Psalm 1 begins: “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the path of the sinners, or sit in the seat of the scornful.” In Hebrew there is a 3-fold repetition of the word “lo”, which means “not.” Although it is not always translated this way, it stands before each of the three main verbs in this verse: “Blessed is the man who does NOT walk in the counsel of the wicked, who does NOT stand in the path of sinners, who does NOT sit in the seat of the scornful.” It is very emphatic: “NOT … NOT … NOT …”.

This should be instructive to us.

While we should not limit ourselves as followers of the Lord to being known only for what we do NOT do (the infamous: “don’t smoke, don’t chew, don’t run with girls who do …”) yet the 3-fold promise of God’s blessing here in Psalm 1 IS for the one who does “NOT … NOT … NOT …” do these things! Although we should try to avoid being “negative Nellies”, there are times — in fact oftentimes in an evil society — when we must say “no” to evil associations and practices. It IS good — even necessary — that we avoid certain things in order to obtain the greatest blessings God has for us!