Focal Passage: Psalm 1:1-6
God’s way (vv. 1-3). The Bible from Genesis to Revelation emphasizes the importance of our decisions and how both our earthly and eternal existence is affected by them. There are consequences to our choices and we see this from early on in Scripture. The very first command in the Bible is in Genesis 2:17 when God told Adam and Eve to not eat of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We know that the first couple disobeyed that command, their appetite for autonomy led to their expulsion from Eden and their descendants have followed their example ever since. The first sin resulted from rejecting God’s Word and listening to the devil’s lie.
We know that a person can stand firm on God’s Word, or fall hard by ignoring it. The Psalmist is known only to God but what he teaches is true from the Garden of Eden until the end of time, that those who respond in obedience to the choices God has given them have never regretted it while those who have made unwise decisions have suffered terrible consequences. God’s way is always the right way; and those who choose obedience to God and ignore the world’s temporary pleasures find themselves triumphant in the end. Believers may begin as an acorn but they will end as an oak; Christians may start as seedlings with little promise but by God’s grace become sequoias that can withstand the strongest winds and most intense storms.
The other way (vv. 4-5). Many in our society like to use the phrase “everything is relative” in relation to ethics. Much of society has taken the famous Einstein quote meant only for physics, and made it a motto for morality. Many in the world see God as a cosmic Santa Clause who gives us what we want and chuckles at our sins. Even our churches have fallen prey to this way of thinking. Reinhold Niebuhr once said in response to liberal thinking in our churches that our modern society wanted, “a God without wrath who brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.”
The ungodly have always wanted their way instead of God’s, only to regret it. Oscar Wilde said, “There’s one thing worse than not getting what you want, and that is getting it.” I’ve known many in my life who wanted the world when young, only now to find that as a result of ungodly decisions, they end up prematurely worn and wrinkled from a life of immorality, intoxicants and ungodliness. That is for those still living; many are already in the grave.
The two choices (v. 6). I know two elderly men who both retired at 62 years old. One went into the ministry and the other went on the mission field. They are now in their 90s, and continue to serve the Lord faithfully. Compare their wonderful testimonies with two other people I have read about in history. One is Jesse James, the famous outlaw whose father was not only a preacher, but helped found a Baptist college. Jesse chose the wrong way to live and on April 3, 1882 he was gunned down from behind while straightening a picture on the wall. He was 34 years old.
Another example of someone who chose the wrong way was the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Despite the fact that both his father and grandfather were ministers, Nietzsche violently opposed the idea of God and even made the famous quote, “God is dead.” However, God is still alive while Nietzsche is dead after suffering the last 11 years of his life in a mental institution, completely out of his mind.
Our present choices determine our future character; choose wisely.
— Davis is pastor of Lake Road Baptist Church, Union City.
