Ps. 1:6

Ps. 1:6

This is the first mention of any active role taken by the Lord. It has been implied in certain verses (“transplanting”) but the actions taken (or not taken) have all been assigned to either the blessed man or the wicked. It seems (to me) to be surprising to have Yhwh put off for so long. It does, however, point to an important aspect of wisdom and of “blessedness” which is that they operate, on some level, “naturally”. Just as a plant ‘naturally’ produces fruit so too does the man who avoids the wicked and whose delight is in the Torah, ‘naturally’ produce fruit. Likewise, the wicked, ‘naturally’ do not produce any of these and are ‘blown/tossed by the wind’.

It is obvious what is not meant by this: that the blessed man somehow works “under his own steam” and apart from God. It is God’s Torah after all that is the “running water” from which he draws (notice though, in this analogy the Torah is not the fruit). We might say it is more like the “blessed man” enacts the role given to him by the director/Yhwh. He has his own natural abilities, and can either enact his part well (and be “blessed” by the applause of the world: prosper) or poorly (and be “tossed by every wind”). However, those abilities have no cap-ability apart from the role assigned to him. There is no such thing as an actor without a part. The ability to perceive this unity of “role” and “director” is, in my mind, best preserved in “myth” where the gods interact with man in a very real and tangible way. One, of course, sees this vividly in the OT, but we have been so trained to read things in light of God’s eternity that this dynamic almost always slides into a realm where any drama between the two are lost, largely as being understood as impossible or entirely one-sided (so, we hear things like: prayer is not “for God” but “for us”).

If one were to resort to the drama analogy again: every actor must employ every resource he has in order to enact the script assigned to him. For those who are so overwhelmed by God’s otherness or eternity, they will not be able to enact this role because they will view themselves merely as a channel or medium. Their acting will fall entirely flat (they will be like the servant who buries the talent given to him) because no script could ever supply every direction; in a perceived act of “faithfulness” they will not venture “outside the text/script”. And yet, a script is there to be filled in by the actor. The filling in of the gaps is the “fruitfulness” (or the “success”) of the actor.

Just one example of this can be in the realm of biblical interpretation. If one attempts to hear the “one voice” echoing throughout scripture, one will, inevitably, flatten out scripture. The natural tensions between the inspired authors will be removed and the shocking nature of scripture will be lost. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, the history writers: they are all like different actors. Yes, they are all acting out the same play, but the one “director” of the play needs each of them, in their individual roles and individual proclivities, in order to bring forth the divine play. They can actually disagree with each other in this way, in the same that actors can disagree with each other, or they can use images that sit very differently with images their contemporaries use. The actor’s disagreement does not mean the author is contradicting himself, especially if the script he handed them calls for the disagreement.

This is what it means when we say “grace alone”.

Back to the verse:

For the Lord  /  protects  / the way of the righteous

But the way of the wicked  /  shall perish.


In light of the above thoughts, notice here that Yhwh’s only action involves the righteous. It does not say that the Lord will cause the perishing of the wicked. The wicked’s downfall is a natural outworking of the fact they are not rooted in Torah. There need be no movement by God because he is the only source of life (he is the only “water” that feeds). The wicked merely need turn away from him in order to taste death/perish. They will be like plants who have deliberately placed themselves in the desert. They wither, become insubstantial and are “blown away”.

To use the dramatic analogy again: the wicked are like (bad) actors who simply walk off stage.

One final thought: just as an actor must take to the script everything of who he is (his “heart, mind, soul and strength”), so too must man use every natural form of creation. And use it in this way: the more man perceives created beauty (in creation, art, poetry, music, literature), the more man will perceive of God’s uncreated beauty. The more man perceives created goodness, the more man will perceive of God’s uncreated goodness. And the more man perceives created truth, the more man will perceive God’s uncreated truth. These two visions complement each other, and for that reason can work in the opposite direction. The less man perceives of created truth, the less he will perceive God’s uncreated TruthThe less man perceives of created goodness, the less he will perceive of God’s uncreated goodness. And the less man perceives of created beauty, the less he will perceive of God’s uncreated beauty.

When man perceives an object of beauty, the “blessed man” will simultaneously see the fact that God’s beauty is “even greater”. In this way, the “blessed man” will always be open to greater expressions of beauty (he will, in fact, seek them out with every ounce of his being), because in every step higher he will perceive the fact that God’s beauty is always already even greater. In this way, man’s natural eyes will perceive the super-natural reality of God.

I do not know how one could be more “open” to God than in this manner.