in the Law of God. The Psalm warns us of eternal ruin if we follow any other path. The Psalm introduces the concept of two ways or two roads, which we find so often in the Bible: Jesus used such a concept on more than one occasion. Think of the end of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7:
Two gates
Two roads
Two trees
Two fruits
Two houses
Two foundations
In Psalm 1 there are two people: the ungodly (or the sinner) and the righteous. The aim of the writer of Psalm is quite simple: to help us know which of the two we are, the sinner or the righteous. There is no third choice, no sitting on the fence. The structure of the Psalm offers two ways and two ends:
Verses 1 to 2: Describes the way of the righteous
Verse 3: Describes the fruit of the righteous
Verse 4 & 5: Describes the fruit of the wicked
Verse 6: Summarizes the end of the righteous andthe end of the wicked
1) The way of the righteous
What is the way of the righteous – the blessed person? Here is a surprise. The blessed person is described first by what he does not do. He walks not….he does not stand….he does not sit…. Why the negative to start with? Firstle because it begins where we are: We are not born righteous. We are born walking the counsel of the wicked, standing in the path of sinners and sitting in the seat of the scornful. A blessed man is one who has COME OUT from that path, that way of life. Secondly the writer introduces the concept of two ways right at the start of the Psalm, in the first line. Thirdly it shows us that there is a negative side to walking in the right way. Becoming a believer means turning away from sin as well as turning to Christ; becoming a disciple of Christ means giving up ways of life, habits and friends.
I think we can also see a progression here. When men are living in sin they go from bad to worse: First they walk in the counsel of the ungodly, then they stand openly in the way of sinners and lastly they sit in the seat of the scornful. Now we have the positive in verse 2. This man delights in the law. He meditates on the Law. If you delight in something you think about it. Here are some lovely flowers growing in your garden. Every time you see them they give you delight. What do you do? You may think about them at different times. You may thank the Lord for them. If you have a camera you may take a picture so you don’t forget them. So the godly person delights in the Law of God. He thinks and meditates about it even when not reading it. He wants to memorize it so that he does not forget it. This is one of the great evidences that we have a new heart. Do we do that? The Psalmist writes that the godly person does this day and night. It is good to start the day and end the day by reading God’s word.
2) The fruit of the righteous
The writer now gives us an illustration (v.3) to show the result of the godly man following the right way. How useful illustrations are to help us see spiritual truth! The picture is that of the person who delights in the law of God and meditates on it being like a tree that flourishes as it draws water from an abundant river that flows by. Its leaves never wither even, it implies, in the severest drought. The tree always brings forth fruit at the right time. The New Testament tells us what this water is a picture of (John 8: 37 to 38.). It is the Holy Spirit, promised by Christ to those who believe in him. God is that water. The new birth is how we receive it. To confirm the meaning of the illustration we read at the end of the verse “and whatever he does shall prosper”. Now we must not judge prosperity by what we see. The Psalmist is not talking here about material or even physical prosperity. The godly person does not seek such blessings. The godly person seeks spiritual prosperity. “By the eye of faith we see that our works are prospered even when everything seems against us (Romans 8:28). “There is a curse wrapped up in the wicked man’s mercies, so there is a blessing concealed in the righteous man’s crosses” (C.H. Spurgeon).
3) The fruit of the wicked
The Psalmist now turns to the fruit of the wicked. First he says “The ungodly are not so” (v 4). In the Greek Old Testament translation it says “Not so the ungodly, not so”. They are the exact opposite of the righteous. They have no everlasting stream of water to draw on. Their leaves wither, they do not produce fruit. In fact they are like chaff which the wind drives away. Chaff was produced during the threshing of grain. The grain was harvested by the stalks being cut. The sheaves of grain were first laid on a flat area and threshed by oxen pulling a sled studded with stones over them. The kernels of grain were thus broken off from the stalks but they were still all mixed together, so then the farmer used a fork to throw the mixture in the air. The wind would blow away the chaff but the heavier grain would fall back down to the ground. This is called winnowing. The picture tells us that the ungodly person is like the chaff: useless and worthless. The life of the ungodly is ultimately futile, empty, and meaningless. The world says the opposite of this of course. It is religion that is pointless. “Live life to the full, be happy, and take what you want.” That is a lie. Do not believe it. The wind driving the chaff away is a picture of death. This same picture was used by someone else: John the Baptist (Matthew 3: 11 to 12).
4) The end of the wicked and the end of the righteous
Now we come to the conclusion. First of the ungodly: v 5. Remember this is poetry and the same thing is being repeated in a slightly different way. They “shall not stand in the judgment”. On the Day of Judgment the ungodly will not survive. They will not be able to remain standing. They will be judged and condemned. “Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous”. There will be no mixed multitude in heaven. The separation will be complete. The unsaved cannot live in heaven. Heaven would be an intolerable hell for unrepentant sinners even if they were allowed to enter, which they are not. “For the Lord knows the way of the righteous” v 6. Notice that he knows - in the present. Though the way of the righteous may seem dark and misty yet, in God’s eyes, it is full of light and purpose (Job 23:10). The Lord knows what the end is for the righteous. The end is not death, but life, not misery but joy, not tears but happiness. The end is supremely to be with Christ. “I am the way the truth and the life”. “But the way of the ungodly shall perish” Not only shall the wicked perish but their way shall perish too. All their hopes and dreams will come to nothing. The ungodly man's way is written in sand and washed away by the tide of life. The great works and wonders of ungodly men will not be remembered or cherished in heaven. But, the humble and smallest of works of believers will be.
As we finish I want to make one final point. The truth is that none of us, even as believers live up to this description. Have we “delighted in God’s law all our lives” (v.2)? No, but the Lord Jesus has done so on our behalf. So which side of the fence are we on? We can only count ourselves one of the righteous if we have the righteousness of Christ upon us and if we know that he lived that perfect life for us and died that perfect death for us.