Psalm 1

I'll apoligize in advance for the length. I couldn't help myself. I've just been really impacted and convicted by this psalm recently.

Psalm 1
“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will 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 wicked will perish.”

In this Psalm we see a description of the righteous and of the wicked. I think that the first thing to note is the fact that there is no middle ground represented in this psalm. You are either a wicked man or a righteous one. This dichotomy is demonstrated throughout scripture. We are either children of God or children of satan (John 8:44-47). We are either of the flock or not (John 10). We are either slaves to sin or slaves of righteousness (Romans 6). We either listen and follow or we don’t (John 10 and I John 4). Therefore, I think that we should pay very close attention to what this psalm is saying about these two classes of people.

The first thing we see is a description of the righteous man. He is blessed. And the reason that he is blessed is because of what he does and what he doesn’t do. He doesn’t walk in the counsel or the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of scoffers. Rather, in direct contrast, he delights in the law of the LORD and meditates upon it day and night. Here we see another dichotomy. Delighting in and meditating on the word are contrasted with walking in the counsel of the wicked, etc. In short we either listen to and love the word of God, or we heed the advice of the wicked. Again there is no middle ground. This is an incredibly important statement. We are told here that if we do not delight in the word of God and meditate on it constantly, then we are walking in the counsel of the wicked and are not blessed. If we are Christians, then we must love the word of God and seek to immerse our hearts and minds in it constantly. This is repeated multiple times in the New Testament as well. We are told in John 10 that if we are of God then we will listen to Jesus’ voice and follow it. This is repeated in I John 4. We must love to read the word of God. If we don’t then how can we claim that the Spirit of God dwells within us, and how can we claim any assurance of our salvation. God’s word is life to us and we must love it. It must be our delight, and if it is then we will desire to read it often and meditate upon it day and night.

If this is true of us, then the rest of the description of the righteous man will be true of us as well. The first thing that is said of us is that we will be like a tree planted by streams of water. This is contrasted with the wicked man who has no such stability, but is blown about by the winds of this world. If we are righteous, then we will have stability in this world. I don’t mean physical stability, but spiritual. We will be anchored. I think part of the meaning of this is echoed in Ephesians 4 when it says that as we grow in spiritual maturity we will cease to be blown about by every doctrine of man, but we will stand secure upon the true teachings of the word. I think this also applies to the trials that come our way. If we are as a tree and not blown about by the world, then we will be able to endure the trials that come our way and not forsake God, but will remain strong in Him. I think the fact that we are planted by streams of water is also significant. The water is what feeds the tree and allows it to grow big and strong. We are fed by the word and it is the word that allows us to grow in spiritual maturity. The water also gives life and it is by the word that we receive life (Romans 10).

We are also told that the tree produces its fruit in its season. If we are counted as righteous, then we will bear fruit. It isn’t enough to just say that we believe in Christ, we must produce the fruit that that confession leads to. If we aren’t bearing fruit, then we must ask if we were the tree in the first place, because if we are like this tree, then we will bear fruit. This is the sign of a good and healthy tree. A dead tree bears no fruit. Only a tree fed by water can bear fruit and it is only through this life giving water that keeps the tree alive and enables it to bear fruit. So it is with us. If we are not constantly fed with the word, then we lose the power to produce fruit. We must be filled with the word of God.

The next thing that we see is that the leaf of this tree does not wither. A leaf withering is a sign of hibernation and a loss of life to the leaf. A withering leaf is a sign of death. How awesome a promise this is! We do not go into hibernation nor do we suffer death. We will not die spiritually. We will always be filled with life and this will be evident to the external world. A withering leaf is the sign to the world that fall is upon us and winter is soon to come. We know that life has left the leaf when it begins to wither. This is not the case with us. The world should never be able to say of us that the life of Christ has left us and that we are dying. We should always demonstrate true life to the world. They should look at us and see that we possess a life that they do not.

This is not so of the wicked. They do not have any of this, and because of that, they share no inheritance with the righteous. They have no part in us. There is no place for them with us when the judgment comes. They will face eternal destruction and death. Verse 6 tells us that way is not known by the Father, but, rather, it will perish.

This is not true of us. Our way is known by God. We are known by Almighty God. He knows us intimately. He determines our path (Proverbs 16:9). We walk with Him and He knows us. And because He knows us, we are told in John that He calls us and we follow Him. Because He knows us, we know Him and we have an intimate relationship with Him and, through Him, we know the Father. Because of this knowledge we can love Christ in the same manner that the Father loves Christ and Christ is within us (John 17:26). I cannot fathom the depth of this relationship. We are married to Christ. He abides in us and us in Him. What an awesome truth! So we must pay heed to our attitude toward the word. Do we delight in the word and meditate on it day and night? If we do, then all this will be true of us and the promises of God will be real for us. We are given an amazing promise if we delight in the word and are Christians. We are told that in all we do, we will prosper. God will cause all things to turn out for good for us. We cannot fail in this because the promises of God cannot fail. Even if we don’t see an immediate prospering, we can know for sure that we will prosper in the end, because we were promised by God. So we must pursue the knowledge and love of God.