“How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of Yahweh, and in His law he meditates day and night. And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but they are like chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not rise in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For Yahweh knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.”
In this first Psalm, the writer draws upon rich imagery to mark out a sharp contrast between the righteous, the blessed man, the man whom the Lord knows, and the wicked, those who fear not God.
The God-fearing man does not walk in the counsel of the wicked. Their counsel or philosophy does not chart the course. The wisdom or reason of unconverted worldly-minded men is set on mischief, avarice, greed, worldly lust, malice, and temporal things. The godly man reasons differently. He delights in God’s law, God’s counsel, the inspired scriptures, and God’s leadership by the Holy Spirit. He meditates upon them and thinks on them continually. They become a part of his being and direct his every action and undertaking.
The righteous man does not stand in the way of sinners. His anchor is not theirs. He is not established by what they are. Their hope is in temporal things, wealth, power, the admiration of men, and the achievements of men. He is established in Christ. He is like a tree planted. It is fixed forever, never to be moved as long as it lives. Like a tree planted by the rivers of water, the godly man is fixed in Christ Who is the way, the truth, and the life. All that man needs to sustain him and make him fruitful flows from Christ. As the planted tree brings forth fruit, so the righteous bring forth lasting fruit. The ungodly do not stand. They have no certain fountain of water, so they dry up. They are not fixed, so they drift with the wind. They will not stand in the congregation of the righteous, and cannot stand in the day of judgment which will surely come.
The blessed man does not sit in the seat of scoffers. The scoffer is a fool resting upon a false hope. He is at ease when he derides the righteous and mocks the warnings of a Holy God, but his rest and security are a delusion. It will surely fail. The blessed man rests under the shadow of the wings of the Almighty. The righteousness of Christ is his hope and refuge. Because his leaf, the vitality of his life, gathers food from the eternal God, it shall never wither but will prosper in all that he does.
