Our text is from THE AMPLIFIED BIBLE

"Blessed, happy, fortunate, prosperous, and enviable is the man who walks and lives not in the counsel of the ungodly [following their advice, their plans and purposes], nor stands [submissive and inactive] in the path where sinners walk, nor sits down [to relax and rest] where the scornful [and the mockers] gather. But his delight and desire are in the law of the Lord, and on His law (the precepts, the instructions, the teaching of God) he habitually meditates (ponders and studies) by day and by night.
And he shall be like a tree firmly planted [and tended] by the streams of water, ready to bring forth its fruit in its season; its leaf also shall not fade or wither; and everything he does shall prosper [and come to maturity].
Not so the wicked [those disobedient and living without God are not so]. But they are like the chaff [worthless, dead, without substance] which the wind drives away.
Therefore the wicked [those disobedient and living without God] shall not stand [justified] in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous [those who are upright and in right standing with God].
For the Lord knows and is fully acquainted with the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly [those living outside God's will] shall perish (end in ruin and come to naught)."

The Psalms are rich in human experience. At times they ring with the din and noise of battle, at other times they take us with hushed hearts in the inner sanctuary, into the immediate presence of God. At times they set our hearts aflame and our feet dancing for joy, at times we turn to them when our face is drenched with tears!
For the psalms touch all the notes in the keyboard of human emotion. Here we have love and hate, joy and sorrow, hope and fear, peace and strife, faith and despair. This is the stuff of which life is made. No wonder God's saints in all ages have felt the tug of the psalms. The book is a vast storehouse of human emotions and experiences to which all of us find ourselves identified.
In times of trouble, especially, we turn to this book. When Jonah found himself in what he called "the belly of hell" he prayed and his short prayer is saturated with quotations from the psalms. Listen to his prayer: "Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish's belly. And he said: "I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, and He answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and You heard my voice." (Psalm 120:1; Psalm 65:2).

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For You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods surrounded me; all Your billows and Your waves passed over me. (Psalm 88:6; Psalm 42:7).
Then I said, I have been cast out of Your sight; Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple. (Psalm 31:22).
The waters surrounded me; weeds were wrapped around my head. I went down to the moorings of the mountains; the earth with its bars closed behind me forever; Yet You have brought up my life from the pit, 0 Lord, my God. (Psalm 16:10; Psalm 18:6).
Jonah, in the deepest moment of his life, prays the words of the Psalms!
Jesus loved the psalms! He went from the upper room with the strains of the psalms still sounding in His soul. (Psalm 113-118). They enabled Him to face Gethsemane. He endured Golgotha, quoting from the psalms. (Psalm 22)
On the day of Pentecost, Peter turned instinctively to the psalms to find words to explain vital truth to the stricken Jewish people in Jerusalem.
Paul, in summarizing the Holy Spirit's great indictment of the human race in Romans 3, found the language he needed in the psalms.
There is a sameness in the psalms, as anyone who has tried to preach through them consecutively has soon discovered.
Yet there is an astonishing variety in them, too! The sameness is that of the waves rolling in from the depths of a vast ocean to break upon the sands of the shore--the same, yet each one slightly different.
It is not surprising that there is a similarity about them. They nearly all came out of a relatively few historical molds. Some were born during David's fugitive years in the days of Saul; others were wrung out of his soul during the Absolom rebellion. Some he wrote when firmly enthroned as Israel's king, reigning in the affections of his people. Some he penned in the terrible days that followed his sin with Bathsheba. Hezekiah wrote a fair number of psalms during the days of the Assyrian invasion. Some psalms seem to relate to the experiences of Israel during the Babylonian captivity and others to the travails of the remnant who returned to claim again the Promised Land for the coming Messiah. The psalms seem to have been plucked on relatively few strings of the harp.
And there is yet something very interesting about the psalms...they are filled with many prophecies about the birth, life, character, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
With this introduction to this glorious portion of God's Holy Scripture, let's begin our exposition of the psalm before us...Psalm 1.
BLESSED!! The Book of Psalms begins with a beatitude.
Not a prayer or a hymn, but a statement about human existence. Here at the threshold of the Psalter we are asked to consider the teaching that the way life is lived is decisive for how it turns out. This opening beatitude also serves as an introduction to the book.
Its location as the first psalm is not accidental; the psalm is there to invite us to read and use the entire book as a guide to a blessed life!

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BLESSED means supremely happy or fulfilled. In fact, in Hebrew the word is actually a plural, which denotes either a multiplicity of blessings or an intensification of them. The verse might correctly be translated, "0 the blessednesses of the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked." This is why the Amplified Bible says, "Blessed, happy, fortunate, prosperous and enviable..."
At first glance it might seem surprising that the idea of the blessed or the happy man is followed immediately by a description of the wicked man, particularly since a description of the way of the wicked also appears later in verses 4 and 5. But it is actually an excellent device. By starting in this way the poet achieves three important things.
First, he begins where we are. None of us automatically starts out being righteous. We start out being sinners, and if we do eventually enter by the straight gate upon the narrow road that leads to life, it is by God's grace. No one, either in the Old Testament or in the New Testament period, was saved in any other way.
Second, the poet is able to introduce the doctrine of the two ways from the start. We do not have to wait until verse 4 to read that there is a way other than the way of the godly. "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. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it" (Matt. 7:13-14).
John Oxenham wrote: "To every man there openeth a way and ways and a way; And the high soul treads the high way, and the low soul gropes the low; And in between on the misty flats the rest drift to and fro; But to every man there openeth a high way and a low; and every man decideth the way his soul shall go."
There is always a certain dramatic quality of life, for, as it has been said, "all life concentrates on man at the cross-roads." In every action of life man is confronted with a choice; and he can never evade the choice; and he can never evade the choice, because he can never stand still. He must always take one way or the other.
As the end drew near, Moses spoke to the people; "See, I have set before you this day life and good, and death and evil...Therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live" (Deuteronomy 30:15-20).
Third, the author says something important about godliness. He is going to present godliness positively as the way of the one who delights in the law of the Lord. But any positive affirmation, to have meaning, must have a negative to go with it. Thus, in order to say what the way of the godly man is, we must also be able to say what it is not, and that is what the first verse of the first psalm accomplishes.
How beautifully it does it! The most striking feature of Hebrew poetry is what is known as parallelism, that is, saying the same thing or a variety of the same thing, in two linked lines. That is what we have here, only in this verse are three linked lines, and there are three parallel terms in each line: set 1, "walk, stand,

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sit"; set 2, "counsel, way, seat"; and set 3, "wicked, sinners, mockers."
Because of this common feature of Hebrew poetry, a number of writers are reluctant to see any special progression in these terms. But it is hard to believe that the phrases are not saying that the way of the wicked is downhill and that sinners always go from bad to worse. Certainly Spurgeon thought so. He said, "When men 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 became 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."
Abraham stood in the way of sinners when he went down to Egypt to escape the famine of Canaan, where he told Pharaoh that Sarah was his sister, and lost his testimony. Lot stood in the way of sinners when he listened to the king of Sodom instead of the king of Salem, went back to Sodom, and lost his family. Peter stood in the way of a sinner when he warmed himself at the world's fire during the trial of Jesus and consequently denied his Lord with oaths and curses.
Blessed is the man that walketh not...standeth not, nor sitteth not...in the ways of sin. BUT HIS DELIGHT IS IN THE LAW OF THE LORD. The law of the Lord may fairly be extended to cover more than the writer probably meant. All that declares the mind of God, all that is in any sort His word, is the region which the righteous man's mind delights to roam. His pleasure is to think God's thoughts after Him; and God is beauty and love. His mind instinctively dwells where God dwells too! The thoughts he entertains are thoughts to which he could call the Lord's attention.
THE MAN WHO DELIGHTS IN THE LAW OF THE LORD IS THE MAN WHO WILL PROSPER. Herein is the true gospel of prosperity! Here is the true recipe for success!
Ours is in a peculiar sense a generation of success worshippers and our ideas of success are not always the highest.
The good news in our psalm is that everyone may truly enjoy Godly success. This may be so regardless of whether we succeed or fail as the world counts success and failure. But what are the conditions of success?
The first fact that the psalmist points out is that the road to prosperity is one that is shut within limits.
There are certain things that the man who would make a success simply cannot do. Every prosperous life is circumscribed by certain great refusals. As we have already noted, the man who would make a real success must refuse to walk in the counsel of the ungodly. Who are the ungodly? They are folks who reckon without God. They do not have to be dishonest or in any way crooked in their dealings. The ungodly are the practical atheists, who, though they may recite creeds, live as if

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God were only a myth and a dream. Certainly no man can hope for success who ignores the supreme fact which is God.
The Scriptures are full of warnings not to associate with the ungodly.
"Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd" (Exodus 23:2).
"Do not set foot on the path of the wicked or walk in the way of evil man" (Proverbs 4:14).
"Do not envy wicked men, do not desire their company" (Proverbs 24:1).
"But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat" (1 Cor. 5:11).
"Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness" (2 Cor. 6:14).
The "ungodly" or the "wicked" man is the mildest description of the lost man in the Bible. Everything about the ungodly man in this psalm set him in stark contrast with the godly man. The ungodly man is driven, doomed and dammed!
Let's consider the godly man who strives to live righteously.
We have already observed that "his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law (the precepts, the instructions, the teachings of God) he habitually meditates (ponders and studies) by day and by night" (v.2).
By "meditation" the Bible does not mean so-called transcendental meditation, which is nothing but a trap for the unwary, Hinduism masquerading as science. Beware of any philosophy which teaches how to disengage the mind from deliberate and normal thought processes so it can be free to receive impressions from elsewhere.
That kind of thing leads to demonic suggestion!
The meditation the Psalmist advocates deliberately engages the conscious mind with the truths of God's Word. We come into God's presence, open Bible in hand, and say, "Speak, Lord, thy servant heareth." Then we read the Bible in a methodical, meaningful, meditating way, seeking to understand and appropriate its truths. We ask the following questions, for instance, when pondering the sacred page: Is there any sin here for me to avoid? Is there any premise for me to claim? Is there any victory to gain? Is there any blessing to enjoy? Is there any truth I have never seen before about God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, about man, sin? What is the main thing I can learn here?
"Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful." (Joshua 1:8).
"May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, 0 Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer" (Psalm l9:14).
"On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night" (Psalm 63:6).
"I remember the days of long ago; I meditate on all your works and consider what your hands have done" (Ps. 143:5)

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When most people think of the results of upright or godly living they think of rewards. That is, they think that if they do what God tells them to do, He will reward them, but that if they do not, they will be punished. There is an element of truth to this; it is what is involved in the doctrine of final judgment. But what the psalmist actually says here is quite different.
He is talking about "blessedness," the blessedness of the man "who does not stand in the way of sinners" but whose delight is in the law of the Lord. His point is that this is not a reward but rather "the result of a particular type of life.
The poet uses two images to show the result of these two ways. The first is a fruitful tree. It describes the man who delights in the law of the Lord and draws his spiritual nourishment from it as a tree that draws its nourishment from an abundantly flowing stream. In the symbolism of Scripture, water for cleansing invariably represents the Word of God; water for drinking symbolizes the Spirit of God. Meditation in Scripture releases the river of God's Spirit so that our lives are refreshed and revitalized.
The Psalmist notes seven things which mark the life of the man who is situated by the river.
HIS PROMINENCE: he is like "a tree."
HIS PERMANENCE: he is like a tree "planted." Unlike the grass, which is mowed down in successive harvests, a tree sends its roots down deep into the soil. It has a deep, hidden life.
HIS POSITION: He is planted "by the rivers of water." The droughts which bring bleakness and barrenness to others do not affect him. He has an unfailing source of life.
HIS PRODUCTIVITY: he "brings forth fruit." His branches run over the wall, he is a blessing to everyone.
HIS PROPRIETY: he brings forth fruit "in his season." He is not a freak. There are times for fruit-bearing just as there are times for growth and times for rest. So long as we are abiding in the Spirit, we need not worry about the fruit. It will come in its season.
HIS PERPETUITY: "his leaf also shall not wither." There are trees whose leaves drop off in the winter, and there are trees who are green all through the year. That's what we are to be like--not affected by the winter or the weather--always the same.
HIS PROSPERITY: "whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." Everything will prosper—his family life, his business life, his church life, his personal life. Such is the godly man, the happy, happy blessed man!
The second illustration that the poet uses to describe the ungodly is chaff.
The picture here is of a threshing floor at the time of the grain harvest. The threshing floors of Palestine are on hills that catch the best breezes. Grain in brought to them, is crushed by animals or by threshing instruments that are drawn over it, then is pitched high into the air where the wind blows away the chaff. The heavier grain falls back to the threshing floor and is collected. The chaff is scattered or burned, and it is what the psalmist says those who live wickedly are like.

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The wicked are like chaff in two senses. Chaff is worthless, and chaff is burned. This pictures the futile, empty, worthless life of the godless, as well as their inevitable judgment.
Oh! If only those who are running away from God could see this! But they cannot, because they will not listen to God and the world is shouting the exact opposite of the Bible's teaching. The world says that to be religious is foolishness. Religious people never have any fun or accomplish anything...so the message of the world. If you want to amount to something and enjoy yourself doing it, get on the fast track of sin, reach out for whatever you want, and take it. Be happy. That is what the world teaches. But it is all a lie, which is exactly what Paul calls it in Romans 1 where he analyzes this fast downward spiral (v.25).
Notice what our psalm says about the ungodly. "The ungodly are not so." In the Septuagint version there is a much more pungent way of expressing the double negative of this verse: "Not so the ungodly, not so." In contrast with the towering tree, with its roots deep in the soil, nourished by a perennial stream, the ungodly is likened to "the chaff which the wind driveth away." The unsaved man is at the mercy of forces he does not see and which he cannot control. Here is a ship, its engines broken, its steering out of order, caught in the grip of a gale. It is being driven by wind and tide toward the jagged rocks that guard the coast. Gripped by forces beyond its control, it is being driven straight to disaster. Such are the forces at work in the life of the ungodly. They are satanic forces, wielded by "the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience." The unsaved man doesn't believe in Satan or in evil spirits. His education has taught him to believe only in what he can test with his senses; but these are invisible forces and the pressure they exert is secret pressure. The ungodly man is not the master of his own soul, the captain of his own destiny. He is being relentlessly driven. He is as powerless against these forces as the chaff is before the wind. That is how God describes the ungodly.
THE UNGODLY PERSON IS DOOMED!
"The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness (Romans 1:18).
"For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment; if He did not spare the ancient world when He brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly..." (2 Peter 2:4-7).
"By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men" (2 .Peter 3:7).
"This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with His powerful angels. He

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will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of His power on the day He comes to be glorified in His holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed." (2 Thessalonians 1:7-10).
"Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous." (v.5).
The sinners have no standing in the day of judgment. He will be summoned to the great white throne there to find that the heaven and the earth have fled away. Everything familiar will be gone. Everything he has sought to build; everything in which he has invested his time and his talents—GONE! He has nowhere to stand. He has built his house upon the sand and the judgment has swept it all away!
"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash" (Matthew 7:24-27). "Then I saw a great white throne and Him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from His presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire" (Rev. 20-11 15).
"For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous; but the way of the ungodly shall perish." (v. 6) There are only two ways! There is the way of the cross, the way that leads by Calvary to glory. And there is the way of the curse, the broad and popular way that leads to a lost eternity. By nature and by practice our feet are set on the broad way. "We have turned every one to his own way," the prophet declares. But, by deliberate choice, we can make the change. We come to Jesus, "the way, the truth, the life," the One who says, "No man cometh unto the Father but by Me. We take Him as Saviour and become numbered with the godly, with the righteous. We are no longer driven, but directed by His Word into a life that not only ends in heaven, but all through life's journey is blessed with God's presence, His power, His peace and His provision! Choose this day who you will serve, and when He is your choice, your journey to glory will be accompanied by blessing after blessing after blessing!