Blessed is the man.

Psalm 1

Blessed (fortunate, prosperous, and favored by God) is the man who does not walking the counsel of the wicked (following) their advice and example), nor stand in the path of sinners, now sit (down to rest) in the seat of scoffers (ridiculers).

But his delight is in the law of the Lord. And on His law (His precepts and teachings) he (habitually) meditates day and night.

And he will be like a tree firmly planted (and fed) by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season; its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers (and comes to maturity).

The wicked (those who live in disobedience to God’s law) are not so, but they are like the chaff (worthless and without substance) which the wind blows away.

Therefore, the wicked will not stand (unpunished) in the judgement. Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

For the Lord knows and fully approves the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked shall perish.

This past week I studied Psalm 1, verse by verse. This means I took each verse and spent time looking up definitions in Hebrew, looking up cross references, using my bible dictionary, and so on. I will never read this Psalm the same again after this week…which is why I’m here. I’d like to share my thoughts and discoveries on Psalm 1:1.

Blessed. What is blessed? The interesting thing isn’t the definition itself which means happiness or blessedness, but it is the root word meaning of blessed in Psalm 1:1. The root of eser (blessed) is asar, which means to go straight, to walk, especially used in a straight way, hence also of what is upright. This was interesting because that means a blessed man isn’t just happy because happy happens, but it means he is blessed because of the way he chooses to walk. He chooses to walk a certain way and that brings happiness, blessedness. This morning, I came across a quote by Billy Graham, which fit this all too well, it says, “Nowhere in the scripture does it teach that you are to search for and pursue happiness. You find happiness as you lead a disciplined life before God. You will have periods of happiness but God nowhere promises happiness as a goal in life. Our goal is to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

As I continued to read Psalm 1, three words stood out to me I could not shake: walk, stand and sit. The blessed man does not: WALK in the counsel of the wicked, STAND in the path of sinners, or SIT in the seat of scoffers. It is interested that walking, standing and sitting are also used as directives in the life of the righteous with God; like how we are seated in heavenly places (seated in our position in Christ), how we are to walk in the fear of the Lord and His ways (as our manner of life), how we are to stand before Christ on the last day yet maybe this also means to stand up to the evil one – standing from a place of victory from the cross, and not for a place a victory.

We are going to walk, stand or sit no matter what as long as we are living and we get the choice to do this with or without Christ. However, it is clear to me that how and where we walk, stand and sit are freewill and choice. While I was researching walk, a lightbulb went off when I saw in the Gesenius Hebrew lexicon that walking means to follow any manner of life. As I read through the examples of scripture, I came across Proverbs 6:12, “walking (living) in perverseness of mouth” i.e. who, while he lives, continues to practice perverseness of speech.”  What clicked for me is that as we live, we can walk (live) righteously or wickedly. However I choose to live, I am therefore walking in. If I choose to gossip, I walk in that. If I choose to fast and pray, I walk in that. If I choose to throw fits of rage, I walk in that. Every day I have thousands of choices to make which accumulate to “my life”, and every day I get to choose how I want to live (walk).

This reminded me of a dear friend who once shared that she was delivered from cursing, but at times she still cursed after that. Then one day she sat with a spiritual mom and was told that she was either delivered, or you weren’t. God doesn’t deliver half way. This made her realize that she still made a choice to cuss, it was a habit. She still chose to walk in it and had to actively pursue self-control to no longer walk in cursing. I didn’t realize before that the choices I made meant I was “walking” in it. It feels rather convicting at the moment, because sometimes I can make a choice and feel it is a “one off”, like it is a one-time thing. I might even tell myself, “I don’t usually do this.” Yet reality is, I am choosing to walk in that way even when I decide to do one-time things.

The thing is, every day we walk, we all live a certain manner of life, good or bad, right or wrong. We walk on the righteous side of the road or the wicked side. Some may argue they don’t know God but they are a “good person” so it can’t be just two roads of one with God and the other evil. Or some may “know” God and decide to walk on a road that is not narrow (but believe they are still on the right road). If you hear anything from me today, I pray it is this, there isn’t a third road. There is no middle road of one in between the two… and that will be clear on our last day. You are either on one path or the other.

This was a hard thing to study which really stopped me for a few days. I meditated on this scripture day and night, going over it in my head time and time again. It isn’t easy to swallow but it’s good to digest.

The word for “of sinners” in Psalm 1:1 is hatta in Hebrew meaning sinful and exposed to condemnation. The root of this word is hata meaning to sin, to go wrong, to miss, miss the way, incur guilt. This tells me that the sinners in Psalm 1 didn’t just get a little off course, but they missed the way entirely. It says that blessed is the man who does not stand on the path of sinners… and it makes sense now because how could one who is righteous, stand on the same path as a sinner, if the sinner missed the mark entirely? How can the righteous stand in the way when the two are not on the same path? Bible teacher Jane Johnson puts it this way: It is clear that sinners have missed the way, so standing in the way of a sinner is also “standing in the way of one’s own relationship with God”. It is the relationship that guides us, like a Good Shepherd would (Psalm 23). The relationship we grow from because He is the vine (John 15). The relationship we surrender to because He is God an all knowing, faithful, loving Father. (1 Thessalonians 5:24, 1 John 3:1, James 1:17)

Now I can read Psalm 1, with the help of Jane Johnson, as “blessed is a man who doesn’t take certain counsel, blessed is a man who doesn’t take certain roads (no matter how great the view), and blessed is the man who refuses to take certain seats (no matter how tired he is).”

Let’s pray.

Lord, I thank You. I thank you for the person reading this, I thank you for their heart and mind. I ask that you bless them as You bring righteous counsel, as You show them the path to walk, as You show them the seat to take. I thank You Holy Spirit that with you we never run dry, our needs don’t go unmet. Thank you that you hold us Lord and your new morning mercies are new every day for us to walk into. I pray, we know and see these truths in You a little bit more. I ask this in Jesus name. Amen.