We are reminded in our reading of the gospels how often Christ separated himself to meditation and profound soul-searching and prayer—especially at night. Weakened and discouraged at day’s end, he considered the heavens, which declare the glory of God (Psa. 8:3; 19:1). In the long hours between dusk and dawn he renewed his heavenly fellowship and found again calmness and serenity in the unchanging law of his Father.
The “law of the Lord,” in the beginning of the Jewish nation, was the Pentateuch. This was the first five books of the Bible —the catalogue of commandments and ordinances of worship which God revealed to His people through His servant Moses. But the “law” of the Lord came in later times to stand for a much greater body of written material, including the historical books of the Old Testament, as well as the hymns and poetic words—of which the Psalms are a part.
In the times of Jesus, all of the Scriptures were designated by the term “the law and the prophets”. Twice in the Gospel of John (10:34; 15:25), Jesus quotes a passage from one of the Psalms, saying that it came from the “law”.
Joshua is one of the greatest types of Christ to be found in the Old Testament. Before the death of Moses, he was commissioned to succeed him as the new leader of God’s people. After the death of Moses, the Lord spoke to Joshua:
“This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success” (Josh. 1:8).
Joshua obeyed this advice, and taught his followers to do likewise. Thus he is able to lead his people out of the wilderness and into the promised Land.
Jesus also obeyed God’s words here:
“I delight to do Thy will, 0 God: yea, Thy law is within my heart” (Psa. 40:8; Heb. 10:7-9).
Therefore he became the “captain of our salvation” (Heb. 2:10). If we follow Christ’s example and earnestly heed his word and meditate upon it continually, then we may be led out of the wilderness of the present age, and into the glorious “rest” of the Kingdom of God (Heb. 4:9).
Verse 3
“And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of the water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”
“We shall be like a tree”—Would we be going too far in our meditations here to understand the righteous man “like a tree” to be Christ, and the dead cross on which his body was impaled becoming thereby a “tree of life” to send forth waters for the cleansing of the nations ? In this connection, notice how often the apostles speak of the cross as a tree (Acts 5:30; 13:29; 1 Pet. 2:24) !
One other reference is quite interesting in this connection: Gal. 3:13 is a citation of the Law in Deut. 21 :23—”Cursed is he that hangeth on a tree.” What a juxtaposition of thoughts we have here! Cursed is the man who dies on a tree; yet blessed is the man who shall be like a tree! The curse of mankind was directly related to a tree( as it was to a serpent), and the fruit thereof brought death (Gen. 3:17). In order to remove this curse, Christ had to suffer its consequences, hence his sacrificial death, lifted up (John 12:32,34) on a tree. Christ on the tree, drawing all men to himself, became first a “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” — good in obedience, evil in the flesh of sin to be cursed and destroyed (the lesson of the brazen serpent in Num. 21:8,9; John 3:14-16). And secondly he became the “tree of life” in the midst of the garden (Gen. 2:9) — the two malefactors, one on either side, answering to the trees of knowledge by their individual choices, for good or evil.
This (“He shall be like a tree”) is also true of the righteousness in Christ both now and in the future:
“Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit” (Jer. 17:7,8).
The man that trusts in God, through a knowledge of His word, will be firmly established as a tree and will not be blown about by the winds of false doctrine. He will be planted alongside the “waters”, or the doctrines of truth (Isa. 55:1; John 4:10-14; John 7:37,38). When the heat of persecution or trial threatens him, we will still be green, and living, and bountiful. Even in the dry and desolate land in which we all live today (Psa. 63:1; Amos 8:11), he will still prosper.
The tree is also the symbol of future blessings for God’s people. This is beautifully set forth in Isa. 65:22:
“They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat; for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.”
“A tree planted” —Such “trees” as the ones under consideration in this psalm do not grow accidentally! They are planted by God, as Israel was:
“Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt; thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it” (Psalm 80:8).
If we have been privileged to learn the truth and to be baptized into Christ, we cannot glory in ourselves. We have merely been chosen by the providence of God, and planted by Him (Isa. 60:21— “the branch of my planting;” Eph. 3:17 —”rooted and grounded in love”). We have done nothing of ourselves in simply putting on the name of Christ. We were called by God.
But we must continue to grow and to bring forth fruit in God’s garden. If we do not, then it is God’s prerogative to disavow us as His trees and to cut us down:
“Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up” (Matt. 15:13).
“And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire” (Mattt. 3:10).
“By the rivers of water” — Literally, “divisions of water,” probably a reference to irrigation. Did Adam learn this art in the Garden? Was the Garden of Eden itself watered on this pattern, with a lacework of “divisions of waters ?” (Gen. 2:10, 15).
The rivers of water, which presently are the words and teachings of Christ, will find their counterpart in the future age, in the healing waters which spring up from the altar on top of Mt. Zion, and flow down to heal the “dead sea” of nations (Psa. 57:20), irrigating and spiritually transforming all the earth into a “garden” (Psa. 35:1).
“And it shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth, which moveth, wither soever the rivers shall come, shall live” (Ezek. 47:9).
“And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb” (Rev. 22:1).
Alongside and among these rivers of water, the saints as trees flourish. We have here a beautiful panorama; we see from the mountain top of Psa. 1, at the center of the Bible, both the beginning and the end of God’s Words and purpose. In Gen. 2, 3 we see the paradise of God, where every manner of fruit was provided, and “fullness of joy.” There was the “tree of life” with its unfulfilled promise. In Rev. 22 we see the fulfillment: the recreated paradise of God, with many trees of life. This bridge over the vast expanse of God’s word is supported at its center by the lesson of Psa. 1: we are the trees og God—planed on the rivers of water — bringing forth fruit now in expectation of the day when He recreates His “Garden of Eden”.
“That bringeth forth his fruit in his season”—Jesus said that “a tree is known by his fruit”, whether it be good or corrupt (Matt. 12:33). As James wrote, we must manifest our faith by our works, or fruits. In Gal. 5:22, 23, the fruits of the Spirit, which we should bring forth, are listed:
“Love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, messiness, temperance . . .”
Solomon informs us that the “fruit of the righteous” (Prov. 11:30), especially ”a wholesome tongue” (Prov. 15:4) proves him to be a “tree of life”.
The “season” in which we are to bring forth fruits is NOW:
“I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored thee; behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (Isa. 49-8; ( 2 Cor. 6:2).
If we fail to use the present time profitably, to make our faith known by our works, then we will not be like the tree spoken of in this first psalm, and we will merit the judgment of Christ — as he gave against the fig tree:
“And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away” (Matt. 21:19).
Verse 4
“The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.”
What a terrible amount of denunciation is crowded into only 5 words at the beginning of v. 4: “The ungodly are not so.” Imagine all the good characteristics of the righteous. Then imagine the complete absence, the complete negation of those qualities, and you have the ungodly — a vast and desolate and empty and forbidding landscape. “The ungodly are not so.”
The trees of God stood firm against all winds and could not be uprooted. But the ungodly are like the chaff, which is soon driven away.
“The chaff which the wind driveth away” —Grain in the East is threshed in the open air, by being trampled under the feet of oxen (Deut. 25:4) or by means of various instruments (Isa. 28: 27, 28). These processes separate the grain from the hulls, or chaff. This mixed mass is then tossed into the wind with a shovel, or “fan” (Matt. 3:12; Luke 3:17). This is done usually in the evening or early morning — when breezes are frequent — on an exposed hillside (Ruth 3:2). The worthless chaff flees before the wind (Job 21:28; Psa. 35:5; Isa. 29:5) or is possibly consumed in the fire (Isa. 5:24).
There are two kinds of ungodly, or chaff, meant here: The one is the responsible wicked whom Christ will judge at his second coming:
“Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Matt. 3:12).
The second kind of chaff, which shall not stand in the time of coming judgment, is the chaff of the nations, the Gentile powers who tread down both natural Israel and the saints at the present time:
“The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind” (Isa. 17: 13) .
“Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them” (Dan. 2:35).
Verse 5
“Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.”
“Therefore” —points us back to the previous verse. Because the ungodly are not like the righteous, therefore they shall not stand (or remain) in the judgment.
This verse does not mean that these persons will not appear at the judgment seat of Christ, but rather that they will not remain there. The word translated “stand” is also used in Josh. 7:12,13 — where we gain a clearer picture of its meaning:
“The children of Israel could not stand before their enemies . . .”
That is, they could not stand firm and strong, but were instead defenseless. They were thus put to flight and scattered.
“Who can stand before His indignation?” (Nah. 1:6 compare Psa. 5: 5; 76:7; Mal. 3:2).
This is the fate of such persons who are called to the judgment seat of Christ. They will be scattered from the presence of Christ, and will be consumed.
“The congregation of the righteous” — All of the congregation of Israel were holy, or sanctified. The nation as a whole could be classed as “righteous”. But many — in fact, the vast majority — of the congregation were excluded from the promises made to Abraham and the fathers, and will have no part in the kingdom. This is because, as Paul says in Romans (9:6), “They are not all Israel, which are of Israel.”
When the angels go into all the world and bring the responsible to judgment, there will be some there who are ungodly in the sense of never having been baptized, never having taken the first step of obedience. But there will also be many more who, although they are baptized, are nevertheless ungodly and sinners. These are pseudo-members of the holy congregation of saints, or the “ecclesia”. They are “in Christ” in a technical sense, but not in a spiritual sense. Although they are “of Israel”, they are actually, in the final reckoning, “not Israel”.
To such as these Christ will say,
“Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels . . .” (Matt. 25:41).
Verse 6
“For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.”
“The way (path or life) of the ungodly shall perish” —This is expressed in a similar way in Psa. 112:10.
“The desire of the wicked shall perish…”
Often in this present life, we might be tempted to doubt this Divine assertion when we see the wicked in prosperity all around us. The Psalmist felt this same way:
“For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men . . .
Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.
How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment ! They are utterly consumed with terrors” (Psa. 73:3,5,16,17,19).
Like the property of the rich men in Christ’s parables, the property of the wicked will avail them nothing in the day of their death. They die just as the beasts, with no more hope than they. Possibly they will rise from the dead to face a second death. Truly their way shall perish.
“The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous” — Yahweh watches over, and understands, and supervises (Phil. 3:13) the way of the righteous; who trust in Him (Nah. 1:7); for they are His (2 Tim. 2:19) Everything is directed for their special benefit.
“If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Rom. 8:31).
Although He tries the righteous (Psa. 11:5), yet
“All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28).
“Their inheritance shall be forever” (Psa. 37:18).
* * * * *
“What happiness the man attends—Who walks not where the erring guide, Who stands not where the sinner wends, Who sits not where the scornful chide: The Lord’s commands are his delight— God’s law his study day and night.”
“He shall be like a tree that near The gently flowing river grows, Whose fruits in season due appear, Whose leaf no sign of fading shows. For, as in prudence they excel, So all his deed shall prosper well.”
“Not so the wicked; chaff are they Driven by the winds; they shall not stand The sifting of the judgment day: No sinner joins the righteous band. For godly ways the Eternal knows, But evil ways in ruin close.”
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One