Year C Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany February 11th, 2001
Lord of the Lake Lutheran Church
Web page http://lordofthelake.org
By The Rev. Jerry Morrissey, Esq., Pastor
E-mail pastor@southshore.com
Psalm 1
Title: “The way of the righteous and that of the wicked.”
This psalm is set as the introduction, prologue, preamble, preface to the entire Psalter. It is classified as a “Wisdom Psalm” because it sees life as presenting two basic options, two ways, two fundamental approaches to all of life: the way of the righteous and that of the wicked, of those who conform to God’s purpose, revealed in both creation and the Torah, and those who ignore it. Obedience to God’s revealed plan results in happiness. There is no middle ground, no third way. Following God’s way can present choices between what is good and what is better, but the fundamental choice is unambiguous, either or. What shapes a person’s thinking shapes a person’s life.
This psalm is didactic poetry, finely crafted but without meter, not meant for singing so much as for private reflection. When it was composed cannot be determined. Presumed to be postexilic, it is really timeless and not related to any period or event in history as such. Its structure is easy to discern. Verses one to three, extol the solid foundation of the righteous person; verses four and five decry the unsubstantial life of the ungodly and verse six summarizes the fate of the two ways. The doctrine of the “two ways” treated here finds a striking parallel in Jeremiah 17:5-8.
In verse one, “happy those: Lit, “Happy or blessed is the man. The Hebrew, ‘ashre, is difficult to translate in one word. It is an exclamation rather than a noun or adjective. Some stabs at translating is are: “Oh, the blessedness (or happiness) of…,” “Congratulations to the one who…,” “How rewarding the life of…,” “To be envied or admired is the one who…” It is a joyous exclamation and an enthusiastic observation of fact, not a wish. The state of bliss is the result of right behavior, the end product or by-product of living a life in conformity with God’s revelation. “Man,” as used here, includes women and children. In the Hebrew mentality, part of a man’s happiness is his family or corporate personality, who share in his blessings as he shares in theirs.
The counsel of the wicked…way of sinners…company with scoffers: These three phrases – lit, walking with the wicked, standing with sinners, sitting with scoffers- are in synonymous parallelism and mean essentially the same thing. It is possible, if the text is not pressed too hard, to see a progression into evil. First one merely “walks” with evil; then one stops and “stands;” then one “sits” also the Hebrew word for “lives” or “stays” with evil.
The wicked: Originally the Hebrew word, reshaim, denoted, men who has been proven guilty of a particular charge. In the Psalter it means those who are enemies of God, Israelites and Gentiles alike. These humans have their own principles and maxims, their own rules of life, opposed to God’s. To walk in their counsel is to follow their advice and ways.
Sinners: The Hebrew hattaim signifies those who miss the mark, like a bull’s-eye. The Greek word for sin, hamartia, has the same basic meaning or deviate from accepted standards, not once or accidentally, but habitually. To stand in the way of sinners is to accept their way of life.
Scoffers: The Hebrew word, lesim, means those who are self-sufficient, who are so proud that they cannot accept instruction from anyone. They know it all and no one else knows anything. So they mock all others as “stupid.” To sit in their company is to make light of God’s revealed ways, character and law and to identify with their thinking.
In verse two, “the law of the Lord”: By now this refers to Sacred Scripture as they knew it. “Law” is too narrow a translation for Torah. The word means all of God’s revelation, his will, purpose, instruction, and guidance proceeding from his fidelity, love and mercy. The written words reveal, open one to, are the vehicle for, the living experience and relationship with God. As such it is not distinct from God’s revealing presence in creation. Rather it clarifies that presence and co-exists with it harmoniously.
Their joy: The Scripture as defined above actually embodies joy, delight and produces that effect in the recipient.
They study: The Hebrew hagah is used of a lion studying or growling over its prey or a dove cooing. It means “to muse on,” “to ponder,” “ to meditate.” In other words, a person whose preoccupation, focus, concern is the will of God revealed in Scripture enjoys the reviving and cheering power contained in it. It gets “unlocked” by meditation and, if followed and lived, becomes the determining and effective disposition of a truly happy life.
Day and night: That is, continually. Unlike all other human activities that have an “appropriate time (Eccl3: 1-3)” it is always appropriate to meditate, to concentrate on the Lord’s presence and Law, be it day or night. As a preamble to the Psalter the psalm is stressing that the other psalms in the collection will do just that, will help them be constantly aware, for the one who prays them continually. The Psalms will produce happiness in those who “walk in their ways, stand in their presence and sit in their company.”
In verse three, “like a tree planted near streams of water”: A tree is an age-old and universal metaphor for life, the good life. The word translated as “planted” really means “transplanted and “streams of water” refer to irrigation channels, man-made, which provide water constantly. The idea is that God’s word never ceases to provide the means to live and thrive and produce foliage and fruit.
Whatever they do prospers: This is primarily a statement of faith rather than an observation of visible fact.
In verse four, “like chaff driven by the wind”: The image shifts from one rooted in soil to the harvest grain. The wicked are likened to what happens when the unsifted grain is tossed up in the air with a winnowing fan or shovel. The heavy grain drops to the ground while the wind carries away and separates the lighter useless straw. Later, that is bundled and used for fuel. It is both without weight and without worth and, as such, provides a good metaphor for people who ignore God. There is no substance to them. They are “lightweights” in life and are carried away by the slightest “ill wind” or adversity. Since they have depended on themselves and their abilities, they have no recourse to God when their powers fail them. The metaphor of winnowing is frequently used of divine judgment.
In verse five, “the wicked will not survive judgment”: The way of the wicked turns out to be no alternative at all. Since they have already separated themselves from anything truly substantive, there will be no need to sift and sort out the quality of their lives. They are already judged as chaff, ineligible for entry into the earthly sanctuary, presence of God wherever found or the heavenly one. “Judgment” here refers to both God’s on-going judgment and to his final one.
Assembly of the just: To be admitted to the human assembly in the Temple worship one had to qualify by keeping the Law of God. The same is true in heaven. Thus the wicked enjoy neither company. Their fundamental position about life has resulted in their excluding themselves.
In verse six, “watches over”: This translates the Hebrew, yada`, “know.” It is not merely intellectual knowledge for God would “know” the way of the wicked in this sense, but a personal knowledge as a result of a relationship, an intimacy that prompts care and protection.
“The way of the wicked leads to ruin”: Those who reject God’s guidance cannot know the way. They are walking blind without it and unprotected. In the end they perish. In the last resort, human beings are of two kinds: those that follow and those that fall. The destiny and lot of the wicked is not presented here so much as a punishment as the end result of punishing oneself. This is true of the righteous as well. Happiness is not presented so much as a reward, which, in some sense, it is, as the natural result of right living. If anything, the psalm would suggest that right living is like rewarding oneself for letting God be God in one’s life.
To take a path other than the one revealed by God is not a matter of choosing between two viable alternatives. It is to choose disaster, and ultimate death. Yet, the choice is there. God does not leave us in the dark as to the end of either path, just the middle. In the midst of life, either lived by God’s way or our own, we can seem variously successful or not, but it is the end which is crucial. Thus, we are constantly challenged to resist the temptation to make life-determining decisions on the strength of present emotion alone.
The trouble with allowing emotions to be the determining factors for decision and action is not only that they can, at times, be delusional, example, “I can imagine a threat where none really exists or imagine a quality I have when I do not really have it,” but, even more dangerous, emotions announce themselves as infallible. Therefore, they are not subject for review and revision. At least, this is the case when and while we are having the emotion. To act, to decide, to come to a conclusion at that moment, in that state, can have long-term consequences for our lives. It may be years later when we look back and realize our haste, that we also realize we made a choice on very flimsy evidence, refused to give it a reality test, and are now living with negative consequences that could have been avoided had we “meditated” on the matter.
When the psalmist says, “Everything he does prospers,” he is making an affirmation of faith in the light of the end result, not a statement of observable fact in the midst of a particular moment or time. The one who does not trust in God may dub an event or situation “adversity.” On the level of physical, the level of observable fact, it may well be so named. However, on the level of faith, “adversity” is challenge, “defeat” is victory in disguise or yet to be revealed, “diminishment” is the seed for enlargement, and “loss” is really gain. This perspective is closed to the fool, the one who trusts only in human powers, especially one’s own. On the surface, “prosperity” in God’s dictionary, can indeed look like “adversity,” in humans’ dictionary.
The state of “blessedness” or “happiness” is not a goal of life in God, but a byproduct of righteous living. Accepting the world as it is and not twisting it to appear what we would like it to be and trusting that God will make all things right, eventually, if we surrender to his revealed will results in happiness. We do not cause it. Nor do we seek it. It is not the end result of a quest, but the end result of doing what is right. We do not “find” happiness; happiness finds us, not by accident, but by having the kind of soil watered by God’s grace, whereby it can “find” a home or environment in which to thrive.
A Pharisee reading this psalm would come to a very different conclusion than did Jesus. The Pharisee mistook “Law” for its letter rather than its spirit. He equated “separating from the evil in people” with “separating from the people” and disdaining, even condemning them. The self righteous Pharisee could use this psalm to justify his aloof and condescending attitude toward whomever he judged to be a “sinner.” Jesus, on the other hand, recognized evil for what it is and what it is not. Evil actions are to be avoided and we are not to buy into the philosophies of evil. Yet, people who do evil are to be saved. One of the ways that is done is by showing by our lives that trust in the Lord results in a happiness unavailable to those who trust in anyone or anything else above God. All the created powers of the universe combined cannot equal, let alone surpass, the power of their Creator. He who creates from nothing has revealed to us that the only thing we can truly create is “nothing.”
It is clear that only Jesus could meet the standards of the “righteous” person. We can only hope to approximate that in so far as we are in him. We might be that mighty tree, that solid oak, planted by the watercourse, but without the water we are “nothing.” Pride does a tree no good at all. When humans speak of the “proud oak standing tall” it is merely a human value imposed upon the tree. It does “nothing” for the tree. So it is with humans.
The Two Ways: This doctrine of the two ways is basic to Wisdom theology as well as the theology of the Prophets. As the history of Israel as a people played out the historical books of the Old Testament interpreted the facts of that experience in terms of these two ways. If the kings, for example followed the way of the Lord, Israel experienced success, prosperity, fertility and happiness. If the kings went their own way, Israel suffered. Of course, the doctrine of corporate personality taught that what was true of the kings was also true of the people. One could not be separated from the others. The personal personality sins of each individual adversely affected everyone else corporation. Yet, each person had to make a personal decision regarding which way he or she would go. Would one live life or try to live it based on one’s own powers, both real and imagined, or would one choose to let God be God and both draw from his power and be led by his guidance? That was (is) the fundamental question or option for each person. If one were in a position of authority or influence in the community (a king, a magistrate, a priest, a teacher, a parent) one’s personal decisions would have even more consequences for others than would the actions -decisions of one less influential. Nonetheless, the doctrine of the two ways and the doctrine of corporate personality applied to everyone in some measure. It matters to the whole group which way each individual is going and what each one in the group does. As a more modern poet (prophet) has put it: “No man is an island.”
Either - Or: While the “either - or” approach to morality applies to the basic direction or choice or option of an individual’s life, that is not to say there are no more decisions, moral decisions, to be made once one has “opted” for God. These specific situations can produce confusion as to which specific way is in harmony with God’s ways. However, these gray areas are not numerous. Certainly, they are not as numerous as some would have us believe. Precisely because of our fundamental option, opting for God, we have a tremendous amount of data at our disposal, namely God’s revealed word and the tradition of the Church, to guide us in these specific situations. That said, there still remain new questions caused by new situations that can throw us all for a loop until we, along with the community, the Church, have digested them. We need to remain open and humble until the Lord helps us to clarify which way he wants us to go. God’s word gives us direction, not directions. We have to figure out the details, how we get from where we are to where God is pointing. He wants us to use the wits he gave us to do that. “Not so the wicked, not so in verse four.” Those who have opted to go their own way always seem to be “confused” when faced with a moral question, let alone a moral dilemma. They are always a starting from scratch, usually giving a weight to their emotions-of-the-moment that later proves unwise. To hide their feigned confusion they will become arrogant or insolent, letting personal pride override openness to truth. It gets them into a lot of unnecessary trouble and causes harm to others. Some folks, disguised as Christian preachers, have reduced to absurdity the perfectly sound “either- or” approach to morality by denying any gray areas at all. When they do that they are more on the side of the insolent and arrogant than on the side of God. The wise way is the humble way. It is the proud who are foolish. Amen.
