BOOK I
The Way to Happiness
1 God blesses those people
who refuse evil advice
and won't follow sinners
or join in sneering at God.
2 Instead, they find happiness
in the Teaching of the Lord,
and they think about it
day and night.
3 They are like trees
growing beside a stream,
trees that produce
fruit in season
and always have leaves.
Those people succeed
in everything they do.
4 That isn't true of those
who are evil—
they are like straw
blown by the wind.
5 Sinners won't have an excuse
on the day of judgment,
and they won't have a place
with the people of God.
6 The Lord protects everyone
who follows him,
but the wicked follow a road
that leads to ruin.
1 Blessed is the man that doeth not walke in the counsell of the wicked, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in ye seate of the scornefull: 2 But his delite is in the Lawe of the Lord, and in his Lawe doeth he meditate day and night. 3 For he shall be like a tree planted by the riuers of waters, that will bring foorth her fruite in due season: whose leafe shall not fade: so whatsoeuer he shall doe, shall prosper. 4 The wicked are not so, but as the chaffe, which the winde driueth away. 5 Therefore the wicked shall not stande in the iudgement, nor sinners in the assemblie of the righteous. 6 For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, and the way of the wicked shall perish.