"Psalm 1, 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 seat of the scorner may be very lofty, ...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:
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.
And now mark his positive character. "His delight is in the law of the Lord." ...he delights, moreover,
*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.
*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. "His leaf also shall not wither;" his faintest word shall be everlasting; his little deeds of love shall be had in remembrance. "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."
Charles Spurgeon
The seat of the scorner may be very lofty, ...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. And now mark his positive character. "His delight is in the law of the Lord." ...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.
*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. "His leaf also shall not wither;" his faintest word shall be everlasting; his little deeds of love shall be had in remembrance. "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."
Charles Spurgeon
