Psalm 1

Psalm 1 has been a favourite of mine for a long time, the first half anyway!! The first half is about "The righteous man" essentially of course that is Jesus, but it is also a sign post for our personal holiness and devotion!

Verse 1,
"How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!"

There's enough there to keep us going for a while!! It is interesting that Palms and Jesus first recorded sermon in the bible start with blessings! Maybe God is a God of blessing and wants us to be blessed, do you think!!

"does not walk in the counsel of the wicked!"

To walk in some one's counsel is to follow their instruction. Aren't we lucky that we do not walk in the counsel of the wicked, after all we would never listen to their advice let alone do it!! Isn't it funny how we assume "The wicked" means the worst of the worst and we definitely never step into their borders. Did you know that Hitler thought he was a good guy?! One of America's "Public Enemy Number 1's" died in a shoot out, in his was a note that he had written that said, "Why won't people leave me alone, I am a good person just trying to get on!!"

From God's point of view the wicked are those who are headed for the lake of fire. He cannot condemn anyone good. But we see good in everyone. We see unbelievers as being better than Christians half the time! Jesus said that the world is condemned and He came to save it. Paul said that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We are not righteous because of our lack of sin, but because the choice we made enabled God to impart His righteousness to us. Those who haven't made that choice are the wicked.

Their counsel is there way of thinking. It is contrary to God's way of thinking. It is against God's counsel. But then so is a lot of Christian's counsel. The only counsel we should walk in is God's and we find that in His word. TV, film, radio, music, the opinions of unbelievers and the opinions of believers who are speaking out of turn all comes together to make up the counsel of the wicked.

God genuinely can say, "When He wants our opinion He will give it to us!!" No one else's opinion counts for anything against God's infinite knowledge and wisdom.

So the blessed man doesn't follow the the ideas of any one's but God's.

"Nor stand in the path of sinners"

This doesn't mean to stand in their way to block their path, but to simply that their is a path that sinners take and believers have a habit of thinking if they are just standing on the path it isn't the same as walking it. I remember when I first gave up smoking, I used to enjoy going and standing with the smokers to breath in their cigarette smoke! It was comforting. I had given up, but still craved it. I wasn't really smoking! I was just standing with them!

We are constantly reminded in scripture that sinners will be condemned because of sin and therefore we shouldn't do what they will be condemned for! Now we are in the Old Testament, we aren't under law, we are under grace. It is wrong and legalistic to follow the written code if your conscience isn't fully convinced. If, like me you still have the cravings or even start becoming bigoted against them. We need to allow God to teach our consciences, to write His laws on our hearts! The more we consider His word the more our consciences will become fully convinced and we will naturally and healthily follow our consciences.

"Nor sit in the seat of scoffers."

Scoffing/ mocking is something that speaks against love. People mock the things of God and they mock the things of the world, God loves them both. He doesn't mock. It speaks of a lofty, haughty and arrogant spirit, to place ourselves in the position where we can scoff and mock rather than have mercy and show love.

The blessed man is doing these things. How blessed is he?

Verse 2
"But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
And in His law he meditates day and night"

The word law can easily be taken as the paradigm of God's revealed word. In the Old Testament the word law was used to mean God's word. The man who is blessed is already delighting in God's word and meditating on it day and night. Here should be one of the biggest defence scriptures for the evangelical. They are often accused of putting God's word on an equal standing as God Himself - Father, Son and Holy Scripture!! But here, the blessed man is delighting in God's word and obsessing about it! It is the contrast to the counsel of the wicked.

Verse 3
"He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers."

Having talked about what the blessed man does, now we find out how he is blessed. A tree planted by a stream will have as much water as it needs. It is constantly sustained, the strongest of trees. While other trees are hit by drought this tree is still being fed. His hand prospers all the time. No matter what he decides to do he will prosper. God will bless the work of His hand.

The rest of the Psalm belongs to a different talk, a different audience. My feeling here is that if we want to be blessed then we will allow ourselves to do what it says. Not by might or force but by His Spirit. Speaking to our consciences, not listening to the world so as to be instructed, even if we listen that they may be comforted. But we are not impressed. We are not in awe of the world, we are in awe of God. The world cannot compare, if we still favour the world then there is still work to be done.