Having grandchildren has been a tremendous blessing, and one of the things having little ones around has done is remind me of the growth process. Right now our two youngest granddaughters are at the stage where they recently were able to sit up. When it first happened, we all stood around in awe watching their teetering attempts to stay upright without slumping over. Most recently we were all excited that they have been learning to crawl and pulling themselves up to stand. They are now standing around while holding on to the furniture, but it won’t be long until they will be walking on their own. That is how growth progresses. As we mature we learn to sit, then to stand and then to walk. It is a natural progression — sit, stand, walk.
Psalm 1 is a great psalm which talks about two ways of approaching life. One is the way of the righteous, or rightness. The other is the way of the wicked. It is a study in contrasts. The first point I would like to make is that: The psalm opens with a promise and a warning. The promise is that the one who is faithful and does not walk in the way of the wicked will be blessed. But the implied warning is that to go down the path that the wicked follow leads to the road to ruin. The psalm says, “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers” (Psalm 1:1). The one who will be blessed is the person who does not listen to the counsel and advise of those who do not know God — they look directly to God for their counsel. They do not stand in the way of sinners, that is, they do not make them their constant companions and join in their behavior. And they do not sit in the seat of mockers. They do not degenerate into an attitude of sarcasm and a cynical view of people and life.
The Bible says that we are not to be misled, and warns: “Bad company corrupts good character” (1 Corinthians 15:33).
The interesting thing about the person described in this first verse is that his progression is backwards. His growth is reversed. The person begins by walking in the counsel of the ungodly. Then they stand in the way of sinners. And, finally, they sit in the seat of mockers. For them it is: walk, stand, sit. The momentum is going backwards — until he stops completely. He begins by being able to walk and ends up immobilized. We see him at last paralyzed by a mocking spirit that will not do anything, but is ready to criticize anyone who is doing something. He does not make a single move to make the world a better place or improve the situation; he just sits around complaining and criticizing how everyone else is stupid and wrong for what they are trying to do.
Let’s follow the progression of the person who falls into the way of the wicked by considering how temptation works. Temptation begins in a person’s thoughts. The thought life is the first thing to be affected. The imagination begins to offer fantasies to the mind. The person is walking around while being enticed by his or her thoughts. Jesus knew this was the birth place of sin. That is why he said, “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment” (Matthew 5:21-22). “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:27-28). Here we see that sin begins in a person’s thought life. Jesus said, “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart” (Luke 6:45). Sin begins by letting the imagination go where it wills. The heart is the seat of the affections. If sin is not stopped here, it will eventually work its way out and express itself in sinful behavior. This is the second stage. He is standing in the way of sinners. He has joined them. Their way has become his way now. He has walked over to them, and he is no longer walking with God. He is standing with his friends. And finally his regress is complete as he sits down to engage in mockery and sarcasm.
I have noticed something as I have watched some of the programs on TV. They are full of sarcasm. The humor usually takes the form of putting someone down, and the one who can be the most sarcastic wins. They have a cynical view of the world. It is the natural end of an immoral lifestyle. Teenage heros are the ones who do not live by the rules and always have a smart answer. It is the final stage in this progression: sitting with a cynical smirk on your face. The order is: walk, stand, sit. The progression of evil is always backwards. The progression goes from bad thoughts, to bad actions, and then to bad attitudes. The person becomes less active and more cynical.
The second point is that: The psalm describes the way of the righteous. What is it like to be a faithful follower of God? The psalm describes certain things that he does not do: He does not walk in the counsel of the wicked — he does not listen to what they tell him. He does not stand in the way of sinners — he does not hang out with them as his best friends because he knows what their influence on him would be. He does not sit in the seat of mockers — he does not indulge in sarcasm and pointless cynicism. But there are positive things he does as well. The psalm says, “But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers” (Psalm 1:2-3).
Let’s look at these one at a time. First, he delights in the law of the Lord. This person loves the Word of God. He does not find the commandments oppressive and limiting, he loves them for they open up life to him. Harry Foster is someone who knows what it is like to live on both sides of this psalm. Seventeen years ago he was a homeless alcoholic living under a Dallas overpass. He was almost dead when Bob Lively, who is the head of a homeless shelter, found him and took him to a hospital. He was malnourished and had pneumonia. His addiction to drugs and alcohol had done their work on his body. But while he was in the hospital he had an experience with God that turned his life around. Bob Lively offered him a job at an Austin homeless shelter and he displayed a real ability to work with people and relate to them. Foster said, “I had a chance to serve God and I did it.” But the story does not sop there. He is now married, and just a few weeks ago he was ordained as a deacon in the Episcopal church. Bob Lively who originally found him said, “I thought about the irony of when I found him, he was drunk on wine. Today he served me wine as the blood of Christ. Today, he was my minister.”
Harry’s story could be repeated many times over. But there are many others who have walked with God from their youth. They love God and they love the Word of God. With the psalmist they say: “Your statutes are wonderful; therefore I obey them. The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple” (Psalm 119:129-130). They too know by experience that the way of God works. They have experienced the blessing of walking with God and they know the joy that a life in him gives. They are like healthy trees planted by the river of God. The water of life flows into them and they produce fruit. Their fruit is the fruit the Spirit of God gives them as described in Galatians 5:22-23: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” As the Spirit of God comes into their lives, they produce the same character traits as the Spirit of God himself has. His life becomes their life. Their lives are full of the good things of God, the fruit of his Spirit. Their leaves do not wither and everything they do prospers.
We have a flowering crab tree in our back yard. We have been working on it every year, pruning it and keeping it trimmed. Last year there were so many crab apples that we scooped them up and hauled them away by the wheelbarrow load. This Spring the blossoms were especially beautiful and full. But in the last couple of weeks the tree has been hit by some kind of blight and the leaves are withering and falling off the tree already. There are no insects on the leaves, they just appear to be drying up and dying on their own. There may not be any crab apples this year. In fact, we are concerned that the tree may not live. Our tree is the opposite of the picture of the tree in Psalm 1. The tree which represents the one who faithfully follows God is robust and full of fruit. Think of Harry Foster living under an overpass, dirty and drunk. Now picture him preaching the Word of God and ministering to other needy people. That is the picture of a tree full of life and producing fruit. Under his tree people find shelter and he is able to give them nourishment.
The third thing we notice about this psalm is: The psalm describes the way of the sinner. He writes: “Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away” (Psalm 1:4). The righteous are like a tree, but the wicked are like chaff. Chaff is what surrounds the kernel of wheat. In order for the kernel to be useful the chaff has to be rubbed off and taken away. The farmers of ancient Israel pushed their winnowing forks into a pile of wheat and threw it up into the air so that the chaff would be blown away in the wind. We saw this in Haiti as the women would place the grain in a pile, spread it out and then walk barefoot across it in a shuffle in order to rub the chaff from the wheat. Chaff is not good for food or anything else. It has no nutrients or substance so that it is only good for being blown away by the wind. Contrast a tree to chaff and you get some idea of how this psalm sees the value of a righteous person in contrast to the value of someone living in rebellion to God.
If Harry Foster had not been taken in by Bob Lively he would have likely died under that overpass without much notice or anyone caring — one more faceless homeless person. His life would have been blown away like chaff. But instead he has become like a tree which is producing much fruit. The chaff is just the covering of the fruit on the grain stalk and is otherwise worthless, but the tree produces real fruit which nourishes and nurtures others.
In the end, evil has no lasting effect on the world. God rubs it off and blows it away. He has used it to grow the fruit of righteousness. The chaff is what is seen, but the victory of righteousness is hidden within. The evil which looks so powerful and formidable today will tomorrow be blown away like chaff. God will throw righteousness and evil into the wind and only righteousness will be left. The chaff will be seen no more.
I spoke to you the other week about the book, Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed, a book about the people of Le Chambon, a village in France during the Nazi reign of terror. My favorite passage in the book is when the pastor and several people are arrested and, ironically, taken to a concentration camp called Saint-Paul d’Eyjeaux — Saint Paul of the Jews. The police chief had not yet learned what their crime was, so he said to them, “What have you done? Confess! The black market? Swindling, maybe?” They answered, “We don’t know the charge. Maybe they’ve arrested us because we have been trying to save Jews from being deported.” The captain exploded, “What? Jews? ...Now that doesn’t surprise me. You’re part of their conspiracy, eh? We all know that they’re the ones who have brought France down into the abyss. Well, you’re going to pay for this.” The author then states, “This was a moment [Pastor] Trocmé would never forget. In fact, his overnight stay in the police station... changed his view of mankind. ...These people were capable of repeating hate-ridden clichés without any concern for evidence or for the pain of others. Before he entered that police station..., he thought the world was a scene where two forces were struggling for power: God and the Devil. From then on, he knew that there was a third force seeking hegemony over this world: stupidity. God, the Devil, and halfwits of mind and heart were all struggling with each other to take over the reins.”
The psalmist says that the wicked will be blown away like chaff. In the end it will be shown that their way was not so much the way of evil as it was the way of stupidity. I am personally grateful that God has saved me from my sins, but I am just as grateful that he saved me from my stupidity — trying to live life in my own way with no regard for God or others. It was the way of futility and ignorance. My life would have had no fruit, and in the end my life would have no effect on things eternal. I would have been blown away with the wind. I would not have been able to stand on the day of God’s judgment and I would not have been able to stand in the assembly of those made righteous by the saving act of Christ.
The last point is that the psalm ends as it begins: The psalm closes with a promise and a warning. It says, “For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish” (Psalm 1:6). The promise is that the Lord will watch over the way of the righteous, and the warning is that the way of the wicked will perish. The promise is this: “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty” (Psalm 91:1). The warning is this: “His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:12). When the psalm says that the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, it literally says, “the Lord knows the way of the righteous.” It is the Hebrew word that denotes knowing in the sense of having a relationship. The same word is used when the Bible speaks of the way a married couple know each other. But the wicked have no relationship with God and are promised no protection from him — their way will perish.
In his book, A Message to U.S. Churches, William Sloan Coffin writes, “Of all Michelangelo’s powerful figures, none is more poignant than the man in the Last Judgment being dragged down to hell by demons, a hand over one eye and in the other a look of dire recognition. He understood, but too late. It’s a familiar story, isn’t it? Rarely do we see the truth that stares us in the face until it hits us in the face. A crisis is seldom a crisis until it is validated by disaster. Michelangelo was right: Hell is truth seen too late.” The promise is that if we know God his eyes will be upon us. The warning is that if we do not know God our eyes will one day be upon him, though we will be unprepared for such a sight.
Rodney J. Buchanan
June 11, 2000
SIT, STAND, WALK
Psalm 1
“Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers” (Psalm 1:1).
1. The Psalmist opens with ________________________ .
2. The Psalmist describes __________________________.
3. The Psalmist describes __________________________.
4. The Psalmist closes with ________________________ .
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION (June 11, 2000)
1. Read Psalm 1. What are the blessings of living for God?
2. What does a person lose by not living for God?
3. Which direction are you headed, and are you sitting, standing or walking in that way?
4. What does verse 2 lift out as the primary characteristic that marks the life of the righteous?
5. If your life could be thought of as a tree, what would it look like?
6. What happens when we take the general truths of verse 3 and apply them always, literally and universally?
7. Read verse 4. How do you see the truth of this verse operating in the world?
8. Contrast the two uses of the word “stand” in Psalm 1. Contrast “planted” and “blows away”. Contrast “fruit” and “chaff”. Contrast the “assembly of the righteous” with “the way of sinners”. In verse 6, contrast the “way of the wicked” and “the way of the righteous”. Contrast “walking” with “planted”.
9. Why is it that our culture does not make a clear distinction between these two groups?
10. Why is mocking the final stage of the wicked? Why is the mocker sitting?
11. In verse 6, what does the Lord do for the righteous? What does this mean for you?
