Psalms 1:6

6. The Lord knoweth Recognises its excellent nature and worthiness of approval and reward. Comp. note on “foreknow,” Romans 8:29.

Shall perish What is predicated of the way here applies to the ungodly. The Hebrew word “perish” is a strong word, occurring about one hundred and seventy times; about sixty times translated destroy, a few times lost, but otherwise almost always as in this text. When used of persons it generally signifies death; when used of lands, desolation. It denotes, not annihilation, but the destruction of things as to their uses and ends, and of men as to their plans, expectations, and enjoyments. The law of antithetic parallelism requires us to understand it here as the exact opposite of the reward of the righteous; and the scope of the argument refers us to the final and inevitable judgment of God in the next life. It is the ultimate issue of the two ways and the two characters which is the point aimed at and reached. To suppose them both equal in the final issue is a flat contradiction of the whole psalm, the first word of which is ashrey, blessed, applied to the godly man, and the last word, tobheyd, shall perish, applied to the ungodly, as in Psalms 112:1; Psalms 112:10. The Hebrew words are as opposite as heaven and hell.