June 29

1 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. 2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. 3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

4 The ungodly are not so; but are like the craft which the wind droeth away. 5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. 6 For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous; but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

"This Psalm carries blessedness in the frontispiece; it begins where we all hope to end: it may well be called a Christian's Guide, for it discovers the quicksands where the wicked sink down in perdition, and the firm ground on which the saints tread to glory."—Thomas Watson's Saints' Spiritual Delight.

"Where the word blessed is hung out as a sign, we may be sure that we shall find a godly man within."—Sir Richard Baker.

This Psalm naturally divides itself into three parts:

1. The righteous man happy in his disposition. Verses 1 and 2.—He is a man who "walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly." To him the ways of piety are paths of peace and pleasantness. "Nor standeth in the way of sinners." His company is of a choicer sort than it was. "Nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful." He finds no rest in the atheist's scoffings. "His delight is in the law of the Lord." "He is not under the law as a curse and condemnation, but he is in it, and he delights to be in it as his rule of life; he delights, moreover, to meditate in it, to read it by day, and think upon it by night"—C. H. Spurgeon.

2. The righteous man happy in his course of life. Verses 3 and 4.—A healthy tree is always "extending its roots, increasing its woody fibres, circulating its nutritive juices, putting forth fruit-buds, blossoms, leaves, or fruit; and all these operations go on, in a healthy tree, in their proper seasons. So the godly man; he is ever taking deeper root, growing stronger in the grace he has already received, increasing in heavenly desires, and, under the continual influence of the Divine Spirit, forming those purposes from which much fruit to the glory and praise of God shall be produced." —Adam Clarke.

3. The righteous man happy in his end. Verses 5 and 6.—"The righteous carves his name upon the rock, but the wicked writes his remembrance in the sand."—C. H. Spurgeon.

Closet Promise.—And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.—Psalm i. 2, 3.

The wind that blows can never kill The tree God plants; It bloweth east, it bloweth west; The tender leaves have little rest, But any wind that blows is best.

The tree God plants Strikes deeper root, grows higher still, Spreads wider boughs, for God's good-will Meets all its wants —Lillie E. Barr.