Commentary

Bird's-eye view

Psalm 1 serves as the gateway to the entire Psalter, establishing the fundamental contrast between the righteous and the wicked. The first three verses describe the blessed man, rooted and fruitful like a tree planted by rivers of water. This passage, verses 4 through 6, provides the stark and necessary contrast. It is not enough to know what blessedness is; we must also understand what it is not. The psalmist here turns his attention to the wicked, describing their ultimate instability, their certain judgment, and their final ruin. This is not just a description of two different lifestyles, but of two ultimate and opposing destinies, governed and known by God Himself.

The central theme is the absolute sovereignty of God in determining the end of all men. The righteous man is blessed because his way is known and sustained by Yahweh. The wicked man perishes because he has chosen a path that God does not know in a saving way, and which therefore leads to destruction. The imagery is agricultural and judicial, painting a picture of worthlessness being separated from worth, and guilt being condemned before the assembly of the saints. This psalm sets the stage for everything that follows: worship and rebellion, covenant faithfulness and covenant breaking, the City of God and the city of man.

Outline

1. The Two Ways (Ps 1:1-6)
- a. The Way of the Righteous (Ps 1:1-3)
- b. The Way of the Wicked (Ps 1:4-6)
  - i. The Character of the Wicked: Unstable (v. 4)
  - ii. The Judgment of the Wicked: Excluded (v. 5)
  - iii. The End of the Wicked: Perishing (v. 6)

Psalm 1, Verse 4

4 The wicked are not so, But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.

The psalmist begins with a sharp, definitive negation. "The wicked are not so." This is the great antithesis. Whatever the righteous man is, the wicked are the opposite. The righteous man is a tree, solid, alive, rooted, fruitful, and enduring. The wicked man is none of these things. The line is drawn cleanly. There is no middle ground, no third way.

What are they, then? "Like chaff." Chaff is the husk of the wheat, the worthless part, the agricultural garbage. It is light, insubstantial, and dead. It has the appearance of being connected to the grain for a time, but the purpose of the harvest is to separate it. The wicked can appear to be part of the general proceedings of life, mixed in with the righteous, but a day of separation is coming. And what separates them? "Which the wind drives away." The wind here is a picture of God's power, His judgment, and in the New Testament, His Spirit. Think of John the Baptist's words: "His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire" (Matt. 3:12). The wicked have no stability. They have no root, no substance. When the wind of God's judgment blows, and it will, they are effortlessly scattered. Their moment is always fleeting. They may seem to dominate for a season, but they are gone in a puff. What a profound tragedy that a man would trade the permanence of the tree for the flightiness of chaff.

Psalm 1, Verse 5

5 Therefore the wicked will not rise in the judgment, Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

The "therefore" connects the nature of the wicked to their ultimate fate. Because they are chaff, because they are insubstantial and rootless, they cannot endure what is coming. "The wicked will not rise in the judgment." The word "rise" here can also be translated as "stand." They will not be able to stand up under the force of God's final verdict. When God calls the court to session, the wicked will have no case. They will be utterly prostrated, with nothing to say, no defense to offer. Their whole lives have been a rebellion against the Judge, and on the day of judgment, that rebellion will be exposed as utter folly. They will collapse.

The second clause clarifies the first. "Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous." The final judgment results in a final separation. The "congregation of the righteous" is the assembly of God's people, the true Israel, the Church of the firstborn. In this present evil age, sinners are mixed in with the righteous. The tares grow among the wheat. But the final harvest will distinguish them perfectly. There will be no place for the ungodly in the final gathering of the saints. They are excluded, not arbitrarily, but because their nature is incompatible with that assembly. Chaff has no place in the granary. Sin has no place in the New Jerusalem.

Psalm 1, Verse 6

6 For Yahweh knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the wicked will perish.

This final verse gives the ultimate reason for the two destinies. It all comes down to the knowledge of God. "For Yahweh knows the way of the righteous." The word "knows" here is not mere intellectual awareness. This is the deep, covenantal, intimate knowledge of relationship. God knows the path of the righteous because He ordained it, He walks with them on it, and He approves of it. It is His way. He acknowledges them, watches over them, and preserves them. This is the knowledge of a shepherd for his sheep, of a father for his son. Because God knows their way, their way is secure and leads to eternal life.

In contrast, "the way of the wicked will perish." Notice the parallel is not "Yahweh does not know the way of the wicked." In one sense, of course He does. Nothing is hidden from His sight. But He does not "know" their way in the sense of approval or fellowship. He rejects their path. And because their way is not known by God, it is a path to nowhere. It is a dead end. It "will perish." It doesn't just lead to perishing; the way itself is a perishing way. It disintegrates under their feet. The wicked are on a path that is fundamentally opposed to the God who is Life, and so their path can only ever lead to death. The psalm ends where it began, with a stark choice between two ways, two groups of people, and two eternities. One is known by God and lives. The other is rejected by God and perishes.

Application

This psalm is the front porch of the entire Bible's worship manual, and it sets the terms for us immediately. We are defined by our relationship to God's Word and consequently by our ultimate destiny. The application is therefore straightforward, but not easy.

First, we must see that neutrality is a myth. You are either a tree or you are chaff. There is no third category. Your life is either being rooted in the life-giving law of God, or it is being prepared for the wind of judgment. We must examine ourselves. Do we delight in God's law? Do we meditate on it? Or do we find our counsel, our standing, and our seat among the scornful?

Second, we must take the long view. The wicked often appear to prosper. They can be loud, influential, and powerful. They can look like they are winning. But this psalm tells us they are chaff. Their apparent success is a vapor. Do not envy them. Do not be intimidated by them. Their foundation is sand, and the wind is coming. Our hope is not in what we see, but in the unseen reality of God's sovereign judgment.

Finally, our confidence is not in our own ability to be a tree, but in the God who plants us. "Yahweh knows the way of the righteous." Our security is in being known by Him. And we are known by Him through His Son, Jesus Christ, who is the true Blessed Man of this psalm. He perfectly delighted in the law of the Lord, and He became a curse for us so that we, the chaff-like, might be gathered as wheat into His barn. To be a tree is to be in Christ. He is our stability, He is our life, and He is our righteousness in the congregation of the saints.