Whose Side are You On?
Whose side are you on?
That is the question Psalm one asks as it paints two
portraits: one is the picture of the wicked person, and the other is the
portrait or the wise man.
“Who is the blessed man of whom the psalmist speaks?” asked
Joseph Flacks. “This man never walked in the counsel of the wicked or stood in
the way of sinners or sat in the seat of mockers. He was an absolutely sinless
man.”
One Jewish man concluded, “The man of the first Psalm was
Jesus of Nazareth.” He was the only sinless perfect person who has ever walked
this earth. He knew no sin is the testimony of those who knew Him best.
Jesus Christ is the perfect man portrayed in the
opening verses of Psalm one. He is the only person who has ever
lived a perfect life as portrayed in this psalm. He is the “man” in Psalm one (1
Peter 2:21-25). Jesus Christ is the Righteous One who never experienced sin in
his personal life. He is the only perfect man who ever lived, and there is none
other like Him.
“How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of
the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners” (Psalm 1:1). Only such a person
can be supremely happy and fulfilled in this life. He has received a
multiplicity of blessings. Not only has he received an abundance of blessings,
but the fullness of the blessing that God gives.
No one has ever received the blessedness of these words of
the Father except Jesus. “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased”
(Matthew 3:17). It was the declaration by the heavenly Father of the perfection
of Jesus. It was divine approval of God’s perfect man. It is also an
identification of the personality of Jesus Christ as the Son of God.
“But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law
he meditates day and night” (Psalm 1:2).
Do you want the blessings of the Lord upon your life? This
is the way the Christian finds happiness and a sense of significance in life. We
are confronted with two choices: one choice is the way of the wicked, and the
other is God’s way.
The wicked are like chaff thrown up in the wind and blows
away leaving the seed to fall to the ground (v. 4). Literally, the psalmist
says, “Not so the wicked!” He does not delight in the law of the LORD God. He
does not meditate day and night on the Word of God. In the end when judgment day
comes, “the wicked will not stand” (v. 5). “The way of the wicked will perish”
(v. 6).
The person who has God’s blessing chooses between two
roads, and he takes “the one less traveled.” There is eternal ruin for the
person who takes the wrong road.
Jesus said to choose the right road. “Enter through the
narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to
destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the
road that leads to life and only a few find it” (Matthew 7:13-14, NIV).
The wise man chooses the right path. Jesus said, “I
am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me”
(John 14:6).
There are not many roads leading
to heaven. All religious paths do not take you to the same place. All except
Jesus Christ will take you to an eternal hell. “And there is salvation in no one
else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by
which we must be saved” (Act 4:12).
What will you do with Jesus
Christ? Which road will you travel? Choose Jesus Christ and the way of His
righteousness. “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of
yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should
boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Only Jesus Christ alone will save you. You are
powerless, dead in trespasses and sins. Jesus Christ is the only person who ever
lived the kind of life described in Psalm one, and He gave His life as a
substitute for you so that you could live His kind of life. Believe on Him and
you will choose the right path that leads to “the way of the righteous.”
Selah!
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
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