The Preface Psalm

 

"Sinners cannot live in heaven. They would be out of their element.
Sooner could a fish live upon a tree than the wicked in paradise."
-Charles Spurgeon
(1834-1892)
English clergyman

Jesus Teaching The Sermon on the Mount

Bill Bell

This has been called "The Preface Psalm" because in some respects
it may be considered the text upon which the whole of the Psalms
make up a divine sermon.  It opens with a benediction,
"Blessed" as does our Lord's Sermon on the Mount. (Matt 5:3)
-The Amplified Bible

PSALM ONE

Blessed, happy fortunate, prosperous, and enviable, is
the man who walks and lives not in the counsel of the ungodly,
following their advice, their plans, and purposes,  nor stands,
submissive and inactive, in the path where sinners walk, nor
 sits down to relax and rest where the scornful, the mockers, gather.

But his delight and desire are in the law of the Lord and on His law,
the precepts, the instructions, the teachings of God, he habitually mediates,
ponders and studies, by day and by night.

And he shall be like a tree firmly planted and tended by the streams
of water, ready to bring forth its fruit in its season; its leaf also shall
not fade or wither; and everything he does shall prosper and come to maturity.

Not so the wicked, those disobedient and living without God, are not so.
But they are like the chaff, worthless, dead, without substance,
which the wind drives away.

Therefore the wicked, those disobedient and living without God,
shall not stand justified in the judgment, nor sinners in the
 congregation of the righteous, those who are upright,
 and in right standing with God.

For the Lord knows and is fully acquainted with the way of the righteous,
but the way of the ungodly, those living outside of God's will, 
 shall perish, end in ruin, and come to naught."

ROMANS 8:10-13

"But if Christ lives in you, then although your natural body is dead
by reason of sin and guilt, the spirit is alive because
of the righteousness that He imputes to you.

And if the Spirit of Him Who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells
in you, then He Who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also
restore to life your mortal, short-lived, perishable bodies, 
through His Spirit Who dwells in you.

So then, brethren, we are debtors, but not to the flesh, we are not
obligated to our carnal nature, to live a life ruled by the standards
set up by the dictates of the flesh.

For if you live according to the dictates of the flesh, you will
surely die. But, if through the power of the Holy Spirit you are
habitually putting to death, making extinct, deadening, the
evil deeds prompted by the body, you shall really and
genuinely live forever."