Verse 1. Blessed. See how this Book of Psalms opens with a benediction, as
did the famous Sermon of our Lord on the Mount! The word translated blessed
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 will
rest on those whom God has justified, and the perfection and greatness of the
blessedness they will 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 who 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 learnt 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 will soon be empty, and destruction will
swallow up the man who sits therein. Mark the gradation in the first verse:
He walketh not in the counsel
of the ungodly,
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Nor standeth
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in the way of
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sinners,
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Nor sitteth
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in the seat of the
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scornful.
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When people 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 willfully 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 outside the camp, bearing
the reproach of Christ. O for grace to be thus separate from sinners.
2. And now mark his positive character. His delight is the
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 muses 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 does not
belong to you.
3. And he shall be like a tree
planted. Not a wild tree, but one planted,
chosen, considered as property, cultivated and secured from the last terrible
uprooting (see Matthew 15:13). By the rivers of water. Even if one
river should fail, he has 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. 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,
brings 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 will be everlasting; his little deeds
of love will be remembered. Not only will his fruit be preserved, but his leaf
also. He will neither lose his beauty nor his fruitfulness, and whatsoever
he doeth shall prosper. Blessed is the man who has 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 are we 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 prosperitywhich
the Christian most desires and values; it is soul prosperity which he longs
for. We often, like Jehoshaphat, make ships 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 should 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.
4. We have now come to the second head of the psalm. In this
verse the contrast of the bad state of the wicked is employed to heighten the
coloring of that fair and pleasant picture which precedes it. The more forcible
translation of the Latin and Greek versions 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 it is
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 unbelievers? 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 will
hurry them with its terrible blast into the fire in which they will be utterly
consumed.
5. The ungodly shall not stand in
the judgment. They will stand there to be judged,
but not to be acquitted. Fear will lay hold upon them there; they will not
stand their ground; they will flee away; they will not stand there in their own
defense; for they will bush and be covered with eternal contempt.
Well may the saints long for heaven,
for no evil men will dwell there, nor sinners in the congregation of the
righteous. All our congregations on earth are mixed. Every church has 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 of 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 will 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!
6. The Hebrew puts this verse 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 knows it. If it be in the clouds and tempest
of affliction, he understands it. He numbers the hairs of our head; he will not
let any evil come to us (see Job 23:10). But the way of the ungodly shall
perish. Not only will they perish themselves, but their way
will perish too. The righteous carves his name upon the rock, but the wicked
writes his remembrance in the sand. The righteous man plows the furrows of
earth, and sows a harvest here which will never be fully reaped till he enters
the enjoyments of eternity; but as for the wicked, he plows the sea, and though
there may seem to be a shining trail beghind his keel, yet the waves will pass
over it, and the place that knew him will know him no more forever. The very way
of the ungodly will perish. If it exist in remembrance, it will 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!
Excerpt from:
The Treasury of David
By Charles H Spurgeon
