"The ungodly are notso." That "not" contains the germs of all moral disaster. We have set forth under this figure three aspects of the ungodly character.
I. Its instability. Take a life away from God, and you take from it unity of impulse. Passion, pride, selfishness, drive it hither and thither as the winds drive the dismantled ship. Nowhere but in God does man find a consistent law.
II. Its worthlessness. Chaff! The wind drives it away, and the husbandman is glad to have it driven away. An ungodly life is a worthless life, because, whatever it may be, however busy and bustling, it is not so.It is not used under God's direction and for God's uses.
III. Its insecurity. The contrast is between the tree, safe in its enclosure by the watercourses, watched and tended by the gardener, its fruits safe from the plunderer, and the chaff, loosely lying on the exposed threshing-floor, where the first blast can drive it no one cares whither. How safe is the man who abides in God, while he who puts himself outside of the restraints of Divine law forfeits likewise its protection.
M. R. Vincent, Gates into the Psalm Country,p. 21.
Reference: Psalms 1:6. G. Matheson, Moments on the Mount,p. 10.