Christ Lutheran Church

Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.

Meditation:

Christ says to the Jews in John’s Gospel that they search the Scriptures because you think that in them, they believe they have eternal life; and it is Scriptures that bear witness about Christ. On the road to Emmaus, Christ interprets the Old Testament to the Emmaus disciples and shows to them that they concern Him. So when we meditate upon the psalms, it is profitable for us to, upon first reading, see our Lord Jesus in them. 

Christ, then, is first and foremost the blessed man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, not stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers. He is the one who has perfectly taken delight in the Law of the Lord, and has indeed fulfilled it perfectly. 

But as we are ourselves are renewed in the spirit of our minds and continually formed into the image of Christ by the grace of God, what is properly true of Christ here also becomes true of us, so that we too do not assent to the counsel of ungodly men, nor do we walk in the path of the sinful, nor do we take place our ambition in the seats of power of his world, which is full of scoffers. 

Rather, our delight and pleasure is to be in the Law of the Lord, in his holy Word, in his just and right precepts. It is on these things that we are to think about throughout our days. 

From Christ, who is an everbearing tree, flows streams of living water. Jesus says to the Canaanite woman at the well that whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never thirst again, and it will become a spring in him welling up to eternal life. This living water, the stream that waters the tree making it to bring forth its fruit, is the water of our Holy Baptism, in which God lavishes us with his grace, and raises us up to new life. 

But all of this is contrasted in verse 5 with the wicked, who are completely unlike Christ and are in fact separated from him, unless they repent and come to the knowledge of the truth. The reality for the one who is separated from the blessed God-man Christ, the psalm tells us, is like that of chaff that the wind drives way, chaff that is destroyed and burned with unquenchable fire, as John the Baptist tells us. 

These will not be able to stand in the judgment of Christ. When Christ comes and gathers the righteous to himself, these wicked, that is, those faithless who are still lost in their sin, will have no share in the gathering of the righteous. Because the way of the righteous the Lord knows, but the way of the wicked lead them to perish at his coming. 

May the Lord bless our meditation of this psalm, as we in faith remain clinging to the blessed God-man Christ, who daily bears us up. God be with you all. Amen.