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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comTreasury of David - Psalms 1:4 - 1:4
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4 The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
We have now come to the second head of the Psalm. In this verse the contrast of the ill estate of the wicked is employed to heighten the colouring of that fair and pleasant picture which precedes it. The more forcible translation of the Vulgate and of the Septuagint version is - “Not so the ungodly, not so.†And we are hereby to understand that whatever good thing is said of the righteous is not true in the case of the ungodly. Oh! how terrible is it to have a double negative put upon the promises! and yet this is just the condition of the ungodly. Mark the use of the term “ungodly,†for, as we have seen in the opening of the Psalm, these are the beginners in evil, and are the least offensive of sinners. Oh! if such is the sad state of those who quietly continue in their morality, and neglect their God; what must be the condition of open sinners and shameless infidels? The first sentence is a negative description of the ungodly, and the second is the positive picture. Here is their character - “they are like chaff,†intrinsically worthless, dead, unserviceable, without substance, and easily carried away. Here, also, mark their doom - “The wind driveth away;†death shall hurry them with its terrible blast into the fire in which they shall be utterly consumed.