Psalms 1

The banner of God's love shall be eternally displayed; the joys of heaven are without intermission and expiration (1 Thessalonians 4:17): And so shall we be ever with the Lord. Use. As it is sad news to the wicked, they shall not stand in judgment (Psalm 1:5) — they shall come t…

Quest. 6. Wherein lies the dignity of such as have God for their Father? Resp. They have greater honor than is conferred on the princes of the earth; They are precious in God's esteem; (Isaiah 43:4) Since you were precious in my eyes, you have been honorable; the wicked are dros…

In like manner, their faith may be covered, as the Sun with a dusky cloud in a gloomy day: or as the trees are with snow sometimes in winter; but yet it continueth firmly fixed (though now and then eclipsed) in the sphere of the heart, and keepeth sap in the root. For the righte…

Moreover the word "know" when it is given to God speaking of the creature, does very often signify to embrace or approve. Psalm 1:6: the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked shall perish. Matthew 7:23: depart from me you workers of iniquity, I never kne…

And Ishmael is accounted a persecutor, by the Holy Ghost, for mocking Isaac, Galatians chapter 4, verse 29. And David reckoning up the degrees of sinners, makes the chair of the scornful, the third and highest, Psalm 1:1. All these places show the heinousness of this sin: and th…

He had delight in Jacob's daughter, (Psalm 147:10). So [⟨ in non-Latin alphabet ⟩] the noun is, delight, (Psalm 1:2). The LXX render it generally by [⟨ in non-Latin alphabet ⟩], and [⟨ in non-Latin alphabet ⟩], to will, as also the noun by [⟨ in non-Latin alphabet ⟩].

And the remnants of the old bondage under Satan must be grievous and irksome to us, and we must bewail them bitterly. The Jews in a bodily captivity, wept when they remembered Zion (Psalm 1:27). How much more should we weep, when we feel the law of our members rebelling against…

How else will you look God in the face at the day of judgment? The ungodly shall not stand in judgment (Psalm 1:5) — that is, so as to be able to plead their cause, and lift up the head, though they shall rise again and receive their sentence; therefore ill rendered by the vulga…

But as has been said, he requires that we be teachable, and he will not have us to be hardened in our sluggishness and dullness. As it is said in Psalm 1: He meditates in his law day and night. The second kind of implicit faith is in regard of apprehension: when a man cannot say…

Let Hezekiah turn himself which way he will, the Lord went with him. It is promised (Psalm 1:3), He that delights in the Law of the Lord, whatever he does shall prosper, and the same thing is noted concerning other reforming Kings, as King Uzziah (2 Chronicles 26:5): As long as…

To this I answer; that this will not hinder them, but they shall be done the better, as oiling of the wheels makes them go the better. In (Psalm 1:2) he is said to be blessed, that does meditate in the Law of God day and night. Your knowledge being brought to action helps you mu…

Moreover, that the remedy was not prepared for the serpent — which both Targums plainly affirm — the same apostle teaches, ch. 2:16, "For surely it is not angels that He helps, but He helps the offspring of Abraham." So also in the Midrash Tehillim, on Ps. 1: "All things shall b…

His works are given, not to worship them, which is forbidden (Deuteronomy 4:12), but to see and behold, and praise in them his wisdom, goodness, power, etc. (Psalms 67:13; 104:1; 107:42; 64:10, 11). His word he has given, that we should read and meditate in the same day and nigh…

Third, in urging this doctrine more hardly upon the people, to cause them not to rest on the letter of the law, but seek to the promised Messiah, in whom only was their righteousness — as young heirs and minors are kept under tutors while their minority expires. But, first, who…

2. God does nothing in the election of Peter, more than of Judas; nor can grace and mercy have place in the choosing of the one, rather than the other; but as free will is foreseen to play the game ill, or well, so go the eternal decrees of election and reprobation, and there ca…

Fifthly, the Word also meditated upon, when a man has heard it, and searched it, and believed it, read and conferred about it, or say none of these for the present, but whether these have gone before or no, for the present the very meditation of God's Word, which a man now takes…

Do you meditate on it, digest it as the seed of the new life, as the rule of your actions, as the charter of your hopes? A good man is described to be one that delights in the law of the Lord, and meditates therein day and night (Psalm 1:2) and again (Psalm 119:97) Oh how I love…

Answer: It is a common rule in Scripture, that words signifying knowledge, signify also the motions and good affections of the heart. (Psalm 1): The Lord knows the way of the righteous, that is, knows, and approves it. (2 Timothy 2:19): The Lord knows who are his, that is, he kn…

By peace, we are to understand outward peace, as prosperity, and good success in all things we go about. For whatever they do, shall prosper (Psalm 1:3). And peace with the creatures; as first with the good Angels (Colossians 1:20), who are ministering spirits, sent forth to min…

An high Look, and a proud Heart, are Sin. Psalm 1[•]. [••]. Thou [〈◊〉] bring [〈…〉]

What God has declared of the mind of the Spirit in one place, with what in like manner he has manifested in another. God to try our obedience, and to exercise our diligence, to a study in his Word day and night (Psalm 1:2), and our continual meditation thereon (1 Timothy 4:15),…

[〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉] Chata in kal is to sin, to offend, to err from the way, to contract the guilt of sin. Hence [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉], Chataim, are men given up to, and wandering in the ways of sin (Psalm 1:1). In Pihel it has a contrary signification; namely, to p…

She is not like a city without walls, exposed to every assault and temptation, but has a hedge of divine protection, which is as a wall of fire about her to defend her; and also a guard of watchfulness and holy fear, in the exercise of which the believer has rule over his own sp…

Thus it fell out with David, whose last ways were not like his first; and yet by this, these holy fruits are not utterly destroyed, because it is the seed of God; and so is immortal (1 John 5:4-5). And also because the promises of perseverance and victory made to it, cannot be f…

It has been set down as an axiom of good experience, that all things religiously taken in hand, are prosperously ended (Psalm 1:3); because whether men in the end have that which religion did allow them to desire, or that which it teaches them contentedly to suffer, they are, in…

1. In the day of Judgment. In some sense all must stand before him then; that is, all shall be cited to make their personal appearance before God, and receive their doom; but by standing then, we are to understand their being acquitted and accepted, and acknowledged by him as hi…

1. The influences by which the Lord gives a circumcised (Deut. 30:6), an one and single (Ezek. 11:19, 20), a soft and a new heart and spirit (Ezek. 36:26; Zech. 12:10; Isa. 54:13; John 6:45; Isa. 44:1, 2, 3) — these are simply necessary. 2. These influences are also fundamental,…

Why, God taught Jacob how to enlarge his wages, and so transferred Laban's substance to him. So (Psalm 1), last. The meaning is, the Lord knows the way of the righteous, and therefore it does prosper, and shall. And he knows the way of the wicked, and therefore they shall perish.

To be planted in the house of the Lord, is to be fixed and rooted in the grace communicated by the ordinances of divine worship. Unless we are planted in the house of the Lord, we cannot flourish in his Courts: see Psalm 1:3. Unless we are partakers of the grace administered in…

It is not without good reason that among the many words with which St. Peter exhorted his new converts, this only is recorded, save yourselves from this untoward generation (Acts 2:40). Those that listen to the counsel of the ungodly, and stand in the way of sinners, as willing…

And as these Counsels prosper in their hearts, so will your Business thrive in you hands. Piety and Prosperity are married together in that Promise, Psalm 1:3. Onesimus was never so profitable a Servant to Philemon, as when he became his Brother in a Spiritual, as well as his Se…

But this foreknowledge here is peculiar to the elect. Verba sensus in sacra scriptura connotant affectus, as the Rabbins remark, so in man (Psalm 66), if I see iniquity, and in God (Psalm 1; Amos 3:2), and in that speech of our Saviour, relating it as the terrible doom of reprob…

Desire the sincere milk] Not only hear it because it is your custom, but desire it because it is your food, and it is 1. A natural desire, as the infants of milk, not upon any external respect or inducement, but from an inward principle and bent of nature, and because natural, t…

But as the Lord does thus equally see both, so, as his eye and countenance imports his mind concerning them, and towards them, the manner of beholding them is different, indeed contrary. And from the other beholding in common, knowing their ways, arises this different beholding,…

Now they are scattered up and down, as God has service for them to do; one here, another there; they are spread in several places, where they are like two or three berries in the uppermost top of the bough. That Psalm is generally acknowledged to be spoken of the day of judgment…

Dross is the filth of the Mettal. Sinners are compar'd to Chaff, Psalm 1:4. When a Wicked man dies, there is only a little Chaff blown away.

The best way therefore is to bind our slvs [〈◊〉], as [〈◊〉] privte prayer, so to reading, for it is a part of the [•…]rifice, this is evint in David that did edee[•…][〈◊〉][〈◊〉] his appointed food, he had rather miss his meat thn this Word, he had rather keep a constant course in…

If they be animated and quickened from God's command, for the higher measure of holiness for glorious ends, without a warrant from the Word, is the more sordid superstition: Christ healed the leper, when he charged him with anger to tell no man, he, (no question for a good end)…

David calls the statutes of God the men of his counsel. Young men that are taken with other books, if they neglect the word of God, that book that should do the cure upon the heart and mind, they are with all their knowledge miserable (Psalm 1:2). His delight is in the law of th…

Delight causes meditation, and meditation increases delight. Psalm 1:2: But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law does he meditate day and night. A man that delights in the law of God, will exercise his mind therein.

Not to know it only, but to feel the power of it prevailing over his lusts, that was his delight as to the better part of his soul. So it is made a general character of the blessed man (Psalm 1:2): that he delights in the law of God, and in that law does he exercise himself day…

As it is written in the Scriptures, so it is their constant exercise to read it, and consult with it often. (Psalm 1:2) But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law does he meditate day and night. And (Joshua 1:8) This book of the law shall not depart out of your mo…

Where there is an inner man, a frame of grace in the heart, that will bring delight. See the character of a blessed man (Psalm 1:2). His delight is in the Law of the Lord. Quite contrary to the hypocrite, he may act from compulsions and urgings of conscience, from legal bondage:…

Doctrine. A gracious heart does love and delight in the commandments of God. The godly are described by it: hence David makes it the character of a blessed man (Psalm 1:2): His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in that law does he meditate day and night. And Psalm 112:1: Bl…

4. Meditation is necessary to show our love: I will lift up my hands also to your commandments, which I have loved, and I will meditate in your statutes. (Psalm 1:2) His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law does he meditate day and night. (Psalm 119:47) And I will d…

The earth is the fruitful mother of all herbs and plants; but yet it must be tilled, ploughed, harrowed, and dressed, or else it brings forth little fruit. The Scripture contains all the grounds of hope, comfort, and happiness, the only remedy of sin and misery, our rule to walk…

Delight begets meditation, and meditation begets delight. There is a [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉] in moral as well as natural things (Psalm 1:2). His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law does he meditate day and night.

And many of them that sleep in the dust shall arise, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. But now the godly are bold and confident (Psalm 1:5). The ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

All the moral sentences of Seneca and Plutarch do not come with such force upon the conscience as one saying of God's Word. God's language has a special energy, here must be your study, and your delight (Psalm 1:2): His delight is in the Law of the Lord; and in his Law does he m…

Do not be so irreligious as to go into temptation, when you have been so religious as to pray to God not to lead you into temptation; this is mock-prayer; keep out of harm's way (Proverbs 4:14-15). Enter not (put not a foot) into the way of the wicked; if you have been so foolis…