Psalm 1
Exposition
Explanatory Notes and Quaint Sayings
Hints to the Village Preacher
Other Works
TITLE. This Psalm may be regarded as THE PREFACE PSALM, having in it a
notification of the contents of the entire Book. It is the psalmists's
desire to teach us the way to blessedness, and to warn us of the sure
destruction of sinners. This, then, is the matter of the first Psalm, which
may be looked upon, in some respects, as the text upon which the whole of
the Psalms make up a divine sermon.
DIVISION. This Psalm consists of two parts: in the first (from verse 1 to
the end of the 3rd) David sets out wherein the felicity and blessedness of a
godly man consisteth, what his exercises are, and what blessings he shall
receive from the Lord. In the second part (from verse 4 to the end) he
contrasts the state and character of the ungodly, reveals the future, and
describes, in telling language, his ultimate doom.
EXPOSITION
Verse 1. "BLESSED" —see how this Book of Psalms opens with a
benediction, even as did the famous Sermon of our Lord upon the Mount! The
word translated "blessed" is a very expressive one. The original word is
plural, and it is a controverted matter whether it is an adjective or a
substantive. Hence we may learn the multiplicity of the blessings which
shall rest upon the man whom God hath justified, and the perfection and
greatness of the blessedness he shall enjoy. We might read it, "Oh, the
blessednesses!" and we may well regard it (as Ainsworth does) as a joyful
acclamation of the gracious man's felicity. May the like benediction rest
on us!
Here the gracious man is described both negatively
(verse 1) and
positively (verse 2). He is a man who does not walk in the counsel of the
ungodly. He takes wiser counsel, and walks in the commandments of the Lord
his God. To him the ways of piety are paths of peace and pleasantness. His
footsteps are ordered by the Word of God, and not by the cunning and wicked
devices of carnal men. It is a rich sign of inward grace when the outward
walk is changed, and when ungodliness is put far from our actions. Note
next, he standeth not in the way of sinners. His company is of a choicer
sort than it was. Although a sinner himself, he is now a blood-washed
sinner, quickened by the Holy Spirit, and renewed in heart. Standing by the
rich grace of God in the congregation of the righteous, he dares not herd
with the multitude that do evil. Again it is said, "nor sitteth in the
seat of the scornful." He finds no rest in the atheist's scoffings. Let
others make a mock of sin, of eternity, of hell and heaven, and of the
Eternal God; this man has learned better philosophy than that of the
infidel, and has too much sense of God's presence to endure to hear His name
blasphemed. The seat of the scorner may be very lofty, but it is very near
to the gate of hell; let us flee from it, for it shall soon be empty, and
destruction shall swallow up the man who sits therein. Mark the gradation
in the first verse:
He walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor standeth in the way of sinners,
Nor SITTETH in the SEAT of SCORNFUL.
When men are living in sin they go from bad to worse.
At first they
merely walk in the counsel of the careless and ungodly, who forget God—the evil is rather practical than habitual—but after that, they become
habituated to evil, and they stand in the way of open sinners who
wilfully violate God's commandments; and if let alone, they go one step
further, and become themselves pestilent teachers and tempters of others,
and thus they sit in the seat of the scornful. They have taken their
degree in vice, and as true Doctors of Damnation they are installed, and are
looked up to by others as Masters in Belial. But the blessed man, the man
to whom all the blessings of God belong, can hold no communion with such
characters as these. He keeps himself pure from these lepers; he puts away
evil things from him as garments spotted by the flesh; he comes out from
among the wicked, and goes without the camp, bearing the reproach of Christ.
O for grace to be thus separate from sinners.
And now mark his positive character. "His delight is
in the law
of the Lord." He is not under the law as a curse and condemnation, but he
is in it, and he delights to be in it as his rule of life; he delights,
moreover, to meditate in it, to read it by day, and think upon it by
night. He takes a text and carries it with him all day long; and in the
night-watches, when sleep forsakes his eyelids, he museth upon the Word of
God. In the day of his prosperity he sings psalms out of the Word of
God, and in the night of his affliction he comforts himself with
promises out of the same book. "The law of the Lord" is the daily bread
of the true believer. And yet, in David's day, how small was the volume of
inspiration, for they had scarcely anything save the first five books of
Moses! How much more, then, should we prize the whole written Word which it
is our privilege to have in all our houses! But, alas, what ill-treatment
is given to this angel from heaven! We are not all Berean searchers of the
Scriptures. How few among us can lay claim to the benediction of the text!
Perhaps some of you can claim a sort of negative purity, because you do not
walk in the way of the ungodly; but let me ask you—Is your delight in
the law of God? Do you study God's Word? Do you make it the man of your
right hand—your best companion and hourly guide? If not, this blessing
belongeth not to you.
Verse 3. " And he shall be like a tree planted "—not a wild tree, but
"a tree planted," chosen, considered as property, cultivated and secured
from the last terrible uprooting, for "every plant which my heavenly Father
hath not planted, shall be rooted up:" Matthew 15:13. "By the rivers of
water;" so that even if one river should fail, he hath another. The rivers
of pardon and the rivers of grace, the rivers of the promise and the rivers
of communion with Christ, are never-failing sources of supply. He is "like
a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his
season;" not unseasonable graces, like untimely figs, which are never
full-flavored. But the man who delights in God's Word, being taught by it,
bringeth forth patience in the time of suffering, faith in the day of trial,
and holy joy in the hour of prosperity. Fruitfulness is an essential
quality of a gracious man, and that fruitfulness should be seasonable.
"His leaf also shall not wither;" his faintest word shall be everlasting;
his little deeds of love shall be had in remembrance. Not simply shall his
fruit be preserved, but his leaf also. He shall neither lose his beauty
nor his fruitfulness. "And whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." Blessed
is the man who hath such a promise as this. But we must not always estimate
the fulfillment of a promise by our own eye-sight. How often, my brethren,
if we judge by feeble sense, may we come to the mournful conclusion of
Jacob, "All these things are against me!" For though we know our interest
in the promise, yet we are so tried and troubled, that sight sees the very
reverse of what that promise foretells. But to the eye of faith this word
is sure, and by it we perceive that our works are prospered, even when
everything seems to go against us. It is not outward prosperity which the
Christian most desires and values; it is soul prosperity which he longs for.
We often, like Jehoshaphat, make ships to go to Tarshish for gold, but they
are broken at Ezion-geber; but even here there is a true prospering, for it
is often for the soul's health that we would be poor, bereaved, and
persecuted. Our worst things are often our best things. As there is a
curse wrapped up in the wicked man's mercies, so there is a blessing
concealed in the righteous man's crosses, losses, and sorrows. The trials
of the saint are a divine husbandry, by which he grows and brings forth
abundant fruit.
Verse 4. We have now come to the second head of the Psalm. In this verse
the contrast of the ill estate of the wicked is employed to heighten the
coloring of that fair and pleasant picture which precedes it. The more
forcible translation of the Vulgate and of the Septuagint version is—
"Not so the ungodly, not so." And we are hereby to understand that
whatever good thing is said of the righteous is not true in the case of the
ungodly. Oh! how terrible is it to have a double negative put upon the
promises! and yet this is just the condition of the ungodly. Mark the use
of the term "ungodly," for, as we have seen in the opening of the Psalm,
these are the beginners in evil, and are the least offensive of sinners.
Oh! if such is the sad state of those who quietly continue in their
morality, and neglect their God, what must be the condition of open sinners
and shameless infidels? The first sentence is a negative description of the
ungodly, and the second is the positive picture. Here is their character
— "they are like chaff," intrinsically worthless, dead, unserviceable,
without substance, and easily carried away. Here, also, mark their doom,
— "the wind driveth away;" death shall hurry them with its terrible
blast into the fire in which they shall be utterly consumed.
Verse 5. They shall stand there to be judged, but not to be acquitted.
Fear shall lay hold upon them there; they shall not stand their ground; they
shall flee away; they shall not stand in their own defence; for they shall
blush and be covered with eternal contempt.
Well may the saints long for heaven, for no evil men
shall dwell there,
"nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous." All our congregations
upon earth are mixed. Every Church hath one devil in it. The tares grow in
the same furrows as the wheat. There is no floor which is as yet thoroughly
purged from chaff. Sinners mix with saints, as dross mingles with gold.
God's precious diamonds still lie in the same field with pebbles. Righteous
Lots are this side heaven continually vexed by the men of Sodom. Let us
rejoice then, that in "the general assembly and church of the firstborn"
above, there shall by no means be admitted a single unrenewed soul. Sinners
cannot live in heaven. They would be out of their element. Sooner could a
fish live upon a tree than the wicked in Paradise. Heaven would be an
intolerable hell to an impenitent man, even if he could be allowed to enter;
but such a privilege shall never be granted to the man who perseveres in his
iniquities. May God grant that we may have a name and a place in his courts
above!
Verse 6. Or, as the Hebrew hath it yet more fully, "The Lord is knowing
the way of the righteous." He is constantly looking on their way, and
though it may be often in mist and darkness, yet the Lord knoweth it. If it
be in the clouds and tempest of affliction, he understandeth it. He
numbereth the hairs of our head; he will not suffer any evil to befall us.
"He knoweth the way that I take: when He hath tried me, I shall come forth
as gold." (Job 23:10.) "But the way of the ungodly shall perish." Not
only shall they perish themselves, but their way shall perish too. The
righteous carves his name upon the rock, but the wicked writes his
remembrance in the sand. The righteous man ploughs the furrows of earth,
and sows a harvest here, which shall never be fully reaped till he enters
the enjoyments of eternity; but as for the wicked, he ploughs the sea, and
though there may seem to be a shining trail behind his keel, yet the waves
shall pass over it, and the place that knew him shall know him no more for
ever. The very "way" of the ungodly shall perish. If it exist in
remembrance, it shall be in the remembrance of the bad; for the Lord will
cause the name of the wicked to rot, to become a stench in the nostrils of
the good, and to be only known to the wicked themselves by its putridity.
May the Lord cleanse our hearts and our ways, that we
may escape the
doom of the ungodly, and enjoy the blessedness of the righteous!