Psalm 1 & 2

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.
Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,“Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying,“As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.”Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth.Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

I have often read Psalm 1 by itself, and felt a little daunted by the language used. It almost seems too black and white to be edifying. The call of the Psalm, taken by itself, is to be perfect. If you are, you will not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or sit in the seat of the scoffer. Rather, you will take delight in the law of the Lord, and be like a firmly planted tree. What happens then, if I, in my war with the flesh, temporarily stand in the way of sinners (because I am one)? I know I am forgiven, but does that mean that I no longer can be like a tree, planted by streams of water? It seems questionable at best.

What seems to be a better alternative is to read the first two Psalms together, as one complete song. The second Psalm completes the story arc of the first, and sheds light on this dilemma of personal application. From a literary perspective, they complement each other, as the second half picks up where the first ended, and brings it back around. Thus an outline of the two together would look something like this:

A: Blessed is the faithful, and obedient man (1:1-2)
B: He will be firmly planted, nourished, bear fruit and prosper well (1:3)
C: The wicked will not prosper, and they will perish (1:4-6)
D: The wicked rage, and plot in vain in their counsel together (2:1-3)
E: God laughs, plants His King on His holy hill (2:4-6)
F: The faithful and obedient Son receives inheritance and rules nations (2:7-9)
G: Application, Kiss the Son, Blessed are those who take refuge in Him (2:10-12)

When you read through Psalm 1, you end with the perishing wicked. It does not seem to be a proper conclusion to the beautiful imagery of the righteous man, planted by streams of water. However, it does lead perfectly into the first verses of Psalm 2. The Psalmist is commenting on these wicked men, and trying to understand why they speed along toward their destruction. As in the first Psalm, God sits on high, and sees all their wickedness. In fact He laughs at them, and holds them in derision. They think they can successfully bring about their own prosperity by breaking free from the reign of Gods Anointed. But He has set His King on Zion. And He will rule the nations. Those who remain in their wickedness, will not stand in the congregation of the righteous, but will be dashed to pieces like a potter’s vessel. Then the call is to Kiss the Son, to serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. We serve with fear and rejoice with trembling, for we know that we are sinners. But we serve and rejoice because we are permitted to take refuge in Him. These commands seem more doable than the picture of the man in Psalm 1. By grace (of course) we are able to cast ourselves on His mercy, and are able to serve Him.

This is where putting the two Psalms together makes Christ come alive. The Anointed One, the King firmly planted on the Holy Hill, He is the Man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked. He is like a tree firmly planted by streams of water. His leaf will never wither. All that He does prospers. This one complete Psalm becomes the story of Christ and the wicked. Christ bears fruit. The wicked do not. Christ is King over all the nations. The wicked in vain try to establish themselves apart from the King. The Anointed One is blessed of God Almighty, whereas the wicked are laughed at and derided. The leaf of the King will not wither, but the chaff of the wicked will be blown away, and come to nothing.

Reading the Psalm in this way allows us to see Christ even more clearly in the first half, as the Man who delights day and night in the Law of the Lord. We see Him more clearly as the True King of Kings, who conquers the wicked, and dashes them against the Rock. At the end, we are given the opportunity to meditate on this and are called to be wise. We must Kiss the Son, and find our refuge in Him, and in Him alone. And blessed are all who do so.

Here we find our place in Psalm 1. The Psalmist bookends this one complete Psalm with descriptions of those who are Blessed. “Blessed is the man who walks not…” and “Blessed are all who take refuge in Him.” Those who take refuge in the Son are identified with the Man who does not sit in the seat of scoffers. As we serve with fear, rejoice with trembling, and Kiss the Anointed King, we become like Him, delighting in the Law of the Lord, and meditating on it day and night. This takes the moralistic impulses out of Psalm 1’s application. We can only be planted by streams of water, if we indeed kiss the Son, and find our refuge in Him. It is Christ who is found in the first Psalm, but by the end of the second, we are identified with Him. Therefore, in Him, we are righteous, and will not perish. Rather we will yield fruit in our season, our leaf will not wither, and all we do will prosper.

The Triumph of Secularism

Wow. DUSTY
[cough]

Been a while - a long while - since I've been back to the old Abbey. Too long. Looks like the Minstrel has been around - though not recently enough to knock down the cobwebs - and been musing mightily about worship. Great stuff. The Abbey should put up a billboard down the mountain in Evangelicalville, to invite tourists up to do a little reading. But I hear the circus is still in town, so there probably wouldn't be much response.

Speaking of circuses. The election is now over, and I thought I might share a thought or two.

First off, though I am not (as this post will make clear) an Obama supporter, I believe the clear biblical mandate is that Christians honor their leaders - even the ones they disagree with. And I think that slogans like, "It's an Obamanation" are not only really lame double-entendres, they're just plain inappropriate. That said...

Sometimes when people are asked who they are voting for, and they don't want to share any specifics, they flash a coy smile and say something like, "I'm voting for the good guys!"

I've always wished I could say that, but honestly never really felt like it was fully truthful. This year, I really felt like I was voting for the not-quite-as-bad guys. Or that I was not so much voting for a candidate, as voting against an ideology. And the ideology against which I voted seems to have prevailed in the General Election, and seems to be prevailing more and more in our culture. It's the ideology of increasing secularism.

It's not that I really expected Sen.Obama to lose. It seemed to most people, myself included - based not only on polls, but also on the prevailing winds - that more people would put their support behind the charismatic, rhetorically polished, liberal secularist this time around. The truly unexpected and disappointing thing was how many professing conservative, Evangelical Christians got caught up in that hype as well. Too many people I know, and am close to, and had assumed were well enough moored to the sufficiency of God's Word for all of faith and life to see straight in the political fog, seem to have lost their moorings, and drifted with the current.

Too many Christians have bought into the liberal position that God's Word is only good for things you do at church. For "religous" things. For "matters of faith", as if matters of faith were limited to what we preach, sing, and teach children in Sunday School. As if "church" and "religion" were just extracurricular activities that we entertain our souls with when we have spare-time from Real Life. Apparently a lot of Christians have lost sight of how God's Truth defines all of life and provides the only sure framework for rightly comprehending issues like human responsibility, the purpose and role of civil governments, the definition of justice, the foundations of righteousness, the proper use of money, the importance of objective, moral law, the objectivity of beauty, the reality of holiness, etc., etc... The idea that God's Truth is only true for those who sign up for it like a high-school elective, is a fundamentally rebellious idea. The proposal that the Truth of Scripture should be limited to the practices of the Church is the credo of man-centered secularism (I know, I know... is there any other kind?)

And it's really, honestly not that I think that Sen. McCain is the exemplar of a Christian worldview in action in the realm of government and politics. Clearly not. God knows he's not my idea of the ideal candidate. But the simple fact is that his ideals and positions come ever so slightly closer to the biblical ideals on morality, social values, the role of government, justice, and Truth than do the President-elect's. And Christians who live in a democratic nation in this world, should cast their vote for the candidate whose positions most closely resemble the values of the world to come.

I'm not so much disappointed that McCain lost, as that Obama won. And I'm not so much disappointed that Obama won, as that his self-avowed secularist agenda prevailed - and did so in large part because to a greater and greater degree, it makes sense to people who call themselves Christians. The failure of the Church to comprehensively anchor Christians' thinking to the whole counsel of God, is the triumph of secularism not only in the world, but most sadly in the Church.