Choose Your Road

It was in 1920 that Robert Frost wrote the well-known poem, The Road Not Taken. Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not travel both, and be one traveler long I stood and looked down one as far as I could, to where it bent in the undergrowth. And he goes on from there, we'll get back to that a little bit later. But such a clear-cut choice between two roads is not popular in our culture today. Such a clear-cut choice saying there are two roads down which one can go in life, and you cannot go both, thus you have to make a choice. That's not a very popular concept in our culture today. Our culture is ruled by two ideas, pluralism and relativism. Let me read you some descriptions of those two terms. Pluralism is described or defined as a framework of thinking or interaction in which groups show sufficient respect and tolerance of each other that they can coexist without conflict. It's described this way. It implies the right of individuals to determine universal truths for themselves. And then it gives respect to any belief which is held. That's pluralism. Basically says you can choose whatever you want to believe, and that's okay. There are many roads, and you can take any of them and all of them if you want. Relativism is described this way. It's the point of view that, or the thesis that all points of view are equally valid in ethics, this amounts to saying that all morality are equally good. In epistemology or the study of the foundation of knowledge, it implies that all beliefs or belief systems are equally true. Moral relativism is described this way. The view that ethical standards, morality and positions of right or wrong are culturally based, and therefore subject to a person's individual choice, we can decide for ourselves what is right. Now, those are the two major controlling thoughts and philosophies of our day. Pluralism, that there are many ways equally valid and relativism that there is no absolute right or wrong. Every value system, every choice is equally valid. It's all up to me. I choose for myself. That is the reigning philosophy of our day. So clear-cut choices between two roads, good and evil, right and wrong, two very different roads in life. That's not very popular today. Those clear-cut choices. In our culture, it's not supposed to be either or but both and. Problem is that flies directly in the face of what the Bible teaches. The Bible consistently pictures life as a choice between two ways with no middle ground. One way or the other, and one way is right, one way is wrong. Moses put it to the children of Israel this way, and Deuteronomy chapter 30 in verse 19. He said, this day I place before you life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore choose life so that you may live. Clear-cut choice. Joshua, his successor, put it before the children of Israel, the generation later, this way in Joshua chapter 24. He said, choose you this day, whom you will serve, whether the gods your father served on the other side of the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites in this land. But as for me in my house, we will serve the Lord, two clear choices. Idols or God, one's wrong, one's right, no middle ground. Jesus put it this way in Matthew chapter 7, verses 13 and 14. He said, there is a wide gate that leads to a broad way and it leads to destruction. Many there be that go in that gate and go down that road. There is a small gate that leads to a narrow road that leads to life eternal, and few there be that find it. Two gates, two ways, no in between. One leads to destruction, one leads to life. Consistently the Bible presents life that way. Proverbs lays it out this way. There is a way of life and a way of death, and then there is Psalm 1. I want us to look at Psalm 1 tonight. We call Psalm 1, describes for us beautifully those two ways, two roads in life. And you stand before them and there is only one way you can choose, only one way to go. The first Psalm is often called the gateway to the Psalm, or the doorkeeper of the Psalms, the vestibule, the lobby of the Psalms. When the Bible was written, there were no chapter divisions. You were to read it in the original without the later chapter editions added. It would just read each book, would read as one entire page after page document with no chapter or verse divisions. So in that day, in the early days, when it was written, Psalm 1 was considered the introduction to the whole book. And what it does is it lays out for us two roads in life that you must choose from. You must choose one or the other. You will go down one or the other and you cannot do both. They are not equally valid. You cannot do both. We are going to look at some contrasts this evening that are painted for us in beautiful terms in this chapter. The contrast between those two roads in life. And first, I want us to focus on the two people that are contrasted. Then we will look at the two worldviews that lead to two lifestyles that eventually lead to two destinations. But the two people first. They are described for us in verses 5 and 6. So we are going to jump down to the end of the Psalm and look at the two people first. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment nor centers in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction. Two people are mentioned, the righteous and the wicked. There are only two kinds of people in the Bible. Now let me describe for you the legal background that is really behind these two terms here. Both of these terms in the original language are legal terms. So what we have here is a judge that hears two parties tell their side of events that have happened. And the judge determines the facts and what should have been done. Then he looks at what has been done and he pronounces judgment on the two parties. One of those two will be declared in the wrong by the judge and pronounced guilty. The Hebrew word is Russia. The other will be judged right and pronounced innocent. Sadik, that is righteous. That's our two terms. They are judicial terms. And what we're going to see, how those two judicial terms come about and what they mean, the righteous and the wicked comes right out of Gene's song. Who are the wicked first? They are those who are found guilty by God. Remember legal term, those who are judged guilty in the wrong are declared as wicked. Now here's the problem. All of us are in that camp. Initially, we are all declared guilty of sin. The Bible makes it clear that all of us start out as wicked. Romans 3 is very clear. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile. He says after he has described the immoral wicked Gentiles that have no revelation, no Bible, and then the good religious Jews and he says there is no difference. For there is none righteous, no not one, he says. None. None fit in the righteous camp. Paul says in Romans 3. Why? For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So here's the problem. The Bible says there are two groups of people, but all of us start out as wicked. There are none righteous, no not one. There is none in the righteous camp. We are all wicked because we have all sinned and we fall short of the standard that is necessary to gain entrance into a righteous heaven, to live with the righteous God, and that standard is the glory of God itself. All of us send and fall short of the glory of God. Doesn't matter what Uncle Joe lives like, doesn't matter what Deacon so and so lives like, doesn't matter what your neighbor's like, the standard that we are compared against is not anyone else. It's the glory of God. So all of us are sinners when compared to the glory of God. So the wicked camp, that's all of us, all of us, everyone in the human race. So who are the righteous? Well, they are those who are declared righteous by God because nobody is righteous on their own. So they are those who are declared righteous by God, and they are not innocent. None of us are innocent. Remember, because we've just seen, we're all guilty. We're all in the wicked camp. We've all sinned. There's none righteous, no not one. So it's not that one is declared wrong and one is declared right in the sense of being innocent of all sin. No, we are all guilty. We are all wicked. And so how do you get righteous? Well, here's the beautiful story. It's where Mercy came in. It's where Jesus Christ decided, and God the Father decided, and the Holy Spirit concurred in the Trinity, that there would be a plan initiated to rescue men and women from the wicked camp and place them in the righteous camp. Now the only way that could be done would be someone else to take the punishment that the wicked deserve. In Jesus Christ, who was, as Jeremiah 23, 5 calls him, the righteous branch, the root of David, who is righteous, the righteous one, the only perfect one who ever lived on this earth, he came to take our sin. And when he died on the cross to pay for our sin, the Bible teaches that if we place our faith and confidence, our trust in him, and his work, then God applies his righteousness to our account in heaven, and we are declared righteous. It's not that we're innocent. We're guilty. We're all wicked. But we are declared righteous when we place our faith in the one who became our substitute and took our place on the cross. Nothing could be more clear in Paul's explanations of the gospel. For instance, in Romans chapter 3, remember we just talked about the verses that there's none righteous, no not one. We've all sinned, we're all wicked. But listen to what Paul says. He says, but now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been made known. This is Romans 3, 21 to 24, to which the law and the prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There's no difference between Jew and Gentile. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified. That means to be declared righteous freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. I love the way He says it so clearly and with such great emphasis in Galatians chapter 2 and verse 16, where He says, no, that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we too have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law, no one will be justified. So the word justified, which means to be declared righteous by God, not declared innocent, but declared righteous, is given to us as a gift when we trust Christ by faith. And when that happens, righteousness is placed on the record book in heaven under your name. It is the righteousness of Christ. It is not your righteousness. It is His that is placed on your account. And you are transferred from the wicked camp into the righteous camp. There are only two kinds of people in this world. We all start out as wicked. You don't have to do anything to get in that camp except be born. If you're born, you're in that camp. If you're alive, you're in that camp. Then there are righteous people who are declared righteous by faith in Christ, and that's the only way to get into that group. You are in one of those two groups. There is no in between group. There's no pluralism here. There's no relativism here. There are two clear groups of people. You are either wicked or you are righteous. And it's not necessarily because of what you do or how morally clean your life is in relationship to people around you. That is not the issue. The issue is how do you stack up against the holiness of God? So we're all wicked. And the only ones who are going to be in heaven in the righteous camp are those who have the righteousness of Christ placed on their account through faith in Christ, two kinds of people. But this Psalm, after describing those two kinds of people or centering the thoughts around those two kinds of people, also describe the two world views. Now by world view, I mean what is your perception of reality? What is your value system? What do you believe about right and wrong? What do you believe is really important in life? That's your world view. That's how you see the world. That's how you interpret reality around you. That's your world view. There are only two, only two world views. And they're described in this chapter versus one in two or versus one rather describes the secular world view. And this is the world view of the wicked. It is a secular world view. It describes a life that is immersed and focused on everything that is opposed to God. And there is a progression in this description of this world view. I want you to see this because this is this is startling. It is eye opening. And it is a clear warning. There is a progression in developing this world view. Notice how I said that verse one, blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or in the council of the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers. Now you can obviously see the progression of walking, then sitting or standing and then sitting. You can see that progression. And that is intended to describe a progressing, deepening, a progressive deepening in this world view. First of all, you're walking, then you're standing or taking a stand literally and then you're sitting, you're comfortable with it. But it is also the other words that describe this same progression, the wicked, sinners and then the mockers. What is this world view all about? How is it entered into and where does it lead? Notice it begins first of all with walking in the council of the wicked. That has to do with your beliefs. The way of the wicked or in step with the wicked literally is the council of the wicked. What the wicked believe, what they say about life and what the Bible is saying here is that the mind is really the key to the whole person. What you believe is really the key to your direction in life. It is really the key to your world view. What you come to believe is where you begin to develop your world view. So what he says is there are people who walk in the council of the wicked. Now to walk with the council of the wicked is to be so closely associated with the wicked that you begin to listen to their council. You begin to listen to their arguments. You begin to adopt their views, their way of thinking, their ethical views, their moral views. And the media and the loud shouts of the majority of people begin to affect the way you think. That's where it all starts. The secular mindset, the secular world view, which seems to be so powerful that it drowns out the Christian world view on the media and in the majority of people causes you to begin to ask questions and rethink moral issues. What these people say about abortion could that really be true? Could they be right? Maybe we're wrong. And maybe sex before marriage is not really all that bad. After all, if you're committed to each other, maybe it's okay to live together if you really intend to get married. It doesn't really matter about keeping what is mine and what is yours distinct and separate. I mean, hey, in the workplace, you get taken advantage of all the time, right? So there's nothing wrong with getting a little for yourself. Little by little, those loud voices and the drumbeat of the media begin to whittle away at what you believe. And you begin to rethink what you believe. You begin to protest, is this really wrong? Have I been misled? You're walking in the council of the wicked. You're walking side by side with those who are telling you the wrong things about the Bible and about the world and about God and about truth and about morality. That's where it all begins, beliefs being attacked. But notice it progresses. Here's a person who walks in the council with the wicked. But then notice once you begin to do that, you begin to listen, begin to ask those questions, then you begin to say, wait a second, stand in the way that sinners take. Now there's a progressive step there from belief to behavior. Standing in the way of sinners means that now you kind of stop there. Literally, the word means to take your stand to shift what you believe to what they believe. And so now it's not that you're just listening to their council, you're starting to take your stand there. You're stopping there. And that begins to develop and influence your behavior. Because you see a sinner, and that's a particular word, which indicates one whose life is shaped by views that are the opposite of the Bible, opposite of the word of God. And so what you have begun to entertain in your thoughts, you begin to experiment and live by and your behavior is now changed. It becomes your lifestyle. You identify with that way of thinking and with that lifestyle now. And this is where you begin to put aside the moral stand that you once had in whatever kind of family Bible believing family you grew up in or what you were thinking. Whatever beliefs lead to behavior. Listening to the council of the wicked leads to taking your stand in the way that sinners take. But it doesn't stop there. Sadly, tragically, it leads to sitting in the company of mockers. If belief leads to behavior, behavior leads to what I'm going to call belonging. Belonging here now. When you sit in the seat of mockers, you're in a very dangerous place. The word mocker is a strong word in the book of Psalms, particularly in the book of Proverbs. A mocker goes beyond just believing something or behaving a certain way. A mocker has an attitude of disdain for righteous living. Not only are they questioning it in step one, not only are they taking a stand against it in step two, they are now looking back and mocking everything they once believed or were taught as a child. Now it's disdainful expressions for that. It's proud, angry, denials of ever wanting to have lived that way, righteous, godly way. Even a hatred of righteousness. So now you belittle those who taught you or who provided the right training and upbringing for you. You demean them, you ridicule them. You now belong in the company of mockers. That is a very dangerous place to be. And what the Psalmist is saying, this worldview that begins to listen to the counsel of the wicket then slowly but surely takes its stand there, begins to solidify its own views there, and then finally ends up mocking and ridiculing righteousness. The Psalmist is saying, blessed is the man who does not start down that path. Who does not start listening carefully to the arguments, to the loud voices, to the worldview of the media, in the culture of the day. It doesn't mean that we should have no contact with unsaved people. Jesus models for us the perfect balance between redemptive contact with the lost and dying world. And yet an absolute refusal to adopt the mindset and the thinking and the worldview and the lifestyle of that same world. Jesus models for us perfectly that balance. Now I will be the first to say that balance is difficult to maintain. And if you find yourself trying to maintain that balance but listening carefully to the counsel of the wicket, be careful back up a few steps. Maybe you need to do a little bit more separating than engagement with those who are arguing against you. We cannot afford to be shaped by the beliefs, the behavior, the attitudes, the worldview of sinners, of the wicket. We have to be careful, very, very careful because there is a gradual downhill slide to the point that you reject everything you've been taught. And you've seen it happen to many, many young people. You've seen it happen to many young adults who started down this path, listen to the loud voices because he or she had a PhD behind their name. They must know what they're talking about. And then taking their stand there and end up ridiculing and mocking everything they were taught. Be careful. Be careful, Psalmist, is saying, don't start down that path. That is a secular worldview. But then there is the scriptural worldview. It's described in verse two, a biblical or scriptural worldview. This is focused on the law of God. Notice it in verse two. He's saying, blessing is the one who does not follow that progression in verse one, but verse two, whose delight is in the law of the Lord and who meditates on his law day and night. Notice the law is mentioned twice in that verse. So this worldview is scriptural. It is a worldview, a way of thinking about life, a way of forming your value system about life that is found in the word of God. Now the word law is used. And in much of the Old Testament, even in sometimes the New Testament, refers to the law of Moses, basically the first five books of the Bible. But in the poetic books like Psalms and Proverbs, it has a much broader reference. It refers to all of scripture, all of scripture that had been recorded up to that point. And so what we're talking about here is the word of God, all of scripture, all of the guidelines, the instructions of the word of God, form what you believe and how you live. Now he begins first of all by talking about your attitude toward the word of God. Notice it in verse two, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord. Delight means to respond joyfully and with an intense desire for. Okay, if you delight in the law of God, then you joyfully desire the word of God and you have an intense desire for the word of God. You love and have a great desire to read the word, to study the word, to know the word, and to live out the word. That becomes your passion. And that is what we need to inculcate into the hearts and lives of children and young people is this scriptural world view that delights in the Bible in the word of God and not in the council of the wicked, not in the world view arguments of the wicked, but in the word of God. Responsed joyfully and passionately with an intense desire to mold one's life after this book. That's the attitude of this scriptural world view. But then notice the actions of this scriptural world view, world view, right attitudes always lead to right actions and he describes the action in the middle of the verse and who meditates on his law day and night. Now here's the idea, your attitude will determine your action. If you have a certain attitude toward a person, for instance, if you love a person, if you delight in a person to use the scriptural word here, if you delight in a person, you want to be with them. You want to spend time with them. If you delight in a song, you want to sing it or as the case is with some of you, you want to hear it. Hopefully, if you delight in a book, you want to read it. If you delight in the word of God, then you want to meditate on it. Now that's the progression here in this verse. So that's not maybe the word you would expect is the word meditate. You might expect if you delight in the Bible, you want to read it or study it or live it out and all that's true, but the word the Psalmist picks out is the word meditate. If you delight in the word of God, you'll want to meditate in it. So we need to explore that word just a little bit more. What is meditation? Well, again in our culture, we've so twisted that concept that it has been influenced in all the media of the day by Eastern religions, more so than by the biblical concept. In Eastern religions, meditation is sitting in some kind of weird pretzel-like posture, rubbing your fingers together and quoting some mantra over and over again. The idea is basically to empty your mind. That's Eastern meditation, Eastern mysticism, and it's the very worst thing you can do because Satan loves a blank slate in an empty mind. He'll fill it with all kinds of stuff. That's completely the opposite of the Bible word meditate. It has nothing to do with that kind of Eastern religious type of meditation, transcendental meditation or Eastern religion. It has nothing to do with that. The word meditate literally means to murmur or mutter. That's the Hebrew word, to murmur or to mutter something. And the idea is that you murmur or mutter scripture. You meditate on his law day and night. You murmur or mutter scripture. You say, what in the world, John, are you talking about? Here's the idea. That you ponder and reflect on scripture all day and night. In other words, every waking moment of your life, you are thinking through life with a biblical mindset. You are reminding yourself of passages of scripture that you know or that you've read that morning. And so, for instance, maybe you read a passage in the morning. Here's a suggestion I would make. It's when I try to follow. I try to find two principles in my Bible reading every morning to meditate on. And what that means, one of them will be from Proverbs and one of them will be from whatever other passage I'm reading in. Right now it's Hosea, which is a little difficult to find principles to meditate on. But I was reading this morning about being a half-baked cake. And I thought, I don't want to go out here half-baked. So I've been meditating on that all day. But here's the idea. Find something in the Bible that you can think about. That jumps out at you, that God speaks to you and just think about that through the day. As you go through the day, ponder that thought, that principle, that verse that you've read, or maybe a verse you just know, and that God brings to your mind in a particular situation, you are meditating your way through the day. You're thinking scripturally. And what the Psalmist says is, blessed is the one who meditates, who mutters to himself or herself the word of God through the day, who murmurs the word of God through the day. Both day and night. And the subject of that pondering and reflecting, which is kind of like a muttering or a murmuring of reminding yourself of what you've read, the subject of that is the Bible. What we're talking about here is a purposeful immersion in the principles of Scripture that feeds you, that shapes your mind and your heart and keeps you from listening to the counsel of the wicked. So that when you hear something on the radio, or you hear something on the television or the news, or whatever, or you see something, when you pull up your email and you see your homepage and news is popping out at you, when you see something, you are thinking through that scripturally. You're responding to it's Scripture, and it's like there's a constant guard there that is keeping you against being infiltrated by the counsel of the wicked. It's a different worldview. There is a secular worldview and there is a scriptural worldview. And that's the contrast here, the two different ways of thinking that are described. So you've got two people, you've got two worldviews, then you've got the two lifestyles that come from these two worldviews. And this is where it really gets interesting. I'm going to just take the time to summarize it briefly. But in verses three and four, you have the results of the two different kinds of worldviews. And it results a worldview, results in a lifestyle. It results in the way you live your life. And what he focuses on here is the results of your lifestyle. What it will mean to you in your life. It's an amazing contrast. Verse three, that person, what person? The verse two person. The one who has the scriptural worldview, the one whose delight is in the law of the Lord who meditates on his all day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever they do, prosperous. Here's the godly lifestyle. The godly lifestyle is described with these five characteristics. Number one, stability. Stability. He is like a tree. She is like a tree planted planted. I've read that oak trees put down billions of acres across the world, but only a small fraction of them ever take root. Depends on what kind of soil they fall on, where they're carried by people, where they're taken by animals, all of those kinds of things. Only one in 10,000 will ever germinate to form an oak tree. The idea here is not of a seed that just kind of happens. It's one that is taken and purposefully planted. Person who has a scriptural mindset in worldview is like a tree planted. This seed didn't just fall somewhere and rolled down a hill and kind of halfway take root. If somebody took this seed and purposefully found a good place to plant it and carefully made sure that it would be given the best opportunity to take root and grow. Stability. That's the idea. Stability. Not just a wild oak wherever, but one that is planted. Second characteristic of a scripture worldview is nourishment planted by streams of water. The word for streams here is a word for irrigation canals. So there is a steady, dependable stream of water for this tree. It's purposefully planted in a place where it will constantly have nourishment. And when you live a biblical worldview, you have a stability about your life that constantly has spiritual nourishment coming to it. The third characteristic is fruitfulness, which yields its fruit in season. And what's the fruitfulness? What is the fruit of a stable, well nourished, Christian life? It is godly Christian character. It's the fruit of the spirit to use the New Testament idea. That's the fruit. It's fruitfulness of life and character. And that all happens in god's time. It happens in its season, yields its fruit in season. God has the right time for that character to be produced and developed and refined. Stability. Neurishment. Fruitfulness. Then endurance. And whose leaf does not wither. Endurance. The leaf of this tree of this lifestyle will not wither even in drought. It's not that it escapes the fluctuation in seasons, but whatever season hits it, this tree, this godly lifestyle produces endurance strength for the long haul. And then finally prosperity. Whatever they do, prosperous. That's not necessarily wealth. It's not necessarily material success. That was not in the thought of the writer here. The idea is God's blessing. He goes back to verse one. Blessed is the one. Blessed is the one. God's blessing is on that person. God's favor, God's smile is on that person. So a godly lifestyle, what's the result of a biblical worldview, stability, a life that is stable, nourishment, fruitfulness, endurance, prosperity, spiritual strength. I mean, this is all the result of having a biblical worldview. What is the result of the other kind of worldview that we saw described in verse one? A secular worldview. What does that promote? What does it lead to? Here's the sinful lifestyle in verse four. Notice how it's described. Not so the wicked. They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Chaff is the outer husk or shell around a kernel of wheat. Very familiar to Old Testament farmers. It was that empty shell. There are four characteristics of chaff that are completely the opposite of what we've just seen of a godly lifestyle. First of all, it is rootless. Chaff cannot put down roots, be planted and grow. It has no capacity for roots, and so it is not stable like a tree. So rootless. Secondly, it is dry. There's no real nourishment in chaff. It's not like a tree that's planted by streams of water. Irrigation ditch constantly has nourishment. There's no nourishment in chaff. Thirdly, it is weightless. It's empty. It's vain. There is no real substance. In a wicked lifestyle, it leaves you empty as we saw over and over and over again in Ecclesiastes. And then the fourth characteristic, it is useless. It has no good use. In a lifestyle that is lived apart from the Bible, has no lasting value. I once read a quote from the actress and singer. I don't know what all she does. Share from sunny and share days. That's what she said when she turned 50. She gave an interview to someone talking about her new 14,000 square foot house on the ocean in Malibu. Here's what she said. I'm growing older. I hate my 50s. They, and she uses a few choice words about them. I never felt older until I hit 50. When you turn this age, possibilities are fewer. You've been there, done that. You've bought the t-shirt. You've bought the poster. You've been the poster. And then you have to figure new creative ways to stay vital and interesting and have new dreams. Maybe next time I'll come back as a cowboy. Next time I'll do better. Did that sound empty to you? Here's someone who's had it all. Experienced it all. But that sounds like to me a rootless tree. It's a rootless, dry, weightless, useless existence. And that's all it is when you discard a biblical worldview. That's all you get. Now quickly, let's end with this. What are the two destinations versus five and six? Where do these two roads lead? If you take the road of the wicked, which leads to an ungodly lifestyle, world view that is secular and ungodly lost, where are you going to end up? Or if you take the way of the righteous, delight in the law of God and meditate in it day and night, let it guide your life, find that stability and so forth of character. Where does that end up? Two very, very different destinations. Look first of all, the righteous in verse six. For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous. Some translations say the Lord knows the way of the righteous. And I love the way the NIV translates it because the word no is not just intellectual knowledge or information. It does really have to do with intimate knowledge to care about, to identify with, to protect, to provide for and to bring them home, to watch over is a great way to express it. The Lord watches over the way of the righteous and ultimately through all of life's difficulties and ups and downs, setbacks and whatever it may be through all of those ultimately God brings us to our home because he watches over our way. He knows the individual and he knows the way he watches over the individual and he watches over the way and like the Psalmist will say in Psalm 236, surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. That's the destination. The Lord watches over the way, the road leading to a destination of the righteous. But what about the wicked, the end of our six, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction, to perishing. Literally the word means to wander off away from the flock and to be in danger with disaster waiting to overtake you. That's the picture here for this shepherding culture. It's one who has wandered off away from the truth and is in great danger and disaster is ready to overtake them. What does that look like back in verse five, two things, a collapse before the judgment of God and an expulsion from God's people. This is the end result of the way of the wicked. Notice a collapse before the judgment of God. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment. Literally a collapse before the judgment of God. You see, when the wicked stand before God, it may not be clear in this life while they're doing pretty well. They're alive and things of this life are going pretty well. They're building 14,000 square foot homes on Malibu Beach in California. Wow. Yeah. It may not look like it here, but from God's perspective, there's no future, there's no hope. From God's perspective, who is holy and who's wrath and righteous indignation will burst forth against the wicked in the day of judgment. They will not stand before God. It is a horrifying, terrible thought, unable to stand, unable to rise back to your feet. Judged by God, collapsed before his judgment, but then expulsion from the people of God, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. The wicked will not stand in judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. Being cast out from God and his people is the ultimate destination of the wicked. Unable to stand before God in judgment and cast out into what the Bible describes later in the New Testament as a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth, a place of eternal torment and punishment. Apart from God and apart from the assembly of the righteous. This is a warning. This opening to the wisdom book of Psalms is a warning of the ultimate foolishness in life. There are only two roads to choose from, and you have to choose which one. Toge, I'd get back to Robert Frost. He ends his poem, The Road Less Taken This Way. I shall be telling this with a sigh, somewhere ages and ages hence, two roads diverged in a wood and I. I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. The one less traveled by kind of brings back to my mind what Jesus said, but the small gate that leads to the narrow way and few there be that find it. That's the road less traveled. Few there be that travel that way, but it will make all the difference, all the difference to you. Two people, two world views leading to two lifestyles, ultimately leading to two destinations. Make sure you choose your road carefully. Let's pray. Father, thank you that your word is so clear and compelling and powerful. To instruct us and to warn us, may we be sensitive and listen to that warning. May we avoid the way of the wicked, choose the way of the righteous. May we train our children after us to understand and know those two ways, the two world views, the two lifestyles they lead to, the two destinations they end up in. And Jesus' name we pray, amen.