The Blessed Person - Part 2

Psalm 1:1 - "How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the parth of sinners, nor sit int he seat of scoffers."

In the first part of this series I discussed the fact that the first verse of Psalm 1 contains a series of three statements about a blessed person and how each of these three statements contain three individual elements. The first triad as I have called it was about how a blessed person will not walk in the counsel of the wicked.
Let’s now look at the second statement made about the blessed person.
The blessed person does not “… stand in the path of sinners.” Notice the progression that takes place from the first statement to this second statement. The first thing the blessed person did not do involved walking. Now he is not standing. The intent here is to let us know that when a person is not following this wisdom from God, and has first chosen to live their life according to the advice and counsel of those who are wicked, the next thing they do is stop moving. There is no longer any progress. They are not going anywhere. Now they are standing. They are considering their next step. When we are standing we are not at rest and we are not on a journey. We are caught between two states, each of which is better than the one we’re in. People cannot stand forever. They will either sit down or they will walk on.
To stand means that the person has now chosen to abide or live in a particular place. This word indicates they are not going to move on. They are going to put down roots and become entrenched in the lifestyle they have chosen. The second part of this triad is again the place where they are. This time it is a path. The word means a road, a course of life, mode of action or custom. So now, the person standing in the path is not just listening to advice and counsel from the wicked, they have now taken on a particular lifestyle. They are adopting customs and practices of the people they are standing among.
Finally we see that the path this person is standing in is the path of sinners. A sinner is a criminal, a person who has been tried and found guilty. They are an offender of the law. They habitually violate the laws of God. So, a person who has stopped and begun to stand in the path of sinners is one who has become one with the culture of sin. Sin is no longer foreign or something that they just happen to do once in awhile. Sin is now the custom of their life. They dwell in sin. They live in sin. Sin permeates every part of their life. No part of their life is free from sin.
Thus we see that a blessed person is the antithesis of this type of person. The blessed person is not comfortable with sin. The blessed person does not want to adopt the lifestyle of the sinner. They do not want to talk like a sinner. They do not want to watch what a sinner watches. They do not want to listen to what a sinner listens to. They do not respond to the events of life the way a sinner responds. The blessed person is completely different. Some will see the blessed person as odd, or strange. They will begin to notice that this person does not use foul language. This person does not lose their temper. This person does not watch movies or television shows that depict people participating in sinful, vile activities. The blessed person wants to fill their hearts and minds with good things.
We are beginning to notice that a person who will be blessed by God is quite a bit different from the average person today. Peter calls them “peculiar” people, because they perplex the mind of the sinner and the wicked. They are not easily understood, because they don’t involve themselves in activities that the rest of the world considers normal. A person blessed by God will most often not be a person who puts things like cigarette smoke or alcohol or illicit drugs into their body. They are not the type of person who is promiscuous or who indulges the fleshly lusts by looking at inappropriate material on the Internet. They don’t laugh anymore at crude and vulgar or perverted jokes. They don’t listen to gossip about other people. They are different and that difference gets noticed.
Being blessed by God does not happen by accident. It comes as the result of living a lifestyle which places you in the position where God’s blessing can fall on you. In the third article of this series we will look at the last of these three triads and discover where it all leads.