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.