AP

Psalm 1:1-2  Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.  But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.

The Bible only recognises two kinds of people: those who remain in the spiritual state into which they were born as descendants of Adam, and those who, by God’s gracious work in their hearts, have been ‘born again’ into a ‘living hope’ in a restored relationship with their Maker through the work of Jesus the Messianic Saviour (1 Peter 1:3-5).

The New Testament makes it clear that Jesus is the Second Adam (1 Corinthians 15:47-49), and that we are either ‘in Christ’ or we remain in our ‘natural’ state, ‘in Adam’ (1 Corinthians 15:22).  Although the psalmist didn’t know the details of how Christ’s death and resurrection achieved all this, he did know that God had a plan to do this.  This is shown by the fact that Psalm 2 looks forward to the coming of an Anointed One (ie ‘Messiah’ from Hebrew = ‘Christ’ from Greek) who would rule over all things for ever, and that the closing statement in Psalm 2: “Blessed are all who take refuge in him”, links Psalm 2 closely and essentially to Psalm 1 that opens with the words: “Blessed is the man who …”.

So, what does the psalmist tell us about the man (or woman) who has been ‘born again’ and is now ‘in Christ’?  His/Her life, and every aspect of it, is now centred on and directed by God’s written Word.  He/She loves it. He/She delights in it so much that he/she struggles to put it down.  Day and night, that is constantly and continually, his/her thoughts and actions are inspired by and tested by God’s revealed truth.  He/She knows that if he/she ever even hints at moving away from this position he/she could easily end up back in the other camp and under God’s Judgement (cf Hebrews 6:4-6).

He/She knows how subtle Satan’s sneaky, step-by-dangerous-step schemes can be:
Step 1 – start keeping close company and sharing ideas with someone on the other side (‘walk in the counsel of the wicked’);
Step 2 – become so caught up with this other way of reasoning, this other way of viewing the world, that it is worth stopping to listen and consider all the advantages of a more ‘mature’ approach that is not necessarily over-influenced by the restrictions of God’s law (‘stand in the way of sinners’);
Step 3 – start to feel comfortable in this new-found ‘freedom’ of ‘break[ing] [the LORD and his Anointed One’s] chains’ and ‘throw[ing] off their fetters’ (2:2-3) that he/she settles down into this way of thinking and living (‘sit in the seat of mockers’).

This last step is a strong statement, but to think that we are above God’s Word, and to fashion for ourselves a worldview that ignores any part of its truth, is equivalent to ‘mocking’ God.  What place does the whole Bible have in our daily schedule and the formulation of our ideas and plans?
– Peter Barnes