Psalm 1
Yogi Berra once famously said, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” Like many of Berra’s sayings, it makes you smile because it sounds profound until you stop and think about it. A fork in the road is precisely where we cannot simply keep going in both directions. Eventually, we have to choose.
Psalm 1 places us at a fork in the road.
There are two ways of life before us. One is rooted, fruitful, and known by God. The other is rootless, empty, and ultimately perishes. This does not mean that those who follow God will live trouble-free lives. Scripture never makes that promise. Instead, Psalm 1 shows us what it means to live the right kind of life before God.
Every life is headed somewhere because every life is walking some way.
Reach for the Life That Pleases God
Psalm 1 begins with these words:
“How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!”
— Psalm 1:1, NASB 1995
Notice the progression: walk, stand, sit.
At first, the person is walking alongside something. Then he stops and stands there. Eventually, he sits down and becomes comfortable.
Sin rarely begins by asking us to sit down. It first asks us to walk alongside it.
The Psalmist is not teaching us to avoid unbelievers. Jesus certainly did not do that. He loved sinners, ate with sinners, and brought the good news of salvation to sinners. The issue is influence. God’s people must not allow a world opposed to God to determine how we think, where we walk, or where we become comfortable.
There are times when following God requires us to know when to say no.
But the Christian life cannot be defined only by what we reject. Psalm 1 quickly turns from what the blessed person refuses to what he embraces:
“But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
And in His law he meditates day and night.”
— Psalm 1:2, NASB 1995
We must also know when to say yes.
Say yes to God’s Word. Say yes to God’s wisdom. Say yes to God’s will.
The blessed person has not merely learned to avoid something bad. He has discovered something better. He delights in what God has given him.
That delight changes the direction of his life. God’s Word begins shaping his thoughts, desires, decisions, and priorities. The result is the beautiful picture in verse 3:
“He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither.”
Jeremiah uses similar imagery when he describes the person who trusts in the Lord as a tree planted by water, extending its roots by a stream and continuing to bear fruit even when the heat comes (Jeremiah 17:7–8).
Notice what God does not promise. He does not promise that the heat will never come.
The tree survives because of where its roots are.
Life brings difficulties. Circumstances change. Disappointments come. Temptations remain. The world around us shifts constantly. Yet the life rooted in God continues drawing from a source the circumstances cannot take away.
A life rooted in God’s Word will not be carried away by the world’s current.
Run from the Life That Displeases God
Then Psalm 1 suddenly turns:
“The wicked are not so,
But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.”
— Psalm 1:4, NASB 1995
What a contrast.
Tree or chaff.
The tree is rooted. Chaff has no roots.
The tree bears fruit. Chaff produces nothing.
The tree remains. Chaff is carried wherever the wind blows.
Psalm 1 is showing us the tragedy of a life lived apart from God. Ultimately, it is useless, senseless, and hopeless.
It is useless because it produces nothing of eternal value. A person may accomplish impressive things in this world, but what ultimately remains if God has been left out of the life being built?
It is senseless because verse 5 tells us:
“Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.”
There is an important connection between the beginning and end of this Psalm. In verse 1, the blessed person refuses to stand in the path of sinners. In verse 5, those who choose that path discover that they cannot stand in the judgment.
Where we stand today determines where we will stand when this life is over.
For the Christian, however, there is wonderful news: “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).
Finally, life apart from God is hopeless because every road has a destination.
Psalm 1 concludes:
“For the LORD knows the way of the righteous,
But the way of the wicked will perish.”
— Psalm 1:6, NASB 1995
We are back at the fork in the road.
Two ways. Two lives. Two destinations. Do not choose a road simply because it looks good today. Ask where it ends.
The Way That Leads to Life
There is one danger in reading Psalm 1. We could walk away thinking its message is simply, “Clean yourself up, make better choices, and God will bless you.”
That is not the gospel. None of us has perfectly lived Psalm 1. But Jesus has. Jesus perfectly delighted in the Father’s Word. He perfectly obeyed the Father’s will. He never departed from the Father’s way. Then He went to the cross for people like us who have wandered onto paths where we never should have walked, stood in places where we never should have stood, and become comfortable with things that never should have pleased us.
Through faith in Christ, we are given new life. And that new life begins changing both what we reach for and what we run from.
So, ask yourself two questions.
What am I reaching for?
Am I reaching for God’s Word, God’s wisdom, and God’s will? Am I putting down roots beside the stream God has provided, or am I expecting the things of this world to sustain me?
Then ask:
What do I need to run from?
What counsel have I been listening to? What path have I become comfortable standing on? Where have I begun sitting that I never intended to sit?
The blessed life reaches for the things of God and runs from everything that draws us away from Him.
Reach for everything God has for you in Christ. Run from everything that draws you away from Him.
There are two ways, and only one leads to life.