Psalm 1

How many of you all remember a song or a rhyme that you were taught in grade school in order to learn some lesson or other? The ABC’s are probably the most obvious example, right? We’re all taught this song from a very early age in order to help us learn the alphabet. But the song I remember most from grade school was a catchy little number called “Conjunction Junction.” “Conjunction junction what’s your function”—and then you would learn all the functions that conjunctions can have in different sentences. To this day I remember that song and the grammar lesson that went with it. Most of us have some song, or some rhyme, that we still use to remember some bit of wisdom. (“Red sky at night, sailors’ delight,” or “Lefty loosy, righty tighty,” or, my personal favorite from summer camp, “If it’s yellow, let it mellow; if it’s brown, flush it down.”) Songs like this don’t just help you learn some lesson or other, they also make it interesting; they take the wisdom that you’re learning and sort of bring it to life.

Now, we’ve been spending these midsummer weeks looking together at selections from the book of Psalms, this biblical collection of poems and songs. And each week we’ve looked at a different type of psalm: hymns of praise, then lamentation prayers, then royal anthems. And this week we are looking at yet another type of psalm, which scholars call a “wisdom psalm.” And these wisdom psalms—not unlike the grade school songs that we all remember so fondly—they remind us of some lesson or other, but they do it in a way that brings the wisdom to life.

Look with me at the psalm that we said together today. The basic lesson that Psalm 1 teaches is not terribly interesting, basically it says, “It’s good to be good, and it’s bad to be bad.” But remember this is a lesson set to music, it’s a poem, so it has more to offer if you take the time to listen. They way that this psalm talks about the wisdom of goodness is actually quite beautiful.

The first two verses sort of set the whole thing up. Like I said, basically these first verses say, “It’s good to be good.” Happy are they who have not taken their place among the wicked, but instead delight in God’s law. “Goodness is good. It’s a happy thing.” Now here’s the problem: That’s a very nice thing to say. But it sure seems to me that the wicked are often the happy ones, while those who try to live according to God’s law actually wind up suffering for it. In my experience there are very few good deeds that go unpunished. So, tell me, silver-tongued poet of the psalms, how is it good to be good and bad to be bad, when it’s the righteous who suffer more often than not, while the wicked prosper? … And, actually, the rest of the psalm is a pretty good answer to this question.

The reason why goodness is wise and wickedness is foolish is because in the end, it is goodness that will endure while wickedness will wither away and die. Except of course this is a poem, so this point is made using the imagery of goodness like trees being securely planted versus wickedness like chaff being blown away by the wind. The Lord knows the way of the righteous; their future is secure. But the way of the wicked is doomed. In the midst of a world in which wickedness so often seems to prosper, a song like this is a reality check. It’s a reminder of where the universe is headed, which is most certainly in favor of righteousness not wickedness.

I remember in seminary seeing a book titled “With the Grain of the Universe.” Now, I never read that book, but I do know what it’s about, and I know what the author was getting at. The point is that when we live according to God’s intentions for us, then we are living with the grain of the universe. On the other hand, when we devote ourselves to wickedness, in whatever form, we are working against the grain. And this is precisely the point that the psalmist is making. If you devote yourself to God’s ways, then despite present appearances, you are living with the enduring grain of the universe, and that is a very good thing.

African slaves sang very similar songs as they worked in cotton fields before the Civil War. In so many Negro spirituals, they sang about the Lord’s return and the vindication that would be theirs when Jesus set all things right. It certainly looked like the wicked were the ones prospering while the innocent suffered, but songs like this were a reality check, a reminder that despite present appearances, God really is in control, and therefore in the larger scheme of things, goodness really is good, and wickedness really is bad. So, as you come across psalms like this one that talk about how happy a thing it is to be on God’s side, keep the larger scheme of the universe in the forefront of your mind, then maybe we’ll see the psalmist’s point.

Those singing slaves did the best thing a Christian can possibly do with the world around them, which is to remember that everything finds its answer in Jesus. Ultimately, it’s Jesus who proves this psalm to be true. In his earthly life, it certainly did not look like being righteous got him very far. In fact, righteousness got Jesus crucified. But even as he hung on that tree, he was himself a tree firmly planted, bearing fruit in due season, with leaves that do not wither. Nothing, not even death, could uproot him. In Jesus, righteousness was proven victorious when he rose on the third day. Despite all appearances—even in the face of death—goodness is always the wiser path, while wickedness is always doomed. The death and resurrection of our Lord decisively proved the psalmist’s point, once and for all.

Of course all this can be not only a comforting word, but also a chilling one when we remember the fact that we are not righteous. St. Paul says that there is no one righteous; none of us live up to God’s expectations, which means that in this psalm we would probably do better to identify with the wicked rather than with the righteous—were it not for Jesus. Again, even this finds its answer is Jesus. When we read psalms like this one that speak in favor of the righteous, we have to remember that we read these psalms as people who are united to Jesus by faith. On our own, we do not have the righteousness that it would take to be on the right side of things in this psalm. And so Jesus offers us his righteousness. On the cross, Jesus takes on our wickedness so that we don’t have to be “doomed” (in the words of the psalmist). Instead, Jesus credits us with his righteousness, so that as a free gift from God, we can be planted like trees beside God’s everlasting streams of living water, bearing good fruit in due season. In him, every good thing we do shall prosper, whether we get to see it or not. And, that, brothers and sisters, is a very happy song to sing. Amen.

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