A contrast.
This psalm is introductory to all the rest, perhaps written after the finding of the "book of the Law" in Josiah's time, in an age of revival, when men were roused to consider the conflict between good and evil, and who were the truly Messed, and on what their blessedness was grounded. There is a contrast drawn in it between the righteous and the wicked.
I. THE CHARACTER AND PRIVILEGES OF THE RIGHTEOUS.
1. They have no sympathetic relations with the wicked. (Psalms 1:1.) They cannot help having some associations with them; but they do not walk with them, nor stand with them, nor sit with them, as they do with congenial friends. This description suggests the progress of the wicked. Walking only with a man we may soon part from him; but if we stand with him we linger in his company, and at last come to sit with him, scorning all goodness.
2. Irresistibly attracted to the Divine Law. (Psalms 1:2.) He is "in" it with all his affection and with his unceasing thought, rather than the Law is "in" him. Though both are true, i.e; it solicits, commands, and absorbs him, and rules the world of thought, affection, and imagination.
3. They are fruitful according to the time and circumstances of their lives. (Vet. 3.) In youth, mature manhood, and ripe age. Patient in affliction, constant in trial, grateful in prosperity, and zealous when opportunity of work offers itself.
4. Unfading freshness of heart and experience (Psalms 1:3.) His life is progressive, his faith grows deeper, and his power of achievement increase, and his hope becomes brighter, and his affections purer, and he blossoms with a green freshness for ever.
5. He prospers in hi, undertakings. (Psalms 1:3.) As a general rule, because he deserves it; for he aims at only right and lawful things, and employs only right and lawful means.
II. CHARACTER AND DESTINY OF THE WICKED.
1. Intrinsic wothlessness. (Psalms 1:4.) Dead, unserviceable, without substance, and easily carried away"—dispersed by the wind. This is only s negative description, as a contrast with the living tree and its fruit. It says nothing of such a man's poisonous influence.
2. Unable to endure the scrutiny of the great Lawgiver. (Psalms 1:5.) One inquiring glance of God shatters the whole structure of his life. God does not "know" his way. "I never knew you."
3. Their relation to the Church only an outward one. (Psalms 1:5.) Though they mingle with the congregation, they do not really "stand with them."
4. Their habits of life are destructive. (Psalms 1:6.) Their "way" is not the way everlasting, but leads to perdition, if it be not forsaken.—S.