The thesis of this psalm is the blessedness of the godly man in contrast with the certain doom of the sinner whenever the time may come for judgment to be executed. Blessedness is a preferable word to happiness, inasmuch as the former attributes to God who blesses, what the latter word, as used by man, assigns to fortune or chance. Still the word "blessed" is to be understood as meaning what is usually implied in the word "happy." The psalm is thus an answer to the almost universal inquiry of mankind after happiness. It shows us where true happiness—real blessedness—is to be alone found.
Happiness is a positive state of existence; but so truly is this world a vale of tears, that the idea of happiness most familiar to men's minds is a negative one, and views it as depending on the absence of pain, weariness, disappointment, sorrow. Scripture itself stoops to our weakness in this respect, and represents the future happiness of the saints as partly consisting in entire exemption from every kind of grief. "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat." "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." Again, "There shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."
But there are deeper and surer sources of unhappiness than any of the afflictions thus enumerated; the sources, in fact, from which all these afflictions flow. But for sin, not one single sensation of bodily pain, nor one moment's mental anguish, would have been experienced by a single member of the human family. Not that present exemption from these effects can be secured by moral and spiritual deliverance from sin, which is the cause. The godly suffer as well as others, and in many respects more than others; but this prevents not their blessedness. It may and does hinder the perfection of it, but not its reality.
In this world of evil, a man without sin would be the greatest sufferer on the earth. Of this we need no other proof than "the Man of Sorrows who was acquainted with grief." But who doubts His blessedness? It is in Him indeed that we have the only perfect instance of the character here described.
In the description here given of the godly man, his character is viewed first negatively and then positively. The first verse shows him exempt from those deeper sources of unhappiness from which afflictions have really sprung, while the second reveals the positive secret of his blessedness. As for the first, it is not, Blessed is the man that feels no pain, sheds no tears, suffers no loss or disappointment. No! "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful."
We have here a double climax: first, as to the characters named; second, as to the attitudes described. The ungodly—sinners—the scornful. Walking—standing—sitting. The ungodly are the least culpable in this climax of evil. Their fault is negative. They know not, love not, fear not God. He is not in all their thoughts. They do not wish to remember Him, or to know His will, or obey His commandments. "Without God in the world" is the solemn portraiture of their state. Such people have their counsel—their habits of thought—their grounds of judgment—their principles of conduct. In all these God has no place; they are ungodly. Blessed is the man that heeds not their counsel, that follows it not. It includes all the maxims of the decent, reputable, but ungodly part of society—persons free from gross vices but with whom self is the master spring, the main object. Even with their freedom from gross vices, this is the case. They would not for their own credit frequent a low tavern; but neither would they, and for the same reason, attend a cottage prayer meeting. It is respectable to go to church or to a well-cushioned, fashionable chapel, and they go there; but it is equally respectable to attend the theater or concert, and as it is even more agreeable it is more willingly practiced.
For these and a hundred other habits and deeds, such maxims are pleaded as, We must do as others do; What good is there in being singular? We must act comfortably to our station; This or that is expected of us; What harm is there in it? These are but a small specimen of that which is here termed "the counsel of the ungodly." Sinners add to the ungodliness of the former class, positive ways of evil, wicked habits and pursuits. These differ according to constitution, early education or the lack of it, and a number of influences besides. Every one has turned "to his own way." One may be a way of violence, another of fraud, and another of intemperance. Blessed is the man who equally abstains from all—who does not stand "in the way of sinners."
"The seat of the scornful" is occupied by the one who has so hardened himself against God as to mock at sin, deride the piety of others, and make a jest of sacred things. Then, as to the second climax, to be in movement, walking, clearly affords more hope of being turned in a right direction than where evil has been deliberately chosen and a person stands in the way of sinners. But to be seated, and that in the scorner's chair—to be at ease—where God, and Christ, and heaven are only named to point a joke or raise a laugh—this is beyond a doubt the crowning attainment of such as call evil good, and good evil. Yet not only from this final maturity of shameless vice, but from all the steps which lead on to it, the subject of the psalm abstains. In the scorner's chair he declines to sit; in the way of sinners he will not stand; in the counsel of the ungodly he refuses to walk.
Where then does he find the positive secret of his happiness? The psalm informs us, "His delight is in the law of the LORD; and in His law doth he meditate day and night." Man must have a positive object or he cannot be satisfied. He is possessed of an understanding and of affections for which employment must be found. On the nature of this employment, more than on anything else, does man's happiness depend. Let the understanding be either unoccupied or ill occupied; let the thoughts rove at random or be fixed on subjects corrupt in themselves and debasing in their tendencies; let the affections cling to objects in themselves unsatisfying, and which separate from God; or let the affections, directed toward proper objects, be destitute, of those objects; how in any case that has been supposed, can the soul be happy? And if the soul be unhappy, mere bodily ease and accommodation serve but as a mockery of its woe.
On the other hand, let the thoughts be rightly directed and diligently employed, let the affections be in habitual exercise on their proper suited objects, and circumstances are of little power to hinder happiness in such a case. Such occupation for both the understanding and the affections, is found in the Word of God, here called the "law" of the Lord. We must not restrict the expression to the ten words spoken on Sinai, or even to the whole law given by Moses. It is used of the entire revelation which God at that time had vouchsafed to man; and as it was in and to the nation of Israel that this revelation had been given, the name of God here used is that of His covenant relation with Israel—Jehovah.
"His delight is in the law of Jehovah." What a number of thoughts is suggested by this statement. We have the idea of authority, for it is a law that is in question, however extended the signification and use of the word. But it is an authority cheerfully acknowledged. His delight is in the law, and how evident it is that the Lord Himself—Jehovah—must be both known and loved for the heart to find its delight in His law, His Word. For us, of course, divine revelation is now much more extended; it comprises the revelation of God in the Person and work of Christ, already come. God has thus made Himself known in a much more personal way than in Old Testament times, so that while the authority of the Word is no less absolute, the affections find a personal object to rest upon, much more distinctly manifested, and love takes the place of law. I speak now of the terms by which the whole revelation as known by us may be designated, and of the difference between these and the one here used—"The law of the LORD." But even in the psalmist's day, how easy the yoke of a law in which his delight was found! His delight was in it. Surely there is no less for us to delight in now that God is fully revealed, and revealed as "love."