A Story Of Two Men

1-14-05

Title: A Story of Two Men

Theme: Let God Bless You through the Psalms.

Text: (Psalm 1)

1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

4 The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

6 For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

Introduction

A study of any portion of God’s Word is profitable, because it is all inspired by the Holy Spirit, and it is designed to communicate the love and instruction of God to the human race.

The Psalms, however, are unique within the Holy Scriptures for a number of reasons.

But mainly because of the tender and sensitive way in which many of them reveal the human soul in its quest for God.

This psalm talks about the blessed man, or the happy man.

The blessed man is contrasted against the ungodly.

It is also a picture of Christ, the last Adam, in the midst of ungodly sinners and the scornful.

We sometimes think of the Lord as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and for some strange reason many of the pictures that have been painted reveal Him as a very sad-looking individual.

It is true that Isaiah says He is a man of Sorrows, but why don’t you read on.

In Isaiah you will find that Christ did not have any sorrows and griefs of His own.

Isaiah 53:4 says, “Surely, He has born our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.”

It was our griefs, not His own, that He was carrying.

He was the happy Christ.

The righteous man is the picture of Him.

Psalm 1 sets forth the character and lifestyle of a righteous person.

This “good man” described here does not “freewheel”; that is, he has some rules, some standards by which he lives.

He doesn’t take his cues from what those about him are doing.

Then, by contrast, the “unrighteous man” is also described in the psalm.

Consequently, there are both light and darkness, good and evil, cast side by side in this introductory psalm.

Today, we will look at these two men, the righteous man and the unrighteous man, and when we are done, we will see that the righteous man is blessed by God, but the unrighteous man will never be able to stand on the Judgment Day.

Remember, Jesus, the only truly righteous man, is our example of the life style we need to live.

1. The Righteous Man

He is found in the first three verses.

The psalm opens with a benediction: “It says blessed is the man….”

The original word translated “blessed” is plural: “Blessed is the man that walketh not….”

The blessings of God upon the person who endeavors to follow in God’s steps are many and continual.

In the first verse, we see that the righteous person determines to renounce the companionship of evildoers.

The “blessed” or “happy” man does not, “…walk in the counsel of the ungodly, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of the scornful.”

The person who does these things is not a happy person.

He goes through three stages.

First he associates with the ungodly, then he gets with sinners, and finally he joins in with the scornful.

There is definitely regression, deterioration, and degeneration here.

The blessed man does not walk in the council of the ungodly.

One’s “walk” is the scriptural way of speaking of one’s daily life and conduct.

It entails all of one’s relationships during any given day.

Council means “advice.”

He does not listen to the ungodly.

Have you ever noticed that even the Lord Jesus never referred to His own reason or his own mind as the basis for a decision?

Whatever He did was based on the will of God.

He never said to His disciples, “Fellows, we’re going to Galilee again. I have been thinking this over, and I am smarter than you fellows, and I think this is the best thing to do according to My point of view.”

That is not the way He approached His disciples.

He always said, “I am going to Jerusalem because it is the will of My Father.”