1 Happy is the man who does not walk according to the advice of the wicked
And does not stand on the path of sinners
And does not sit in the seat of scoffers.
2 But his delight is in the law of Jehovah,
And he reads His law in an undertone day and night.
3 He will be like a tree planted by streams of water,
A tree that produces fruit in its season,
The foliage of which does not wither.
And everything he does will succeed.
4 The wicked are not like that;
They are like the chaff that the wind blows away.
5 That is why the wicked will not remain standing in the judgement;
Nor will sinners remain standing in the assembly of the righteous.
6 For Jehovah is aware of the way of the righteous,
But the way of the wicked will perish.
The first verse states the negative – the things that the righteous man does not do. These are presented as a succession of activities of increasing involvement.
Stage 1 He does not walk – it is easy to accidentally fall into step with another traveller along the road. He could be casually walking and he finds that he has caught up with someone, or they catch him. He passes the time of day, but then the conversation moves on from the ephemeral to the substantial and even to the wicked. At this point he should not continue. He will find a reason to take a different route or to return from whence he came.
Stage 2 He does not stand – he avoids places where sinners congregate. He does not linger or loiter in their company. His doing so would suggest a deliberate act of involvement.
Stage 3 He does not sit – in doing so he would be spending a lot of time amongst these scoffers. He who does sit has become settled in his purpose of permanently being one of them.
Now we get the positive – the things the righteous man does do. He delights in the law of Jehovah, so much so that he reads it all the time. Day and night suggests that there is no time when he is not reading God’s Word, thinking upon it, meditating upon its message, allowing it to guide his way. Even during those sleepless hours tossing upon the bed, the words of his Lord are upon his mind and they calm him, nay delight him.
Like a tree. Note that a cultivator, an arborist, has planted the tree. It has not germinated from a seed cast aside by accident, or by some other spontaneous process. It has been planted and in a most propitious location, by streams of water (Heb peleg – to cleave, divide, split – divisions, channels, canals, trenches, brooks). Natural rivers in Bible times, as today, were managed so that their water was channelled to best use, irrigating crops far and wide. This tree flourishes, producing its fruit in due season – not too early to be endangered by late frosts and not too late so as to have insufficient time to mature. The foliage luxuriates even during times of drought and heat.
And everything he does will succeed. This statement is worthy of development. We might be thinking that avoiding sinners and pondering the law of Jehovah constantly will give us a blessed, blissful life in which nothing ever goes wrong. There have been so many loyal men and women who have been utterly devoted to their God whose lives have been otherwise wretched – persecutions, bereavements, illness, financial difficulties, the whole gamut of this world’s experiences. Nobody, alas, is immune to these troubles regardless of how devout their life course. So is this a false statement? That is unlikely – we simply need to determine in what way everything we do is successful. Everything in a spiritual way will succeed because our relationship with Jehovah is not dependent on the successes of a temporal nature nor on the mundane experiences of life, thrown at us by our own inadequacies and the mischief of others.
Then again we can expand that 'everything' to literally everything if we take a long-term perspective – beyond our current existence. Jehovah has promised to ‘satisfy the desire of every living thing’ (Ps 145:16). That may take time and patience to realise but it is guaranteed.
The wicked are not like that; they are like the chaff… Chaff is the thin covering on each kernel of grain, inedible and useless to man. It is separated by threshing, either by a flail, hefty-hoofed animals stomping on, or by dragging a sledge over, the grains. The mixture is winnowed, tossed in the air, allowing the chaff to be blown away in the wind, piled high and burned. The negative activities that the righteous do not engage in now become positive activities in regard to the wicked. They do walk according to the advice of sinners; they do stand on the path of sinners; they do sit in the seat of scoffers. The reverse is also true; they do not delight in the law of Jehovah; they disregard it as irrelevant, out-dated, contradictory tripe; they are not like a tree planted by streams of water; they produce no fruit, absolutely nothing of value. They are useless and of no worth on God’s account however highly they value themselves. They will not stand in the judgement; they will not be allowed to stand with and subvert the righteous. The way of the wicked leads to ignominy and desolation.
Jehovah knows everyone – intimately. He is aware of the way of the righteous. The conclusion is clear; the righteous do not perish, in fact they flourish, basking in the glow of approval of Jehovah himself.
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