I am directionally challenged. GPS on my phone helps, but if Siri doesn’t speak up quickly enough, I can still find a way to take the wrong path.
Before we had GPS on our phones, my husband bought me a navigation tool that plugged in to the cigarette lighter. He loved it. It made so much sense to him. He just knew I was going to love it too. But I was clueless how to use it. I felt like they were speaking in a foreign language with the “Turn West” or “Go North.” Who gives directions that way?
We had lived in Alabama for about six years when I ventured out to meet friends at one of our favorite redneck waterparks. Eric and I had taken the boys together many times. But I had never driven there alone. Eric gave me very good directions AND plugged the address into the navigation system. What could go wrong?
I was nervous as I headed out but found the park without getting lost, and we had a fun day with friends. It was getting late in the afternoon when everyone started to leave. I am usually the last to leave because it takes me so long to pack up. I should have asked if I could follow someone home, but I didn’t want them to have to wait on me. Besides, I had gotten there fine.
Somehow, I turned the wrong way out of the park. So as I tried to follow the directions Eric had given me in reverse, I just kept going on the wrong path. By the time I realized it, I felt like I was too far in so I might as well keep going. I thought maybe I would intersect with the right path and could hop on. Who knows? It could happen.
But the farther I went down the wrong path, the more lost I became. I started to panic. I called Eric from a stop sign in the middle of literally nowhere. There weren’t even any street signs. So when he asked me what road I was on, I couldn’t tell him. He said he couldn’t give me directions if I couldn’t tell him where I was. I started to cry. When that happened the boys started feeling a little panicked too. I knew I had to pull it together, but I had no idea where I was or how to get where I needed to be.
Eric told me the only thing I could do was turn around and go back. Then he could give me directions that would lead me on the path to Home.
A sharp turn
Last week, I talked about the path of the Blessed Man – how he walks, what he delights in, and what he is like. When he comes to maturity, he prospers in all he does.
Psalm 1 takes a sharp turn to contrast the blessed man with the path of the wicked. They are compared to chaff. Chaff is what is left after threshing corn and straw, that is then tossed up and blown away with the wind; it is rootless and weightless and benefits no one.1 Those who choose to live without God, like chaff that the wind drives away, are without substance and worthless.2
Judgment Day is coming
The wicked chose the wrong path. When he stands before God in the final court of judgment, known as the Great White Throne, he will not be approved because he does not have a right standing with God.3 This day of judgment will disclose each man’s work and the wicked will die with nothing.
Only the righteous who names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life may enter God’s Kingdom. This is because they are justified by grace through faith in the work of Christ alone as He paid the penalty for sin with His own blood.4
He never knew them
Some will try to change God’s mind because of all the good things they did here on earth, but it will be too late. Matthew 7 records some of the saddest verses in the Bible.5 Many will try to enter heaven because of their good works, thinking the good things they did outweighed the bad. But God will say they are workers of iniquity because they trusted in those works to save instead of Christ alone. Then He will tell them to depart into outer darkness because He never knew them.
It’s truly tragic to let pride keep you from getting it right on this side of heaven.
Which path will you choose?
Psalm 1 ends as it begins, with a choice. There are two paths and there is no third.1 God puts the choice before each man. He intimately knows with care and affection those that believe Him and are His.6 But those that choose to live outside of God’s plan will die in ruin. Thus the two paths will part forever.7
Which path will you choose? Choose life and be eternally blessed before it’s too late.
1 Blessed is the man[a] who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; 2 but his delight is in the law[b] of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.
3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. 4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; 6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
Derek Kidner, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, Volume 15, Psalm 1-72: An Introduction and Commentary. London: Intervarsity Press, 1973.
Amplified Bible. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation. Scripture quotations taken from the Amplified Bible, Copyrightc 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission
