Psalm 1 - God’s Good Will
- Joshua Carpenter
- Jul 18
- 3 min read
The Law can't save you, but it's still God's good will!
Psalm 1
1 Blessed is the man
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
and who meditates on his law day and night.
3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers.
4 Not so the wicked!
They are like chaff
that the wind blows away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
6 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.
Canons of Dordt
Article 5: The Inadequacy of the Law
What is true of the light of nature is true also of the Ten Commandments
given by God through Moses
specifically to the Jews.
For humans cannot obtain saving grace through the Decalogue, because,
although it does expose the magnitude of their sin
and increasingly convict them of their guilt,
yet it does not offer a remedy or enable them to escape from human misery,
and, indeed, weakened as it is by the flesh, leaves the offender under the curse.
Summary
Having taken a look so far this week at how the Law is inadequate to save, it can possibly leave us with a negative view of the Law. However, when you take a look at some of the passages we explored this week, you’ll notice that God’s Law is something good.
Paul, at various times in Romans 7, points out how God’s Law is good like in verse 12, so the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good and likewise just after in verse 13, did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin.
While the Law convicts us of our sin, that doesn’t make it bad. God’s Law is good; it is His will for our lives! Even in our passage today of Psalm 1, we find right away in verse two how those who walk in the way of righteousness, their delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.
We’ve talked this week about uses of God’s Law that our Reformed Tradition discusses, and it is here that we arrive at the third use - “Principally it admonishes believers and urges them on in well doing,” as John Calvin puts it in his Institutes of the Christian Religion.
God’s good Law not only convicts us of our sin, restrains sin, but especially encourages believers in doing what is right, doing God’s will through the enabling work of the Holy Spirit.
Dig Deeper
So, we come full circle to what we talked about at the start of this week - the privilege and blessing we have in getting to love God and our neighbor through His grace and strength. God’s Law is good, it is freeing, it is His will for our lives.
As believers, the Holy Spirit helps us to see that and creates in us the desire to do God’s will, doing so out of gratitude and love for what He’s done for us in Jesus. So, when you read the Ten Commandments, or hear them read at church each week, rather than seeing just a list of do’s and don’ts, may you see the goodness of God’s Law, the ways that it encourages you in doing what is right in your day-to-day life in your interactions with your family, friends, co-workers, and even strangers, being a light and a witness for Christ to those around you.
May the Lord ever help us to see the goodness of His Law as believers who have gone before us have, filling us afresh daily with that desire to live and walk according to His good will!
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who knows the way of the righteous;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that God will kindle in you a delight in His Law;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
Read the New Testament in a year! Today: Luke 16
Comments