Two Similes and a Judgment

Two Similes and a Judgment
A sermon by Brent J Eelman
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Clarks Summit
July 26, 2020 


Preacher's note:  This sermon is written and punctuated in a manner that enables me to preach it and might not reflect proper grammar and punctuation.  Please be gracious and forgive.  :) 
 
Psalm 1
Happy are those
 who do not follow the advice of the wicked,
or take the path that sinners tread,
  or sit in the seat of scoffers;
 but their delight is in the law of the Lord,
 and on his law they meditate day and night.
They are like trees
 planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in its season,
 and their leaves do not wither.
In all that they do, they prosper.
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 watches over the way of the righteous,
 but the way of the wicked will perish.


“I feel blessed!” That expression has come into vogue lately.  When things go well; when we have enough; when our relationships are positive, we often say, “I feel blessed.”  The implication is that someone, something, often the divine is looking on us with special favor and making things better.  And so we exclaim, “I feel blessed!”  We are implying, “God thinks I am ok… because look at my life and how good it is.”

Another expression, “I want to be happy.” Happy is a word we use as the core of life’s meaning.  We have enshrined its pursuit in our nation’s Declaration of Independence.  We seek happiness in our relationships, our employment, our hobbies, our homes, our schools, and our church.  If we are unhappy with one of these areas of our lives, we move on.  If pressed to define what happiness is, we usually describe it in terms of an ephemeral feeling.  “I feel happy.” 

I fear our common understanding of happiness and blessed obscure their true nature.  Both words have been used in translations of Psalm 1.  Depending upon which translation you read, you will encounter one of those terms.  Psalm 1 invites us to probe the meaning of being blessed and experiencing happiness.  It does this by contrasting it with its opposite: wickedness or evil.  It presents us with 2 similes, 1. Happiness and blessedness are like trees.  2.  Evil and Wickedness is like chaff.  3. It concludes with a judgment on each of these lifestyles. 

                                                    I
Like trees.  “Like trees planted by streams of water.”  It is a fascinating analogy for the happy life, the life that is blessed.  “They are like trees…”.  Karen and I have spent a lot of time, (and money!) dealing with trees this year.  We live on a wooded property and have enjoyed the shade and beauty of trees for nearly 15 years.  This spring, we discovered that 5 of our ash trees were inflicted with the ash borer and needed to be cut down.  Three of these trees were huge.  One had a trunk nearly 4 feet in diameter.  After it was cut down, I started to count the rings trying to figure out the age of the tree.  I stopped at around 140, and was only about 2/3 of the way done.  My guess is that one of the trees was nearly 200 years old.  It is sad to see something so magnificent come down, but also a reminder of the mutability of all things.  I began to ponder the what that tree lived through, 2 world wars, a civil war, a great depression, and so much more.  What an amazing existence!  It represented strength, resilience, and in its grain it carried the memories and stories of the ages.  Ironically this powerful and magnificent tree succumbed to the presence of a tiny beetle. Mortality is a reality of all living things. 

When I contemplate the trees on our property, the analogy of the psalmist comes to life.  Trees, planted by streams of water are rooted in the earth, the soil of God’s creation.  In short, they are connected to that which gives life.  This is the first truth of this simile.  Happiness, the state of blessedness, is not found in what you have, nor in where you are going, nor what you are doing, nor the emotions that you may be feeling at the time… no.  Happiness, the state of blessedness, is about being connected to (and rooted in) that which gives life. 

The second lesson from this simile is that happiness, the state of blessedness, yields fruit. Trees have a purpose and they fulfill that purpose with beauty and grace.  Some trees bring forth fruit and nuts that feed other living creatures.  All trees absorb the carbon-dioxide gases in the atmosphere and convert them to oxygen.  The branches of trees offer not only shelter for humanity, but also for birds and other fauna.  They do this quietly, throughout the spring and summer, and then, their leaves die, in an act of colorful beauty that we photograph, paint and travel to see.  “They are like trees…..” 

The psalmist offers us another example of the happy, blessed life. “They delight in the law of the Lord.”  Delight, when used as a verb is the playful joy that comes from doing justice, loving others and seeking beauty and truth.  Truth… Truth…

We live in an age where truth is under assault.  We have been so gas-lit, that we are losing our moral and intellectual compasses,  not knowing what is up or down.  One of the examples of this is the anti-science movement that has taken hold of many.  It has different forms, but it basically calls into question the wisdom of science, math, and the quantitative tools of analysis.

We need to recognize that the foundation of modern science grew from the soil of inquiry into the nature of God’s creation.  Pennsylvania has hundreds of small colleges founded by churches.  Science was a central part of their curriculum, because understanding the laws and mechanisms of creation was ultimately delighting in the law of the Lord.  If we believe that Jesus is the Logos, or truth, there exists no truth apart from him.  Science does not deny the divine, it reveals the mystery, the complexity, and ultimately the transcendent reality of God.  To study science is to delight in the law of the Lord!

Happiness, the state of blessedness, is not about accumulation, nor the easy life…no.  It is about being rooted in soil of creation and sprouting forth in goodness, fruitfulness, beauty, justice and truth.  They are like trees. 

                                                  II
Like chaff.   We need to acknowledge the realism of the psalmist.  Our minds are drawn to the analogy of the tree planted by the stream, and the goodness that derives from it.  But the psalmist also addresses the reality and omnipresence of evil and wickedness.  It is an affliction that exists in humanity.  Evil is not always ugly, brutal, and initially destructive. 

Wickedness is often seductive, often offering us “something better.”  The psalm declares that its practitioners even function as counselors, spewing advice and giving direction in ways that distort truth and goodness. “Happy are those how do not follow the advice of the wicked”.

The psalmist then speaks of evil existing in those who “sit in the seat of scoffers.”  Sitting in a seat is an ordinary event in our lives, but the psalmist is not referring to our chairs and sofas.  This is a reference to the seats of power and authority and those who occupy them.  The psalmist is engaging in political realism by reminding us that those who occupy seats of authority and power can be motivated, not by the pursuit of justice and goodness, but by their own pathology and evil.  The psalmist shines a light on the rhetoric of the powerful and condemns the scoffers: those who sneer at truth, who lie and obfuscate, who barter in disrespect, insolence, and mockery. 

The reality of evil is that it begins with seeds of banality and flowers into violence and destruction.  It is not life-giving.  Its ultimate resource is the power of death.  The preacher poet, John Donne, captured this in one of his Holy Sonnets:

Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell…

But here is the irony…. The power of evil and death is like chaff.  Chaff is the thin scaly husk that surrounds grain.  In ancient times it was removed by thrashing the grain, and the wind would blow it away.  This is the core message of our faith. It is the message of the cross and resurrection.  Evil and death are a reality, but like chaff, they ultimately are worthless: dust in the wind.  The empty tomb echoes the empty husk… They are like chaff.”

                                                          III
Judgment.  Psalm 1 ends with a message of judgment.  The wicked, (who sit in seats of power) will not be able to stand in the face of judgment.  They will perish.  Percy Byshe Shelley, extolled the reality of judgment in his sonnet Ozymandias.   Ironically it is a poetic narrative about a fallen statue.  The legs stand by themselves, the rest of the body, lying in the sand.  The visitor notes the face of the statue:  His “wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read..”  He sat in the seat of the scoffers.  

It concludes with these words:

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

The wicked are not so, but are like chaff which the wind blows away. 
Psalm 1 reminds us that the life of faith is a journey.  We are on a path.  Each of us needs to acknowledge that there are times when we are diverted from the path of truth.  There are times when we are seduced by the counsel and advice of evil.  Each of us has that within us, and that is the struggle of daily existence.  It is why we regularly pray for forgiveness.  It is why we struggle and even die for truth, beauty and justice.

Two similes:  Happiness is like a tree.  Wickedness is like chaff.  
A Judgment:  the way of the wicked will perish. 

Psalm 1 reminds us of the propensity of evil within each of us, but that there is a better way.  This psalm call us to be rooted in the soil of truth, nurtured by the flowing streams of justice, connected to others in love, grace and forgiveness.  This is the good news.  Amen.