Ps. 1

The Wrong Way

Have you ever been lost anywhere?

*READ STORY*

We hear a lot of stories about people getting lost and saved again, or never making it back at all, and it’s easy to connect those dots with the teachings of Scriptures. In fact, nearly everywhere you look a person could find some kind of illustration in the world which connects to biblical principles.

Today we are going to be looking at why we must stay away from these pathways or directions wherein we will find ourselves lost!

Psalm 1 “How happy is the one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked or stand in the pathway with sinners or sit in the company of mockers! Instead, his delight is in the Lord’s instruction, and he meditates on it day and night. He is like a tree planted beside flowing streams that bears its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. The wicked are not like this; instead, they are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand up in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to ruin.”

vv. 1-3

What does David mean by “happy”?

Blessed, favored

What type of person is the wicked? …the sinner? …the mocker? Is there even a difference?

Wicked --- someone who is characterized by wickedness in their lives.

Describes one who is guilty of crimes or sins or whose behavior is characterized by wickedness.

The use of rāšāʿ to describe a person or activity indicates that the person’s guilt is certain or that the behavior in question has unquestionably been established as wrong. The term appears in ethical teaching about people who resist obeying the laws (civil or religious) or who oppose God’s standard for righteous or good behavior

G. Scott Gleaves, “Evil,” ed. Douglas Mangum et al., Lexham Theological Wordbook, Lexham Bible Reference Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014).

Therefore, we see that the wicked, as described here and elsewhere in the OT is seen as someone who is characterized as doing something which is concretely morally and ethically wrong, and contrary to the Lord.

Sinners — any person who has committed any transgression against the Law of God whether intentionally or unintentionally.

Mocker — one who throws something into derision or ridicule.

So, at the front of the Psalm, David is saying that the People of God are blessed and favored and happy when we stay away from dwelling with these sorts of people.

I am reminded of Paul writing to Corinth in regard to the false teachings, and in telling them to avoid the false teachings and stop sinning he quoted a pagan poet, “Bad company corrupts good morals.” This is absolutely applicable here — not that we should have zero worldly friends, but that they should not be our closest relationships. Our closes relationships are the ones whom we trust and call on when we need direction, and if that direction is not toward God then it is toward the world! There may be 100 different ways that can look, however if a person does not know the Lord they will point you in the direction of what they do know.

V. 2 says, rather, that this blessed man “delights” in the instruction of the Lord and meditates on it.

What does it mean to delight in something?

Take joy or pleasure

What does it look like to meditate here?

Mulling it over in the mind, perhaps speaking it to yourself in a low tone to process it.

V. 3 — This man is just as a tree planted by a flowing stream; he is constantly fed and nurtured and he is bearing the fruit in his life because of his love for God’s word! Love for the word is more than just a mental pondering of it or the occasional reading of it — rather, the one who loves the word reads it, meditates on it and keeps it on their mind, then lives by it so it doesn’t stay simply head knowledge...

This can recall our minds to out lesson this morning and our challenge — how often are we being fed and nourished by the word of God? Is our time in the word bearing fruit in our lives?

vv. 4-5 is a direct contrast to what we see as the righteous person.

Rather than being fruitful and blessed by God, it says “they are not like this.” Instead, the wicked are described as being like chaff that blows away in the wind. In a farming town you’re probably familiar with the meaning of “chaff”; how would you explain it?

Why are the wicked like chaff?

v. 5 says they will not stand in the judgment of the Lord. I’m reminded of John the Baptist talking about Jesus in Matthew 3:12

Matthew 3:12 CSB

His winnowing shovel is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn. But the chaff he will burn with fire that never goes out.”

The wicked are not kept in the presence of God, as are those characterized as wheat by John or the planted and fruitful tree to David. Rather they are tossed away because they have no place with Him. They will not stand in the judgment because of this — rather than being a planted, strong, fruitful tree kept and tended by God through His word, rather than being a person who lives a life in submission to God, these have chosen to live as if there was no consequence and they tossed God aside. When you toss God aside, He will toss you aside as well if you do not repent.

“Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous” — there was protocol under the Law about how to handle openly sinful people in the congregation of Israel. Sometimes that was stoning, other times it was driving them out. We have the same protocol for the Church — call people out once in private, then with another, then publicly before they are removed from the assembly of the righteous, having been removed from them by God.

v. 6 offers what is called a parallelism by stating one thing and then contrasting it to its opposite.

The LORD is watching over the way of the righteous...

What does this mean?

That God is with the righteous ones and He is for them!

But the way of the wicked ends in ruin...

Inevitably this is due to the fact that the way of the wicked is apart from God.

This Psalm, I believe, is what would be considered a devotional psalm. One to get your mind and heart stricken by the meditation the author is giving.

Application

Take inventory...

Look at your life, and the people you spend the most time thinking about or hanging around. Are they pointing you back to God? Are you pointing them to God? If not, either draw closer to brethren in the Church, or find out why you haven’t been pointing people back to God… mayhap in there somewhere either way, that the love for God and His word has wavered. Let us “stir one another up to love and good works”!