Psalm 1
Life in the Slow Lane
No one needs me to tell him that the COVID-19 virus has impacted us in ways that were unimaginable four months ago. Whether we suffer with the virus, suffer under quarantine, suffer because we have lost a job, worry if our jobs will put us in contact with the virus, or worry if our jobs will be there tomorrow, every one of us stands in the virus’s shadow.
I stand among the worriers, though my concern is only mildly about the virus. I refuse to back away from people. I wash my hands in seconds rather than minutes. And I touch my face.
My point of worry goes to my job. Nationally, our work climate is on chemotherapy. As necessary as they are, the federal and state efforts to take out the virus by shutting down the economy work a lot like chemo. The “cure” is to poison both and hope the disease die first.
I still work, but I cannot help but wonder what new development will drive some bureaucrat somewhere to declare my position unnecessary. Just the thought of income loss terrifies me. Many are there already.
In that light, I have been thinking about Psalm 1 recently.
A Way to Approach Reality
The first Psalm stands where it does for a reason. It is the gateway to the rest of the collection. The framework that this psalm sets up will overshadow the rest of the book.
The first thing the psalm does is show us the two types of individuals that will dominate the book—the blessed man and the wicked man. In a series of three contrasting stanzas, it reveals their delight, their character, and their destiny.
Verses 1-2: The Blessed Man’s Delight
The psalm begins,
Psalm 1:1-2 (ESV)
1 Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
2 but his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
The psalm cares little about the wicked themselves. It cares everything about the way that the blessed man avoids them. Therefore, when the psalm describes the progressive descent into wickedness in these two verses, the focus is on avoidance. The blessed man…
- …does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
- …does not stand in the way of sinners
- …does not sit in the seat of scoffers.
The contrast points us in the direction of ideals. The man of God delights in God’s teaching and meditates on it habitually.
This habit brings two benefits. One, it protects us from being taken in by scams that can only spiral downward. Two, it builds a sense of discipline that guards our thinking when circumstances try to undercut our balance.
Verses 3-4: The Blessed Man’s Character
Habits build character, and the middle part of the psalm describes the character of the blessed and the wicked.
Psalm 1:3-4 (ESV)
3 He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
4 The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
In the world that came into being five months ago, none of us feels like a tree planted next to a continuous water supply. Some of us wonder if we will ever bear fruit again. We are ready to throw our I’m-too-blessed-to-be-stressed coffee mugs against a brick wall.
Blessing in the Psalms does not mean spiritual Nirvana. It means that our relationship with God counts for something deeper. When stress comes, we know where to go. Our prosperity depends less on circumstances than it does relationship.
The brief comment on the wicked sharpens the contrast. Where the righteous are rooted, well nourished, and fruit-bearing, “The wicked…are like chaff that the wind drives away.” Before God, they are rootless, lifeless, and weightless.
Verses 5-6: The Blessed Man’s Destiny
The final stanza shows the blessed man’s destiny. Like the first two verses, it shows what blessing means by contrasting it with its opposite.
Psalm 1:5-6 (ESV)
5 Therefore the wicked will 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 wicked will perish.
Interestingly, this stanza illustrates the righteous man’s destiny by highlighting the wicked man’s missing the mark.
The wicked will not stand in judgment. Sinners will not abide in the congregation of the righteous. By implication, God’s blessed will stand in judgment, and they will enjoy fellowship with the righteous.
Verse 6 draws the last contrast of the psalm. The great truth is that the LORD knows the way of the righteous. The word for know is the word for relationship. The LORD has invited us to be family. He understands everything about us. His relationship with us stands on the same level as our physical relationship with our wives.
In contrast, the way of the wicked will perish. They may prosper now, but they have no future.
Psalm 1 and the Future under the Covid-19 Virus
So, where do we go with this psalm?
Psalm 1 does not mean—and was never meant to mean—that faithfulness is measured by our ability to get up and sing “Zippity Doo-dah” every morning. We do not have to pretend to be happy in order to preserve our reputation as Christians. Blessing does not remove us from difficulty.
Instead, blessing fuses us to the God who stands with us when difficulty threatens to overwhelm. When we meditate on God’s teaching, we establish our internal compass. We learn to look beyond the circumstances to the God who rules the cosmos. He becomes our first and only go-to person.
The Psalms are too realistic to whistle hollow praise tunes in the dark. The psalms of lament acknowledge the problems we face as human beings. They cry out to God to rescue when life turns bad. They wrestle with God, and sometimes even yell at him.
The righteous man in the Psalms is not someone who can expect to be better off than his peers. He is simply one who understands how precious his relationship with God is.
That is as real as life gets.
Doug Knox