Happy or Wicked – Psalm 1

A text – Psalm 1

1:1 Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers;
1:2 but their delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law they meditate day and night.
1:3 They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper.
1:4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
1:5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
1:6 for the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

A reflection:

This psalm contrasts two groups of people: those who delight in the way God orders things, and those who choose other kinds of ordering. The first group the psalmist calls happy. The second group the psalmist calls wicked.

My guess is that most people want to be happy. These choose things they think will make them happy, and maybe those choices work and maybe they don’t.

My guess is that people don’t really intend to be wicked. But what does wicked mean? It can be any behavior from roguish to morally evil to doing harm. Sometimes any of us might want to be roguish, mischievous, or rule-breaking. And sometimes any of us might want to cause harm out of spite or revenge. So in that spirit, let’s look at this psalm and instead of thinking wicked = someone like Scrooge or Maleficent or Hannibal Lecter, let’s think wicked = roguish or spiteful or vengeful.

The happy people are like trees planted near water bearing fruit year-round because they delight in God’s laws and ways and behave within the order God creates. The roguish or spiteful or vengeful people are like chaff that blows away, and the paths that they choose will become unwalkable, unnavigable, unsafe at any speed.

This lesson is about what system we want to live within, not about some genetic quality of evil-ness we might possess. It’s about the hundred little decisions we make every day to serve ourselves and our whims and pleasures or to bear in mind others who might suffer if we behave in that way. It is about what guides our choices, our love of ourselves or our love of God and other people. Always choose your path while thinking of God and others, never when feeling spiteful or vengeful or even roguish, and the psalmist says our life will be happier and our fruit constant.

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you giving us  your law that helps us make good choices. Thank you for blessing us when we do that. And thank you for being patient with us when we don’t, causing those more selfish paths to become impassable. Bring us back close to you instead.  Amen.