In the layout
of the Hebrew bible, the books of the prophets are placed earlier than they
appear in our English bibles. Consequently, in the Hebrew bible, the book of
Psalms comes directly after the book of Malachi. So when you are doing your
read-through-the-scrolls-in-a-year program, you finish the book of Malachi and
move straight onto Psalms.
Now one of the
important questions that people are asking in Malachi is “Who really is happy?”
They’ve finished rebuilding the temple, but they don’t feel like God is
blessing them, and they’re getting tired of serving God. Malachi 3:14-15 reads,
“You
have said, ‘It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his
charge or of walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts? And now we call
the arrogant blessed. Evildoers not only prosper but they put God to the test
and they escape.”
The Israelites
are thinking that the arrogant and the evildoers are the happy ones. They’re
not worried about serving God at all and they seem to be living their best
lives now, with seemingly no negative consequences. Maybe that is really the
way to go to achieve happiness and contentment. Does that sound at all
familiar…?
So thinking of
this context, let’s return to Psalm 1. The psalmist is saying very clearly –
No! You’re getting it completely back to front. Let me show you who the happy
man really is.
At the opening
of the psalm, it talks about this “blessed” man. Probably “happy” is a better
translation, although even that doesn’t capture the full sense of it. It’s not
really about emotions, but it’s rather someone who is considered fortunate or
favoured; someone to be congratulated or admired. In an Australian translation,
we might say “he’s on a good wicket”. This is the person who is really happy –
who has struck it rich.
What is this
man like? What does he do? Well, there are three things that he doesn’t do. He
does not walk in the counsel of the wicked. He does not stand in the way of
sinners. And he does not sit in the seat of scoffers. These are all “ways of
the world” which he is avoiding. These three things – “counsel… way… seat” –
represent the three distinct realms of thinking, acting and dwelling. Walking
in the counsel of the wicked means accepting guidance and direction from the
world; allowing it to shape your views and direct your journey. Standing in the
way means to take part in its conduct. You are sharing the “same road” with
unbelievers and are doing the same things. Finally, to sit in the seat could
also be translated as “settle in the dwelling place”. This is the final step –
you get so comfortable hanging out in the world that you decide to settle down
there. The whole thing is like a journey – first you take directions from the
wicked, then you go along the road with the sinners, and finally you settle down
with the scoffers. These are the things that the Israelites were contemplating
in the book of Malachi – is this the path to happiness?
“No!” says the
psalmist. The happy man is the one who delights in the law (torah) of the Lord
and meditates on it both day and night. God’s law and instruction and teaching
shapes how he thinks, which in turn shapes his whole life.
This gives rise
to the beautiful imagery of a flourishing tree in verse 3. You will notice it’s
not that the tree happened to grow up in the right spot, or that it decided to
grow in that spot. The tree did not “grow” beside these streams or channels of
water. It was transplanted there by the gardener. The tree has continual access
to the water which gives it life; a spring of water in it welling up to eternal
life (Jn 4:14). Because of this favourable situation, the tree can bear fruit
and survive through droughts. Furthermore, because God’s teaching shapes the
whole life of this man, everything that he does prospers.
Then in verse 4
there is a stark, almost painfully abrupt, contrast. I like how the NIV puts it
– “Not so the wicked!” But I love the Septuagint translation, which most Jews
would have been using by Jesus’ time. “Not so the wicked! Not so!” There is not
a single iota of similar blessings for the wicked man. Instead, he will fall at
the time of judgement and will be expelled from the assembly of the righteous
and scattered like chaff.
Why is this the
case? Because God is ultimately in control. He will make sure that the
righteous will prosper and that the wicked will be punished. He knows the way
of the righteous – which is more than just being informed about it in an
intellectual sense. He watches over His people as they go about their lives; He
cares about them.
As is clear in
verse 6, there are only two ways for people to live: the way of the righteous
(those who follow God), or the way of the wicked (those who reject him). The
end of each path is very clear, and there is no third option. So for me, that
brings the question back to verse 2; the heart of the psalm. What does it mean
for us to delight in God’s law and meditate on it all them time? What does that
look like?
The Pharisees
spent a lot of time meditating and thinking deeply about the Torah. And you
know how that turned out. They calculated a total of 613 commands in the Torah,
as well as adding another 1500 of their own “fence laws”, so that people could
not even come close to breaking God’s law by accident. The fourth of the 10
commandments was to honour the Sabbath day and not do any work on it.
Consequently, the Pharisees expended a lot of brain power identifying 39
different categories and hundreds of subcategories of forbidden work. For
example, you weren’t allowed to spit on the ground on the Sabbath, because that
might make mud and then you would be guilty of making mortar on the Sabbath.
They spent a lot of time cogitating on the law, but could not see the forest
for the trees. They were completely missing the point of the Torah and God’s
instructions which were given to them.
So my question
to you is: What does it mean to “delight in the law of the Lord and meditate on
it day and night”, other than to fix our gaze firmly upon Jesus? The purpose of
the law was to be our guardian to bring us to Christ (Gal 3:24). The law given
to Moses was a shadow of the good things to come, namely Christ (Heb 10:1). He
is the culmination of the law – the reality which the commands were straining
to point towards.