Thankfully, Jesus did not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of scoffers. Instead, He delighted in, and meditated upon, the law of the Lord. He lived a life of perfect obedience and died a cursed death in our place. 

You and I make choices all day long—what we will eat, what we will wear, what we will seek to accomplish, who we will befriend, how we will serve our neighbor, and what route we will take home. Many of the choices we make our relatively insignificant. But there’s one choice we make that matters for all eternity. The book of psalms begins with this choice. Ever since the fall of humankind into sin there have been two roads from which a person must choose in life—the road of the righteous and the road of the rebellious.

The Road of the Righteous

Psalm 1 begins by telling us about the righteous:

“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers” (Ps. 1:1-3).

These verses remind us that true happiness is found only in the Lord. Think of a tree that is continually nourished by the plentiful waters of a stream, so that its fruit never fails and its leaves never languish. Likewise, the righteous man who is constantly nourished on the steadfast words of the Lord will not fail to bear good fruit and his source of strength will never shrivel.

But remaining on the righteous road is not easy. The wicked will tempt us to forsake God’s way in order to pursue the worldly ways. They beckon us to walk with them, and if we do, it isn’t long before we look for the next person, place, thing or idea that seems to satisfy our lust for comfort or control, power or prestige.

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