Dec 03 2008
The Path of the Righteous One.
The following is a meditative commentary on Psalm 1. To see my collection of Psalm commentaries and notes click on the “Notes on Psalms” link found below this blogs header.
The first sound of the harp of the sweet singer of Israel might well be thought strange in a world lying in wickedness. It celebrates the current happiness of that man who has fellowship with God, and no fellowship with the ungodly. Behold the man! his eye arrested, not by the things of earth, but by what has been sent down from heaven-”the law of the Lord.” He has found the “river of living water;” he is like a tree-like some palm or pomegranate tree,-laden with fruit, or like that tree of life in Rev 22:2, that yields its fruit every month, and yields fruit of all variety.
Perhaps This comparison to trees and streams should carry us back to Eden, and suggest the state of man holy and happy there. Redeemed man rises up again to Eden-blessedness. Is it the fact of its occurrence in this Psalm, or is it simply the expressiveness of the similitude, that has led to its repetition in Jer 17:8?
But, besides, we are carried back to Joshua by the language used regarding man’s prosperity. Joshua’s career was one of uninterrupted prosperity, except in one single case, when he forgot to consult the Lord; and the Lord’s words to him were these:-
“The book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth,
But thou shall meditate on it day and night,
That thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein.
For thou shalt make thy way prosperous,
And then thou shalt have good success”.-Josh 1:8
Perhaps this reference to the days of Joshua made this Psalm the more appropriate as an introduction to the whole Psalter. It connected those ancient days with other generations. It sang of the same Lord, acting towards all men on the same principles. It sang of a race who had come to possess the land of Canaan, who acted on the holy maxims that guided Joshua when he took possession-a race of men guided by the revealed will of God.
The ungodly are not prosperous,- they are not as “trees by the river side.” They are as “chaff,” ready to be driven away in the day of wrath, and unable to withstand the slightest breath of God’s displeasure (Dan 2:35; Matt 3:12). Hence they cannot “stand.” Even as in Rev 6:17, the cry of the affrighted world-kings, captains, rich men, mighty men, bond, free-is”The great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?” For the “Lord knoweth the way of the righteous.” Our Lord may have referred to this passage in his memorable expression so often used: “I never knew you,” “I knew you not” Matt 7:23; 25:12; Luke 13:27). O, the happiness, then, of the godly! happy now, and still happier on that day which now hastens on, when the Husbandman shall separate “the chaff” from the wheat, and the kingdoms of the earth be broken in pieces ‘like the chaff of the summer threshing-floor,” and “the wind shall carry them away.” O the folly of those who “sit in the company of scorners,” and ask in these last days “where is the promise of his coming?” (2 Pet 3:3).
We have noticed that our Lord seems to quote one of the expressions of this psalm; and let us see how we may suppose it was read by him in the days of his flesh. We know he read it; his delight was in the law of the Lord; and often had he quoted the book of Psalms. As he read it would be natural to his human soul to appropriate the blessedness pronounced on the godly; for he knew and felt himself to be indeed The Godly, who “had not walked in the counsels of the ungodly, not stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seat of scorners.” He felt himself able to say at all times, “Thy law is within my heart!” Was he not the true Palm-tree? Was he not the true pomegranate tree? Can we help thinking of him as alone realizing the description of this Psalm? The members of his mystical Body, in their measure, aim at this holy walk; but it is only in him that they see it perfectly exemplified. “His leaf never withered;” he did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth” (1 Pet 2:22); “he yielded his fruit in its season,” obeying his mother Mary, and being found about his Father’s business; going up to the feast “when his hour had come,” and suffering, when the appointed time came; everything “in season.” And “all he did prospered;” he finished the work given him to do, and because of his completed work, “therefore God hath highly exalted him” (Phil 2:8-9).
We who are his members seek to realize all this in our measure. We seek that everything in us should be to the glory of God-heart, words, actions-all that may adorn the Gospel, as well as all that is holy.-Christ and His Church in the Book of Psalms by Andrew A. onar. Public domain text. This is a Protestant work and the text has been slightly modified and emended by me.
