The choice  

Our culture defines success in terms of wealth, status, and security, all attained independently. This psalm offers a radically different take on the good life.

¹ How blessed the man
who doesn’t walk the path the ungodly promote
or stand up for self-seekers’ twisted values
or sit among those who scoff and sneer.
² He delights instead in YHWH’s Torah
drawing on its wisdom day and night.
³ And this makes him thrive like a tree
planted beside a clear flowing stream
bearing fruit without pause
staying green through deadly droughts
and flourishing in all he does.

⁴ But not the ungodly!
They’re like the chaff the wind drives away.
⁵ The wicked won’t stand when justice is done
nor will wrongdoers find shelter
within the community of God-seekers.
⁶ For YHWH knows the path of those who seek him
while the path of those who spurn him
leads to futility and failure.

The Psalter’s first and second psalms are meant to be read together, like a two-part psalm. Double-framing the entire book, they thus speak of the same man, God’s messianic king, whose delight in God’s torah, or instruction, leads to his resounding success, while his enemies’ disregard for God’s instruction—and for God himself—leads to their tragic failure. This psalm tells us where true human fulfillment lies, contrasting life’s two ways and their inevitable ends.

The psalm’s initial walk-stand-sit progression suggests the way dabbling in waywardness leads finally to its full embrace. And what the psalm says of the Messiah is true of all who submit to him, dwelling constantly on God’s word until it becomes part of their lives. This discipline issues not from demand, but rather delight because God’s word is life-giving. While instruction through scripture is primary here, God speaks in many ways. The psalmist commends what Calvin called a “teachable frame,” a constant openness to whatever God says to us by whatever means.

The psalm highlights the contrast between the flourishing God-seeker and the languishing self-seeker, the former a well-rooted tree, the latter wind-driven chaff. It doesn’t always look that way: the self-seeker’s end may look nothing like their path in its beginning. Indeed, there can be great appeal in being your own god, doing whatever you like, and scoffing at anyone cramping your style. But ironically, such “self-fulfillment” leads to alienation: far from being true freedom, the Western concept of individual autonomy ultimately destroys freedom. Letting self-love crowd God out leaves us lost, excluded from the one community that matters. Delighting in his word, we flourish because God “knows” our path, the Hebrew word for know (yada‘) signifying intimate involvement.

While this psalm says nothing explicit about the struggle and suffering the Messiah endures, the second psalm, which completes it, points clearly in that direction. Together, these psalms frame the book with life’s great choice: we either listen to God or ignore him. Listening yields fulfillment, ignoring God life’s dissolution.

Prayer:

Rooted in your Father’s word, Jesus, you flourished as no one else ever has. I would live like you. Yet the choice before me is obscured in countless ways, lest I see how empty loving myself supremely is. How much better to find my true self in you. Help me cling to your teaching, whatever the cost. Amen.

In your free moments today, meditate on these words:

This makes him thrive like a tree
planted beside a clear flowing stream
bearing fruit without pause
staying green through deadly droughts
and flourishing in all he does.