Some years ago Mr. Joseph Flacks was on a visit to Palestine. When he was in the city of Jerusalem he was given the opportunity of addressing quite a gathering of Jews and Arabs, all of whom were presumably unconverted.
For his subject Mr. Flacks took the first Psalm. Of course, he could repeat it to them in the Hebrew. He dwelt upon the tenses; "Blessed is the man who hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seat of the scornful."
He said to them: "Now, my brethren, who is this blessed man of whom the Psalmist speaks? Notice, this happy man is one who never walked in the counsel of the ungodly, he never stood in the way of sinners, he never sat in the seat of the scornful. He was an absolutely sinless man. Who is this blessed man?"
When no one answered, Joseph Flacks said, "Shall we say he is our great Father Abraham? Is it Father Abraham that the Psalmist is speaking of here?"
One old Jew said, "No, no; it cannot be Abraham, for he denied his wife, he told a lie about her."
"Ah," said Joseph Flacks, "it does not fit, does it? Abraham, although he was the father of the faithful, yet was a sinner who needed to be justified by faith. But, my brethren, this refers to somebody; WHO IS THIS MAN? Could it be our great lawgiver Moses?"
"No, no," they said, "it cannot be Moses. He killed a man and hid him in the sand." Another added, "And he lost his temper at the water of Meribah."
"Well," Joseph Flacks said, "my brethren, who is it? There is some man here that the Spirit of God is bringing before us. Could it be our great King David, the sweet psalmist of Israel, who wrote this psalm?"
"No, no," they cried, "it cannot be David.
He committed adultery and had Uriah slain."
"Well," he said, "who is it? To whom do these words refer?"
They were thoughtful and quiet for some little time. Then one Jew arose and said, "My brethren, I have a little book here. It is called the New Testament. I have been reading it. If I believed this book, if I could be sure that it is true, I would say that the man of the first Psalm was Jesus of Nazareth."
An old Jew got up and said, "My brethren, the man of the first Psalm is Jesus of Nazareth. He is the only one who ever went through this world and never walked in the counsels of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners."
Then the old man told how he had been brought to believe in Christ, and he took that occasion to confess openly his faith. He had been searching the Scriptures for a long time and had found out sometime before that Jesus was the One, but he had not had the courage to tell others. How happy he was now to bear testimony to the saving grace of the Holy One of God, "as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." (1 Peter 1:18, 1918Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: (1 Peter 1:18‑19).)
Jesus said: "Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father which is in heaven."