The Prize for the Blessed Man (Psalm 1:5-6) | Worship Service

Welcome to Kootenai Church this morning. We're glad you're here. As folks are coming in to find a seat, would you please scoot into the center? We're having a little bit of room issues today. If you don't mind, if there's an open seat next to you, we have plenty of people in the back to come on forward.

Would you please stand as we begin our service this morning? We're going to have a call to worship from Psalm 145. In verses one to eight, it says, "'I will exalt you, my God, O King, "'and I will bless your name forever and ever.'.

"'Every day I will bless you "'and I will praise your name forever and ever. "'Great is Yahweh and highly to be praised, "'and his greatness is unsearchable. "'One generation shall laud your works to another "'and shall declare your mighty deeds.

"'On the glorious splendor of your majesty "'and on the words of your wondrous deeds I will muse. "'Men shall speak of the strength of your fearsome acts, "'and I will recount your greatness. "'They shall pour forth the memory of your abundant goodness "'and will shout joyfully of your righteousness.

"'Yahweh is gracious and compassionate, "'slow to anger, and great in loving kindness.'". Let's sing together Psalm 145, how great.

I'll bless your name, O God, each day that I await From dawn to setting sun, your greatness I'll proclaim. Your glory far exceeds all human thought So with each breath I'll bless your name, O God.

My children yet to come As generations sing of wonders you have done You're strong and boundless and the love of wicked men You finally destroy. His hand is the law. Our brains are still when striving See further Just there By God Bursting forth Its grip on Just blood.

This is the power Jesus commands My destiny Omniscient all knowing He counts not their sum Thrown into a sea Without bottom or shore They are men Our sins They are men We constantly roam.

What father so tender Is calling us home. He welcomes the weakest The vilest The poor Our sins They are many His mercy is Praise the Lord Our sins Have fished on us His blood Was the payment His life Was the cost.

We could not Praise the Lord Our sins They are many.

You may be seated.

Before we get into the announcements, will you open your Bible to the book of Psalms, to Psalm 119? I'm going to be reading from that here in a moment. We're going to be reading beginning at verse 73.

And just a couple of announcements. First, today is the last day to sign up for the women's brunch, which is next weekend,.

I think.

So if you are wanting to attend that, ladies, then take advantage of the sign-up sheet that is on the table out in the foyer so they know how much food to prepare and how many people to expect. And then second, just a quick sort of programming note, I'm not going to be here for the next two Sundays.

So today we're finishing Psalm 1, and then I won't be here next weekend. We're going on a trip that our family's been planning for about a year. And then the weekend after that, I'm speaking at G3 regional conference in Oklahoma City.

So if you remember me, if you show up here and you're like, oh, Jim's not here, remember me just to pray for me, I would appreciate that because that is a, it's a huge thing.

For me.

And I'd be lying to you if I said I wasn't just waking up in the middle of the night in cold sweat over that. So I'll be gone the next two weeks. Gordy Hunt's preaching next week, I think continuing a series in Galatians, and then Dave Rich the following Sunday.

Psalm 119 is our text for reading this morning, beginning at verse 73. Your hands made me and fashioned me. Give me understanding that I may learn your commandments. May those who fear you see me and be glad because I wait for your word.

I know, O Lord, that your judgments are righteous and that in faithfulness you have afflicted.

Me.

O may your loving kindness comfort me according to your word to your servant. May your compassion come to me that I may live for your law is my delight. May the arrogant be ashamed for they subvert me with a lie, but I shall meditate on your.

Precepts.

May those who fear you turn to me, even those who know your testimonies. May my heart be blameless in your statutes so that I will not be ashamed. My soul languishes for your salvation. I wait for your word.

My eyes fail with longing for your word while I say, when will you comfort me? Though I have become like a wineskin in the smoke, I do not forget your statutes. How many are the days of your servant? When will you execute judgment on those who persecute me?

The arrogant have dug pits for me, men who are not in accord with your law. All your commandments are faithful. They have persecuted me with a lie. Help me. They almost destroyed me on earth, but as for me, I did not forsake your precepts.

Revive me according to your loving kindness so that I may keep the testimony of your mouth. Forever, oh Lord, your word is settled in heaven. Your faithfulness continues throughout all generations. You established the earth and it stands.

They stand this day according to your ordinances for all things are your servants. If your law had not been my delight, then I would have perished in my affliction. I will never forget your precepts for by them you have revived me.

I am yours. Save me for I have sought your precepts. The wicked wait for me to destroy me. I shall diligently consider your testimonies. I have seen a limit to all perfection. Your commandment is exceedingly broad.

Will you stand with me as we pray? Let's bow our heads. Our Father, forever your word is established in heaven. You have honored your word as your own name. Your testimonies and your statutes are true.

Your faithfulness is new every morning. You revive us according to your word. You sanctify us in your word. You teach us and instruct us in the way. And the heart of the righteous, the blessed man and woman is yours, and you bend it to do according to your will.

And we pray that you would make us to delight in your word this morning, that your word may be honey to us, sweeter than the honeycomb, that we would delight in your word and in your truth, that we would rejoice in your statutes and your commandments, and that we would delight ourselves in all of your precepts.

We pray that your word would accomplish in the hearts of your people all that you have determined to do for us for our eternal good, blessing, and prosperity for our temporal sanctification while we are here, and that you may accomplish the salvation of your people through your word as it is preached and as it is proclaimed, as you are honored through it.

We pray that you would fill our hearts with gratitude and affection for Christ, for what he has done in securing our salvation. We thank you that though our sins are many and though we deserve every affliction, that you have not counted our sins against us, but instead you have reckoned us righteous because of the work of your Son.

And so we stand in that grace and in that righteousness, and we are grateful for the work that you have done to secure our salvation and then to bring us to everlasting glory. We thank you that you have promised us a gracious and infinite reward for our faithfulness here and for all of our afflictions and for our sufferings that we endure by your grace and under your hand, and we pray that you would strengthen us to do so, to run our race well, and to do so for the glory of Christ, in whose name we pray.

Amen.

Let's sing together Psalm 99, God is king forever.

God is king forever. Let the nations tremble. The cherubim adore him. Persephone, Peltage, and Adonai.

In 1 Peter 1, verses 18 to 21, it says, Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your futile conduct inherited from your forefathers, but with a precious blood as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.

He was foreknown before the foundations of the world, but appeared in these last times for the sake of you, who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

Let's sing together the song, My Worth is Not in What I Own.

My worth is not in what I own, not in the strength of flesh and blood, but in the costly wounds of love. In skill or name, but in my soul, I will trust it. My soul is sad and alone. As summer flowers, we fade and die.

Fame, youth, and beauty, life eternal calls to love. I will not boast in wealth, wisdom, speed, in knowing Christ. Rejoice in my soul. I will trust in him, no other. My soul is satisfied in him alone.

Wonders here that I confess. My worth and my unworth. My value fixed. My ransom paid. Rejoice in my treasure. Wellspring of my soul. I will trust in him. My soul is sad and alone.

And now turn in your Bibles to Psalm 1.

Psalm 1.

And we're going to read together this whole psalm, all six verses before we pray.

Psalm 1.

How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night.

He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither, and whatever he does he prospers. The wicked are not so. They are like the chaff which the wind drives away.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

Let's pray together.

Our Father, we ask that as we meditate upon this psalm, this gateway to the Psalter, that our hearts and our minds may be not just informed by your truth, but that we would be conformed to the image of Christ by it.

We thank you that there is a blessed man who has never walked in the counsel of the wicked, nor stood to identify with sinners, nor sat in the seat of scoffers, but whose delight was always in the law of the Lord, and in that law he meditated day and night.

That is Christ. And our hope is in him, and as we reflect upon what your word promises, the prize for the righteous, and the perishing, the doom of the wicked, we pray that our hearts would be molded and shaped by this truth, that those who are here on the path that leads to perishing may be warned and take heed, and those whose delight is in your law, that we may be encouraged together by the prize, and the reward, and the promise that you have given to us.

So we pray for your blessing upon our study and your presence here with us by your Spirit, for the glory of Christ, in whose name we pray.

Amen.

It is the mark of wisdom literature to compare two separate paths, whereby wisdom is seen when the way of wisdom is contrasted with the way of foolishness. And that is a kind of comparison that not just marks wisdom literature, it is one of the distinguishing features of wisdom literature in the Scriptures.

And we see this throughout the book of Proverbs. In the book of Proverbs you have these pithy little concise statements where two things are contrast. I'm going to read to you five Proverbs, and I want you to listen for the contrast in each one of these.

You can see, and these are all together by the way, Proverbs 10, 1 through 5, and each of them contrasts different things in different ways. Proverbs 10, A wise son makes a father glad, but a foolish son is a grief to his mother.

Ill-gotten gains do not profit, but righteousness delivers from death. The Lord will not allow the righteous to hunger, but he will reject the craving of the wicked. Poor is he who works with a negligent hand, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.

He who gathers in summer is a son who acts wisely, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who acts shamefully. So you see there the different actions contrasted, the son, the activities of a son, a father and mother, ill-gotten gains as opposed to righteousness, the righteous and the wicked, the diligence and the lazy, the one who gathers, the one who cares little.

These are contrasted all the way throughout those Proverbs. Sometimes the contrast is between behaviors that are compared. Sometimes the contrast is between motives, where the motive of one action and the motive of another are compared.

Sometimes it is the moral quality that is compared, or sometimes it is the outcome. And wisdom literature in Scripture, whether we find it in the Psalms, Ecclesiastes or Proverbs, is intending and directing us to observe two different paths and then to choose wisely which one of those two paths we will set our feet upon.

There is a path which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death, Proverbs 14 says. And that tells us that you can set out on one path that seems like the logical, the rational, the good, the moral, the right, the reasonable path to take, but there is a way which seems right to a man, but the end of that way is death.

And the wise man will look at the end of an action, the end of an activity, and not just meditate upon or consider the things in the moment. It is the fool who considers everything in the moment. What feels good now?

What seems good now? What seems right now? That's the path of folly. It is the righteous one who zooms out, as it were, and looks beyond the now, the moment, the momentary, and considers the end result of his conduct.

Looks ahead and says, what will be the outcome of this? He foresees good or he foresees evil. He foresees where his path is going to take him. Psalm 1 is a wisdom psalm that compares the blessed man with the wicked, and it is a series of contrasts.

We've looked at two of them so far. The final contrast is a comparison of the final outcome for both the righteous and the wicked. So we've read Psalm 1 there. Our text today is verses 5 and 6. In verses 1 and 2, just to catch you up in case you weren't here or in case you got distracted this last week and forgot what I preached on last week, verses 1 and 2 contrast the path of the blessed man with the path of the wicked man.

There is the counsel of Yahweh, and there is the counsel of the wicked. In verses 3 and 4, there is a contrast between the prosperity of the blessed man and the barrenness of the wicked. The blessed man is like a tree that is planted.

It's fruitful. It flourishes. It does not wither. Whereas the wicked man is like the chaff which the wind drives away. Unprofitable, barren, fruitless, useless, and destined for judgment. Now in verses 5 and 6, we see the prize of the blessed man contrasted with the perishing of the wicked man.

Here is the final end of the wicked described, and here is the final ultimate vindication of the righteous that is promised. And the key phrase you see in verse 6, it is the first phrase of verse 6, for the Lord knows the way of the righteous.

The Lord knows the way of the righteous. That is the key to these last two verses. Since that is true, since the Lord knows the way of the righteous, then, verse 5, the wicked will not stand. And since the Lord knows the way of the righteous, verse 6, the wicked will perish.

Two different statements that help contrast the outcome of the life of the wicked and the life of the righteous. Because the Lord knows the righteous, therefore, verse 5, the blessed man will stand when the wicked are removed.

And because the Lord knows the way of the righteous, therefore, verse 6, the blessed man will be remembered when the wicked are forgotten. And that is our outline. Verse 5, the blessed man will stand when the wicked are removed.

Let's look at verse 5. Let's read it again. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. Now, you'll notice that there is a different word that is here used to describe the blessed man.

The author now chooses the word righteous instead of the word blessed. And don't think for a moment that the author is introducing us to a third character as if you have the righteous man, the blessed man, the wicked, and now the righteous man.

He is equating righteousness here with the blessedness, the blessed man. The blessed man of verse 1 is the righteous man of verse 5 and the righteous man of verse 6. So he's not introducing another character.

Instead, he is describing now the blessed man in terms of primarily two things. His judicial standing before God, but also his moral standing and conduct in this world. And that's how the word righteous is used here.

Righteousness is a judicial declaration before God. It is also a moral designation of how we live before men. And the righteousness that this man in verses 5 and 6 enjoys is not a righteousness that comes as a result of him meditating on the law of the Lord in verse 1 and 2.

But keep that in mind. Let me say that again. The righteous designation that he enjoys in verses 5 and 6 is not the result of him meditating upon the word of God in verse 2. In other words, the delight in the law of God does not create within us the righteousness that makes us righteous.

This type of righteousness, an aspect of righteousness, is a divine declaration, a judicial declaration. How is the blessed man made righteous? Does he obey and keep the law? Can righteousness come by obedience to the law?

If this sinner were to meditate upon the law of God day and night and do nothing but read that, can that make the sinner righteous? And the answer is no. And all of his attempts to obey the law only result in condemnation and not righteousness.

Paul says in Galatians 2 .21, if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain. Paul says in Galatians 3 .21, if there had been a law given which could give life, then righteousness would have indeed been based on the law.

So you have a description of the blessed man as one who meditates on the law of God day and night, and yet the Scriptures declare that there is none righteous, no, not one. What must take place for one who is not righteous to be made righteous?

There must be a divine declaration of righteousness and an imputation of divine righteousness that comes to the man on the basis of faith. So the blessed man is a man upon whom God has worked and moved to create faith within and to impute to him divine righteousness on the basis of that faith.

And therefore, the meditation on the law of the Lord day and night of the righteous man is not a meditation that brings righteousness. It is the meditation that flows out of that righteousness. In other words, the one who is regenerated and declared righteous in the sight of God is the one who then will walk in righteousness.

So righteousness is not just a divine declaration, something that is yours by faith in Christ, but this righteousness is also a moral designation, something that is lived out in the eyes of the world.

Righteous describes one who walks in obedience to the commandments of Yahweh. He strives after Yahweh's commands and Yahweh's words. He strives to live immersed in the Word of God, loving that Word, obeying that Word, being conformed by that Word.

That imputed righteousness of Christ is worked out in a practical righteousness that is lived out in the eyes of men. And these two things go together. If one is imputed the righteousness of Christ and declared righteous, that is, to be redeemed and regenerated and saved, he will live a different life and there will be fruit in that life.

But the one who is not so changed, it doesn't matter how well you know Scripture, you are an empty vessel and chaff that will be blown away. There must be not only the divine declaration of righteousness, but also that will always be accompanied by a life that issues out impractical righteousness, so that righteous living according to the righteous Word is the delight of the righteous man.

These two things go together. And that righteousness is a necessary quality for one to stand in the judgment. Notice the context of verse 5 and 6 is judgment. Verse 4 says the wicked are like chaff that the wind blows away.

Verse 5 says the wicked will not stand in the judgment. So how is it then that the blessed man can stand in the judgment? The blessed man stands before the judgment bar of God because he is righteous.

And to go back to our imputed righteousness, he is righteous not because he has done deeds of righteousness that save him and give him any kind of merit before the judgment bar of God. He is righteous because God has declared him righteous, taken away his sin, and imputed or credited a righteousness to him that he does not deserve and could never earn.

Therefore the righteous, the blessed man, is righteous and is able to stand in the judgment not because he has righteousness of his own, but because he has the righteousness of another, that one blessed man who never walked in the counsel of the ungodly or stood in the path of sinners or sat in the seat of scoffers, namely the Lord Jesus Christ.

That perfect righteousness is imputed to the blessed man. So the psalmist says, Blessed are those whom the Lord chooses and calls to himself, gives them the righteousness of his Son, so that by that righteousness he can stand in the judgment.

This judgment here must describe the final judgment. It is not a temporal judgment. There are some commentators who see this judgment as being sort of an earthly or temporal judgment where, say, a nation would invade Israel and the idea is that as God would bring judgments upon the nation, the wicked would be carried away and the righteous would stand.

But historically, the righteous, when a nation is judged, unfortunately, when the nation is judged, sometimes the righteous get the shrapnel from that judgment as God pours out His wrath upon the wicked.

So if we are here when this nation is judged, we're going to experience some of that shrapnel. That's just the nature of reality. So I don't think it is describing here any kind of temporal, earthly, temporary judgments.

I think this is the final judgment that is being described when the wicked are fully and finally judged. When the books are opened and the wicked are judged according to the things written in the books, that's the judgment that is described here.

Revelation 20, verse 12, it's that final judgment. When the wicked are resurrected and they stand before the judgment seat of Christ, or they stand before that great white throne, I should say, they stand before that great white throne judgment of Christ and there they are judged according to their deeds, the wicked will not stand in that judgment.

The word stand here, by the way, is not the same word in Hebrew that is used in verse 1. You'll notice in verse 1 there is the idea of standing and you might be tempted to think that there is an antithetical kind of parallel between verse 1 and verse 5 where the righteous or the blessed man does not stand in the path of sinners, but the wicked do not stand in the judgment and there's sort of an antithetical contrast there.

It's a different word. In verse 1, you remember a couple of weeks ago, I said this is, in verse 1 it describes a taking your stand with, identifying with. I'm taking my stand, I'm planting my flag. These are my people, this is the path of the wicked and I'm going to stand here in it.

That's the idea of verse 1. Here the idea is rising up or raising oneself up. The wicked will not rise up in the judgment and it's not a reference, I don't think, to resurrection there because Scripture teaches that the wicked will be resurrected to face judgment, but I think that it is here describing the action of one who, imagine, standing in the courtroom of God and you're sitting on a chair and the judgment, the court is called into session.

Actually, let's just take this out of the divine courtroom for just a second. Imagine you're standing in an earthly courtroom and you're standing before the judge and the verdict is about ready to be pronounced and the evidence has been brought forward and you know that you're guilty.

Everybody knows that you're guilty and the bailiff steps in and says, All rise, and the wicked man, the accused man, stands up to receive his judgment.

It's that idea.

The wicked will not stand up in the judgment. That is to say, when he stands before God, he will not rise up to give a defense of the accusations against him. He will not rise up to speak his case. There will be no case to speak.

The accusations will be read. He will be judged according to the things that are written in the books and it will be guilty. It will be obviously guilty and there will be no defense. There will be no defense attorney.

There will be no pleading the case. No excuses. No explanations. No, have you considered this? If only you knew this. Lord, if you knew my circumstances. If you only knew the environment I was raised in.

There would be none of that. The wicked will not stand up to give a defense at all in the judgment. He will not rise up to stand before God because he will not be able to endure it. Psalm 5 verse 5 says, The boastful shall not stand before your eyes.

That's the idea. You hate all who do iniquity. That's Psalm 5 verse 5. Psalm 130 verse 3, If you, Lord, should mark iniquities, who could stand?

Right?

If the Lord were to count off your iniquities, who could stand before him? Who could rise up and receive that sentence? Get that information? See that justice handed down? Nobody could. Psalm 1 verse 4 says, The wicked are not so. They are like chaff, which the wind drives away.

That's the idea.

They're not going to stand. They're not going to persist. They're not going to last. Instead, they are going to be blown away by the wind. The second phrase in verse 5, Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous is a parallelism.

There are some who stand in the judgment, that is the righteous, whose iniquities God does not count against them. And there are some, and they are gathered together at the end. And then there are some which do not stand in that judgment.

And that is the wicked, verse 4 says. They are the chaff that is driven away while the wheat remains of the harvest. Remember the agricultural simile that we looked at last week when you toss the threshed grain up into the air and the wind swipes away everything that is useless to be burned and judged and then the grain falls to the ground and is kept and is useful.

That's the idea of verse 3 and 4. The chaff are driven away and the wheat remains. So there is a gathering in here. That's the language that's used. There's a gathering in of the righteous, the wheat.

Meanwhile, the wicked will not stand. Instead, they are blown off in judgment when the wheat remains. I think this is described by Jesus in Matthew chapter 25 when He says, When the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.

All the nations will be gathered before Him and He will separate them one from another like wheat from chaff. As the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats and He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on His left, then the King will say to those on His right, Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from before the foundation of the world.

Then He will also say to those on His left, Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels. So where do the righteous assemble? Notice verse 5 mentions an assembly of the righteous.

What is that describing? Again, some commentaries say that that is describing some sort of a temporal assembly. Like today, when all of the righteous gather together and we rejoice and we worship and we fellowship and we gather together, as if this suggests that when the righteous get together, there will be no wicked among them.

But that's not true. There are wicked who gather amongst us on any given Sunday. Unbelievers who still live in rebellion to the Lord, who have never trusted in Christ, they are able to come here and gather with us.

I think, again, that this is describing the end state. The assembly of the righteous would be the eternal state, the kingdom, the new creation, however you want to describe that. When there is only the righteous there and the wicked are no more, that is what is being described.

Revelation 20 verses 25 to 27, described the heavenly Jerusalem this way, in the daytime for there will be no night there, its gates will never be closed and they will bring the glory and honor of the nations into it and nothing unclean and no one who practices abomination and lying shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.

That is the assembly of the righteous. On that final judgment, there will be no wicked there. Only the righteous will stand in the presence of that holy and righteous God to receive that reward. This means then that the triumph of the wicked is short-lived.

It seems long in this life, doesn't it? I mean, when you live in a perpetual four-year long election cycle and that is our life, it just seems like the triumph of the wicked is everlasting and eternal.

Our souls are vexed with ungodliness and wickedness of the fallen world around us. The ungodly surround the righteous, the ungodly outnumber the righteous, and the ungodly are stronger than the righteous in this world.

That is the reality and nature of the culture and the time in which we live. But listen to what James Hamilton says in his commentary on Psalm 1. He says this, The wicked may seem wise in the eyes of the world, sinners may stand strong in their ways, and scoffers may sit in what seem to be established seats, but they will not rise in the judgment.

The judgment will go against them. In a moment, the tables will be flipped and everything will change. The wicked outnumber the righteous now, but there will come a time when the wicked will be no more and the righteous will stand.

The wicked are stronger than the righteous now, but there will come a time in an instant when that has changed and the righteous will rule and reign in that kingdom which the king has prepared for them and the wicked will be no more.

It seems now as if the righteous are surrounded by the wicked, and we are, but there will come a time when it will only be the righteous that stand. Everything will be switched in an instant. The triumph of the wicked is short-lived.

They will not stand, they cannot prosper, and they will lose everything. This is a sobering reality and it should strike fear into the hearts of all of the wicked because the wicked who live in rebellion and in their sin are like blind and deaf men marching toward an abyss that overhangs the wrath of God and they are marching there unconcerned, unaware, and undeterred.

And they have no idea what awaits them. And this psalm is giving a sober warning to the wicked and a precious promise to the righteous. And there will come a time when the righteous will never be plagued by the wicked again.

There's chaff among the wheat in this life. Hypocrites, pretenders, goats, apostates insinuate themselves among the righteous in nearly every congregation. They sit among us, they walk among us, they pretend to be of us, but the judgment will reveal the truth on that day.

Matthew Henry says this, quote,. They shall not stand in the judgment, that is, they shall be found guilty, shall hang down their head with shame and confusion and all their pleas and excuses will be overruled as frivolous.

There is a judgment to come in which every man's present character and work, though ever so artfully concealed and disguised, shall be truly and perfectly discovered and appear in their own colors and accordingly every man's future state will be by an irreversible sentence determined for eternity.

Close quote.

Put on airs, appear righteous, look righteous, pretend to be righteous, but there is coming a day when every man's true colors will be seen and the wicked will be blown away like the chaff. Because the Lord remembers the righteous, the righteous will stand when the wicked are removed.

Second, because the Lord remembers the righteous, the blessed man will be remembered when the wicked are forgotten. This is verse six. The Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

This is the reason given for this. The Lord knows the way of the righteous, so the way of the wicked will perish. This is a promise, it is a warning, but what does it mean that the Lord knows the way of the righteous?

That is a significant phrase. I said it is the key to these last two verses, is the reason that the wicked perish, that they are removed and that they are taken away. Remember a few weeks ago when I did the introduction to the Psalms, I told you there are a number of different ways that parallelisms are used in Hebrew, the different kinds of parallelism between phrases in Hebrew poetry.