What Does It Mean to Be Blessed According to Psalm 1?

Psalm 1 reveals two kinds of people, the fruit of their lives, and their resulting destinies.

The Blessed Life Is Distinct

The person described in Psalm 1 is truly happy, content, and fulfilled, with a rewarding life of real joy in God’s favor. This blessed condition is a present experience as well as a future anticipation of what is to come forever. It is not material, financial, or earthly blessing. It is the deep spiritual blessing of God that makes His people happy, content, fulfilled, and rewarded regardless of their condition on earth.

The blessed person is first described not by what he does but by what he refuses to do. He does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of scoffers. The wicked advise and encourage one another in their rebellion against God, but the righteous discern between ungodly and godly wisdom. They do not identify themselves with sinners, pattern their lives after sinful ways, or join those who mock and openly defy God.

James 4:4: "You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." (See also Proverbs 4:14-18)

Unwise association with unbelievers can tempt us to be influenced by their advice, way of life, and mockery of God, even when that influence is unintentional. We can begin acting like the people around us simply because we continually hear, see, and watch them. We must be cautious and guard our hearts. This does not mean that we have no association with sinners; we must be in the world to influence people for Christ while remaining light, salt, and distinct.

Delighting in God’s Word

Psalm 1 describes not only what the righteous avoid, but also what they do: “His delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.” Instead of being influenced by the ungodly, the righteous delight in God’s Word and actively ponder it. They remind themselves of its truth and continue thinking about it as they live their lives day and night. They do not merely read the Word and check a box.

Meditating upon God’s Word is like chewing a piece of gum until every bit of flavor is gone. But the sweetness of the Word never goes away! We chew on the Word, take it in, and receive its flavor, nourishment, and goodness. The righteous love God’s Word because it is food for the soul that gives true life and spiritual nourishment (Matthew 4:4). For the believer, God’s Word is a joy rather than a burden (1 John 5:3).

We read it, study it, and constantly think about it so that we internalize it and live according to its principles in every season of life. God’s testimonies are our delight and counselors (Psalm 119:24). His Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path (Psalm 119:105), and His words are sweeter than honey (Psalm 119:103). What makes us happy shows what we value, because we pursue and think about what we love.

A Tree or Useless Chaff

The righteous person is like a tree planted beside streams of water. The blessed person who delights in God’s Word has been planted by God, because trees do not plant themselves. By His sovereign, choosing grace, God has planted believers beside the streams of His unending grace that never run dry. Rooted in Christ, they draw nourishment from the living water of His Spirit and the spiritual blessings of Christ.

Those who abide in Christ bear fruit. In every season of life, those planted by God in the grace of Christ display the fruit of the Spirit, display the life of Christ, produce appropriate, helpful, wise, and encouraging words and actions. Their spiritual life is not seasonal. As D. L. Moody said, “All the Lord’s trees are evergreen.”

The prosperity of Psalm 1 is not necessarily material prosperity. The prosperous life is one that rejects the ways of the ungodly, delights in God’s Word, and is devoted to righteousness. Even in what appears to be an unprosperous worldly situation, God brings spiritual blessing and prosperity to the souls of His people. This is true prosperity—the prosperity of the soul.

The wicked are not like the living, useful, stable, and rooted tree. They are like chaff that the wind drives away. Chaff is the dead and useless outer shell of grain that is easily scattered when the wheat is thrown into the air. The wicked may appear to enjoy worldly prosperity, but they possess no true prosperity and produce no fruit that matters eternally. Their way is vain, unstable, passing away, and rooted in nothing that will endure.

Two Ways and Two Destinies

Psalm 1 contrasts the eternal destinies of the righteous and the unrighteous. No matter how the lives of the wicked appear on earth, they will not stand in the final judgment of God. They will have no defense, their rebellion will have no justification, and they will not share the eternal joy of the congregation of the righteous. Like chaff, they will be blown away in God’s judgment.

Jesus described a wise man who heard His words and built his house upon the rock. When the rain, floods, and winds came, the house stood because it had been founded upon the rock. The person whose life is founded upon Christ and His Word will stand when the torrent of God’s judgment comes. The house built upon sand, however, will fall—and great will be its fall (Matthew 7:24-27).

The Lord knows the way of the righteous. This means far more than simple awareness; it is a knowing of personal relationship, care, love, provision, and protection. God has chosen the righteous in Christ, planted them in Christ, made them fruitful in Christ, and will preserve them in Christ. The way of the wicked, however, will perish because it is vain, fleeting, useless, and without eternal value.

Jesus Is the Ultimate Blessed Man

Psalm 1 shows us what God calls His people to be, but the ultimate blessed man of Psalm 1 is Jesus. Unlike anyone else who has ever lived, Jesus never walked in the counsel of the wicked, stood in the way of sinners, or sat in the seat of scoffers. He always delighted in God’s Word. He is sinless and fully righteous.

We have miserably failed in these ways. We have listened to ungodly counsel, followed sinful paths, and failed to delight in God’s law as we should. The judgment described for the wicked is what we deserve because of our sin. Yet God had a people He wanted to save, so He sent Jesus, the sinless and Ultimate Blessed Man of Psalm 1.

Jesus, fully and truly God, fully and truly man, hung upon the cross bearing the sins of His people. God poured upon Christ the wrath and judgment we deserve. The punishment, penalty, and price were fully paid in His death, and God raised Him from the dead. Those who turn from sin and place their faith in the work of Christ—not in their ability to live like the righteous person of Psalm 1—are forgiven and declared righteous.

We cannot live the way of Psalm 1 perfectly, and that is why we need Jesus. We do not become the blessed person in order to be saved. God saves us and plants us beside the streams of His grace in Christ so that, as people who are forgiven and declared righteous (2 Corinthians 5:21), we can walk in the blessed way. For those God saves, He calls and empowers by His Spirit to live like the Ultimate Blessed Man of Psalm 1, Jesus Christ. May we walk the narrow, blessed way of Christ for His glory (Matthew 7:13-14).

Questions for Reflection

• Does the blessed person described in Psalm 1 describe you?
• Are you being influenced by the advice, way of life, or mockery of the ungodly?
• Do you delight in God’s Word?
• What makes you happy, and what does that show about what you value?
• Are you reading, studying, and meditating upon God’s Word day and night?
• Are you trusting in your own ability to be righteous or in the completed work of Christ?
• Are you walking the narrow, blessed way that leads to life?