True spiritual strength and blessing come from walking closely with God and refusing to be shaped by the thinking and influence of the world. Psalm 1 lays out a clear contrast between the life that is rooted in God’s truth and the life that is pulled away by ungodly counsel and sinful influence. The believer who desires God’s blessing must guard his thinking, his associations, and the direction of his daily walk.
The passage also shows a dangerous downward progression. First a person begins listening to ungodly counsel, then standing in the way of sinners, and eventually becoming comfortable sitting among the scornful. Sin and worldly thinking gradually pull the believer away from close fellowship with God. But the person who delights in God’s Word and walks in His ways will be spiritually rooted like a tree planted by rivers of water, finding strength, stability, and true blessedness in the Lord.