Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the wicked, and standeth not in the way of sinners, and sitteth not in the seat of scorners;
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
But his delight is in Jehovah's law, and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And he [is] as a tree planted by brooks of water, which giveth its fruit in its season, and whose leaf fadeth not; and all that he doeth prospereth.
This verse follows straight on from the man who delights in God's law. It pictures him as a tree. Two questions follow: what feeds such a life, and in what sense everything he does prospers.
The tree did not seed itself. Someone chose the spot.
"Planted" — not a wild tree, growing from seed scattered at random by the wind and landing anywhere — but planted. A skilful eye picked out the right spot. A careful hand cleared away everything that would hinder the growth of the tree planted there in rich soil, with every advantage of watchful care that could be given to it.
A fruit tree there is no accident of the landscape.
The fruit-tree is not a natural growth of the soil: a Hand has planted it, and that among the divided streams of an irrigated land.
The word behind "streams of water" tells us how the water reaches the roots.
The word for "the rivers of water" in Ps. 1:3 comes from the root meaning "to divide." Refreshment flows in where whatever would block its entrance is cut apart.
The tree's life depends on what happens out of sight, under the ground.
Underneath the ground the great tree sends out its main roots. Each one has countless tiny rootlets searching in every direction for moisture. In time they reach the wet river-bed. Then every hair-like filament becomes a hungry mouth, taking in as much nourishment as it can from the damp soil… Cut off the supply of water, and the tree must wither and die. Give it too little, and the fruit becomes poor and scarce, while the leaves turn from bright green to dull brown.
The water leads back to verse 2 — the word, and the Spirit who works through it.
Notice who this is said of: the man meditating day and night on Jehovah's law. The Spirit of God acts through the word of God, and there is no other way than this. To handle the Word without the Spirit is only rationalism. And the dream of the Spirit ministering apart from the Word is delusion and fanaticism.
"In its season" rules out haste. Growth takes time, and the fruit is not for the tree itself.
Nothing about it comes too early or half-formed. Truth has to be digested and taken in. But the activity and energy of life are there, and progress day by day… The tree does not produce the fruit for itself. What we find in ourselves is not the point; what the Lord finds is.
The seasons also cover the times when nothing appears to be happening.
More than this, the tree is a fruit tree, producing fruit in its proper season, for there are times of rest also as the fruit is developing.
Fruit and leaf are not the same thing, and the order matters.
Fruit is first in importance, then the unwithered leaf, which we may take to illustrate testimony. Fruit is for God; testimony is given to others around us. Actions and words that commend Christ in the eyes of others are the green leaves of testimony. But if there is no water there will be no greenness.
The same writer sets this beside the seed on rocky ground, where quick green growth collapsed under the sun because the plants "lacked moisture" and had "no root in themselves." Green in a dry land is itself the point:
We have a nature given to us that can live, and does live, when everything around is death. We are like plants set to bud and blossom for the pleasure of our God in a scene where there is everything to grieve His Holy Spirit.
Experience often seems to contradict this line, and commentators face that squarely.
Judged by any human or earthly standard, this statement does not seem to hold at present. The psalmist himself cries, "You have renounced the covenant with your servant… You have breached all his walls; you have laid his strongholds in ruins." Christ Himself says, "I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity." So "in all that he does, he prospers" is not an absolute promise, fulfilled in every sense, in every case, at all times… The very presence of the ungodly, and even of scoffers, implies a testing time for the faithful. Instead of the godly man prospering in all he does, it seems as though the wicked were in prosperity and the godly persecuted and forsaken. But this is only for the present. A judgment is coming which will remove the ungodly; and then of each such person it will indeed be true: in all that he does, he prospers.
Only one life answers this description in full.
But where was this character, called blessed and owned by Jehovah, to be found in perfection? Surely the blessed Man of Psalm 1 is Christ. In His lowly path He was the perfect example of the godly remnant, who are found everywhere in the Psalms.
What looked like His defeat is the proof — and our encouragement:
While His sufferings and death seemed to be His defeat, this was a sacrifice He accomplished that has prospered amazingly in the salvation of countless souls. So let us not be discouraged by any troubling setbacks, for whatever God enables us to do for Him will prosper: "in the Lord your labor is not in vain" (1 Corinthians 15:58).
- Planted — a hand cleared the ground and chose the spot. Fruitfulness starts with God's care, not the tree's ambition.
- Watered — the channels feed hidden roots, and the water is the word applied by the Spirit. Cut the supply and the tree dies; give it too little and the fruit shrinks.
- Fruiting — fruit comes in season and is never forced. It grows for what the Lord finds, not for what we find in ourselves.
- Green — fruit is for God; the leaf is testimony to others. Without water there is no greenness.
- Prospering — the promise is not unqualified now, and even Christ said He had labored in vain. Judgment will one day remove the ungodly. He is the blessed Man, and His cross proves that what looks like defeat prospers in the end.
The wicked are not so; but are as the chaff which the wind driveth away.
Psalm 1 has just pictured a man rooted like a tree by streams of water. Verse 4 answers with two words of denial and one image: chaff — so why that verdict on a whole class of people, and when does the wind blow?
The verse begins by cancelling everything said before it. One writer sets the two pictures side by side and lets the gap speak:
"The ungodly are not so": they are the exact opposite in character. Whatever prosperity they may have for the present is short-lived. They themselves are like "the chaff which the wind drives away." Think of the difference between the tree planted by the rivers of water and the chaff which the wind drives away!
(Where older translations say "the ungodly," the ESV says "the wicked.")
Chaff is the husk left over when grain is threshed. The picture is not of something evil so much as something with nothing to it:
When grain was threshed on the threshing floor, they opened doors at both ends. The wind blew through and carried the chaff away. The wheat stayed, because it was heavier. The chaff was of no value, and unbelievers have no moral weight.
Another writer picks up the tree's own words — root and fruit — and notes where threshing floors stood:
The judgment of God shows the rootless, fruitless doer of empty things in his own nothingness. He is chased out of the world, just as the wind carried the useless husk of the grain off the hilltops where the threshing floors stood.
The verse does not deny that the wicked often do well. It denies that their success lasts. That raises a problem, and the answer lies ahead:
They may appear to hold the place of authority, sitting at their ease. Still, in the government of God they will be driven away like the chaff before the wind. For the present the wicked may prosper, and the godly suffer, so the government of God may appear to have failed. This shows an important principle. For the full display of God's holy government — whether in blessing the godly or dealing with the wicked — we must wait for God to step in with judgment in the day to come.
Until then, the two are not kept apart:
They are mingled together now, however different in character — living in the same city, perhaps under the same roof, sitting at the same table, or sleeping in the same bed. But judgment will tell them apart exactly.
One writer sees the verse played out in one man, King Nebuchadnezzar:
Nebuchadnezzar on the throne was a tree (see Dan. 4:22), but his leaf faded. For a brief moment prosperity shone on him. Where is he now, and his glory? "But are like the chaff which the wind drives away." Sadly, it is the ungodly in Israel the Psalm speaks of.
One writer reads the image as a prophecy, and follows it into the Gospels:
"Like the chaff which the wind drives away" is a prophecy of the time when God deals with the ungodly in judgment. That is when "He will clear His threshing floor and gather His wheat into the barn, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire" (Matt. 3:12). Then the ungodly will disappear forever and stop troubling the righteous.
Commentators differ over which judgment is in view. One writer names the day:
What day is that? Not the day when the dead stand before the great white throne, but the day when Christ comes to judge the living. It will begin when He appears with His saints, and will continue until the wicked are destroyed and gone from the land.
Verse 4 is not a one-off warning. One writer looks at who is left once the chaff is gone:
There will be the cutting off of the ungodly ones like chaff, and those who remain are the godly. There is a godly remnant in the midst of the ungodly, and the ungodly are to be cut off. That is the basis of all we have in the Book of Psalms.
- Not so. The verse opens by cancelling verse 3: everything true of the rooted tree is untrue here.
- No root. Chaff is the husk of threshed grain: "quickly consumed, or easily swept away by the wind" (Morrish Bible Dictionary). The verse names the wicked by what they lack, not only by what they do.
- No weight. Wheat stays on the floor because it is heavy; chaff leaves because it is not. Unbelievers have no moral weight to hold them.
- No future. Present success does not disprove God's government. It only means the wind has not yet risen.
- No place. The chaff is not just blown off the floor but out of the scene. When God steps in, none of the wicked are left standing in the land.
Therefore the wicked shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
Psalm 1 has just set two pictures side by side: a tree by streams of water and chaff blown off a threshing floor. Verse 5 draws the conclusion: a coming day turns that difference of character into a difference of place. (The older translation these writers quote reads "the ungodly shall not stand" where the ESV has "the wicked will not stand.")
Right now the two groups look alike from the outside. The coming judgment changes that.
They are mixed together now, however different in character. They live in the same city, perhaps under the same roof, sitting at the same table, or sleeping in the same bed. But judgment will tell one from the other with complete accuracy.
Until then, appearances run the other way.
They may seem settled in the place of authority, sitting at their ease. All the same, under the government of God they will be driven away like chaff before the wind. For now the wicked may prosper and the godly suffer. So the government of God may look as though it had failed. This brings out an important principle. God's holy government has two sides: blessing the godly and dealing with the wicked. Neither side is fully displayed until He steps in to judge in the day to come.
"Stand" here is not about posture. One writer draws on the old Aramaic paraphrase of the Psalms, known as the Chaldee, to show what the word carries.
The Chaldee renders in the judgment as the great day. The force of shall not stand, then, is that the wicked will not stand before God so as to be accepted by Him as justified. The Chaldee puts this well too: they shall not be pure, or innocent.
The same writer cites the Hebrew scholar Delitzsch on the verb itself. It means "to continue to stand." So the wicked cannot hold their ground once God examines them.
Commentators differ on the timing. One reads the verse as the judgment of the living when Christ appears, not the final scene before the throne.
What day is that? Not the day when the dead will stand before the great white throne, but the day when Christ comes to judge the living. It begins when He appears with His saints, and goes on until the wicked are wiped out of the land.
Another reads it as the great white throne, and presses the warning home.
There may not be much in the Old Testament about the coming judgment of the ungodly. But there is enough to warn against leaving God out of life. The verse states plainly that "the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment." We know that judgment will have Christ as Judge at the great white throne. Those who have left God out of their thoughts, their plans and their ways cannot expect God to treat them as righteous.
The second half of the verse is not only a shut door. It also points to a company that comes into being after judgment.
Notice that the psalm sets both groups in front of a judgment close at hand. In that judgment the wicked are driven away like chaff, and the righteous form the congregation... Blessing is on the righteous, but these shall be the people when the ungodly are driven away as chaff.
Another writer looks past the judgment to the people who will make up that congregation.
The Psalm goes beyond this judgment and gives a glimpse of the godly remnant who will then be the congregation of the righteous. "All your children shall be taught by the LORD" (Isaiah 54:13). No sinner will last among them.
Being shut out of that company is not an arbitrary penalty. It follows from what verse 1 already showed.
Verse 1 has shown us that the godly are even now separated from the ungodly. Can the ungodly expect to inherit the same blessedness as the righteous in eternity? Impossible! Simply being with the righteous would be unbearable misery for them. And God would not let ungodly enemies of the Lord Jesus distress the righteous by their presence.
- Mixed now. The godly and the ungodly share the same city, table and roof; nothing on the surface separates them yet.
- Sorted then. Judgment tells one from the other with complete accuracy. God's government has long looked like failure; that day makes it plain.
- Cannot stand. The verb means to keep standing. The wicked cannot hold their ground before God, and He will not accept them as justified.
- Cannot belong. God shuts the wicked out of that congregation. Verse 1 showed the two were already separate in character; judgment only makes it visible.
- Two readings. Commentators differ on the timing: Christ judging the living at His appearing, or the great white throne. Both agree the verse warns anyone who leaves God out of life.
For Jehovah knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked shall perish.
Psalm 1 ends by giving the reason its two roads end so differently: the LORD knows one, and the other runs out. The whole weight of the verse falls on two words — what it means for God to "know" a way, and what it means for a way to "perish."
Verse 6 is not a new thought. It gives the reason behind the two ends the psalm has just described. It also looks ahead to a day when good and bad are no longer mixed together, and faith does not have to wait for that day to see how things stand.
Judgment is coming, and the Book of Psalms as a whole looks toward it. Then the present mixed state will give place to a clear separation. God will carry out His sentence on earth before the final one for eternity. This is no secret to faith, which enters into His mind and will before that day.
God is aware of everyone, so bare awareness cannot be the point here. Commentators read this knowing as approval.
Meanwhile the Lord knows the way of the righteous — He both discerns and approves it. But the way of the ungodly, however successful it looks now, will surely perish in the time of judgment.
Some writers quote older translations that read "ungodly" where the ESV reads "wicked." One writer sets this verse beside a line about the proud, where God's knowing sounds very different:
So it is said, "The Lord knows the way of the righteous" (Ps. 1:6). Of course He also knows the proud. But to mark that off from this approving knowledge, Scripture adds, "The proud He knows from far away" (Ps. 138:6).
The knowing goes further than approval from a distance.
What He approves lasts, and nothing will ever break His seal on it. And so He "knows" the way of the righteous. He knows it well as something that is His own. It is the way He Himself walks, and the way where fellowship with Him is found. "But the way of the ungodly perishes."
Until now the psalm has spoken of a single man. Verse 6 widens the picture.
Here the righteous are not one but many. In the Greek Old Testament the word is plural, and they are distinct from "the Man." The LORD knows their way, but the way of the ungodly shall perish. Setting the knowing and the perishing side by side means destruction for the ungodly and preservation for the righteous. Yes, it is a moral approval of the righteous, though it does not rise to the height of God's delight in the blessed Man.
The same writer applies this to people whose road is hard:
God knew their path of sorrow, pictured in the Psalms that follow. That holds a store of comfort for the tried and suffering. God appoints the way and knows it. Its ending is blessing, and that too is settled.
Before the judgment, the righteous get no public proof that they are right.
In the meantime the godly soul has the comfort of the secret approval of the Lord.
The verse does not say the wicked perish; it says their way does. One writer weighs what each way earns at the end.
The One who takes full account of all mankind knows the way of the righteous. Their history on earth has given time to prove their consistent "way" to be commendable and worthy of a full reward. But the way of the ungodly (being consistently corrupt) shall perish. They have nothing of value to reward. All they have done, whatever pride they took in it, God will banish into eternal oblivion. Their personal end will be worse than this.
- Two ways. The psalm ends with two roads: God knows one, and the other runs out. Everything here hangs on which one you are walking.
- Known. God's knowing here means He discerns and approves — not like the proud, whom He knows from far away.
- Shared. God knows this way as His own, because He walks it; what He approves lasts, and nothing breaks His seal on it.
- Many. The word for the righteous is plural. The blessed Man does not walk alone. God appoints their sorrowful path, knows it, and ends it in blessing.
- Perished. The other way keeps nothing. God banishes whatever was built along it into oblivion, and the end of those who walk it is worse still.