This is the word I want to highlight today from Psalm 1. If you have been meditating on this psalm this week, hopefully you have noticed this key word. The Hebrew word translated “blessed” here has an exclamatory tone. “Oh, how happy, how blissful!…” is the idea. Ah, true happiness! What does the Psalm tell us about true happiness?
“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.” Psalm 1:1

The negative viewpoint is noted first in the psalm. Hear this loudly and clearly: true happiness will not come from forsaking God and His ways! It will not come from a life steered by selfish desires, and the justifications for sin that the counsel of the ungodly promotes. We have to be repeatedly reminded of this because we are subtly deceived into thinking that living outside of God’s ways is somehow more satisfying than walking in close communion with Him.

The warning’s seriousness is highlighted by the poetry of the psalm that notes the downward progression of sin. First, the man is walking in ungodly counsel. Then, he is more stationary, standing in the way of sinners. Finally, he is totally established, sitting in the seat of the scornful. The appetite of sin is not content to have just a little of your heart and mind. It wants to grab and take, grab and take!

Beloved brothers and sisters, don’t let up in the combat against sin in your life. Part of this is seeing sin for the poison that it really is. Confess and forsake sin, run to Christ for cleansing, pursue godliness…today, tomorrow, and the next day. Again and again. As the pattern of your life.

It is the paradox of the Christian life to have to talk in such serious tones about the blissful, happy life. But, it is reality. The most joyful, prosperous souls in Christ have found that true satisfaction is found in Christ, not in the way of sin. Ask the Lord for grace to see the truth of Psalm 1 clearly in your life and for grace to experience more deeply the truly happy life in Christ.