Psalm 01

Updated
2001-05-26; 14:32:49utc

PSALM ONE

The Book of Psalms opens with a beatitude, like the Sermon on the Mount, which our Lord preached. This is no coincidence, because, not only did Jesus live by the Word of God and make it His daily bread, to the point that His words were laced with quotations from the Old Testament, but the whole Old Testament also derives its value from the death and resurrection of the Messiah.

The exclamation with which the psalm opens, "Blessed!" could be better translated with "O, the blessedness ....!" TLB captures this with the rendering: "O, the joys of those ...."

The word "blessed" has a strong materialistic connotation in the Old Testament. It was expressed in terms of material prosperity, in oil, wine and success. This does not mean that blessedness and prosperity are considered identical. Meaning of the word.

In the New Testament blessing is the result of fellowship with God. In this psalm the word blessed has that meaning.

It is remarkable that the Book of Psalms begins with this exclamation. "Blessedness" is the key to open this hymnal; it is the beginning, the purpose, and the contents of the whole book.

It is true that, in a sense, this places man in the center. The Book of Psalms is the human expression of the whole spectrum of emotions of fellowship with God. There are prophetic parts in the Book of Psalm, where God speaks to man; but in most of the book man is speaking. It is inconceivable that man, who rebelled against God, can address God and say something that has meaning. Only redeemed man can do this. Blessedness is, therefore, the beginning and the basis of most of the psalms.

The life of the psalmist is based on blessedness. The exclamation, "O, the blessedness ...," therefore, is not an expression of desire to be blessed, but to maintain the status of being blessed. The question here is not, "how can a man be saved?" but: "how should a redeemed person live?"

Two kinds of people are mentioned in this psalm: the man who is saved and who wants to confirm his salvation, and the man who turns away from salvation and who willfully and purposely rejects this salvation. Holiness of life begins, in the first place, with the drawing of a line of separation between one person and another. This does not mean keeping one's distance from certain people, but withdrawing from the spiritual powers that influence those people. He who has said "Yes" to God has to keep on saying "No" to the devil. This "No" consists in a confrontation between the devil and the Word of God. We should never enter into a dialogue with the enemy and use our own words, but always answer him with the Word of God. When Jesus was tempted by the devil in the desert, He answered with the words: "It is written… "^¹ The Word of God is the sword of the Spirit.² That is why a person should have his delight in the law of the Lord. Our attitude towards the Word of God is a decisive factor in our sanctification.

"Walking in the counsel" speaks about how a man expresses his philosophy of life in his everyday living. It is living out our faith, or the lack of it. We are what we do. It is impossible to confess with the mouth to be a Christian and to follow the customs of people who do not recognize God in their lives. Salvation pertains to our way of life and walking with God means having fellowship with Him. It means sharing our secrets with Him, and His sharing of His secrets with us. As David says in Psalm 25, "The LORD confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them," or in the rendering of the KJV: "The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant."³ This was the kind of life Enoch and Noah led. The Bible says about them that they "walked with God."⁴ "The council of the wicked" is the life of a man who goes his own way. This does not necessarily imply atheism. There probably were very few atheists, if any, in David's time. Anyone, however, who does not trust the Lord with all his heart and who does not acknowledge him in all his ways, does not know what salvation and blessedness is.⁵

In our use of language, "to walk" has a connotation of relaxation. The first verse of this psalm issues a warning against a lack of openness and intimacy with God. After our conversion, this walk is the greatest priority for our spiritual growth. Walking also means progress. A lack of openness and fellowship with the Lord means stagnation. This is expressed in the second line of the psalm. If we do not progress in our fellowship with God we find ourselves immediately in the presence of sinners. When one keeps God out of his life, he becomes automatically a sinner. An act of sin is the result of a broken fellowship. Just as the presence of the soul in the body keeps the body from decomposing, so the Holy Spirit protects us from sin. If we do not busy ourselves with the law of the Lord, we stagnate and find ourselves on the road that will, eventually, lead to perdition. A man's acts determine his course in life and our fellowship with God, or the lack of it, determine our acts.

A person who sits down has given up in the struggle for advance. A scoffer has turned against God. Scoffing is a kind of self-defense. Even the way the sitting of the scoffers is portrayed implies a conspiracy. So is the beatitude of vs. 1 at the same time a warning that the man who separates himself from God and His Word, will gradually become worse. Scoffing is a form of entertainment which makes fun of someone. It is a lesser evil if a person shakes his fist at God than it is to mock Him. Scoffing implies superiority over the object that is being mocked. The lowest point in the history of man was the mocking of our Lord Jesus Christ by the Romans and the Jews. The apostle Paul warns us: "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked."⁶ A person who mocks God has lost sight of all proportions. He has reached the deepest point of stagnation.

Over against the fun of the mocker stands the delight of the man who loves the law of the Lord. The poet who wrote this psalm had only the Pentateuch at his disposal, but, obviously, "the law of the Lord" stands for the whole of Scripture. Our walk in life is determined by our attitude toward the Bible. That is why it is so important to have a correct understanding about the inspiration and authority of the Word of God. In this psalm, however, much more is at stake than orthodox convictions. The Bible ought to be our joy of living. We ought to delight in reading it. As a young Christian I went through a struggle in accepting the Bible as a whole as the Word of God. I was shackled by intellectual and emotional prejudices. Reading Billy Graham's testimony tipped the balance for me. It took an act of the will to accept this. But even after that, I did not immediately begin with a systematic study of the Bible. The devil seems to keep his sharpest darts to attack people who have made up their minds to immerse themselves in the Word of God. Sin entered the world with an attack upon the Word of God. I have come to the conclusion that, if I place myself upon the basis of unconditional acceptance of the Bible as the Word of God, most intellectual and emotional objections melt away as snow does befor the sun. Another basis would make obedience to the Word something that goes against the grain of our being. Obedience is founded upon love, and love is fed by the Word of God.

Meditating upon the Word suggests memorization. The average Israelite in David's time was, most likely, illiterate. That fact would make memorization imperative. Our memory suffers from too much reading. In order to meditate on the law day and night, one would have to know it by heart. Memorization saturates us with the Word of God, and this strengthens and deepens our fellowship with the Lord, and it makes us Christians who can defend themselves against the onslaughts of the enemy. It also deepens our knowledge of the Word. One can never be finished in his study of the Bible. Texts, phrases, and words acquire a richer meaning as we ponder them. The law is not a dead letter but a sharp sword, that penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.⁷ Paul says: "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly." It will enrich our relationship with our fellowmen ("as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom,") and it will have a positive influence upon our relationship with God, ("as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.")⁸ It will give us motivation in what we do: "And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."⁹ This is the kind of activity that will cleanse and sanctify our lives. As Jesus said to His disciples: "You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you."¹⁰ And, "Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth."¹¹ Oh, the blessedness of the person who meditates on the Word of God!

The result of this being saturated with the Word of God has already been examined in the first two verses in a negative way: it keeps us from sinning and isolates us from the fellowship of sinful men. God's Word is an antidote against peer pressure. The positive aspect is painted in vs. 3. The keyword in this verse is "success," "Whatever he does prospers." The man of God is compared with a tree that grows under ideal circumstances and that reaches its goal in life. It is a beautiful and meaningful image. In reality trees and humans are completely different from each other; they have very little in common. Trees belong to an older phase of creation. God made them on the third day. But they are alive as we are and they were made by the same hand that created us. We have a common origin. The main point of comparison in the image is stability. A tree grows where it is planted. It is impossible to transplant a grown tree. The relationship between a tree and the place where he is planted is constant and permanent. It is mainly this fact that becomes a point of comparison between the tree and the Christian in fellowship with God. If we feed upon God's Word and become rooted in that Word, our relationship with God will be constant and permanent. In that respect, man surpasses all the trees in the world. Trees can be uprooted and fall down, "but he who does the will of God abides for ever."¹²

"He is like a tree." The man of God is greater than his surrounding; he rises far above the others. We could elaborate greatly upon this comparison, but we will leave it here.

Trees are refreshing to men. In Paradise eternal life was presented to the first human couple under the image of a tree, (and so was death). In the book of Revelation the "Tree of Life" is shown as a symbol of healing. A tree has the ability to take advantage of the situation in which it is placed. Its roots draw nutrition and moisture from the soil and its leaves clear the atmosphere of carbon monoxide and replace it with oxygen which is needed for all that breathes. And the fruit of a trees feeds man and beast. Trees are the homes of the birds. A tree is a blessing to its environment, simple because it is there. A tree is exactly what God wants it to be. It is also an example of patience for man. Trees grow slowly and sometimes take centuries to come to full maturity. A tree cannot hurry to produce; it has to wait God's time. It "yields fruit in season." As Christians, we ought to take to heart the tree's example. Bearing fruit takes time and requires meeting God's conditions. The presence of water is important for a tree. Trees do not grow in a desert. In the same way the presence of God's Spirit is of vital importance for man. Without the stream of God's life in us, spiritual growth is impossible. It is important for us to know where we are planted. We should learn many lessons from the tree: what we are is more important than what we do; for a tree it is no extraordinary achievement to yield fruit; the fruit of a tree is determined by the nature of the tree and by the season of the year; and if we are what we ought to be, our acts will be the natural outcome of our being.

The leaf does not wither. This is a picture of the Christian's attitude in adversity. A tree knows the secret of water in a time of drought. One of my missionary friends lost his wife suddenly. His leaf did not wither. "The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him."¹³ The Bible assures us that we will succeed in everything we do. The apostle John shows us how this works. He says: "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us-- whatever we ask-- we know that we have what we asked of him."¹⁴ If we comply with God's conditions, He hands us a blank check. Jesus confirms this when He says: "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples."¹⁵

This shows us the importance of human initiative in the Kingdom of Heaven. There is a difference between men and trees. "Whatever he does prospers." Trees don't do anything. Human enterprise is a unique phenomenon in God's creation. Even the more developed species of the animals do not achieve anything in the sense that humans do. Man makes plans and executes those plans. Being like a tree seems to contradict this, and in a way this is true. Man has to surrender to God his right to take initiative and his urge to achieve, and then only will he prosper. If we say that what we are is more important than what we do, we do not cancel the need for acting.

The psalm ends, as it began, with a reference to the wicked. But here the roles are reversed. In the first two verses the righteous man is the point of comparison; in the last three verses it is the wicked. Sinners and righteous are antipodes. "Not so the wicked!" points to extreme positions. There is no greater contrast in the images used to depict our humanity than a tree and chaff. Spurgeon remarks that chaff exists by the grace of the kernel of wheat. As soon as the wheat is winnowed, the chaff is separated from the wheat kernel and the empty hull has lost its significance. Chaff does not bear fruit; it is useless. Man without God has lost his significance. He is a prey to the wind.

Every man's life will be judged. We will all have to stand before the judgment seat of Christ.¹⁶ A man who has lived a life without God will not be able to stand.