Word of Encouragement (12/8/2020)
“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night” (Ps. 1:1-2).
Yesterday, we talked about how the Bible defines a blessed, happy life: according to Ps. 1:1-2, it is defined in terms of righteousness and wickedness. Today, let’s look further into what these verses say about the blessed, happy man.
Interestingly, the description of the blessed man is first given in negative terms (i.e., what the blessed man should not do): he does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers. We think of happiness usually in positive terms as doing and having whatever we want. That may be true of other animals but not of man. As God’s image-bearers, we are moral creatures. While we have many physical needs (because we are, after all, made of the dust of the ground), merely meeting those needs does not make us happy (because God breathed into us the breath of life and made us living souls). We have this thing called “conscience,” which approves or accuses our actions according to our innate sense of morality and social norms and mores, which imperfectly (and at times wrongly) reflect God’s law. We all have experienced that a guilty conscience doesn’t allow true happiness, no matter how good we have it physically, materialistically, and socially.
Sin does not just afflict our conscience. Sin is destructive. It taints and perverts whatever is good. It robs us of whatever good God has bestowed on us. And it makes things worse and worse. Spurgeon noticed in the three negative descriptions in v. 3 a sort of progression (or, deterioration):
“When men are living in sin they go from bad to worse. At first they merely walk in the counsel of the careless and ungodly, who forget God—the evil is rather practical than habitual—but after that, they become habituated to evil, and they stand in the way of open sinners who wilfully violate God's commandments; and if let alone, they go one step further, and become themselves pestilent teachers and tempters of others, and thus they sit in the seat of the scornful.”
Sin is not just an act that happens just once and is done and over with. Sin is like leaven, like an infectious disease, like a cancer cell that spreads like a wildfire once it gets lodged in our soul, leaving a trail of destruction and devastation behind it. He who practices and harbors sin cannot expect to be truly happy and blessed. We have to keep in mind that it is not just all about our subjective feeling and experience. Unrepentant sinners are objectively under God’s wrath and displeasure.
But, of course, true happiness is not just negative. We don’t become truly happy and blessed simply by not doing certain things. It is immensely positive: “but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.” True happiness is not just about doing the right thing. It also consists of true delight. The difference between happiness and misery is not the presence or absence of delight; it is what we delight in—in sin or in the law of the LORD (which represents what is truly good as opposed to what is sinful and wicked). The best way to stop delighting in what is sinful is to dwell on what is good. (We will have more to say about this tomorrow.)
As you begin a new day, let us commit ourselves not to walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers. If you find yourself too weak to do that, go to God’s Word and dwell on it. Pray to the Lord to help you. Don’t fall into the temptation to think that those things don’t work. He, who promises to help you, is faithful. He will help you, not by getting rid of all your problems right away all at once (though that can happen with certain sins), but by helping you get better and better (as you go to Him day after day, moment by moment). Start your journey toward true blessedness today!