The psalms are beautiful and were the original worship songs for the Israelites. Many of them were written by David throughout his life. Today, we’ll will focus on the first verse of the first psalm.
Blessed is the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; Psalm 1:1 NKJV
We’ll take a look at the above scripture verse and break it down. But to sum it up, it’s what a righteous man does not do. I find this scripture verse to be comforting. My prayer is that as we break it down, it will be a blessing and comfort to you as well.
Blessed is the man
The word blessed is from the Hebrew word esher and conveys the idea of happiness or contentment. Esher comes from the root word is ashar which means “to be straight” or “to be right”. It refers to a man or woman who is “right” or “straight” with God. Basically, a happy man or woman.
In Hebrew, the word is plural, meaning the person has multiple blessings or intensified blessings.
It is not just for those who have incredible accolades (like kings, or scholars or the wealthy). But also for the common man. Charles Spurgeon commented: “This blessedness is as attainable by the poor, the forgotten, and the obscure, as by those whose names figure in history, and have immense fame.”
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
The blessed man does not do certain things. He won’t walk or stand on a certain path, nor will he sit in a place where he shouldn’t be. The blessed man thinks and behaves differently than an ungodly man. They fall into different groups of people.
It also gives a clear insight to the progression of sin. It is insidious. One act leads to another. So, the man who acts on bad counsel, may begin to do evil deeds and it progresses until his life is in a total shambles.
When the ungodly have counsel, the righteous man will not take it. Today, we are bombarded with advice from every place you can think of from YouTube, Twitter (now X), Instagram… you name it. The righteous man knows how to discern the counsel of the ungodly.
It’s sad to know how many fail here. Many don’t even consider if the counsel is godly or ungodly. They hear the advice and don’t consider if it’s godly or not. They simply jump on the bandwagon.
Sadly, man’s own conscience, his own mind, his own heart, can give him ungodly counsel. The key here is to be and stay in the Word of God. God’s word is always the best counselor, with the Holy Spirit as your teacher. Godly counselors will always bring the truth of God’s word to help someone who wants counseling. Check out Psalm 119:24.
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
A righteous man knows that the sinner’s path is wrong for him. Path speaks of a way, a road, or a direction. The righteous man will not travel in the same direction as a sinner.
Nor is a righteous man afraid to take a less-traveled road because he knows it will lead to happiness, blessings, and eternal life.
Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Mattew 7:13
And a righteous man is confident in his path. And God has a path for each man that will lead to enormous blessings. (And it’s not always monetary.)
You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalm 16:11
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful
What is a scornful person? They love to sit and criticize the people and things of God. You see it all over the internet but the righteous man won’t stand for it.
When others put down Christians, it’s easy to sit among them and join the fray of criticism. Christians have a lot of things that people can take stabs at. But it is wrong for Christians to do that because then they become the scornful.
Instead, Christians should always stand up and show others he or she is a follower of Christ.
In conclusion, a blessed person listens to advice from godly counselors but should always line up that advice with what the Bible says. (In most cases, they will refer the righteous person to scripture passages that back up the advice. And not just one, but many.) The righteous person will stand tall and make a claim of being a child of God and a Christian.
What are you thoughts of about this passage? Give comments below.