Ps. 1:4-5

Ps. 1:4-5

For diagramming purposes verse 4 stands as the contrast to verse 3, in that verse 3 began with “So shall he be…” while verse 4 begins with “Not so…”

There is here an interesting contrast of verses 4 and 5 with verse 1. Whereas verse 1 provided a ‘negative’ description of the blessed man, in that it provided what he avoided, and this description was much more lengthy than what he delighted in, here we have a lengthy description of the wicked. It is the first “positive” description of them—meaning, it is the first actual description.

The “blessed man” came first in metaphor (he is “like a tree…”). The wicked men are now given their metaphor significance. And, is there something to fact that the blessed man is described as singular whereas the wicked are plural? One does get a sense reading this Psalm that the ‘blessed man’ is one who acts alone. This might be corrected in verse 5 (“assembly of the righteous”) and v. 6 with God protecting “the righteous” but this “blessed man” is not a community.

Not so the wicked!
But  /  they are like  /  chaff  /  that the wind tosses

Therefore  /  the wicked  /  shall not  / rise up in judgment
                   Nor the sinners  /  in an assembly of the righteous

“Not so the wicked”: One must look back to verse three for this referent and the wicked becomes emblematic of the opposite of the blessed man. Just a few things to note about the blessed man of verse 3. He has been:
Transplanted
To good soil
And to running water
Who bears fruit in season
Foliage doesn’t wither
Prospers in everything he does

The wicked man is described as “not so”. We might then, tentatively, describe him as:
Not transplanted: not moved by an act of exodus to—
Not in good soil
Beside still water (or no water at all)
Bears fruit (if at all) “out of season”
Foliage withers
Does not prosper

Furthermore, the ‘blessed man’ is a tree, with roots that sink deep into the soil. A common picture used by the prophets of the judgment that is to befall Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonians, is that of a plant whose roots are too close to the surface. They can be easily torn up and burned in the fire. This lack of depth to their roots enables them to experience a reverse of the exodus—they who have been “transplanted” from Egypt did not adequately “take root” in the land due to their idolatry and their social sins and they will now be ‘re-transplanted’ back into exile. This lack of depth enabled them to be easily torn up because their sins turned God’s face from them. We might compare God’s face to the sun shining on the plant of Israel. When their sins causes his face to turn (or ‘darken’) they no longer have the protection and the nourishment needed to help them grow, not just outward in fruit-bearing, but downward into the ground to make them solid and able to stand in the face of the nations. The prophets also describe the wicked (or unfaithful Israel/Jerusalem) as attempting to turn from the “running water” of God and toward the stagnant and muddy water of the nations. And, worse, they attempt to hold this water in cracked cisterns. The images also keep recurring: the wicked’s fruit is produced “out of season” (not at the appointed time). They are described as withering the face of God’s wrathful fire.

Much of this is summarized in the next phrase: “they are like chaff that wind tosses”

The blessed man bears fruit. The wicked man is nothing but chaff—the useless part of the grain. The image here is of winnowing where the grain would be tossed up into the air and the wind would blow away (separate) the chaff while the wheat would fall to the ground. It is a particularly apt image because it combines one of the imagies so far used: fruit.

The blessed man produces “fruit”. Wheat is the “fruit of the ground”, used to make bread. The chaff, on the other hand, as representative of the wicked, is useless—“unfruitful”. He is of no use. Furthermore, and more damning in light of the “blessed man”, is his entire lack of substance. While the blessed man is compared a tree, the wicked man is something that merely needs to be ‘lifted up’ and he is immediately blown away. Effortlessly he is gone and caught in the eddies of every breeze (“tossed”). This is no storm. Winnowing does not require a great deal of wind, if any at all. Once the chaff has been removed from the wheat, there is nothing to ground it.

Interestingly, the prophets, again, use this image of being “lifted up” (or “uprooted”) just prior to being expelled from the land. They are like rocks picked up to be placed in a sling before they are evicted from the land. This is important to note: the wheat and the chaff are both “lifted up”, but the wicked are the only ones who are evicted, or expelled. We catch here an important contrast to the blessed: they were described as rooted in Torah, as going through their own “exodus” or “transplanting” into the land. They, when the winnowing comes about, will again fall to this land. The wicked, though, will not. They will be “blown away”. They do not have the weight needed to again fall back to the earth.

The image continues but here the Psalmist does something very interesting—he uses the same image of being “lifted up”/”rising” but inverts it. Now, the wicked are described as NOT rising up “in judgment” or in “an assembly of the righteous”.

“Not rise up in judgment”: essentially, they will have no place in a court of law. “The judgment” can refer to the judgment seat or the “place of judgment”. Whatever the literal image is, the meaning is that the wicked will be unable (or, may not even be present) to “rise”. Here, they have no “weight” (or, bearing) in the court of justice. They are, again, like chaff. This is an image always promised to Israel: to be the world’s “judge”. They will “rule the nations” or “judge the nations”. Because in them is Torah, they alone will have the ability to rightfully decided cases brought to them, like Moses was appropriately (with the 70) the appropriate person during the Exodus. Paul will later say that the members of the church’s should realize they will “one day judge the angels”.

“The assembly of the righteous”: we have come full circle from verse 1, where the wicked were described as organized in groups: counsel/way/gathering. Here, this gathering, or meeting, is one marked by the righteous (or the “blessed men”).