mg the way of the world is the one who is blessed. But the grade goes downhill even faster. When it comes to standing, in order to move from this position, many more muscles of the body must be employed. The word “stand” here describes the ob stinacy which becomes a part of his life. It means to be firm and fixed. As a matter of fact, the Latin word column or statue is derived from the original Hebrew term. It pictures for us that which is dead, having no movement or life at all. To be stand ing is to be fixed in a solid position. The third word is “sit.” Here is one who has now become utterly confirmed in disbelief. He has settled down to stay, or so he erroneously be lieves. How foolish is such a tem poral outlook! The next three words are counsel, way, and seat. Do you go to the peo ple of the world for counsel? This counsel may be practical and finan cially advantageous in its design, as far as the world is concerned. What we need to keep in mind is that the Bible says our counsel is not to come from the aspect of the world consid ering its ultimate goals. Our counsel is to come from the Lord. Our direc tion for life must be that which would be pleasing to Him. What about the way? The Bible says in Proverbs 16:25, “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” There was an old evangelist, Sam Jones, who said, “Show me the company you keep, and I’ll write your biography ten years before your death. And I’ll not miss the mark one time in ten!” It’s hard to stop once we allow ourselves to get on the devil’s toboggan slide. It swiftly moves down toward destruction. In this first verse of Psalm One three kinds of people—ungodly, sin ners, and scoffers — are listed. We mentioned that the ungodly are the ones who are not justified. From “un godly” we go to sinners. This is the 8
word chato which means simply to miss the mark, to pass over the pro hibited limits. Not only is the in dividual unjustified and does no good, but also he does evil. Then the last descriptive word is even further down the scale, latsah which means to mock or to deride. I’m greatly dis turbed by some of the things allowed on television today. Not only are there immorality and filthy sugges tiveness, but also now the things of God are treated lightly, flippantly, even blasphemously. Christianity is not just negative. There are some very positive things, too. It is not enough to say that you’ll have nothing to do with the ungodly, sinners, and scoffers. The very def inite aspect is given to us in verse two of Psalm 1. Here we find the testimony of this exemplary man, “His delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he medi tate day 9 nd night.” Isn’t it true that we long to be in the company of those whom we really enjoy? What is it that really brings us delight? But what kind of a person would ever delight in the law? I get up quite early in the morn ing, because it’s quiet and I’ve found it the best time to get some work accomplished. The other day quite early I was out in my study which is a converted garage, detached from our house. While I was working on some scripts for coming broadcasts, all of a sudden the chain link gate in our backyard closed. I was rather startled, because it was pitch dark. There were no lights in the yard, ex cept the yellow bug light on the back porch. I have a phone in my study, so I called my wife in the house to see what she was doing up at 5:00. Sleepily she answered, wondering what was going on. I asked, “Were you just outside?” She said, “No, why? Is something wrong?” I con tinued, “Do you suppose one of the children might have been sleepwalk ing?” She made a quick check and
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