Happy is the one whom God has justified

"Happy is the one whom God has justified" – (Psalm 1:1-2) To whom God justifies and the perfection and greatness of the blessings he will enjoy (H.C. 5).

I. Blessed is the man who did not walk in the "council of the wicked."

A. Such a man follows prudent advice.

1. The happy man walks in the commandments of the Lord his God.

2. For him, the paths of piety are paths of peace and happiness.

3. His footsteps are commanded by the Word of God and not by the cunning and deceit of the carnal man.

4. It is a sure sign of inner grace that the way we walk has changed, and that "ungodliness is removed from our actions."

5. This man, one among a thousand who lives for the fulfillment of the end for which God has created him.

6. Nor was he in the way of sinners.

7. The sinner has a particular way or way of transgressing; one is drunk, the other is dishonest or in bad faith, and the other is impure.

8. There are some who indulge in all kinds of vices.

9. There are many misers who hate drunkenness and many drunkards who abhor greed, and so on with respect to other things.

10. Each one has his dominant sin. Therefore, as the prophet says, "Let the wicked forsake his way" (Isaiah 55:7).

11. Now blessed is he who does not walk in such a way.

12. Not even in the chair of scoffers has he sat down.

13. Let others mock sin, eternity, hell, heaven, and the eternal God. This man knows a better philosophy than the infidels and has "too clear a sense of God's presence" to allow His name to be blasphemed.

14. When men live in sin, they go from bad to worse.

15. At first, they walk merely in the counsel of the careless and ungodly who don’t care for God.

16. Evil is rather of a practical nature (action, ceasing to have a passive role to pass or do something that is habitual). Habitual (usual, customary, normal, frequent, common), but after this, evil dwells and they walk in the way of shameless sinners who willfully break God's commandments.

17. If left alone, they go one step ahead and become deplorable teachers and tempters (detestable, abhorrent, disgusting or disastrous) with respect to others and thus sit in the seats of scoffers (proud, fierce, only you will pay for it).

18. They have graduated in vice (of whatever it may be) and as true doctors of damnation they have been granted the title, and the others consider them as teachers in Belial.

19. But the blessed man, the man who possesses all the blessings of God, cannot have contact with personages of this kind.

20. He keeps himself pure and free from these lepers; apart from his wickedness as "garments stained by the flesh." He comes out from among the wicked and goes outside the camp, bearing the reproach (criticism, admonition) of Christ.

21. Oh, if we could have grace to keep ourselves thus separate from sinners!

22. (2) But in the law of Jehovah.

23. Jehovah's law is the daily plan of the true believer.

24. And yet, on David's day, how small was the amount of inspiration because there was hardly anything but the first five books of Moses!

25. How much more, for we should praise all the written Word that we have the privilege of possessing in our homes!

26. But alas! What poor treatment we give to this Angel from heaven.

27. (Acts 17:10-11) We are not like the Berean searchers regarding Scripture.

28. How few there are among us who can claim the blessing of this text! C.H.S.

29. The will here alluded to is the delight of the heart and the certain pleasure in the law, which does not look to what the law promises or to what it threatens, but only to this; that the law is holy, just, and good.

30. Hence, it is not only love of the law, but it is a loving delight in the law, which neither prosperity, nor adversity, nor the world, nor the prince of the world can take away or destroy because the way is victoriously opened in the midst of poverty, bad reputation, the cross, death and hell and in the midst of adversity is when it shines most (Luther).

31. And on His law meditate day and night.

32. In this very simple verse, there is a whole world of holiness and spirituality. In prayer and dependence on God we sit and study Him, we will be able to contemplate much more than meets the eye.

33. (1 Kings 18:41-46) It is possible that when we read or look, we see little or nothing; Elijah's servant went to look once and saw nothing; so he was commanded to go and look seven times.

34. "What do you see now?" the prophet asks.

35. "I see a cloud rising like the palm of my hand," and before long, the entire surface of the heavens was covered with clouds.

36. You may also glance lightly over a passage and see nothing; meditate on it frequently; soon you will see light, like sunlight (Joseph Caryl). Amen