March 19th, 2009 by Kristi Stephens

In “Firmly planted, fruitful, and flourishing” we looked at the righteous man who is blessed; he does not embrace his sin or those who do so, rather he delights in God and His Word. The result? He is like a tree firmly planting, yielding fruit, and flourishing as He abides in Christ.

Today we’re looking at the other side of the coin.

Not so the wicked!
They are like chaff
that the wind blows away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. Psalm 1:4-5

I love this contrasting picture: the thriving tree rooted firmly on the bank of the stream versus dry chaff being blown in the wind. The idea of the wicked being blown away like chaff is seen in many places in the Old Testament. Notice Isaiah 40:23-24 -

He brings princes to naught
and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.
No sooner are they planted,
no sooner are they sown,
no sooner do they take root in the ground,
than he blows on them and they wither,
and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.

One theme that occurs in the Psalms is that though the wicked appear to be prospering for a time, their end is clear – they are like chaff before the Lord, and they will not stand in the end.

Verse 6 of Psalm 1 says,

“For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.”

The Hebrew word for “perish” carries the idea of a fading away of strength, hope, wisdom, knowledge, and wealth. It also can imply aimless wandering without orientation, or being lost either literally or morally.

In a world where right is seen as wrong and wrong as right, isn’t it comforting to know that our God has never lost control? I’m sure that we have all personally interacted with wicked people who appear to be flourishing in contrast with our own lives; add in what we see on the news and from a distance in our culture, and it can be downright discouraging! Our God is just, and one day everything will be set right.

The real treasure is not temporal “success” or comfort – the real treasure is knowing the God of the universe, the Savior of our souls! We will look at this treasure of knowing God more in the next post on the Psalms. However, before we move on I want to come back to the idea of the definition of the “wicked” and the “sinners” one more time. Quoting from the last post:

The “wicked” are people who are described throughout the Bible as those who oppress, exploit, and murder others. The wicked are dishonest, violent, pervert justice, and hate the Lord and His people; they have done wrong, are still living in their sin, and intend to continue in it. The word for “sinners” carries the idea of one who sins habitually.

The Bible is clear that we are either wicked or redeemed! All of us are sinners (Romans 3:23), and because of that, what each and every one of us has earned on our own is death and eternal separation from God. (Romans 6:23) No matter how good you may think you are, in comparison with God’s holiness, our best attempts just don’t cut it! (Isaiah 64:6)

Our sin broke our relationship with God – we could not work our way back to Him; He is holy, and the smallest speck of sin in our lives bars us from His presence. The solution to that problem was Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, taking the punishment for our sin upon Himself and dying in our place upon the cross. He was the only perfect sacrifice that could pay our penalty in full. When we place our trust in Him as our only hope of salvation (John 3:16-18), we are saved from our sin and justified – God looks at me “just as if I’d” never sinned!

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 says:

Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

On our own, we are all wicked. We are lost in our sin and deserve only death and hell and punishment. But through Jesus Christ, we can be washed free of our sin, sanctified and set apart for God, and considered holy through the sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf! And as we studied in the last Psalms post, people who truly know Jesus Christ and are being sanctified will bear fruit.

So, where are you today? Are you trying to be good on your own, or have you trusted in Jesus Christ as the only way to be declared righteous in God’s sight? It is my prayer that God would use His Word to reveal to you the condition of your heart; may you be firmly planted in Him, and not blown like chaff! And for those of you who know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I end with the words of Paul-

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
Colossians 2:6-7

*Image from wikipedia.org