The Blessed Man
Psalm 1
In Luke 24:44, Jesus is recorded as saying that “everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” We don’t have to wade far into the Psalms to see Jesus – he’s there already in Psalm 1. It’s a masterful piece of poetry. The blessed man is identified by the places where he walks, stands and sits, two times as putting his delight in God’s law, and as a tree planted by water whose fruit grows and leads don’t wither. Not so the wicked! They don’t stand, or sit, or walk, but are blown about by forces outside themselves. Therefore they have no place in the gathering of the righteous.
Notice that the wicked are plural, but the Blessed Man is singular. At the end of the day, only one man can truly claim to have walked rightly, stood rightly and sat rightly. Only one man had his tree – even the tree of his crucifixion! – planted in such a way that it bears fruit even two thousand years later, and gives leaves that provide hope and comfort to billions of people. The water of the streams by which it is planted gives the new birth of baptism to many. That one man is Christ.
We who are grafted into his tree by baptism find that what is true of him, becomes true now of us. We who would by nature stand in the way of sinners and sit in the seat of scoffers find ourselves standing at the judgment, in the congregation of the righteous. We are no longer blown away by the winds of the chaos of sin. We stand firm in the tree that is Jesus.
Blessed Lord, cause us to bear fruit and prosper as daughters and sons of the man who is blessed, Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.