What Do You Do When You Come to a Fork in the Road? (The Blessed Person Is the Righteous Person)

PSALM 1

When you come to a fork in the road, take it!

Exalting Jesus in Psalms 1–50 (What Do You Do When You Come to a Fork in the Road? (The Blessed Person Is the Righteous Person) (Psalm 1))

If you think about that last sentence, it has some truth. When you come to a fork in the road, you must take it. Life confronts us with many forks in the road:

• Where will I go to school?

• Will I marry or remain single?

• Whom will I marry?

• Will we have children?

• How many children will we have?

• Will I put my faith in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior?

• When I die, will I go to heaven or hell?

These are important and significant questions; indeed, they are unavoidable forks in the road. Each of us faces different circumstances and situations that confront us with decisions we must make, with forks in the road. Thankfully, in Psalm 1 God gives us a road map that can guide us so that when we come to a fork in the road, we will choose the right road and the wise road.

In Psalm 1 we are confronted with two men, two roads, and two destinies. The psalm shows how important some life decisions are.

English Standard Version (Psalm 1)

The Way of the Righteous and the Wicked

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;

2  but his delight is in the law of the LORD,

and on his law he meditates day and night.

3  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.

4  The wicked are not so,

but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

5  Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,

nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;

6  for the LORD knows the way of the righteous,

but the way of the wicked will perish

Eugene Peterson gives a creative and colorful paraphrase of the psalm in The Message that will benefit our study:

How well God must like you—

you don’t walk in the ruts of those blind-as-bats,

you don’t stand with the good-for-nothings,

you don’t take your seat among the know-it-alls.

Instead you thrill to God’s Word,

you chew on Scripture day and night.

You’re a tree replanted in Eden,

bearing fresh fruit every month,

Never dropping a leaf,

always in blossom.

You’re not at all like the wicked,

who are mere windblown dust—

Without defense in court,

unfit company for innocent people.

God charts the road you take.

The road they take leads to nowhere.

When you come to a fork in the road, what should you do? What does the wise person do?