Bible Studies

TWO WAYS NOT MORE OR LESS

by Morris Inch
07/14/16
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TWO WAYS: NOT MORE OR LESS

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Yogi Berra humorously suggests that when we come to a fork in the road, we should take it. Whereas Scripture insists that we must choose between the way of the righteous and that of the wicked. And

in doing so, accept the consequences.

Those long removed from their Christian origins fail to recognize the profound reliance of the early Christians on the Psalms. "We are told that they were recalled as folk labored in the fields, at morning and evening prayers, as they associated around the house, during public worship, and on the lips of the martyrs" (Morris Inch, Devotions with David, p. 1). We are introduced to the notion of the two ways in the initial entry, which remains either explicit or implicit throughout the remainder of the text. It is with this in mind, that we recall the brief commentary from the text cited above concerning the first of the Psalms.

The righteous are those who choose God’s way as opposed to their own. They do not negotiate life alone, whether from good intent or not, hoping for the best and inevitably falling short. (As I have noted on other occasions, it is more often the lesser good than the blatant evil that draws our attention away from the greater good: to glorify God and enjoy his eternal blessing.)

More in particular, they do "not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers" (v. 1). Walk, stand, and sit imply progression. Rabbi Akiba observed that the evil inclination is at first "like a thread and at last it is like a rope of a ship." Of similar intent, Rabbi Isaac declared: "At first it is a wayfarer and lodges, at last it becomes the master of the house."

Rather than yield to wickedness, the righteous "delight in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night" (v. 2). Rabbi Mannai concurs: "As long as you occupy yourselves with the Law, the yetzer (inclination) will not rule over you." It is as we immerse ourselves in God’s word that we can resist the evil that tempts us. Otherwise stated, it creates an immunity system that resists the incursion of evil.

The righteous are "like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither" (v. 3). In its season implies natural growth. Whose leaf does not wither suggests resistence to drought. Taken together, life characteristically prospers.

The wicked conversely "are like chaff that the wind blows away" (v. 4). Thus the grain is separated from the chaff. The latter consequently appears as rootless, weightless, and useless. Whereupon, the psalmist summarily concludes that "the wicked will not stand in the judgment, or sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish" (vv. 5-6). It remains for us to make the decision as to which way we shall take, and to accept its inevitable consequences.

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All things considered, "lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one" (Matt. 6:13).