“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor
stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his
delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he mediates day and
night. He shall be like a tree planted by
the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also
shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper. The ungodly are not so, but are like the
chaff which the wind drives away..Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the
judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the ungodly shall perish.”-Psalm 1 (NKJV).
Psalm
1 provides a timely introduction to the whole Psalter. A wisdom psalm, its theme is the blessedness
of the righteous compared to the character and destiny of the wicked. It is fitting that this Psalm is a
beatitude. It begins by describing the
condition of the blessed man and listing his characteristics. He does not take advice (counsel) from the
ungodly. He does not associate (stand)
with sinners. He is not scornful of
others. His delight is in God’s law. A striking simile likens him to a strong tree
beside a water supply that bears fruit in season and does not wither or fade
away. Furthermore, the righteous knows
success in his undertakings.
Compared
to the righteous man, the wicked man is like chaff and is easily influenced to
evil, just as the wind drives the chaff away.
When the Psalmist says that “the
ungodly shall not stand in the judgment,” he does not mean that he will not
receive judgment in the final reckoning of God’s time of separating the good
from the evil. Rather, the meaning is
that when that judgment comes, the ungodly and his works will not stand—will
not pass the test. At the last judgment,
Jesus will say to the wicked, “I never
knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness” (Matthew 7:23,
NKJV).
On
the farm when I was a child, my father grew wheat and rye. The threshers would come to our farm when the
grain was ripe and harvested to thresh it, leaving a large pile of fragrant
straw. The grain was gathered into bins,
but before it was stored, because the old threshing machines could not get all
the chaff out of the grain, we would have to allow the wind to help with
separating the chaff from the wheat. I
can see my father and other adults, with the thick threshing sheet on the
ground, holding a vat of grain tilted on their shoulder and allowing it to fall
slowly onto the sheet. As the wind blew,
the chaff would separate from the grain and blow away. The grain was then ready to store and would
be used to take to mill for our own flour, or some of the grain would be fed to
animals on the farm. The separation of
the wheat from the chaff was a necessary procedure, one that took care and
attention from the farmer. Likewise, in
the judgment, the godly and ungodly will be separated, as the chaff was
separated from the wheat.
The
righteous are blessed. The ungodly will
perish. This is as clear a statement as
we can find of the destinies of the good and the evil. The word “knows” as used in verse 6: “the
Lord knows the way of the
righteous” is used in the sense that God has chosen to enter into a
covenant relationship with people and only the righteous have responded to and
reciprocate that covenant bond. Because
the godly have responded to God, He knows,
cherishes, and allows the righteous to stand. The
relationship is offered to all, but only those who choose to enter into it can
be saved. We need to be sure “our calling and election are secure. Moreover, we need to witness to others to
help them come into this godly relationship with the Lord.
No comments:
Post a Comment