How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
But his delight is in the law [torah] of Yahweh,
And in His law [torah] he meditates day and night.
He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers.The wicked are not so,
But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
For Yahweh knows the way of the righteous,
But the way of the wicked will perish.
I remember hearing a sermon on this Psalm preached by Ralph Davis, my pastor at Woodland Presbyterian, a number of years ago. I was impressed with his summary statement. Early in the sermon, he emphasized that the reason this Psalm is at the front end of the Psalter is to throw emphasis on how important it is that we belong to the congregation of the righteous. To us, Psalms 100, 103, 95, 23, or even 73 might seem like much more natural fits for the opening of a book of praise. God in His Spirit saw things differently.
In the opening of the Psalter we are encouraged to think on the stark (and eternal) differences between the wicked and the righteous, and prompted to examine ourselves to see if we belong to the latter group or not. What are the characteristics of the righteous? He is, first of all, blessed. He is happy in God. Why? The ground of this blessing is given in the progression illustrated in the first three lines – he is blessed who does not “walk,” “stand,” or “sit” in this way or in this company. I am reminded here of the parallel from Deuteronomy 6, the command to teach God’s ways to one’s children when we lie down, when we stand up, when we walk by the way – poetic longhand for “at all times and in all life’s affairs from small to great.” The righteous doesn’t walk according to wicked counsel – the direction of his life comes from God, which we will see illustrated below. He does not stand in the path, or the way, of sinners – his behavior is not like theirs. He doesn’t sit in the seat of the scoffer – in other words, he doesn’t belong to that group or associate himself with them. A primary characteristic of the righteous (and happy) man is that he is separated; we first learn about him by understanding who he is not and what he doesn’t do.
But what does the righteous man do, and what is the result? In God’s law he meditates continually. The Hebrew word we translate “law” here is torah, which is broader in meaning than “the direct commands of God.” Torah refers to all the revelation of God to men – narrative history, wisdom, and even the Psalter itself. We get the idea here that God’s revealed truth is something the righteous man mulls over all the time. Perhaps the stories, commands and proverbs are running through his mind (and over his lips) the way popular radio songs run through ours. I think that ought to make us stop, by the way, and consider our own habits. Why? Consider the third verse.
The results of his meditation are shown by a simile: He will be like a tree planted by a stream – he bears fruit and his works prosper. Obviously, we are being given the brief summary from the divine perspective and not the day-to-day details of the life of the righteous. The Psalmist knows we may read those elsewhere in the Scriptures. He is concerned to give us the big picture because it is necessary for us to keep that vision in view through the storms that will come. The righteous bears fruit and prospers – strong trees weather storms. We must not ignore what, in the Psalmist’s view, gives strength to the tree: continual meditation on the thoughts of God given to men.
The contrasting picture of the wicked is as brief as it is desperate. He is emphatically “not so!” He is not a tree, nor even a sheaf of wheat, but chaff, driven by the wind. His life is, in the end, not substantial; no fruit is borne, and, as we read elsewhere, his end is to be burned. In contrast to the righteous, notice what the wicked lack (again, I’m remembering Davis’ sermon here):
They are not justified before God (they will not stand in the judgment).
They do not commune with God or His people (sinners will not be in the assembly of the righteous).
They have no hope (their way will perish, or lead them to destruction).
If we can’t hear it clearly enough yet, the Psalmist is saying to us, “You don’t want to be one of them! They are NOT blessed – on the contrary, they’re unhappy, unjustified, alienated, and ultimately damned!” Are you part of the congregation of the righteous? There remains one final encouragement from the Psalmist to ensure that you are: Yahweh knows the way of the righteous. He is intimately acquainted with those who love Him, and He designs, oversees, acts in and works in their way from beginning to end. The righteous, who love Yahweh’s torah, will not be forsaken.
Are we a part of that congregation? How do we know? We can start by heeding the opening words of the Psalter: how do we walk? Where do we stand? With whom do we sit? And what is the meditation of our hearts by day and night? Our walk will confirm to us our end. If we would bear the peaceful fruit of righteousness, and if we would sing the praises of God with His people, we must carefully consider where we stand in light of the Psalmist’s preface of admonition. First things first.