Two Roads
The following is the sermon preached by Dr. Brian Irwin who visited with us on our "Knox College Sunday." Included are the cues for the various pictures from Dr. Irwin's PowerPoint presentation... to view the slide presentation that accompanies this sermon, please follow this link. -JC
I. Introduction
I have a question for you. How many of you recognise the name Robert X. Cringely? If you do, you have just identified yourself as a serious computer nerd. Robert X. Cringely (aka Mark Stephens) is a very entertaining commentator on the world of technology and was producer of the documentary, Triumph of the Nerds: How the Personal Computer Changed the World. In the 1980’s when Apple Computer was still headquartered in a garage, he was one of their first employees. Stephens tells the story of how once when the company was short of cash, Steve Jobs offered him Apple stock instead. When Stephens mother mother heard of this, she said, “You insist on cash, I don’t want that Steve Jobs taking advantage of you.” Today, Apple Inc. is a technology company with a market capitalisation of over $77 billion US. If Cringely had been able to see into the future and know of Apple’s later success, he would have chosen the stock and would today be a millionaire. Not a wise choice for Mark Stephens.
When we talk about wisdom, we often think about an eastern guru atop a mountain saying something about the sound of one hand clapping, or a bearded philosopher spouting a lot of words we can’t understand. In both cases, we’re left scratching our heads wondering what it’s all about. Biblical wisdom is different; it is all about intensely practical skills for living. Biblical wisdom isn’t, however, just the common sense that most people have; Proverbs describes it as elusive, something that emanates from God alone, and must be sought out.
I talk about wisdom because our text this morning, Psalm 1, is a wisdom psalm. Psalms fall into different types; many are hymns, some are thanksgiving songs, some have a royal theme. I wonder if you know which psalm type is the most common? Knowing something about human nature, it probably shouldn’t surprise us that the most common type of psalm is the complaint. One of the types of psalms identified by scholars is the wisdom psalm. Psalms of this type reflect the interests of biblical Wisdom literature (e.g. Proverbs, Ecclesiastes).
[POWERPOINT – MAP]
Wisdom is something that crossed borders and cultures in the ancient world; many cultures have left us with remnants of their wisdom literature. From Babylon we have examples of works that are very much like the book of Job. From Egypt we have collections of proverbs that are similar to our biblical book of Proverbs.
[POWERPOINT – SCRIBE]
In Egypt, wisdom was an essential part of preparing for civil service. So if you were this Egyptian scribe, you would have had the equivalent of a good Knox College education in wisdom.
I said a moment ago that wisdom psalms reflect the interests of wisdom literature. Among those interests were an interest in teaching, instruction, and Torah, an emphasis on the two ways of righteousness and wickedness, instruction for wise and responsible living (often in the form of proverbs), references to nature, and riddles. In ancient Israel, wise people were those who had mastery of these areas
[POWERPOINT – SOLOMON]
The most famous example of a wise person in the Old Testament is Solomon (1 Kgs 4:29-30). He, of course, is the Israelite king who asks God for an understanding heart so that he could judge between good and evil (1 Kgs 3:9; 2 Chron. 1:10). He used that wisdom to judge difficult legal cases in which he had to determine who was lying and who was truthful (1 Kgs 3:16-28). Scripture fills us in on this monarch’s remarkable list of achievements. He is credited with writing wrote 3000 proverbs (1 Kgs 4:32; Prov. 1:1; 10:1; 25:1). The Queen of Sheba and other rulers are said to have travelled to hear him (1 Kgs 4:34; 10:1-10; 2 Chron. 9:1-9, 23) and sat under his teaching. He was a poet and musician who wrote 1,005 songs (1 Kgs 4:32) and he knew the classifications of all manner of plant and animal life (1 Kgs 4:33). It is difficult to see things like a knowledge of nature as being related to wisdom, but here it is important to remember that these were the days before Animal Planet and National Geographic and so some one who could keep all of the details of flora and fauna in their head was thought to be very wise.
In addition to the above, however, one of the main emphases of wisdom in ancient Israel involved how to live skilfully. Our text for this morning, the very first psalm in the Psalter, is a wisdom psalm that teaches us that when we follow God’s teaching, we receive a strength that allows us to succeed in life’s true and ultimate test.
[POWERPOINT – OUTLINE OF PSALM 1]
The structure of Psalm 1 is very simple and is based on imagery and subject matter.
1) The Blessed Person (1:1-3)
a) Assessment (1:1-2)
b) Result (1:3)
2) The Wicked Person (1:4-5)
3) The Two Compared (1:6)
The “blessed” (yérVvAa) person is described in verse 1 in terms that become ever more specific. This kind of person does not walk, stand or sit in the influence of wicked people. Now, if you are like me, you might find all of this talk about blessed and wicked a bit severe. After all, we are Canadians—Presbyterians even. We’re tolerant, we’re happy to leave the task of passing judgement to others. It is helpful at this point to talk about how the wicked get that way. Old Testament wisdom sees a close connection between foolishness and wickedness. Psalm 14:1 sketches this connection out quite nicely: “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good.” In the thought of the Old Testament, the greatest fool was the atheist, the one who denied the existence of God. This stance toward God, however, does not just make someone foolish, it results in wickedness, for the person who denies God is left without a basis for ethics. When you acknowledge God, you have someone to look to as the foundation for morality. The atheist has no such moral touchstone—they become the ones to decide what is right and what is wrong. Ultimately, this leads to disaster.
In our passage, the blessed person avoids being pulled into the moral orbit of the wicked. The image in verse one (unfortunately, not well represented in the NRSV) is of one of slowing down until they come to a complete stop spiritually; instead of meditating on good things they are sharing all the interests and joys of the wicked. This is not, however, to say that we should have no contact with the unsaved, just that we are not to allow ourselves to come under the influence of their values (as Christians, most of us don’t have meaningful contacts with unbelievers). Congratulations to you if you are engaged with your neighbours, if you have entertained a non-Christian friend in your home, gone for a walk with your unsaved neighbour etc.
Rather than getting sucked into the thought world of the wicked, the blessed person delights (wøxVpRj - “take pleasure in”, “have a desire for”) on the “law” of God and “meditates on it day and night”. The word “law” (hwhy tårwøtV;b) here is the word “torah” and it is better translated as “teaching”—it represents all those hints that God gives us so that we can navigate successfully through this life. As such, it is not restrictive, but liberating and helpful; it is more like “101 Ways to Succeed in Business” than it is like the “Penal Code of Canada”. The blessed person recognises that God’s teaching is so vital to their wellbeing that they meditate on it day and night (h‰…gVh‰y - meanings include, “mutter”, “moan”, “devise”, “plot”; as “meditate” it seems to relate to the way we sometimes talk to ourselves when we’re deep in thought).
Having sketched out a picture of the blessed person, the author continues to describe him using a simile from nature (images from nature are common in wisdom literature). The blessed person is “like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in its season”. What we have in 1:3 is the result of character described in 1:1-2— the person who follows God’s teaching is rooted, yields fruit regularly and does not whither. This is a way of saying that they have stability, spiritual prosperity and endurance.
[POWERPOINT – DEAD SEA SHORELINE]
Israel is a hot and dry place and agriculture depends on the rainfall. Trees that flourish are ones that have a water source that is independent of the seasonal rains. I lived in Israel for three years and it was often the case that you could spot a water source by looking for trees. I would often see fig trees growing at the entrance to wells or cisterns, or palms around a spring. On the shores of the Dead Sea, there is a stream called Nahal David that emerges from the desert rock and flows a kilometre or so to the Dead Sea. The presence there of water has led to the growth of lush vegetation.
[POWERPOINT – DESERT STREAM (NAHAL DAVID) ETC. (4 slides)]
The constant and dependable source of water has allowed startling growth to take place. This is the image that the psalmist is using to talk about what happens when a person taps into God’s teaching and draws their sustenance from it. The presence of God in one’s life leads to stability and growth in an environment that would otherwise be withering and deadly. (The image of the divine source of vitality that brings life to everything planted by it is developed in Rev. 22:1-2 where the fruit-bearing trees are beside a river that flows from the throne of God—image is of a time when God’s will is done everywhere.)
The final assessment of this kind of person is that “whatever he does prospers” (AjyIlVxÅy - “prosper”, “succeed”; used often of the kind of success that comes from God). This is not to say that whatever the Christian does will be successful. For example, I will never achieve my dream of being a Broadway dancer. I may never lose the ten pounds (okay, twenty-five pounds) that I would like to lose. Christians lose their jobs and have failed businesses just like everyone else. The point here is that the person who meditates on God’s teaching will naturally desire to live according to God’s will and when you make God’s interests your own, then what you do will be eternally profitable regardless of how things appear to work out here on earth.
A major shift comes in 1:4 with the phrase, “Not so the wicked!” With this phrase, attention now turns to the person who lives without regard for God or his teaching—how will they fare in life?
[POWERPOINT – WHEAT]
Again, the author uses nature imagery. While the blessed person is rooted, the wicked person is like chaff that the wind blows away.
[POWERPOINT – THRESHING FLOOR]
Chaff is the outer husk of grain. In the summer in ancient Israel, when the grain was harvested, it was taken to a threshing floor—a large open area of flat bedrock, often located outside the city gate. There, oxen dragging a sledge would trample the dried grain to loosen the husk.
[POWERPOINT – WINNOWING GRAIN]
Grain was then thrown into the air where the breeze would blow away the husk and leave the heavier kernel to fall back to the ground. The psalmist likens the wicked to chaff—they are insubstantial. When we live our lives apart from God’s teaching and direction, we are ultimately left without substance. We become the dead husk that blows away in a warm summer breeze. This is the person Jesus has in mind in Matt. 16:26 and Mark 8:36 when he says, “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?” First Corinthians 3:11-15 says that no person can lay a foundation other than the one that is already laid for us—Jesus Christ. Your building material is irrelevant (silver, gold, wood, hay); if you build without regard to God, you and what you are building ultimately is going to be swept away. When the judgement comes, the wicked will be unable to stand and will not be found among the righteous. They are unable to stand because by divorcing themselves from God’s teaching they have abandoned the one person who could be their advocate.
What is the ultimate consequence of the two ways? The righteous person, regardless of his or her current circumstance can have confidence that God is by their side. The text says literally “Yahweh knows the way of the righteous.” God may allow us to experience hurt, setback, and loss, but as our unseen source of strength, he is there to sustain us and care for us. The wicked have no such benefactor. They have spent their life following their own interests and so have placed themselves outside of God’s care. The result is that they will be unable to stand.
As an introduction to the psalms, Psalm 1 makes the point that we each have a choice—we can identify with God’s interests and values or follow our own. True prosperity—the kind that is lasting—comes when we follow God’s way. The Christian life isn’t easy. In our society today Christians are often ridiculed, labelled intolerant, and marginalised. But the way of wisdom is all about following God’s way when it doesn’t seem profitable in an earthly sense. When Mark Stephens and his mother decided that he should accept $5.00 an hour instead of Apple stock, neither of them could see into the future. As Christians, we can see into the future for we know the outcome of life and who ultimately wins—that makes our choices in the present much easier, for we can look past our circumstances to the end result. Biblical wisdom is understanding this and living in light of it, regardless of what people around us might be saying or doing.
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