Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PSALM 1, by                    
First Line: Happy the man that doth not walk
Last Line: Shall by his hand be overthrown.
Subject(s): Love - Marital; Wedded Love; Marriage - Love


HAPPY the man that doth not walk
In wicked counsels, nor hath lent
His glad ear to the railing talk
Of scorners, nor his prompt steps bent
To wicked paths, where sinners went.

But, to those safer tracts confin'd,
Which God's law-giving finger made,
Never withdraws his weari'd mind
From practice of that holy trade,
By noonday's sun or midnight's shade.

Like the fair plant whom neighbouring floods
Refresh, whose leaf feels no decays;
That not alone with flattering buds,
But early fruits, his Lord's hope pays:
So shall he thrive in all his ways.

But the loose sinner shall not share
So fix'd a state; like the light dust
That up and down the empty air
The wild wind drives with various gust,
So shall cross-fortunes toss the unjust.

Therefore, at the last Judgment-day,
The trembling sinful soul shall hide
His confus'd face, nor shall he stay
Where the elected troops abide,
But shall be chas'd far from their side.

For the clear paths of righteous men
To the all-seeing Lord are known;
But the dark maze and dismal den,
Where sinners wander up and down,
Shall by his hand be overthrown.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net