Tree? Or Chaff?

Here is the contrast and the conclusion of the psalm (though we won’t be finished talking about it yet).

In our third verse of Psalm 1, the blessed one, the one who delights in God’s word, is further described, and in the description we are shown how God’s word changes us.

Psalm 1:3 ESV

He is like a tree

planted by streams of water

that yields its fruit in its season,

and its leaf does not wither.

In all that he does, he prospers.

I spend almost every July and August trying to keep things alive in my yard that are not planted by the streams of water. If you lived in East Texas you’d know what I’m talking about. A tree planted by a stream does not need that kind of attention. It is fed constantly from that nourishing stream.

I remember once we bought some property and had a house built, and a driveway, and while we were at it, what was once a ditch that our driveway would have to cross became a small pond. The interesting thing about that was how in the first year I discovered willow trees growing all around the edges of it. I don’t even know how they got there, but I was constantly working to keep the banks clear from the pandemic of willow trees—trees prospering because they were planted by the waters. The one planted by the word, with his roots dug in, he prospers. The one who ignores the word dries up and withers away. Don’t believe me? The contrast is right here in this poem. Verse 4 begins our second stanza and in it we see the contrast of the wicked.

Psalm 1:4-5 ESV

The wicked are not so,

but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,

nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;

The wicked will not prosper, God will see to it. A day is set for them. A judgment is coming. They may seem to prosper now, but that prosperity is a temporary thing. They don’t really belong in what God is doing and the proof of that is that they will be blown away. Look at how our Psalmist describes them again.

(4) The wicked are not so,

but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

In the Bible, a threshing floor is nothing like I always imagined it as a kid. When I was a kid I always pictured a huge barn with piles and piles of wheat and somehow this wheat would be threshed. I didn’t know what this meant, I just knew it had to happen and that it probably involved oxen and pitchforks. Well, not all of that is completely off base. Let me explain.

A threshing floor in bible times was simply a large cleared off space of land out in the open, often on a hill. It was hard clay, and there was cut wheat piled up on it. And someone would take something like a pitchfork and use it to grab up a big bunch of wheat and toss it up into the air, over and over again. As the wheat was tossed into the air, the good part, the heavy part, would fall back to the ground. The waste, the worthless part, the chaff, would be blown away by the wind.

The wind is God’s judgment, and in the day of judgment the wicked will be blown away. They will be no more. Sinners will not stand and be blessed with the righteous.

Do we believe that? I'm going to ask some tough questions about all this on Monday, but for now I want you to think about that. Do the righteous always prosper? Do the wicked always fall?

Quickly let’s look at our last verse, our third stanza, where we see the conclusion of the psalmist.

Psalm 1:6 ESV

for the LORD knows the way of the righteous,

but the way of the wicked will perish.

God knows the way of the righteous. He is familiar with it. He has walked it himself (more in that in a later post). Moreover, he is on that path with us.

By contrast, the way of the wicked will perish.

Proverbs 14:12 ESV

There is a way that seems right to a man,

but its end is the way to death.

As Jesus taught us, there is a wide road that leads to destruction, and a narrow way that leads unto life.

This is the conclusion of the psalm. This is what we need to reckon with before we proceed any further into this book, this temple of worship. What path are we on? Whose side are we on? Do we trust God? Do we believe his word? Do we delight in his commands? Or do we walk in the way of the wicked, stand in the way of sinners, and/or sit in the seat of the scoffers? Figure out where you are. Take inventory. Then come back on Monday and we will ask and answer a couple of tough questions.