A Life Sentence to the Torah

Pentecost 16 year C,  September 8, Psalm 1 –

Theme for the week:   A Life Sentence *

Psalm 1 (ESV)

The Way of the Righteous and the Wicked

1 Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
² but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
³ He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
⁴ The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
⁵ Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
⁶ for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.

Psalm 1 is one of the two Psalms without an attribution (the other is Psalm 2).  As the opening Psalm in what many consider to be “the Book of Common Prayer” or “The Hymnal” of the ancient Hebrew people,  Psalm 1 sets the tone for the entire book to come.  Students of scripture from the ancient fathers, through Luther, and down to some in the present time recognize the Psalter as fundamentally key to being drawn into closer fellowship with God.

Psalm 1 begins with a triple negative.  In Hebrew language structure the triple statement is the preferred way of showing the fundamental importance of what is being said.  In this case the triple negative strongly reinforces that this is not the essence of Being, a true human.  The ancient church fathers (see the Ancient Christian Commentary on this) speak of these three as a progression:

1. The ungodly begin in the company of other ungodly.
2. They prevent those sinners who would approach the Lord from coming into the Lord’s presence
3. And lastly their speech mocks, abuses, scoffs at the truths from the Lord.

“And the last state is worse than the first.”  How many times, for the sake of community, is a Christian asked to compromise some closely held belief.  Over time as one becomes hardened, the truth is shunted to the side because it is unpopular or not a politically correct thing to say or act upon.  (In the book of Amos, one of the complaints lodged against the nation of Israel is that they made the Nazirites drink wine (Amos 2:12).  Those who wanted to attempt to keep vows to the Lord were hindered in that task.  When in our society today are we being hindered in our desire to follow the Lord?)  Finally, a person may embrace the scoffing, mocking language of his friends, because the sense of community has become more important to the person than being connected to “the true vine.”  This process is all to often repeated in our time.

Verse 2 is the antithesis of this triple negative.  Rather than the “counsel of the wicked” being the measure of all things, this human delights in the Law and meditates on it night and day.  St. Augustine rightly speaks that Jesus is the only true casino human by this standard.  The rest of us are this as only Christ is our life (Colossians 3:3-4).

The Hebrew Word Torah here is commonly translated as Law, but those versed in the language remind us that Torah is bigger than law in our modern mindset and could be more accurately translated as revelation.   Since this Psalm is one of the oldest in the Psalter, in all likelihood the Psalmist is referring to the Pentateuch as the word from the Lord which the godly man meditates upon.  This is important so that people recognize the “golden thread” in scripture.

Woven into all of scripture is the promise to people that God will not abandon His people, and He will do whatever is necessary to redeem His people.  First stated to Eve, the promise stated to Abraham about his “offspring” is fulfilled in the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus.  This is the truest blessing, and the golden thread, which we must not lose sight of.

Verses 3 and 4 continue the contrast of the truly human and the wicked.  Like a tree planted by a stream of water (water is an important theme for this desert people), the true human does not wither, but yields fruit in season.  The wicked, however, are like the chaff which blow away.

Growing up on a grain farm and continuing to handle lots of grain to this day, I know a great deal about chaff.  It is the residual fines and small pieces, light in weight, which are separated from the heavier grain kernels by blowing wind across or through the grain.  A modern combine still employs this method to separate grain from chaff.  The grain stays in the combine, dropping to the lowest level where it is typically augered into the grain tank.  The chaff is blown out the back of the combine in a cloud of dust generated by the cleaning fan.  Though much more complex than the ancient threshing floor where grain and chaff were thrown in the air so the wind could catch the chaff and blow it away while the grain fell back to the ground to be gathered up, the principles of separating the valuable grain from the worthless chaff remain the same.

Verses 5 and 6 complete the picture being drawn.  There is threat and hope here.  The wicked, like chaff, will not stand in judgment.  Sinners, like chaff, won’t be in the congregation of the righteous.  As the Psalm concludes, “The Lord knows the way of the Righteous but the way of the wicked will perish.”  So who can stand as righteous before God?  Only Jesus.  He said  ”… unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”  (Matthew 5:20).   So how can any sinner be saved?

Because Jesus, the righteous one, the true human, gives us His righteousness, we are clothed in Him.   He takes our sin, we get His righteousness — this is the way it is with the shared goods of groom (Jesus) and bride (humanity).   The Psalm opened “Blessed is the man.”   When “the man” is referred to in scripture it often means “the husband.”

This Psalm points to the “Great Exchange,” the “Frohliche Wechsel” as Luther put it.  We get His righteousness, He takes our sin.

Thanks be to God.

Prayer—

Heavenly Father thank you for sending Jesus — the righteous man, the one who knows your revelation perfectly — to rescue us from our sin and make us holy by his holiness.  Keep us from temptations when the siren song of human community, the transient pleasure of sensual sin, and the way of the scoffers of our time threaten to draw us from you and your Son.  Do not let us be chaff blown hither and yon, but plant us by the cool streams of your everlasting Word.

In Jesus Name,  Amen.

* I am indebted to Rev. Dr. Andy Bartelt for this turn of phrase from his “homiletic helps” on the Deuteronomy companion text on this Psalm in this week”s lectionary.