(The blessed
man) 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. Psalm 1:3-4
There
are two images used here. The first is
of a tree, and the second is of chaff.
The tree represents the blessed man and the chaff represent the wicked
man. In verse 3, the psalmist says that
the blessed man is grounded in the right place—he is planted in a fruitful
place. The psalmist then breaks from the
illustration and says, “In all he does he prospers.” He is making the point that a prosperous
life—a blessed, and a happy life has everything to do with where one is grounded.
A
prosperous man is not the one walking with the wicked, standing with sinners,
and sitting with scoffers (v. 1), but is the man who is grounded in the right
place. And where is that? The psalmist tell us in Psalm 1:2.
(The blessed man’s)
delight is in the law of the LORD,
In
verse 4, the psalmist also gives the fate of the wicked man. He says,
The wicked are
not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
Chaff
is what is on the outside of grain. In
the first century, when a farmer wanted to separate the chaff from the grain,
he would take the grain and crush it and gather it up and throw it in the air,
and the grain would remain while the smaller chaff would be carried off by the
wind. So the psalmist says, “The wicked
are like chaff driven away by the wind.”
The wicked have no solid and fruitful base and are like fruitless and useless
chaff that is driven away by the wind; while the blessed man is like a strong
and mighty and fruitful tree that is planted by streams of water that does not
have one leaf that withers.
Jesus
uses a similar illustration in Matthew 7:24-27 when he says,
Everyone then
who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built
his house on the rock. And the rain
fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it
did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine
and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the
sand. And the rain fell, and the floods
came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great
was the fall of it.
