“6 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.””
Why did I marry my wife? A psychologist might say, ‘because her character meshed well with yours and because your personalities fill gaps in one another.’ A wise church member might say, ‘because of God.’ Who is right?
Why did I take the call to this church? The people at the denominational yearbook might point to length of my previous call and say it was a natural time for a transition. I would say, ‘because of God.’ Who is right?
Is the human explanation correct or is the divine explanation correct? Both are. I married Bethany because she makes me a better man and because of the will of God. I took the call to this church for a myriad of wise reasons and because it was the will of God. Both are 100% true.
So why does the blessed man not walk in the counsel of the wicked? Because he avoids it? Yes. Why does the blessed man not walk in the counsel of the wicked? Because the Lord watches over his way? Yes. They are both 100 percent true.
If you are in Christ, your life story has two hands writing simultaneously: yours and God’s. To this point in Psalm 1, we’ve been talking about the story we write. Do we walk in the counsel of the wicked? Do we bear fruit in season? Do we wither?
Now in the last verse, David turns us around to show us that God has been writing this whole time too.
That is your life. If you had perfect knowledge, you could select any moment in your life and see what you were doing and why. You could then select that same moment and see what God was doing and why. You don’t have perfect knowledge, but you do know what God tells you and He tells you that if you are His, He guides your path.
There is also a path that the Lord does not guide. This is the path for those who go it alone. Pity the man who goes it alone. Pity the man the Lord does not watch over. He won’t look back on each moment of his life and see God’s hand at work. He will look back and see that God removed His restraining hand. He will look back and see God letting him have his own way.
The Lord is either watching over your way or He isn’t and that makes all the difference. That’s the claim of this sermon: the Lord is either watching over your way or He isn’t and that makes all the difference.
We will these two paths in two points. First: the way of the righteous. Second: the way of the wicked. We see the way of the righteous in the first half of verse 6. We see the way of the wicked in the second half of verse 6.
First: the way of the righteous. Why will the righteous stand in the judgment while the wicked fall? Because “the Lord watches over the way of the righteous.” Why are the righteous like trees bearing fruit while the wicked are like chaff that the wind blows away? Because “the Lord watches over the way of the righteous.”
This watching over makes all the difference. If you asked any believer in glory, ‘how did you get here?’ each and every one would answer, ‘the Lord watched over my way. He made me lie down in green pastures. He led me beside quiet waters. He restored my soul. He guided me along the right path for His name’s sake. It was certainly me walking every step of the way, but the Lord watched over my way.’
If you are going to stand in the judgment, if you are going to arrive in glory, that will be your account of your life, ‘I walked every step of my life, but the Lord guided each step.’
The Lord was watching over your way long before you were born. “He chose us in [Christ] before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight.” “In love He predestined us… in accordance with His pleasure and will.”
You didn’t become precious to God when you put your faith in Christ. You were precious to God by His choice and He chose you before the foundation of the world. That’s why you put your faith Christ. He chose you long before you chose Him. God watches over your way to such an extent that He puts you on the right way.
Consider Abraham. Abraham wasn’t looking for God. Abraham was happily worshipping the moon and the stars like a good Chaldean. God found Him. “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.” The Lord was watching over Abraham’s way long before Abraham was walking God’s way.
Consider Paul. Paul wasn’t looking to be right with God. He was convinced that he was right with God. He was convinced that he was God’s servant doing God’s will when ‘suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”’ The Lord was watching over Paul’s way long before Paul even started walking God’s way.
That is the case for you if you have faith in Christ. The Lord was watching over your way long before you started walking His way.
Push your life story back before you were born. Psychologists wisely attach a lot of importance to childhood memories. What you did as a child and what happened to you as a child—good and bad—has a formative experience on your life. Scripture pushes us further back than the psychologists. Scripture pushes us back before we were born to recognize that the Lord was already watching over our way and that’s why we are walking His way.
The Lord not only puts you on His way, He also keeps you on His way. “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” “My sheep hear my voice,” said Jesus, “and I know them, and they follow me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” Jesus doesn’t lose sheep. The Lord doesn’t lose anyone He puts on His way. He watches over them.
Consider David. He had sinned grievously, killing a man and taking his wife. God’s grace didn’t paper over that sin. God’s grace brought David back. Nathan confronted David’s sin and as a result David wrote, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.” If the Lord didn’t watch over David’s way, David would have perished on the path of the wicked. The Lord did watch over David’s way. He watches over the way of all His people. That’s why none have been lost.
Consider Peter. Peter sinned grievously, denying three times that he even knew Jesus. God’s grace didn’t paper it over. God’s grace brought him back. Jesus confronted his sin. He asked Peter three times if he loved him, one for each denial and then Jesus called him back; “follow me.” If the Lord didn’t watch over Peter’s way, Peter would have perished on the path of the wicked. Jesus told him as much. “Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you.” Jesus watches over all his sheep this way. He hasn’t lost one yet.
The Lord watches over our way with happy providences. Consider David again. Saul and his army were hunting David. 1 Samuel 23 tells us, “Saul was going along one side of the mountain, and David and his men were on the other side, hurrying to get away from Saul. As Saul and his forces were closing in on David and his men to capture them, a messenger came to Saul, saying, ‘Come quickly! The Philistines are raiding the land.’ Then Saul broke off his pursuit.” Do you think God had anything to do with that Philistine raid? Do you think He had anything to do with the timing of that message?
Consider Ruth. When she moved to Israel, she needed to work to eat. “She went out, entered a field and began to glean behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she was working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelek.” That little phrase, “as it turned out,” is happy providence. God guided that dear woman to the field of a righteous, wealthy, eligible, kinsman-redeemer named Boaz. Ruth just thought she was going to work, but God was marching her forward in providence. That’s a happy providence and the lives of the righteous are fully of happy providences because, “the Lord watches over the way of the righteous.”
The Lord also watches over the way of the righteous in their sufferings. That’s why even the Psalmist who began by saying, “Why, Lord, do You stand far off? Why do You hide yourself in times of trouble?” can wind up saying, “But You, God, see the trouble of the afflicted; You consider their grief and take it in hand. The victims commit themselves to You; You are the helper of the fatherless.” He can say that because the Lord does in fact watch over the way of the righteous.
The blessed man of Psalm 1 lives as he does because the Lord watches over his way. Why doesn’t he walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers? Why does he delight in the law of the Lord, and on His law meditate day and night? Why is he like a tree planted by streams of water? Why does he bear fruit in season? Why does his life not wither? The Lord watches over his way.
The most important thing you can say about yourself this evening is whether or not the Lord watches over your way. Has He been watching over your way since before you were born? Is He keeping you walking His way? Do you enjoy happy providences along life’s path and are you carried through life’s sorrows in His arms? Is verse 6 about you, “the Lord watches over the way of the righteous”?
If that isn’t you tonight, I want you to know how that can be you. If you want that to be you, you can’t start with yourself. You can’t live this life under your own power. You need salvation that comes from outside of you. You need the Lord to start watching over your way.
So, what would it take for the Lord to watch over your way? David tells us, “the Lord watches over the way of the righteous.” If you become righteous, the Lord will watch over your way. Here again, you’ve got a problem. You can’t be righteous. You have sinned and continue to sin. God will need to do something to make you righteous.
That’s the gospel. That is the good news. You can become righteous not by what you do, but why Jesus did. “God made [Jesus] who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” That’s the cross. Jesus took your sin. You receive his righteousness. You receive it by faith. “This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.” You can be one of the righteous. You can know that the Lord will watch over your way.
Or you can go it alone. This second point is all about what happens to those who go it alone. This is the way of the wicked. That’s our second point: the way of the wicked.
The second half of this verse gives a precise balance to the Psalm. This Psalm gives equal attention to these two ways: the way of righteous and the way of wicked. David began by telling us about the way of the righteous. ‘Here’s what they don’t do. Here’s what they are like.’ He then told us about the way of wicked. ‘Here’s what they don’t do. Here’s what they are like.’ Now at the beginning of verse 6, he tells us about the way of the righteous again, “the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,” and then he balances the Psalm perfectly by returning to the way of wicked, “the way of the wicked will perish.” David balances these because he wants equal attention put on both these ways.
This isn’t a Psalm about the godly life and another option. This isn’t a Psalm about the way of life and the way of less life. This is a Psalm about the way of the righteous and the way of the wicked. David purposefully ends it with this warning, “the way of the wicked will perish.”
There is a telling grammatical difference between these two ways. In the way of the righteous, the Lord is the subject of the verb. He is active, “the Lord watches over the way of the righteous.” In the way of the wicked, the Lord’s hand has been removed, “the way of the wicked will perish.”
By nature, we are all on that path. “We were, by nature, children of wrath.” If the Lord let everyone go his own way, everyone would fall off the cliff at the end. “This path leads over a cliff,” says John Goldingay, “and takes with it those who walk it.”
If you are not walking the way of the wicked, praise God. He has intervened in your life. The worst thing that can happen to a man is for God to let him keep going his own way. CS Lewis is right, ‘There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.”’ Praise God if He intruded into your life.
Paul paints us a picture of what happens when God lets people live life their own way. In Romans 1, Paul explains what happens to people who refuse to worship God. God gives, “them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.” These sinful desires are already in their hearts. God takes His restraining hand off these people and lets them indulge their lusts. He doesn’t watch over their way.
When God lets them go their own way, they go from bad to worse. “God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done,” Paul writes. “They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.”
Why? Why do people act that way? “God gave them over.” They didn’t want the Lord watching over their way. People wonder when the wrath of the Lord might fall on this nation. According to Romans 1, in many ways it has already happened. God has given people over to their depravity.
That would be my story if the Lord wasn’t watching over my way. I would end up in, “every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity,” and so would you. Do you believe that about yourself? Do you recognize that it is the Lord’s grace not your moral superiority that keeps you from being a, “gossip, a slanderer, a God-hater, insolent, arrogant and boastful”?
If you think yourself superior to others because of what you haven’t done—‘I’ve never been drunk,’ ‘I didn’t have sex until I was married,’ ‘I never hung out with the wrong crowd’—please recognize this admirable moral restraint is a reason for thanksgiving not a reason for pride. The Lord restrained you. He didn’t give you over. He watched over your way. Praise Him, not yourself.
But what if He has given you over? What if you are here this evening and you have gone from bad to worse? You have degrading yourself. You are degrading yourself. How should you read the end of verse 6, “the way of the wicked will perish”? Should you read that as a final condemnation or as a warning?
Satan wants you to read that as a final condemnation. ‘You are hopeless. You are going to perish.’ The Holy Spirit meant it as a warning. ‘You haven’t perished yet. There is still hope. Get off the way of the wicked.’
Satan wants you to take warnings as final condemnations because he hates the mercy of God and God’s warnings are filled with mercy. Do you see the words, “the way of the wicked will perish,” as filled with mercy? If God wasn’t merciful, He never would have inspired those words. He would have simply watched silently as people fell off the cliff and shook His head at our foolishness. Our God is not silent. He posts warning sign after warning sign. ‘Danger ahead.’ ‘Turn around.’
Our God speaks because He is merciful. If God delighted in people perishing, He would never warn anyone. Listen to Him in Ezekiel 33:11, “As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die?”
God takes great pleasure in people turning from the path that leads to death. All of heaven takes great pleasure in people turning from the path that leads to death. That’s what Jesus says, “I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
You see the pleasure God takes in the fact that He sent His Son. In John 3, John talks about the world. This world is the way of the wicked. God loved people walking on this way. How? God loved the world this way: He sent His one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
God loved people on the way of the wicked this way: “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
If you are walking the way of the wicked, you need to know there is mercy, but that mercy takes you off your path. That mercy takes you to the cross. If you want to leave the way of the wicked for the way of the righteous, you must cross at the cross.
The cross gives you permission to leave the way of the wicked because the cross shows Christ suffering what you deserve for walking the way of the wicked. The cross also demands that you leave the way of the wicked because how can we who died to sin still live in it?
The cross is the way those who walk the way of the righteous become righteous. “God made [Jesus] who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” You don’t make yourself righteous. The cross makes you righteous. That’s how you leave the way of the wicked for the way of the righteous.
Everyone in this sanctuary is walking one of those two paths, including you. You are either walking the way of the wicked that leads to death or you are walking the way of the righteous because the Lord is watching over you. Is the Lord watching over you? Amen.