This Psalm reminds me of Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.”
To be happy means to have thoughts and make decisions as God would. But often our culture puts tremendous pressure on us, like the forming of a clay mold, to model (or “conform”) us after another image, one that is opposed to thinking and acting like God. Instead, our culture wants us to act in self-interest.
Happy (twice happy, really) here is portrayed as a negative—we are happy when we do not do something. In this case it is to be like the culture.
Verse 1 always reminds me of Lot in Genesis 13. Lot was unhappy working with Abram. Abram said “pick a spot” so Lot used his human eyes (whereas Abram had used his spiritual ears to go where God directed) to go where it looked good. No doubt he had heard how well watered the plain of the Jordan was, so he followed that advice and picked it because a well-watered plain meant material prosperity. Eventually that advice found Lot taking the path towards Sodom where he pitched his tent, and eventually joined the city as a resident, though they mocked God (when the angels came to rescue Lot).
Beginning to just bend an ear to the values of our culture will entice you onto a path that leads to a place where you are surrounded by rebellion against God and eventually you are so infected that the only answer is to pull you out of there.
So where do you get your values and what advice do you take seriously? The road to happiness, true happiness, lies on another path.
2
The word “delight” is a good translation of the Hebrew. It means not only what you gives you pleasure but your wish and desire. What do you delight in? Jesus said: “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Matthew 6:21). What do you treasure? What do you value? That’s what will lead the decisions you make in life.
In one of the most important verses in Scripture, the key to blessing is delighting in the instruction of God. The King James says it is in the “law of the Lord.” The word literally is Torah, which means “a precept or statute” and by that is meant the books of the Law of Moses. So we are talking here about God’s Word.
Now as we go through the Psalms, and really wherever we find an admonition to read, study, and meditate on God’s Word, we can substitute the word “Jesus” in there. John chapter 1 tells us that Jesus is the Word. Not only are we to delight in Jesus and His Word, but we are to meditate on it. We delight “and” we meditate, or let it soak in. “Day and night” basically means all the time.
If we take the opposition of the first verse—I would suggest that the Psalmist is saying that if you “follow the advice” of God’s Word, if you live your life (ie: walk) in God’s precepts, and if you establish yourself within a relationship to God—you will be blessed.
So how does that work? We see the result of that choice—whether to walk away or towards God’s Word, in the rest of the Psalm.
3
There are three things we see here. If the water represents the Word of God (a common theme) and the tree represents the person, then as we put down our delight into God’s Word it will become a never ending source of nourishment to our soul.
1.We will as a natural consequence “bear fruit in season.” A person who delights in a relationship with Jesus, putting down roots in that relationship and in His Word, will naturally begin to exhibit the character of God. (John 15:5-6) "I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without Me.” The change in character comes as God designs—you don’t make it happen.
2.The leaf doesn’t wither means that not only will you live and bear fruit, you will actually flourish.
3.The last bit there is the natural result: If you determine in your life to be planted deeply in His Word, delighting and meditating on it, you will in fact succeed in seeing your life transformed. This doesn’t mean you will succeed in everything according to your ideas, but you will become more like God and as we’ll see from the next verses, that life that God through Jesus births in you will remain for eternity.
Not so much with those who spurn God’s Word.
4-5
The Psalmist begins by saying the “wicked” share none of these attributes: happiness, planted, fruitful, prosperous and successful. “Wicked” here comes from a Hebrew word that at its root means “wrong.” There is God’s character and then there is wrong. We’re not talking about political leanings or philosophy or weighing our good deeds against our not so good—we are talking about those who plant deeply into God’s Word and His character and those who do not.
Those who reject God, unlike a green fruitful tree that has a constant water source, they are characterized as chaff. Chaff is the dry scaly protective casing of a cereal grain like wheat. In the ancient world when wheat or grains were harvested, the farmer would throw the grains up in the air to let the light and inedible chaff blow away in the afternoon breeze, allowing the grain to fall back to earth.
Those that reject God are like this because there is a wind that’s coming like no other ever before. Anything in anyone’s life that is not like God will not survive. The Psalmist calls it “the judgment”. The word “judgment” is mishpaht which means a judicial verdict. Here’s how it will happen:
Revelation 20:11-12 “Then I saw a great white throne and One seated on it. Earth and heaven fled from His presence, and no place was found for them. 12 I also saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged according to their works by what was written in the books. 13 Then the sea gave up its dead, and Death and Hades gave up their dead; all were judged according to their works. 14 Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And anyone not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire”.
It sounds very harsh but the bottom line is that if you try to stand on your own deeds to get into God’s heaven, you will fail because Psalm 53:3 says “there is no one who does good, not even one.” The only One who has done good is God’s Son Jesus Christ. He gives His goodness to us if we bow the lordship of our lives to Him. Then our names get written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
So you see it’s not human effort we are talking about, but God’s effort on our behalf. “Sinners” here is a word that means “one accounted guilty.” So a life that does not measure up to God’s goodness will be excluded from the “family” (“community”) of God, which includes only those who He has adopted (Ephesians 1:5).
6
The final verse sums it all up. More than just being aware of those who belong to Him, God is actively involved in the lives of those He has adopted. 2 Timothy 4:18 “The Lord will rescue me from every evil work and will bring me safely into His heavenly kingdom.”
But the way of those that reject a relationship with God through Jesus Christ “leads to ruin.” Abahd means “to wander away” and “perish.” If separation from all that’s good is what you want, then by all means reject the goodness that God offers through Jesus. But that “Lake of Fire” talked about in Revelation is a place that is devoid of goodness and joy and peace and health and relationships. I don’t know about you, but I think it’s worth accepting a free gift that also includes going to a place filled with goodness, peace, health, fellowship and joy.
Conclusions
For those who do not yet have a relationship with God this Psalm is a sober warning. For those who are already walking with the Lord it is an exhortation—examine your life and ask:
What influences your character—the values of this age or the values of God’s Word and Jesus?
Do you find yourself getting nourished by the Word, or do you pull out your roots and occasionally put them into other sources?
What constitutes “happiness” to you? Is it material security or getting everything you want when you want it? Or is “happiness” knowing God and letting Him run things? 1 Timothy 6:6 says “godliness with contentment is great gain.” So becoming transformed into God’s character and that being enough—is the real gain in life.
There are two ways set before us—which will you take?
