Psalm 1 - Part IV

For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. Psalm One could be titled Life 101; we can’t live without water and we can’t live without God. There are two ways, one leads to eternal life and the other to eternal death. We can live in the way of the Word of God or we can live in the way of a world in rebellion against God – there is no neutral ground, there are no Switzerlands or Swedens.

As Psalms unfolds we learn that righteousness is found in God and not in ourselves; God is our refuge, our fortress, our salvation, our hope, our deliverer, our all in all – in and of ourselves we have no righteousness, the stark image of Isaiah comes to mind that our righteousness apart from God is like menstrual cloths, an explicitness that perhaps we need to be reminded of lest we become smug in religiosity.

Jesus is the Way which is why the LORD knows the way of the righteous, for those who are righteous have been made righteous through faith in Jesus Christ; the Father knows Jesus and therefore He knows those who are in Jesus. Paul writes (1Cor. 1:30) But by His [God’s] doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, Let him who boasts, boast in the LORD. And in 2Cor. 5:21 Paul also writes, He [God] made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Six verses constitute Psalm One, just a few words, but words packed with images of God and man, of time and eternity, of a beginning and an end in this life – and of a judgment to come. Two ways, one way is perishing while the other Way is eternal – God’s Way or man’s way – which will it be today?