6 Because the Lord sees the way of the upright, but the end of the sinner is destruction.
The Lord is good, a strong place in the day of trouble; and he has knowledge of those who take him for their safe cover.
But God's strong base is unchanging, having this sign, The Lord has knowledge of those who are his: and, Let everyone by whom the name of the Lord is named be turned away from evil.
The days of the upright are numbered by the Lord, and their heritage will be for ever. They will not be shamed in the evil time, and in the days when all are in need of food they will have enough. But the wrongdoers will come to destruction, and the haters of the Lord will be like the fat of lambs, they will be burned up; they will go up in smoke, and never again be seen. The sinner takes money and does not give it back; but the upright man has mercy, and gives to others. Those who have his blessing will have the earth for their heritage; but those who are cursed by him will be cut off. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he takes delight in his way. Even if he has a fall he will not be without help: for the hand of the Lord is supporting him.
The Lord takes care of those who are in a strange land; he gives help to the widow and to the child who has no father; but he sends destruction on the way of sinners.
<To the chief music-maker. A Psalm. Of David.> O Lord, you have knowledge of me, searching out all my secrets. You have knowledge when I am seated and when I get up, you see my thoughts from far away.
You have given their towns to destruction; the memory of them has gone; they have become waste for ever.
But these men, like beasts without reason, whose natural use is to be taken and put to death, crying out against things of which they have no knowledge, will undergo that same destruction which they are designing for others;
For he has knowledge of the way I take; after I have been tested I will come out like gold.
When my spirit is overcome, your eyes are on my goings; nets have been secretly placed in the way in which I go.
There is a way which seems straight before a man, but its end is the ways of death.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 1
Commentary on Psalms 1 Matthew Henry Commentary
An Exposition, With Practical Observations, of
The Book of Psalms
Psalm 1
This is a psalm of instruction concerning good and evil, setting before us life and death, the blessing and the curse, that we may take the right way which leads to happiness and avoid that which will certainly end in our misery and ruin. The different character and condition of godly people and wicked people, those that serve God and those that serve him not, is here plainly stated in a few words; so that every man, if he will be faithful to himself, may here see his own face and then read his own doom. That division of the children of men into saints and sinners, righteous and unrighteous, the children of God and the children of the wicked one, as it is ancient, ever since the struggle began between sin and grace, the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, so it is lasting, and will survive all other divisions and subdivisions of men into high and low, rich and poor, bond and free; for by this men's everlasting state will be determined, and the distinction will last as long as heaven and hell. This psalm shows us,
Whoever collected the psalms of David (probably it was Ezra) with good reason put this psalm first, as a preface to the rest, because it is absolutely necessary to the acceptance of our devotions that we be righteous before God (for it is only the prayer of the upright that is his delight), and therefore that we be right in our notions of blessedness and in our choice of the way that leads to it. Those are not fit to put up good prayers who do not walk in good ways.
Psa 1:1-3
The psalmist begins with the character and condition of a godly man, that those may first take the comfort of that to whom it belongs. Here is,
In singing these verses, being duly affected with the malignant and dangerous nature of sin, the transcendent excellencies of the divine law, and the power and efficacy of God's grace, from which our fruit is found, we must teach and admonish ourselves, and one another, to watch against sin and all approaches towards it, to converse much with the word of God, and abound in the fruit of righteousness; and, in praying over them, we must seek to God for his grace both to fortify us against every evil word and work and to furnish us for every good word and work.
Psa 1:4-6
Here is,
In singing these verses, and praying over them, let us possess ourselves with a holy dread of the wicked man's portion, and deprecate it with a firm and lively expectation of the judgment to come, and stir up ourselves to prepare for it, and with a holy care to approve ourselves to God in every thing, entreating his favour with our whole hearts.