The Psalms 1: The Way of the Righteous and the End of the Wicked

I don't know how long this is going to take, and I don't know how frequently it's going to come out, but I feel the need to work my way through the Psalms with you and let ourselves reflect and be uplifted.

We'll read through the Psalms and we'll look at what each verse means and what the whole thought of the Psalm means. And I'm sure I'll miss things. Maybe others can bring up their own revelations.

We'll read through the verses that we'll be looking at so that we can get the whole scope of the writing. Then we can go over each individual verse, and see what we can gather. After that, we'll step back and look at the overall, larger meaning.

This will probably evolve over time, but this is what it's going to look like at the start. So... let's start!

1 Blessed is the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of the sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
3 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.
4 The ungodly are not so,
But are like the chaff which the wind drives away.
5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment,
Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
6 For the LORD knows the way of the righteous,
But the way of the ungodly shall perish.

The Psalms are amazing, and full of so much knowledge. This, at first, can seem so basic. This, at first, can seem like empty words on the page. But... look a little deeper.

The translation used above is the New King James Version. As we look a little bit closer at each verse I'm going to switch over to the Complete Jewish Bible (CJB) translation.

1 How blessed are those
who reject the advice of the wicked,
don't stand on the way of sinners
or sit where scoffers sit!

I'll be honest, the reason I chose the CJB here is because the way it starts reminds me of the movie The Life of Brian (admittedly, this movie can be viewed as blasphemous this shouldn't necessarily be viewed as an endorsement of the movie), and how when Jesus is shown delivering the Sermon on the Mount he starts every blessing by saying "How blessed are those..." instead of the more prevelant "Blessed are the...". OK, onto what the verse is actually saying!

This all seems pretty clear but how often do we actual pay attention to this as we go about our life? How often do we actively reject the advice of the wicked, and get out of the way of sinners. This second part is an active choice. If you've taken a stance and sinners are coming to your position, make sure the world know that you are not associated with them. Don't give people the opportunity to confuse you with the wicked. Sometimes this can be a painful choice to make. I mean, you were there first, right? But we are to be a shining light, so when we go into the world we are to bring the Light of the world with us, not have Him dimmed because we try to fit in with the wickedness around us.

And when we read "or sit where scoffers sit," we need to make sure that we're not using this to justify never interacting with those outside of covenant. If we're seeking to mimic our walk after that of Jesus then we need to see that it's OK to spend time with sinners. We just need to make sure that we're not becoming the world while we're in it.

2 Their delight
is in ADONAI's Torah;
on his Torah they meditate
day and night.

As Christians we're often led to believe that the Torah is bondage so we should probably unpack this a little bit. First of all, yes, the word translated in the NKJV a law is the Hebrew word Torah (תּורה). And, yes, the all caps words LORD and ADONAI both come from Hebrew word YHVH (Yehovah, Yahweh, Yahuah..., but most traditions just don't want to pronounce the actual name of God in heaven - not to mention that there's really no consensus on how to actually pronounce the name of God - so the capitalize the word "lord"). So this verse, describing the person who steps aside from sinners, and won't take advice from the wicked, is saying that the flip-side of this coin is someone who delight's in the law of the Father and meditates on it constantly.

If you're like me you may be thinking about how little you actually think about the Torah. But this is what the verse says, and I can't change it. Maybe we should dig into the word Torah a little bit. Though it is usually translated as "law" a more accurate translation according to a modern understanding of the words would be "instructions". It is true that the first five books of the Bible are traditionally called The Torah, but I'll leave it between you and God as to whether this verse is talking strictly about the first five books of the Bible, or if it's simply saying that the blessed man will meditate on the instructions of the Father. Now, it should be noted that, either way, it still has to be talking about the Old Testament instructions of the Father. That doesn't sound like "bondage", does it. Frankly, I'm still trying to find the place in the Bible where the Torah is ever called bondage. But we're often told that it's bondage. My suggestion is that maybe we need to start to think differently about what "the Law" is, and what it isn't. If "the Law" is something that we're supposed to delight in, maybe the answer is a little bit deeper than we're often led to believe.

This subject deserves a much bigger unpacking and going into it too much further while looking at the first Psalm isn't really going to do it justice, so let's move on to the next verse. But if anyone wants a deeper exploration, maybe we can do that later.

3 They are like trees planted by streams -
they bear their fruit in season,
their leaves never whither,
everything they do succeeds.

So those who focus on the instructions of the Father are like a tree planted by a stream. How often do we just feel spiritually parched? How often does it feel like chaos is happening all around us? Is it possible that it feels like this because we're hanging out around chaos?

4 Not so the wicked,
who are like chaff driven by the wind

Here's the time for honesty: does your life feel more like verse 3 or verse 4? Too often, my life is more verse 4 than it is verse 3. But the more I ground myself in the instructions of God, the more I'm able to feel calm and fruitful, even though chaos may be raging all around me.

5 For this reason the wicked
won't stand up to the judgment,
nor will sinners
at the gathering of the righteous.

This translation here brings a thought to mind. Most translations for this verse use the word "congregation" instead of "gathering". There are a few translations that use the word "assembly" instead of "congregation" and I think that assembly is probably a better choice. (Not that I'm a Hebrew scholar, or anything...) The issue is that, to our modern brain, the word "congregation" isn't really thought of anymore as anything other than "the church". Whereas, "assembly" can be the people in the church, but it's also an active descriptive term. So when you're reading a verse about the wicked being judged it may make sense to relate that to the actual judgment of sinners during the end times. I'll admit that this is mostly speculation but I think that the assembly or gathering spoken of here may be referring to the same gathering we read about in the New Testament (Matt 24:31,2 Thes 2:1...). The "gathering" in the New Testament is another name for what is commonly referred to as 'the rapture'. I won't go into the different viewpoints on the timing of the rapture (though if anyone talks to me about it they'll certainly get the idea that I'm fairly passionate about it) but I do want to open the discussion on whether this verse should be viewed in an eschatological context.

6 For ADONAI watches over
the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked
is doomed.

If, as we discussed pertaining to the previous verse, this is actually talking about an end-times judgment, this verse a little more significant than it may at first appear. As we get closer every day to the great and terrible Day of the LORD, it should be comforting to know that the very same LORD who will be divvying out judgment is the same LORD who is watching over the righteous. And while we know that there is no righteous man alive (Rom 3:10, Ecc 7:20), we also know that we have been made righteous through the Justification given to us upon entering into covenant with God through the sacrifice of Jesus. And by the power of the Holy Spirit we are able to walk in right standing with God and keep His commands (Rom 8:4). Talk about a 'comforter'...

And there you have it, we finally made it through six verses. Now I get to start diving into the second psalm. I'll meet you back here soon and we can dig in all over again.

Shalom!

Below is a link to the original post:

http://thepoiema.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-psalms-1-way-of-righteous-and-end.html