Psalm 1:1  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.
2  But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
3  And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
4  The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
5  Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
6  For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

Yesterday we noted that God tells us three things that the blessed man does not do. These are all important facts. Having made these facts known, God continued by telling us what the blessed man does engage in.
Verse 2 tells us that the blessed man delights in the law of the LORD. I heard a man say recently that he found reading God’s Word boring. That is a very revealing statement. A person who is saved does not find God’s Word boring. A saved person has the Holy Spirit indwelling them and He helps the reader to understand what he is reading. The person may not like what he is reading because he is guilty before God, but the saved person cannot find God’s Word boring. If he does not understand what he is reading, he can be assured that God has provided the means for him to understand what he is reading.
Jesus established the local church as the place for people to go and be taught the Word of God. There are other avenues for witnessing and study, but they all need to originate from within the true local church. Every true local church should be a Bible Institute. It is the place that God designed for His people to go and be taught the truth.
The Psalmist tells us here that the blessed man delights in the law of the LORD. The “law” refers to the Word of God. God’s Word is absolute. We have talked often of the many perversions on the market today. There are many. They do not make understanding God’s Word easier. They take away the authority of God’s Word.
The sodomite who wants to act spiritual will much rather read a perversion than the Word of God. The perversions will allow him to practice his wickedness and with his corrupt mind, he can even have a sense of relief as he studies from a perversion.
The adulterer would sooner read from a perversion than from the Word of God. He can justify his adultery by reading from a perversion that changes the words to support adultery.
Those who want to follow the perversions need to remember that God has warned that He will judge those who add to, or take away from His Word. If we are supposed to accept the idea that the perversions are equal to the Word of God, then what is the purpose of the warning that God gave of adding to and taking away from His Word. We have no idea where His Word is if the perversions are all God’s Word. They do not agree with each other.
The word translated as “delight” means “pleasure, or longing”. Reading the Bible is not intended to be like reading some empty fictional book. It is the Word of God. The pleasure that is received in reading God’s Word is the satisfaction of the soul in being instructed by God.
The Gospels record many times that the people followed after Jesus to hear what He had to say. The religious false teachers followed Him to find fault with Him. The common people heard Him gladly. They were tired of the failed teachings of the Pharisees. They could see the hypocrisy of these people. They could see that Jesus was authentic. The fruit of Jesus’ teaching would be much more evident in the early chapters of the book of Acts. Thousands were saved in those early chapters. They were moved by the Holy Ghost to see the truthfulness of God’s Word and they came to see that Jesus Christ was indeed the Messiah prophesied of in the Old Testament. Many were saved as they humbly turned to God in repentance and trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ alone for salvation.
In our text we see that the blessed man demonstrates his delight for the law of the LORD by meditating in His law day and night. He wants to be governed by that which has brought delight to his soul. He is not interested in speed reading. He is not concerned with how quickly he can get through the Word of God. He is concerned with being changed by the power of the Word of God.
He is well aware of the benefit of listening to what God has to say. The Word of God will also show him when he sins against God.

Psalm 119:9   Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.

Every saved person was once a lost person. Every saved person has wasted precious time in going his own way. However, when the person was saved, they came to see the blessing of God’s truth and they trusted Him for salvation and now they want to know Him better. They know the way of the ungodly is not good. They were there themselves at one point.
I heard on the news that the federal government has made a deal with the province of B.C. to decriminalize personal possession of “small amounts” of illicit drugs. This foolishness is supposed to come into effect next year. What a tragedy!! An ungodly government has no way of helping ungodly people deal with their ungodly acts. The prisons are getting too crowded with criminals and so they have to turn a blind eye to certain criminal activity. Those who will be allowed to use a certain amount of illicit drugs will find that they need more and it will continue to be a destructive behaviour that will lead to other crimes and deaths. There are already people claiming that this decision does not go far enough.
The federal government as well as the provincial governments have already stated publicly that they see no place for churches. They have demanded that churches obey them and only open when and if they say so. They have encouraged and demanded that law enforcement go after churches that do not follow the government’s wicked plans. Yet now, these same governments are going to turn a blind eye to the “casual” user of illicit drugs.
In the midst of this warped thinking, the blessed man delights in the law of the LORD and he meditates on that law day and night. He is truly blessed in doing that. He delights in it and is not going to allow the government to stop him from delighting in that which God has blessed him with.
Pastor Bartel