Pondering the Psalms (Psalm 1, Part 8)

My friend Frank and I have an agreement, a covenant, which we have followed for several years. We read the same chapter in God’s Word each day for a week and then drop each other a short email about what we have learned. We then move to the next chapter the next week. I describe our modest online Bible study here. You might want to try this with a friend or relative.

We’ve now embarked on a journey of reading through the book of Psalms! So this week we’re reading Psalm 1 each day for a week, then on to Psalm 2, etc. Whew! I’ll post a few comments on our Psalm of the week that I pray will be an encouragement to you.

Let’s think about the last verse of Psalm 1 today.

1. We get God’s conclusion of the whole matter in this last verse! We’ve learned that the blessed person makes several key negative choices. But he is also marked by delighting in God’s Word and using his mind to meditate on God’s truth.

2. We discover that God loves similes. The righteous are fruit-bearing trees while the wicked are like wind-blown chaff.

3. The wicked will not survive God’s judgment but be separated from God and His people forever.

4. Now we learn of God’s summary of the matter. All of humanity will be divided into two and only two categories: (1) those who are described as “righteous” and (2) those who are described as “wicked.” And God responds to both groups. He “watches over the way of the righteous,” we are told. This certainly seems to imply His approval, His protection, His covenant love. But, we are told, “the way of the wicked leads to destruction.” Destruction in the Scriptures is not annihilation. When my son was a teenager he “destroyed” our car by running it into a ditch. But the car still existed.

Today’s Challenge: If the gospel is true — and it is — then all of humanity falls into one of two categories. If you are in the category of “the righteous”, may I ask you for whom in the category of “the wicked” are you praying?