Counsel of the Ungodly

Pastor Martin introduces Psalm 1 as a foundational didactic psalm describing the way of blessedness, contrasting it with the way of ungodliness. He outlines the psalm's structure, explains why the negative precedes the positive in Scripture, and begins examining the first phrase: 'walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly,' showing that the counsel of the wicked is rooted in a man-centered perspective that excludes God, actively opposes Him, and assumes human self-sufficiency.

Continuing the exposition of 'walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly,' Pastor Martin identifies the mass media of communication -- television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and advertising -- as a primary channel through which ungodly counsel reaches believers. He exposes four philosophies permeating the mass media: materialism, sensualism, moral relativism, and anti-God intellectualism, and offers practical counsel for guarding oneself and one's family against their subtle influence.

Pastor Martin contrasts the counsel of ungodly materialism with the blessed man who meditates in the law of God. Drawing from Genesis through the Epistles, he demonstrates that things were never meant to bring blessedness, that sin has deceived man into thinking otherwise, and that judgment falls on those who pursue blessedness through material accumulation. He shows practically how the blessed man receives and relinquishes things according to God's will, using Job and the Apostle Paul as examples.

Addressing the philosophy of sensualism that permeates the mass media, Pastor Martin shows from Scripture that sensual pleasure was never meant to be the basis of blessedness, that sin enters when men seek it outside God's will, and that judgment falls on those who do. He rejects both the sensualist extreme and the ascetic extreme, teaching instead that God created man's sensual capacities as good gifts to be received with thanksgiving, subjected to God's laws of glory, moderation, and purity, and regulated in light of remaining sin.

After a nine-week digression, Pastor Martin resumes the Psalm 1 series by identifying secular education as a second major channel through which ungodly counsel reaches believers. He outlines five philosophical pillars of secular education -- the supremacy of man's mind, man's normalcy, a world of chance, man's good as the goal, and this world as the exclusive sphere of concern -- and contrasts each with the corresponding biblical principle. He urges believers to pray for a purgation of secularism from their minds and to saturate themselves and their children with the biblical worldview.