From the “Treasury of David-Psalm One” by Charles Spurgeon
Charles Spurgeon commentary on Psalm One. The following quotes come from Spurgeon’s, “Treasury of David” volume one. The two or three-volume set is available here or wherever you purchase your biblical resources.
“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night.”
“Blessed”: See how this Book of Psalms opens with a benediction, even as did the famous Sermon of our Lord upon the Mount! The word translated as “blessed” is a very expressive one. The original word is plural, and it is a controverted matter whether it is an adjective or a substantive. Hence we may learn the multiplicity of the blessings which shall rest upon the man whom God hath justified and the perfection and greatness of the blessedness he shall enjoy. We might rest it, “Oh, the blessednesses!” and we may well regard it (as Ainsworth does) as a joyful acclamation of the gracious man’s felicity. May the like benediction rest on us!
Charles Spurgeon continues…
Here the gracious man is described both negatively (verse 1) and positively (verse 2). He is a man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly. He takes wiser counsel and walks in the commandments of the Lord his God. To him, the ways of piety are paths of peace and pleasantness. His footsteps are ordered by the Word of God, and not by the cunning and wicked devices of carnal men. It is a rich sign of inward grace when the outward walk is changed, and when ungodliness is put far from our actions. Note next, “he standeth not in the way of sinners.”
His company is of a choicer sort than it was. Although a sinner himself, he is now a blood-washed sinner, quickened by the Holy Spirit, and renewed in heart. Standing by the rich grace of God in the congregation of the righteous, he dares not herd with the multitude that do evil. Again it is said, “nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.” He finds no rest in the atheist’s scoffings. Let others make a mock of sin, of eternity, of hell and heaven, and of the Eternal God. This man has learned better philosophy than that of the infidel and has too much sense of God’s presence to endure to hear his name blasphemed. The seat of the scorner may be very lofty, but it is very near to the gate of Hall. Let us flee from it, for it shall soon be empty, and destruction shall swallow up the man who sits therein. Mark the gradation in the first verse.
He walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor standeth in the way of sinners.
Nor sitteth in the seat of scornful.
Devotional insights from Charles Spurgeon
https://thewritelife.tech/2017/10/07/godly-man-walks-the-ways-of-god-ungodly-do-not-follow/
Let me know what you think.