Blessed is the person who does not walk in step with the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or sit in the company of mockers.
Walk, stand, sit. These verbs made me think that this is often the recipe for a person's sliding into compromise: first we kind of allow our steps to move in the wrong direction (walk), then we find that we don't pass on by but actually linger (stand) in the place of temptation or sin. And finally, we begin to settle (we sit) and the wrong attitude or behaviour becomes mores of a permanent way of life. As as example of that, I remember the testimony of a friend who told of his battle with pornography. He lived near the red light district of Amsterdam and his problem started when he allowed himself to walk past the sex shops and cast a furtive sideways glance. From there it became less subtle; he would occasionally stop/stand and look in the window. And before too many years had gone by, he found himself on the inside, sitting watching the X rated movies. It took a long struggle and much prayer before he could testify that God had freed him from that addiction.
His example is probably an obvious one, but the principle is true of any wrong thinking or behaviour - negativity, judgement, gossip and criticism, self pity, over-spending or over-eating, watching unhelpful stuff on TV…. If we begin to venture in that wrong direction, we might gradually find that we linger a while, and eventually realise with a shock that we've "settled" into a way of acting or a way of thinking that is not honouring to God.
The Psalmist continues, in that well known first psalm, by reminding us that the Word of God will be our protection against such a slippery slide into compromise. Our meditating on the Bible will give us strong roots, like a healthy tree planted by fresh water,
