Abstract
We are used to the words ‘Blessed is’ from our Lord’s use of them in what we now call the Beatitudes. ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit’, and so on. But today we have them in the opening of the Psalm, Psalm 1: ‘Blessed is the man.’ And woman, of course.
And the scholars tell us that here the meaning of ‘blessed’ is ‘happy’ And that fits in with what follows because that is not about anything which comes to a man from without, as would a blessing, but a consequence of what he himself does and is.
Mind you, happy in God’s sight. Not the temporary contentedness which comes from, for example, sitting on the beach soaking up the sun with a cold drink to hand. Not that sort of happiness but a deep sense of peace because being at one with God.
I don’t know who put this Psalm at the beginning of the book of Psalms, but what a way to start it! We all want to be happy in this sense, so how do we set about it? It will govern all that follows.
The Psalm gives the answer to how to set about being happy in this sense in three parts. What a man refrains from doing, what he does, and what he is. So first what is it that he refrains from doing?
‘Blessed is the man who doesn’t walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scornful.’
We all know that it was the Jewish custom to write something and then repeat it in other words, but this isn’t a case of that. It may at first sound repetitive. Certainly, a part of the teaching about who is happy is about associating with people, but the parts are all different from each other. For a start, the people with whom he should not associate are different.
The first people are the ungodly. ‘Who doesn’t walk in the counsel of the ungodly.’ The ungodly are those who do not recognise even the existence of God. Their ‘counsel’ is the way of only the world. Being without God’s protection and guidance, they are exposed to the temptations of the world, the flesh and the devil. Their counsel, their way of looking at life, then results in their deeds. ‘Let us eat, drink and be merry.’ There is a spark of the divine in all people, but these are the wicked. They have no fear of God and own no allegiance to Him; but live the life of the flesh.
Not sinners. That is the second group. ‘Who don’t stand in the way of sinners.’ As the apostle was to explain later, you don’t have sin without the law and the ungodly do not acknowledge God’s law. The second group, the sinners, are not the ungodly but believers. They believe in God and know His law and acknowledge His commands. But they do not keep His law, do not obey His commands. They see the better way but do not follow it. That is the way of sinners.
The third group know but no longer acknowledge the validity of His commands. These are those who ‘sit in the seat of the scornful’. The scornful are those who know but do not have respect for God’s law. ‘Don’t fornicate?’ they say. ‘You mean, “Don’t have sex outside marriage. That’s old hat. We have contraceptives now. Everyone does it.”’ They not only disobey God’s commands; they treat those commands with scorn and contumely.
And note that there is a progression here. When we leave our churches and Christian homes, most of us have to go out into the world. Our own world is still living off the fat of a Christian inheritance, but many of its values are worldly and godless. It is among these that much of our life lies, but we must not allow it by contagion with it to become our normal walk of life, following the counsel of the godless. That way wickedness of action lies.
If that wickedness of action continues, then we are breaking God’s commandments and taking our stance, the position we are regularly in, in the way of sinners. We might still repent but if we do not, then our stance is inconsistent; we cannot consistently break God’s laws and yet respect them for their goodness. We disparage His laws and end up sitting, comfortably settled, ‘in the seat of the scornful’, treating God’s laws with scorn.
This is the downward path we must at all costs avoid. Happy is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor then take his stance in the way of sinners, nor end up settled comfortably in the seat of the scornful.
The Psalm then turns to the positive side. If these are the things we must refrain from doing if we are to be happy, what is it that we must do?
This may seem obvious. Obey God’s commands. But that is not what the Psalm says. The Psalm goes further: ‘His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law does he meditate day and night.’ The law of the Lord is His will as revealed. For the Israelite readers, in the first five books of what we now call the Old Testament, the Pentateuch. For us also in the prophets and in the teaching of Jesus Himself and that of His apostles.
But because He has given us His Spirit, the law is also in ourselves, known sometimes through His impulses from within.
The Psalm even says that he ‘meditates on God’s law day and night’. This does not mean that we should think of nothing else. We could not live life like that. But His law should be so much a part of our thinking that it underlies the decisions we have to make day by day.
So happy is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scornful, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord. But what then will he be? ‘He will be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season. His leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does will prosper.’
And that calls to mind the similar statement which Our Lord made later about the time when the heavenly Jerusalem shall have come down from heaven to earth. ‘In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life [. . .] and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.’ (Revelation 22:2). All those who are His, part of His body, share in His work for the healing of the nations.
So the happy man will indeed himself be a tree, nourished by the waters of eternal life, which flourishes with fruit and leaves, but not only for himself but also to be able to help others. Happy indeed are the man and woman who also do that.