Psalm 1

“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful.” Psalm 1:1 (NKJV)

As a young recording artist, I received some veteran advice from an older colleague: You never get a second chance to make a first impression. This artist communicated the reality that most first-time concertgoers form their opinions of your music before your first song ends. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that you immediately seize their attention, earn their trust, and establish your message within the first three minutes. No pressure, right? And musical “first impressions” are powerful in our culture. Most churchgoers will not download their pastor’s sermon and listen to it over and over the following week. However, they will go to a music streaming website and listen to worship music. That is why it is so important that the music we sing also communicates the correct theology. Martin Luther said, “Music is the handmaiden of theology,” but for some people, music is their primary source of reinforced theology, especially for young believers who have yet to form the habit of daily Bible study.

So, when it comes to “first impressions,” what is God communicating to His people within the first line of the first song in Israel’s hymnal? Seeking and living according to His Word is paramount for success in life! Notice how He describes a pattern of decline whenever people seek “ungodly” counsel. And what makes counsel ungodly? It simply denies God’s Word. The moment we replace God’s Word, the Bible, with some extra-Biblical source, we are replacing the pursuit of Godly blessing with Worldly goals. Ungodly counsel segregates God from certain areas of our lives where we feel He may hinder progress and sends us into a downward moral trajectory, where we go from seeking non-Biblical counsel to actually “standing” in the path of sinners and being more comfortable around non-believers than among Christians who seek God’s Word.

The longer we live not just among the ungodly but literally “becoming as” the ungodly, the more we become solidified in the world’s value system. Increasingly ungodly values spiral us even further down to the point where we become fully established, sitting in the “seat of the scornful.” This means that we have descended, Biblically, to the point where we are actually mocking and scorning Christians who believe the Bible and are striving to live according to it!

For those of us who have determined to seek God’s Counsel, we begin to spiral upward spiritually. We become more established in a faith that does not defer hope. Instead, God proves Himself faithful to our pursuance of Him.

“But his [the blessed man’s] delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law, he meditates day and night.”  He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.” Psalm 1:2-3 (See also Revelation 22:1-3) (NKJV)

“The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore, the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish.”  Psalm 1:4-6 (NKJV)