Blessed Is the Man

Transcript

Hello, my friend… so glad you're with me today. This is By God's Call — day 160, Blessed Is the Man.

"Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers." Psalm 1:1.

This is the opening line of the very first psalm. After Job, after so much suffering, after so many questions without a full answer, the book of Psalms opens with this word: blessed. And I want you to pay attention to it, because it isn't the cheap happiness the world sells. It isn't a feeling that comes and goes with your day. It is the description of a life aligned with how God designed things to work. It is solid ground. A deep, settled state — not a passing emotion.

And notice how the psalm describes this blessed person: not by what he does first, but by what he refuses. He does not walk in the counsel of the wicked. Does not stand in the way of sinners. Does not sit in the seat of scoffers. Before the psalm says anything positive about this man, it has already revealed his character through the doors he keeps closed.

And look at the progression of the verbs — this is brilliant and unsettling at the same time. Walk. Stand. Sit. Nobody wakes up one day and decides to live like the wicked. It never happens all at once. It starts slowly: you walk a little closer to the wrong counsel, just listening, just considering. Then you stand — no longer a passing visit, but a steadier presence on that road. And finally, you sit down. You settle in. What was once distant influence has become the place where you actually live.

This happens with the content we consume, with the friendships we cultivate, with the voices we let speak louder than God's Word in our lives. And the progression is subtle — no one notices the exact moment they moved from "walking near" to "sitting inside."

But the psalm doesn't stop here — and it's worth remembering that the verses that follow describe what this person does: he delights in the law of the LORD, meditates on it day and night, and becomes like a tree planted by streams of water, yielding its fruit in its season. But before we get to that fruitful tree, the psalm insists: first comes the refusal. First comes the "no." Blessing begins with choices of rejection before it blossoms into choices of devotion.

So, my friend, I want to ask you something today, very directly: what counsel have you been listening to lately? What company have you been cultivating? What seat — literal or digital — have you been sitting in, without noticing you've already settled there? Sometimes it isn't a bad person — it's content that mocks what is sacred, a pattern of conversation that normalizes what God calls sin, a voice that, little by little, gained too much room.

Today, name that voice. Be honest about it. And take one concrete step to walk away from it — today, not tomorrow. Not because you are better than anyone else, but because you want to be the tree planted by the water, not the dry leaf the wind carries off.

Stay close to God. Pray — then act. I'll see you tomorrow, my friend.