Kootenai Church Morning Worship

And now turn in your Bibles to Psalm 1. Psalm 1, and we're going to read together this whole psalm, all six verses, before we pray. Psalm 1:
1 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!
2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.
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; and in whatever he does, he prospers.
4 The wicked are not so, but they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
6 For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. (NASB)
It is the mark of wisdom literature to compare two separate paths, whereby wisdom is seen when the way of wisdom is contrasted with the way of foolishness. And that is a kind of comparison that not just marks wisdom literature, it is one of the distinguishing features of wisdom literature in the Scriptures. And we see this throughout the book of Proverbs. In the book of Proverbs, you have these pithy little concise statements where two things are contrasted. I'm going to read to you five proverbs, and I want you to listen for the contrast in each one of these. You can see, and these are all together, by the way, Proverbs 10:1–5, and each of them contrasts different things in different ways. Proverbs 10:
1 A wise son makes a father glad, but a foolish son is a grief to his mother.
2 Ill-gotten gains do not profit, but righteousness delivers from death.
3 The Lord will not allow the righteous to hunger, but He will reject the craving of the wicked.
4 Poor is he who works with a negligent hand, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.
5 He who gathers in summer is a son who acts wisely, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who acts shamefully. (NASB)
So you see there are different actions contrasted, the son, the activities of a son, a father and mother, ill-gotten gains as opposed to righteousness, the righteous and the wicked, the diligent and the lazy, the one who gathers, the one who cares little. These are contrasted all the way throughout those proverbs. Sometimes the contrast is between behaviors that are compared. Sometimes the contrast is between motives, where the motive of one action and the motive of another is compared. Sometimes it is the moral quality that is compared, or sometimes it is the outcome.
And wisdom literature in Scripture, whether we find it in the Psalms, Ecclesiastes, or Proverbs, is intending and directing us to observe two different paths and then to choose wisely which one of those two paths we will set our feet upon. “There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death,” Proverbs 14:12 says. And that tells us that you can set out on one path that seems like the logical, the rational, the good, the moral, the right, the reasonable path to take, but there is a way which seems right to a man, but the end of that way is death. And the wise man will look at the end of an action, the end of an activity, and not just meditate upon or consider the things in the moment. It is the fool who considers everything in the moment. What feels good now? What seems good now? What seems right now? That's the path of folly. It is the righteous one who zooms out, as it were, and looks beyond the now, the moment, the momentary, and considers the end result of his conduct, looks ahead and says, “What will be the outcome of this?” He foresees good or he foresees evil. He foresees where his path is going to take him.
Psalm 1 is a wisdom psalm that compares the blessed man with the wicked. And it is a series of contrasts. We've looked at two of them so far. The final contrast is a comparison of the final outcome for both the righteous and the wicked. So we've read Psalm 1 there. Our text today is verses 5–6. In verses 1–2, just to catch you up in case you weren't here or in case you got distracted this last week and forgot what I preached on last week—verses 1–2 contrast the path of the blessed man with the path of the wicked man. There is the counsel of Yahweh, and there is the counsel of the wicked. In verses 3–4, there's a contrast between the prosperity of the blessed man and the barrenness of the wicked. The blessed man is like a tree that is planted, it's fruitful, it flourishes, it does not wither, whereas the wicked man is like the chaff which the wind drives away, unprofitable, barren, fruitless, useless, and destined for judgment.
Now in verses 5–6, we see the prize of the blessed man contrasted with the perishing of the wicked man. Here's the final end of the wicked described, and here is the final ultimate vindication of the righteous that is promised. And the key phrase you see in verse 6, it is the first phrase of verse 6. “For the Lord knows the way of the righteous.” The Lord knows the way of the righteous. That is the key to these last two verses. Since that is true, since the Lord knows the way of the righteous, then, verse 5, “the wicked will not stand.” And since the Lord knows the way of the righteous, verse 6, “the wicked will perish.” Two different statements that help contrast the outcome of the life of the wicked and the life of the righteous. Because the Lord knows the righteous, therefore, verse 5, the blessed man will stand when the wicked are removed. And because the Lord knows the way of the righteous, therefore, verse 6, the blessed man will be remembered when the wicked are forgotten. And that is our outline.
Verse 5, the blessed man will stand when the wicked are removed. Let's look at verse 5. Let's read it again. “Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.” Now, you'll notice that there is a different word that is here used to describe the blessed man. The author now chooses the word righteous instead of the word blessed. And don't think for a moment that the author is introducing us to a third character, as if you have the blessed man, the wicked, and now the righteous man. He is equating righteousness here with the blessed man. The blessed man of verse 1 is the righteous man of verse 5 and the righteous man of verse 6. So, he's not introducing another character. Instead, he is describing now the blessed man in terms of primarily two things, his judicial standing before God but also his moral standing and conduct in this world. And that's how the word righteous is used here. Righteousness is a judicial declaration before God. It is also a moral designation of how we live before men.
And the righteousness that this man in verses 5–6 enjoys is not a righteousness that comes as a result of him meditating on the law of the Lord in verses 1–2. Now keep that in mind. Let me say that again. The righteous designation that he enjoys in verses 5–6 is not the result of him meditating upon the Word of God in verse 2. In other words, the delight in the law of God does not create within us the righteousness that makes us righteous. This type of righteousness, an aspect of righteousness, is a divine declaration, a judicial declaration.
How is the blessed man made righteous? Does he obey and keep the law? Can righteousness come by obedience to the law? If this sinner were to meditate upon the law of God day and night and do nothing but read that, can that make the sinner righteous? And the answer is no. And all of his attempts to obey the law only result in condemnation and not righteousness. Paul says in Galatians 2:21, “If righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain” (NKJV). Paul says in Galatians 3:21, “If a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law” (NIV). So you have a description of the blessed man as one who meditates on the law of God day and night. And yet the Scriptures declare that there is none righteous, no not one.
What must take place for one who is not righteous to be made righteous? There must be a divine declaration of righteousness and an imputation of divine righteousness that comes to the man on the basis of faith. So the blessed man is a man upon whom God has worked and moved to create faith within and to impute to him divine righteousness on the basis of that faith. And therefore, the meditation on the law of the Lord day and night of the righteous man is not a meditation that brings righteousness, it is the meditation that flows out of that righteousness. In other words, the one who is regenerated and declared righteous in the sight of God is the one who then will walk in righteousness.
So righteousness is not just a divine declaration, something that is yours by faith in Christ, but this righteousness is also a moral designation, something that is lived out in the eyes of the world. Righteous describes one who walks in obedience to the commandments of Yahweh. He strives after Yahweh's commands and Yahweh's words. He strives to live immersed in the Word of God, loving that Word, obeying that Word, being conformed by that Word. That imputed righteousness of Christ is worked out in a practical righteousness that is lived out in the eyes of men. And these two things go together. If one is imputed the righteousness of Christ and declared righteous—that is, to be redeemed and regenerated and saved—he will live a different life and there will be fruit in that life. But the one who is not so changed, it doesn't matter how well you know Scripture, you are an empty vessel and chaff that will be blown away. There must be not only the divine declaration of righteousness, but also that will always be accompanied by a life that issues out in practical righteousness so that righteous living, according to the righteous Word, is the delight of the righteous man. These two things go together.
And that righteousness is a necessary quality for one to stand in the judgment. Notice the context of verses 5–6 is judgment. Verse 4 says the wicked “are like chaff which the wind drives away.” Verse 5 says, “The wicked will not stand in the judgment.” So how is it then that the blessed man can stand in the judgment? The blessed man stands before the judgment bar of God because he is righteous, and to go back to our imputed righteousness, he is righteous not because he has done deeds of righteousness that save him and give him any kind of merit before the judgment bar of God; he is righteous because God has declared him righteous, taken away his sin, and imputed or credited a righteousness to him that he does not deserve and could never earn. Therefore, the righteous, the blessed man, is righteous and is able to stand in the judgment not because he has righteousness of his own but because he has the righteousness of another, that one blessed Man who never walked in the counsel of the ungodly or stood in the path of sinners or sat in the seat of scoffers, namely the Lord Jesus Christ. That perfect righteousness is imputed to the blessed man. So, the psalmist says, blessed are those whom the Lord chooses and calls to Himself, gives them the righteousness of His Son, so that by that righteousness they can stand in the judgment.
This judgment here must describe the final judgment. It is not a temporal judgment. There are some commentators who see this judgment as being sort of an earthly or temporal judgment, where say a nation would invade Israel, and the idea is that as God would bring judgments upon the nation, the wicked would be carried away and the righteous would stand. But historically, the righteous, when a nation is judged, unfortunately sometimes get the shrapnel from that judgment as God pours out His wrath upon the wicked. So if we are here when this nation is judged, we're going to experience some of that shrapnel. That's just the nature of reality.
So I don't think it is describing here any kind of temporal, earthly, temporary judgments. I think this is the final judgment that is being described when the wicked are fully and finally judged. When the books are open and the wicked are judged according to the things written in the books, that's the judgment that is described here. Revelation 20:12, it's that final judgment. When the wicked are resurrected and they stand before the judgment seat of Christ—or they stand before that great white throne, I should say—they stand before that great white throne judgment of Christ, and there they are judged according to their deeds. The wicked will not stand in that judgment.
The word stand here, by the way, is not the same word in Hebrew that is used in verse 1. You'll notice in verse 1, there is the idea of standing. And you might be tempted to think that there is an antithetical kind of parallel between verse 1 and verse 5, where the righteous or the blessed man does not stand in the path of sinners, but the wicked do not stand in the judgment, and there's sort of an antithetical contrast there. It's a different word. In verse 1—you remember a couple weeks ago I said this—in verse 1, it describes taking your stand with, identifying with. I'm taking my stand, I'm planting my flag. These are my people. This is the path of the wicked, and I'm going to stand here in it. That's the idea of verse 1. Here, the idea is rising up or raising oneself up. The wicked will not rise up in the judgment.
And it's not a reference, I don't think, to resurrection there, because Scripture teaches that the wicked will be resurrected to face judgment. But I think that it is here describing the action of one who—imagine standing in the courtroom of God, and you're sitting on a chair, and the court is called into session. Or actually, let's just take this out of the divine courtroom for just a second. Imagine you're standing in an earthly courtroom, and you're standing before the judge, and the verdict is about ready to be pronounced, and the evidence has been brought forward, and you know that you're guilty. Everybody knows that you're guilty. And the bailiff steps in and says, “All rise.” And the wicked man, the accused man, stands up to receive his judgment. It's that idea. The wicked will not stand up in the judgment. That is to say, when he stands before God, he will not rise up to give a defense for the accusations against him. He will not rise up to speak his case. There will be no case to speak. The accusations will be read, he will be judged according to the things that are written in the books, and it will be guilty, it will be obviously guilty, and there will be no defense. There will be no defense attorney. There will be no pleading the case. No excuses. No explanations. No “Have You considered this? If only You knew this. Lord, if You knew my circumstances, if You only knew the environment I was raised in.” There will be none of that. The wicked will not stand up to give a defense at all in the judgment. He will not rise up to stand before God because he will not be able to endure it.
Psalm 5:5 says, “The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes.” That's the idea. “You hate all who do iniquity.” That's Psalm 5:5. Psalm 130:3: “If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?” Right? If the Lord were to count off your iniquities, who could stand before Him? Who could rise up and receive that sentence, get that information, see that justice handed down? Nobody could. Psalm 1:4 says, “The wicked are not so, but they are like chaff which the wind drives away.” That's the idea. They're not going to stand. They're not going to persist. They're not going to last. Instead, they are going to be blown away by the wind.
The second phrase in verse 5, “nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous,” is a parallelism. There are some who stand in the judgment. That is the righteous whose iniquities God does not count against them. And there are some—and they are gathered together at the end. And then there are some which do not stand in that judgment, and that is the wicked. Verse 4 says they are the chaff that is driven away while the wheat remains of the harvest. Remember the agricultural simile that we looked at last week when you tossed the threshed grain up into the air and the wind swipes away everything that is useless to be burned and judged and then the grain falls to the ground and is kept and is useful. That's the idea of verses 3–4. The chaff are driven away and the wheat remains. So there is a gathering in here. That's the language that's used. There's a gathering in of the righteous, the wheat. Meanwhile, the wicked will not stand. Instead, they are blown off in judgment when the wheat remains.
I think this is described by Jesus in Matthew 25 when He says,
31 When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.
32 All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another [like wheat from chaff], as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats;
33 and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.
34 Then the King will say to those on His right, “Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
41 Then He will also say to those on His left, “Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.” (Matt. 25:31–34, 41 NASB)
So where do the righteous assemble? Notice verse 5 mentions an assembly of the righteous. What is that describing? Again, some commentaries say that that is describing some sort of a temporal assembly, like today when all of the righteous gather together and we rejoice and we worship and we fellowship and we gather together, as if this suggests that when the righteous get together, there will be no wicked among them. That's not true. There are wicked who gather amongst us on any given Sunday. Unbelievers who still live in rebellion to the Lord, who have never trusted in Christ, they are able to come here and gather with us. I think again that this is describing the end state. The assembly of the righteous would be the eternal state, the kingdom, the new creation, however you want to describe that. When there is only the righteous there and the wicked are no more, that is what is being described.
Revelation 21:25–27 describes the heavenly Jerusalem this way:
25 In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed;
26 and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it;
27 and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life. (NASB)
That is the assembly of the righteous. On that final judgment, there will be no wicked there. Only the righteous will stand in the presence of that holy and righteous God to receive that reward.
This means then that the triumph of the wicked is short-lived. It seems long in this life, doesn't it? I mean, when you live in a perpetual four-year-long election cycle, and that is our life, it just seems like the triumph of the wicked is everlasting and eternal. Our souls are vexed with ungodliness and wickedness of the fallen world around us. The ungodly surround the righteous, the ungodly outnumber the righteous, and the ungodly are stronger than the righteous in this world. That is the reality and nature of the culture and the time in which we live.
But listen to what James Hamilton says in his commentary on Psalm 1. He says this: “The wicked may seem wise in the eyes of the world, sinners may stand strong in their ways, and scoffers may sit in what seemed to be established seats, but they will not rise in the judgment. The judgment will go against them.” In a moment, the tables will be flipped, and everything will change. The wicked outnumber the righteous now, but there will come a time when the wicked will be no more and the righteous will stand. The wicked are stronger than the righteous now. But there will come a time in an instant when that is changed and the righteous will rule and reign in that kingdom which the King has prepared for them, and the wicked will be no more. It seems now as if the righteous are surrounded by the wicked, and we are, but there will come a time when it will only be the righteous that stand. Everything will be switched in an instant. The triumph of the wicked is short-lived. They will not stand, they cannot prosper, and they will lose everything.
This is a sobering reality, and it should strike fear into the hearts of all of the wicked because the wicked who live in rebellion and in their sin are like blind and deaf men marching toward an abyss that overhangs the wrath of God, and they are marching there unconcerned, unaware, and undeterred, and they have no idea what awaits them. And this psalm is giving a sober warning to the wicked and a precious promise to the righteous. And there will come a time when the righteous will never be plagued by the wicked again. There's chaff among the wheat in this life. Hypocrites, pretenders, goats, apostates insinuate themselves among the righteous in nearly every congregation. They sit among us, they walk among us, they pretend to be of us, but the judgment will reveal the truth on that day.
Matthew Henry says this:
They shall not stand in the judgment, that is, they shall be found guilty, shall hang down their head with shame and confusion, and all their pleas and excuses will be overruled as frivolous. There is a judgment to come in which every man's present character and work, though ever so artfully concealed and disguised, shall be truly and perfectly discovered and appear in their own colors, and accordingly, every man's future state will be by an irreversible sentence determined for eternity.
You can put on airs, appear righteous, look righteous, pretend to be righteous, but there is coming a day when every man's true colors will be seen and the wicked will be blown away like the chaff.
Because the Lord remembers the righteous, the righteous will stand when the wicked are removed. Second, because the Lord remembers the righteous, the blessed man will be remembered when the wicked are forgotten. This is verse 6: “The Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.” This is the reason given for this. The Lord knows the way of the righteous, so the way of the wicked will perish. This is a promise, it is a warning, but what does it mean that the Lord knows the way of the righteous? That is a significant phrase. I said it is the key to these last two verses. It is the reason that the wicked perish, that they are removed, and that they are taken away.
Remember a few weeks ago when I did the introduction to the Psalms? I told you there are a number of different ways that parallelisms are used in Hebrew, the different kinds of parallelism between phrases in Hebrew poetry. This is an opportunity for you to see a couple of them. You'll notice that there are two different kinds of parallelisms used in verses 5–6. In verse 5, we have what is called a synonymous parallelism. That is to say that the first phrase of verse 5 and the second phrase of verse 5 are basically saying the same thing. The wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor will sinners—parallel with the wicked—stand in the assembly of the righteous. OK, it's saying the same thing in a parallel fashion, kind of making the same point, the second one with a little bit of an antithetical element to it, but basically it's restating it.
There's a different kind of parallelism that's used in verse 6. In verse 6, we have what's called an antithetical parallelism. Not a contradictory parallelism, but an antithetical one, meaning that the first statement of verse 6 is paralleled by the second statement, but the second statement states something that is antithetical or kind of a mirror image of the first statement. So you'll notice in verse 6—and it's not a contradiction by the way. It's an antithesis. It’s stating the opposite thing, not a contradictory thing but an opposite thing. So verse 6 says, “The Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.” So you'll notice there's the contrast between the way of the righteous and the way of the wicked. And the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. So these are opposite things, the way of the righteous and the way of the wicked.
Likewise, the knowing the way of the righteous and the perishing of the way of the wicked are antithetical to each other. They're antithetical to each other. So therefore, whatever it means to be known by the Lord and have Him know your way is the opposite of what it means to perish. You catch that? So it doesn't just simply mean that the Lord observes the way of the righteous and He is aware of it like I'm aware of you sitting here. The Lord can know certain things. And when we say that the Lord does not know in this sense the way of the wicked, we don't mean that He is ignorant of their devices or their schemes or their activities, He's not observing it, He's unaware, if you ask Him about what the wicked are doing—“Hey, what's going on in Washington, DC today?”—the Lord would say, “I don't know. I don't know the way of the wicked,” so He'd be ignorant of that. That's not how the word know is used in this sense. It's used in the sense of being opposite of perishing, which is the saving and the preserving and the keeping. The Lord knows intimately with loving, caring concern and compassion the way that the righteous man takes, the blessed man takes. The way that the wicked man takes is going to perish. It is going to be no more, whereas the steps of the righteous man are established and will be preserved.
This kind of knowing is an intimate knowledge that is a living and caring and concerned knowledge. It's a knowledge that bears a relationship to the object of its knowing. In other words, this is Scripture's way of saying the Lord is lovingly, intimately acquainted with every footstep of the blessed man. He is not, in that sense, with the path that the wicked take and the wicked who are on it. He does not preserve them. He does not care for them. To go back to the agricultural simile of verse 4 where I talked about the tree that is planted, it is chosen, its location is chosen, the time at which it is planted is chosen. He cares for it. He digs the hole. He nurtures it, feeds it, waters it, tends it, prunes it, guards it, and protects it so that it will bear fruit, and He watches over the fruitfulness of it. That's the imagery of verse 4 in the psalm. This is the opposite of that. When we say that the way of the wicked will perish, we are saying God is not planting them in the sense of establishing them and caring for them and feeding them and nurturing them and intimately acquainted with their ways so as to produce fruitfulness and blessing and prospering in their lives. That is not what the Lord is doing with the wicked. So this knowing is a saving knowing, like when Jesus says to the wicked in Matthew 7, “I never knew you; depart from Me” (v. 23). I do not know you. This knowing is a saving knowing.
Jesus said in John 10, “I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me” (v. 14). When we speak of us knowing the Shepherd and the Shepherd knowing us, when we describe the Shepherd knowing us, we are talking about a saving, keeping, preserving, intimate, compassionate, caring knowing. It is a knowing that is lovingly inclined to the object of that knowledge. And the purpose of that is because the Lord watches over for good the course of the blessed man. “In whatever he does, he prospers” (Ps. 1:3). In whatever he does, he prospers. God watches out for his way to make it so that everything that He has ordained for the steps of the righteous will result in the righteous man's good, his prospering, his ultimate good, his salvation, his keeping, his preservation, his fruitfulness, his usefulness, his ultimate and eternal blessing. That is what God is after. Not our temporal happiness and our temporal ease but our eternal good and our eternal prosperity and blessing. That is what is in view.
Matthew Henry said this:
God must have all the glory for the prosperity and happiness of the righteous. They are blessed because the Lord knows them. He chose them into it, inclined them to choose it, leads and guides them in it, and orders all their steps. Therefore the ungodly perish because the very way in which they have chosen and resolved to walk leads directly to destruction. It naturally tends toward ruin and therefore must necessarily end in it.
So the wicked pursue a way that God must oppose. They are swayed by a counsel that God will overturn, they stand in a path that God must judge, and they sit in a seat that God will destroy. And because the wicked do that, they set themselves up for judgment. They are there destined to be judged because that is where they sit, that is where they stand, that is where they walk, and God is opposed to that way. And therefore He has pledged that He will destroy that way.
Proverbs 15:9–10: “The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but He loves one who pursues righteousness. Grievous punishment is for him who forsakes the way; he who hates reproof will die.” So the way of the sinner, though pleasant now, is going to perish in the end. Their joys are temporary, their pleasures are passing, their triumphs are all illusory, and in the end it will all vanish and it will all disappear.
And notice in verse 6 what it is that perishes. “The way of the wicked will perish.” Not just the wicked, but the way of the wicked will perish. That is an interesting way to phrase it. The way will perish, and this is another indication that what we're talking about here is the final and eternal assessment or judgment. The trail that they walk, the path itself, the course, the activities, their thinking, their way of life, their behavior, the rut that they channeled out for themselves through this life, that itself will disappear. Not just will the wicked be blown away, but the very path that they walked will perish. The very path that they trod will disappear and be no more.
Now, we live in a creation here where the path of evil exists and people gladly choose it. But there is coming a new creation where the path of evil will not even exist. There will be no counsel of the wicked to walk in because there will be no wicked to give counsel. And there will be no such thing as wicked counsel. There will be no such thing as foolishness. There will be no such thing as scoffers or sinners or a path of sin to stand and identify with. This is describing the new creation. Their way will perish because God does not care for it. He is not intimately concerned with establishing it and loving it and tending it and establishing the footsteps of the wicked. Like footsteps placed in sand out on the beach when the tide is out, a couple of waves of God's wrath and that path will disappear and be no more. That is the eternal state. In the new creation, there will be no one to walk in the counsel of the wicked and there will be no wicked to give counsel. There will be no path for sinners to take, and there will be no opportunity to take a sinful path. And there will be no sinners who will be inclined to take a sinful path. There will only be righteousness. There will only be holiness, for the very trail of the wicked will perish, and it will be no more. And it will be forgotten.
And therefore, learn this lesson. This should sober us if we ever consider to walk in their way. Do not walk in it. The path of the wicked is ripe for destruction. It is destined to perish. God is opposed to the proud. He gives grace to the humble. He is opposed to the wicked, and He is establishing the footsteps of the righteous. “There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Prov. 14:12).
So here we have presented two courses of life, two ways to walk, two counsels to walk in, two instructions that we can take, the way of wisdom and the way of folly, the way of the blessed man and the way of the wicked, the counsel of Yahweh and the counsel of wicked men. Those are our two options. And so the psalmist would call you to set your mind on a course of action and to consider the outcome of your steps, knowing, young person, old person, that when you set upon this path in life, you are making choices that have eternal consequences, eternal gain or eternal reward. We have before us two paths. One of them is the path to the gathering in which results in eternal blessing, eternal joy, eternal reward where the righteous are gathered, they are assembled together. And the other one is the path that God has promised to judge. It will be no more and it will be scattered. And those who are scattered off that path will themselves suffer eternal loss and eternal damnation. Those are the two paths. The stakes are eternal.
So the ultimate vindication then for the blessed man is not in this world. And that is a lesson to draw from this psalm. Your ultimate vindication, blessed man, blessed woman, is not in this world. In this world, again, the wicked outnumber the righteous, the wicked surround the righteous, and the wicked are stronger than the righteous. That is the way the table is set in this fallen creation. That is the way it will be until that table is overturned and the wicked and the way of the wicked perishes. They seem strong now, but our vindication is not in this world. And once you fix your eyes on that, that your reward is in the world that is to come and your vindication is not on this earth but in the earth, the new creation, to come, that will motivate you to obedience and holiness and righteousness and to pursue the type of path that the blessed man pursues, meditating on the law of the Lord day and night and walking in obedience and holiness.
The path of the wicked appears strong, established, profitable, enjoyable, and easy in this life. They're loved and adored, they're highly regarded, they're given positions of power, prominence, influence, education. They sit in the seat of scoffers, but that seat is very near to the gate of Hell. And eventually the gates of Hell will open up and swallow up every scoffer and his seat, every path and the wicked who stand on it, and every counsel and the wicked who walk in it. It appears in this life as if their counsel is good counsel, but ultimately they're going to be the objects of eternal shame. They will be remembered for their folly and all their ways will be forgotten and erased. And it'll be no more.
I'm looking forward to the day not only when I don't have to battle indwelling sin, but when I don't even have to be aware that there is a battle for indwelling sin. When that doesn't even pop into my mind. When the thought of failure, the thought of compromise, the thought of sinning against my God does not even come into my mind and I don't even have to try and be on guard against it because the path is gone, the opportunity to do that is no more, the chances of that ever happening can never happen to us. I'm looking forward to that day.
The blessed man will be established in his righteousness, his way will not be forgotten, and though it seems to be ignored in this world, it will be honored in the next. That is the blessed man's hope. That is why we seek to be the ones who walk not according to the counsel of the ungodly, stand in the path of sinners, or sit in the seat of scoffers but instead delight in the counsel of Yahweh and receive His instruction and obey His instruction and delight in His instruction so that we will be like trees planted by the rivers of water. It brings forth its fruit in its season, its leaf does not perish, and whatever we do, it will prosper. And we remember that the wicked are not so. They will be blown away like the chaff. Therefore, the wicked will not stand with the righteous. They will not stand before the judgment. They will not be gathered in with the righteous and the end of the age. Because the Lord is opposed to the way of the wicked, it will perish, but He knows your footsteps, blessed man. He knows them, every last one of them, and He has appointed them for your good and for your joy and for your eternal and ultimate glory. Rest in that, trust in that, find confidence and consolation in that.
Before we pray, I'm just going to close with one passage of Scripture. I've kind of been looking for a place to throw this in. So three sermons on Psalm 1, kind of get to the end. I think I haven't used this yet. I don't want to not use it because we're going on to Psalm 2 next. So I want you to listen to how this passage from Jeremiah 17 mirrors what we have been reading and studying in Psalm 1. Jeremiah 17, beginning at verse 5. Jeremiah says, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength, and whose heart turns away from the Lord.’” That's walking in the counsel of the wicked, standing in the path of sinners, sitting in the seat of the scoffers.
6 For he [that is, that man whose heart turns away from the Lord] will be like a bush in the desert and will not see when prosperity comes, but will live in stony wastes in the wilderness, a land of salt without inhabitant.
7 Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose trust is the Lord.
8 For he will be like a tree planted by the water, that extends its roots by a stream and will not fear when the heat comes; but its leaves will be green, and it will not be anxious in a year of drought nor cease to yield fruit. (Jer. 17:6–8 NASB)
That's the promise.