5 Therefore the wicked rise not in judgment, Nor sinners in the company of the righteous,
The boastful station not themselves before Thine eyes: Thou hast hated all working iniquity.
And ye have turned back and considered, Between the righteous and the wicked, Between the servant of God and him who is not His servant.
watch ye, then, in every season, praying that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that are about to come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.'
and gathered together before him shall be all the nations, and he shall separate them from one another, as the shepherd doth separate the sheep from the goats,
And Jehovah to the age abideth, He is preparing for judgment His throne. And He judgeth the world in righteousness, He judgeth the peoples in uprightness.
Jehovah hath been known, Judgment He hath done, By a work of his hands Hath the wicked been snared. Meditation. Selah.
so shall it be in the full end of the age, the messengers shall come forth and separate the evil out of the midst of the righteous,
to do judgment against all, and to convict all their impious ones, concerning all their works of impiety that they did impiously, and concerning all the stiff things that speak against Him did impious sinners.'
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.