1 How blessed are those who reject the advice of the wicked, don’t stand on the way of sinners
or sit where scoffers sit!
2 Their delight is in Adonai’s Torah; on his Torah they meditate day and night.
3 They are like trees planted by streams — they bear their fruit in season, their leaves never wither, everything they do succeeds.
4 Not so the wicked, who are like chaff driven by the wind.
5 For this reason the wicked won’t stand up to the judgment, nor will sinners at the gathering of the righteous.
6 For Adonai watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked is doomed.
Everything we ever need to know about how life works is recorded here in these 6 verses.
It’s simple. If you fear man and walk in his ways, you will be doomed. However, if you fear God and walk in His Ways, He will watch over you all the days of your life. The incredibly weighty thing for us is to decide which to follow. And no, you can’t choose both.
Despite the vast number of people on earth today, it turns out there are only two people groups walking the planet right now: those that follow God (the righteous) and those that don’t (the wicked). Us and them, right?
Of course, we all know which camp we dwell in so it’s easy to gloss over this Psalm with a humble arrogance.
But…
Right here, right now, a choice is set before you. And there are only two choices.
It’s commonly taught that you have near infinite possibilities set before you and all you have to do is choose which road you want to travel in this life. But the truth is that there are only two: the path of the righteous and the path of the wicked. Blessing and curse. Life and death.
In the Book of Deuteronomy, we are told to choose blessing. We are told to choose life.
Deuteronomy 30:15 “Look! I am presenting you today with, on the one hand, life and good; and on the other, death and evil — 16 in that I am ordering you today to love Adonai your God, to follow his ways, and to obey his mitzvot, regulations and rulings ; for if you do, you will live and increase your numbers; and Adonai your God will bless you in the land you are entering in order to take possession of it. 17 But if your heart turns away, if you refuse to listen, if you are drawn away to prostrate yourselves before other gods and serve them; 18 I am announcing to you today that you will certainly perish; you will not live long in the land you are crossing the Yarden to enter and possess.
19 “I call on heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have presented you with life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore, choose life, so that you will live, you and your descendants, 20 loving Adonai your God, paying attention to what he says and clinging to him — for that is the purpose of your life! On this depends the length of time you will live in the land Adonai swore he would give to your ancestors Avraham, Yitz’chak and Ya‘akov.”
And you’ve chosen life, yes?
Wicked people are very easy to identify: murders, child predators, pimps, traffickers, drug dealers, and the list goes on. The trouble is that the extremes are easy to identify and once we implement our moral relativism, we convince ourselves beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are ok because we aren't as bad as “those people”.
No one that is a (sane) believer in God would openly acknowledge wickedness as their life choice. But what if we look at the evidence in our lives? What if we consider ourselves through the mirror of God’s Ways versus the mirror of man’s?
Once we make this turn, I think we all begin to squirm a little bit.
“Yeah, I know I’m not perfect. But hey, no one is. Besides, there is no one that can fully walk the path of God, right? I mean, the whole point of Torah is to prove to man that he is unfit to follow God’s Ways. Sure, we can try but we can’t actually do it. Right? Right! Oh, I see, you’re just one of those crazy legalistic people. Ah, now I feel better.”
Pivoting to the accusation of others when we fail to uphold the Torah is second nature to the perfect, fallible man. The claim is that we are perfect spiritually but fallible physically. Living by the Spirit but never doing “works” because that in itself is some form of evil (even though we can’t really figure out why).
But is this Biblical? Nope.
Moses says we can do it:
Deuteronomy 30:10 “However, all this will happen only if you pay attention to what Adonai your God says, so that you obey his mitzvot and regulations which are written in this book of the Torah, if you turn to Adonai your God with all your heart and all your being. 11 For this mitzvah which I am giving you today is not too hard for you, it is not beyond your reach. 12 It isn’t in the sky, so that you need to ask, ‘Who will go up into the sky for us, bring it to us and make us hear it, so that we can obey it?’ 13 Likewise, it isn’t beyond the sea, so that you need to ask, ‘Who will cross the sea for us, bring it to us and make us hear it, so that we can obey it?’ 14 On the contrary, the word is very close to you — in your mouth, even in your heart; therefore, you can do it!”
Moreover, Yeshua says it a bit more direct:
John 8:11 “... Now go, and don’t sin anymore.”
Uh, oh. It seems there is a way to walk in righteousness. But that path is stuffy, boring, and full of rules. Going to church again?! Besides, we want the “freedom” that comes through following the Messiah, right?
Well, I guess it depends on what you mean by “freedom”.
Simply speaking, the wicked walk the path of man. The rules of man, the behaviors of man, the goals of man, and so on.
If we honestly consider how we run our lives, I think we’d all see inroads of man’s ways leading straight to our heart.
Many years ago, it was self-help books that caught the attention of the one seeking to make a mark in the earth. These days, it’s a filtered Instagram feed. Being a bestseller has been eclipsed by what’s trending, but the fruit remains the same: “Man has found a secret way and that way leads to life. So come follow.”
How to win friends and influence people, right?
But what can you practically know about this person? Without a scandal of some kind, you have to simply trust the bio.
“Well, look at how many followers they have! I mean, do you think this many people could really be wrong?”
We’ll leave the answer to that question as an exercise to the reader.
Now back to you.
Do you follow the advice of the wicked?
Do you do what sinners do?
Do you sit where scoffers sit?
It always begins by following. Someone, somewhere has you convinced their path is the path to life. All you have to do is trust. Believe that their ways are good and at the end, you will have everything your heart desires.
I do want to mention that these are often well-meaning people and what they describe will take you down the path they have set before you. The real issue is that we are following our heart and according to the Prophet Jeremiah, it is desperately wicked. We have desires and goals, and we want to achieve those things whatever it may be.
So we follow. We follow until such a time as we are doing what is expected. We begin walking out that advice and living with its outcome. Despite all of the other evidence in our lives, it’s the strained relationships that hands down prove this is against God’s Ways. All of Torah is centered upon relationships and they should always come before the ways of man. But…
Even though the outcome is unfavorable, following and subsequently doing what others do seems to be the model of man. What’s more bizarre, the longer we walk this road the more we start to sell it ourselves. Justification becomes truth, and we begin to teach others that this is the path of life. We then sit in a place of authority telling others to come and follow us. Hence the cycle carries on.
Follow, do, sit. And our real relationships die as a result. This is the path of the wicked.
There has to be a better way.
We struggle with spiritual principles. It seems Abba knows this so He sets in motion physical ideas to help us understand what is taking place outside of what we see.
Someone that actually takes delight in Yahweh’s Torah is like…
a tree planted by a stream. Imagine it.
Along the stream, there is a continual water source for the tree to survive. The flowing stream ensures a freshwater source is always available and rain is a welcomed by-product. Even if it is dry near you, rain in a distant land is gathered into the stream and carried for miles just so your roots can reap the benefits. The slow seepage underground keeps the roots moist. What’s more, from the organic debris upstream, the water carries significant amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus, which are essential for the growth of plants and algae in this aquatic ecosystem. This water is literally full of life.
And through that living water, fruit comes forth in its appropriate time. Feeding any passerby, be it a person, land animal, a bird of the air, or even fish in the waters. This is the location where all of creation converges: land, air, sea. And here you sit, providing fruit for them all.
Moreover, leaves never dry out which means shade from the scorching sun and protection from the driving rain are perpetually available. Everything the tree is designed to do is done. By drawing from the stream of living water, all of creation is served. This is true success.
As we see here, the Torah is this stream. It’s by His Word that all of creation is served. Studying and meditating on these Words has the power to revolutionize literally everything around you. But you must be planted right beside it with your roots drawing from its Ways.
Simple choice, right?
What about you right now?
Pop quiz:
Do you bear fruit in the appropriate season?
Do your leaves provide perpetual shade from the sun and shelter from the rain?
Are you successful in doing everything you are on this earth to do?
Relationship with God
Wicked: Rejects God, disobedient, doesn't seek Him (Psalm 10:4), curses Him (Psalm 10:3)
Righteous: Fears the Lord, loves Him, seeks Him (Psalm 112:1), delights in His law (Psalm 1:2)
Moral Character
Wicked: Unrighteous, deceitful, violent, greedy, proud (Romans 1:29), lacks self-control (2 Timothy 3:3)
Righteous, truthful, just, generous, humble (Proverbs 11:3), self-controlled (Titus 2:12)
Actions
Wicked: Does evil, oppresses others, spreads discord, persecutes the righteous (Proverbs 2:14), betrays (2 Timothy 3:4)
Righteous: Does good, helps others, promotes peace, loves others (Psalm 37:21), forgives (Ephesians 4:32)
Attitude
Wicked: Arrogant, selfish, loves pleasure more than God (2 Timothy 3:4), unthankful
Righteous: Humble, selfless, loves God, thankful (Ephesians 5:20)
Spiritual Condition
Wicked: Blinded, alienated from God (Ephesians 4:18), foolish
Righteous: Seeks God, has understanding, is wise
Destiny
Wicked: Destruction, perish (Psalm 145:20), eternal separation from God
Righteous: Blessed, inherits eternal life (Matthew 25:46), dwells with God
Clearly, all of us want to dwell confidently and mightily in the right hand column.
And here’s how you do it:
Reject the advice of the wicked.
Don’t do what sinners do.
Don’t sit where scoffers sit.
Delight in His Torah and meditate on it day and night. Get as close to the River of God as you can get and set your roots down deep. Bear fruit in its season. Ensure your leaves remain in place. Doing so implies everything you do will succeed. (note: this is actual success, not worldly success)
Taking the path of the wicked will have you continually driven by the wind. Whichever way it blows will change the course of your life. You will live in an environment of always responding to the ways of the world. Sound familiar?
The sad part is that because of this you will not be able to stand up to the judgment. Nor will you stand at the gathering of the righteous. The way of the wicked is doomed.
Despite this, there is some good news: Abba watches over the way of the righteous.
All you have to do is make a decision.
“I call on heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have presented you with life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore, choose life, so that you will live, you and your descendants.”
Choose wisely.