Psalms 1:1 I. The blessed man is described in this verse by negatives. We are told what he does not do. It so happens that we cannot understand some of the very highest things in life except they are put to us in precisely this way. There are more ways of saying "Thou shalt not" than there are of s... [ Continue Reading ]
Psalms 1:1 Psalms 150:6 I. We have here a twofold declaration of God's great purpose in all His self-revelation, and especially in the Gospel of His Son. Our first text may be translated as a joyful exclamation; our second is an invocation or a command. The one then expresses the purpose which God... [ Continue Reading ]
Psalms 1:1 In the figure of ver. 3 there are revealed three aspects of godly character. I. Its variety. The comparison is with a fruit-tree, not of any particular kind, but one of that large class of trees. The variety which God stamps upon nature He means to have reproduced in character. II. Its... [ Continue Reading ]
Psalms 1 Ver. 1. There are cases in which without a figure "ignorance is bliss." Observe that all the characters mentioned here may have their excellences and their attractions; for example, the ungodly may be rich, the sinners may be convivial, the scornful may be brilliant: yet blessed is the man... [ Continue Reading ]
Psalms 1:3 The spiritual plant of God is placed by the running waters; it is nourished and recruited by the never-failing, the perpetual, the daily and hourly, supply of their wholesome influences. It grows up gradually, silently, without observation; and in proportion as it rises aloft, so do its r... [ Continue Reading ]
Psalms 1:4 I. Let us, first, find out who are the characters intended in our text. An ungodly man is simply a man who tries to get through the world without God. All he has to do to earn the title is to leave God out of his love. (1) A man may be most moral and yet most ungodly. For one that is dra... [ Continue Reading ]
Psalms 1:4 "The ungodly are _not_so." That "not" contains the germs of all moral disaster. We have set forth under this figure three aspects of the ungodly character. I. Its instability. Take a life away from God, and you take from it unity of impulse. Passion, pride, selfishness, drive it hither... [ Continue Reading ]