The Blessed Man And The Cursed Man (Psalm 1)
Our culture has a lot of different ideas about what it is that will bring true joy and lasting happiness to their lives. And from the look of things, they have gotten it totally wrong. The happiness givers, according to most today are things such as money, a nice home, a nice vehicle, good stuff, a spouse, a fling, the ability to have a spouse and a fling, the ability to create their self into whatever they want to be, and sometimes the ultimate happiness giver is thought to be having the right job.
Like most other things in life, we don’t have to guess wildly. Throwing darts at a dartboard while spinning in circles blindfolded is not what we do in this life. God has told us about the person who is truly happy.
Here, in Psalm 1, we find the characteristics of the happy person. You may not see the word “happy” in your text, but the Hebrew word that is translated “blessed” here means “happy”. I understand why it is done. It’s because people don’t exactly understand happiness, and so “blessed” seems to make more sense to the modern reader. Yet, it is very beneficial to look at these characteristics and order our lives after this pattern.
Read Psalm 1
The Happy Person (Vv. 1-3)
The first thing we notice about the happy person is where they are. Or, rather, where they are not. They do not “walk in the counsel of the wicked”, “stand in the path of sinners”, “nor sit in the seat of scoffers!” (Psalm 1:1 NASB) There is a progression here that we should pay attention to. They are not “walking” or doing the things that the wicked suggest or teach. They are not standing still where the sinner stands still. And they are not sitting and resting where the scoffer rests.
The scoffer is a bitter mocker of the righteous and righteousness. It seems that I am often amazed at how far down the scoffer trail many people walk these days. Television, especially news organizations, feel as if they are full of scoffers. And this makes walking in the counsel of the wicked or standing in the path of sinners not look as bad as it really is. But that is not the life of the happy person. They avoid all of these. They do not delight in wickedness as so many do. Their delight is elsewhere.
The delight of the happy person is in the Law of God. God’s Word and God’s ways are what the happy person delights in and truly cares about. We all meditate upon what we truly care about. And so, this person meditates on what he delights in.
There are two things to consider here. One, we really do meditate upon those things we love and cherish. When my children get a new toy or obsess over a new tv show, it is what they think on constantly. The same could be said for your favorite hobby or sports team. The happy person is constantly meditating upon God’s Word because it is his delight. We want to be people who truly delight in God’s Word.
The second thing to consider is that we live in an age of terrible distraction. Our television shows and movies have changed just to keep up with our terribly distracted thinking. In an article from 2014 it was stated that in 1930 the average length of one shot was about 12 seconds. In 2014, in order to keep up with our ever-shortening attention spans, the average length was around 2.5 seconds. Have you watched a movie from the 1950’s or 1960’s lately? The difference is very noticeable. The reason I mention our state of distraction is that it causes a good deal of difficulty in meditating on the written word. But this is where we should live. If it’s too difficult for you to read the Bible, you should try taking it in a different way. Maybe you should listen to it. Maybe you should read it with others. Whatever the case may be, we need to live in God’s Word and meditate upon it.
The happy person is like a firmly planted tree by streams of water (Psalm 1:3). Have you seen this? I certainly have. I would go fishing up and down Crooked Creek in different places and at other times on the Buffalo River. This picture is vivid to me. What happens to that tree with its huge roots in the water when the drought comes?
What happens to the person whose roots are planted firmly in the Lord, drinking deeply from God’s Word and being fed while they meditate upon it constantly? They do not fade away when hard times come. Their happiness is not short lived like the person who is looking for the fading things of this world to bring satisfaction. And because he always prospers in this way, he has the fruit of that faithfulness in his life.
We should seek to be as the happy man who delights in the Lord and His Word. We should seek to drink our fill of God’s Word as we meditate on it and act upon it.
The Wicked (V. 4)
The picture here is chilling if you know what you are looking at. The wicked person whose counsel the righteous avoids, whose behavior the happy will not adopt, and whose seat the righteous will not rest in is pictured here as chaff blown away by the wind.
This is how grain was sifted in this day and time. The grain would be taken to a high and flat location where there was usually a decent wind. There it was flung in the air with a pitchfork-like instrument. The grain was heavier than the chaff which is the dry and unusable coating on the grain. The grain was needed, and the chaff was needed to be gotten rid of. The grain was judged good and the chaff was judged unusable. The chaff was carried away by the wind. And here we read that the wicked are much the same.
When judgment falls upon the wicked they will not stand. When their winnowing comes they will be driven away. They will not be with the righteous. They will not find their lot with God’s people.
We shutter to speak of Hell and eternal torment, let alone God’s judgment. But the implication of this passage is clear. God comes as the wind and judges the wicked. And they will not stand in the judgment.
God Has An Intimate Knowledge Of His People (V. 6)
Here there is a very clear line of distinction drawn between the righteous and the wicked. The happy man, or the righteous, is loved and cared for by God. It is not so for the wicked. They do not have this intimate relationship with God. And they will perish.
This sounds so foreign to our modern ears, but it’s the truth found in God’s Word.
If you are one of God’s people, then God loves you in a very special way, as His adopted child. The same cannot be said for the wicked. And one day they will perish.
Who Is The Ultimate Happy Person?
There is a real sense in which none of us measure up to the standard of the happy person. We all fall short of this standard (Romans 3:23). There are days when we participate in the sinfulness of the sinner and listen to the advice of the wicked. We have fallen short of God’s standard. And so, none of us truly fulfill the characteristics of the happy person.
But the good news is that someone did. Jesus Christ came and fulfilled the Law on our behalf. He paid the punishment for our sins so that we could be forgiven and counted as righteous. And because the Ultimate Happy Man bore my sin and shame I can be counted with the righteous. In Him I find true and lasting happiness. I turn from ruling my own life and trying to find my own happiness and trust in Him. And for the rest of my life I try to imitate the Ultimate Happy Man who saved me, Jesus Christ.
R. Dwain Minor