Walking, Standing, Sitting

              Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers. 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. For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction. (Psalm 1)

            Yesterday, two tracks of thought met. One was to focus on the four cardinal virtues (Prudence/Wisdom, Justice, Temperance, and Fortitude/Courage)and the three theological virtues (faith, hope, and love). The other, in conjunction with a book I’m reading, was to look at the Psalms and other Old Testament texts. I have no idea how long the tracks will run side by side before there’s a trainwreck, but not today. Psalms 1, 14, 37, 49, 73, 91, 112, 119, 127, 128, 133, and 139 are known as wisdom psalms.

            As Psalm 1 begins, we’re told first to be careful of the company we keep. Staying away from “bad-uns” is a good idea, with bad-uns being described as wicked, sinners, and mockers. We may not make it any farther today.  

            A wicked person does things that are evil or morally wrong. A sinner is  a wicked person, with wickedness defined by the Law. They sound similar, but here’s a possible difference. Someone who is wicked violates what we might call common law. “Everyone knows” what is wicked, so to speak. Wicked is doing what is commonly considered wrong. Sinning is the violation of a specific set of laws found in Scripture (or in some other holy book).

Mocking is teasing or laughing in a scornful manner, according to one source, and to treat with contempt or ridicule, according to another. Its purpose is to diminish or demean the victim. While it is not the only element of comedy, it is a central and dominant one. Mockery also plays a large role in gossip and social competitions such as politics or sports. It is such a part of our society that I suspect most people don’t recognize when we’re doing it. Let me ask this: when was the last time you told a joke that was meant to make people respect or appreciate someone?

These are the three sorts of people we’re to avoid if we want to be blessed. They are the people we’re to avoid if we want to be a blessing. The first issue this raises is the problem that we’re supposed to love our enemies and love our neighbors as ourselves. How do we do that if we don’t walk, stand, or sit with them? In each case, we can be polite and even helpful without allying ourselves with them. We can want what is best for them without supporting their bad behavior.  The same is true about judging them. We need to find effective, polite ways to set boundaries.

The second issue, at least for some of us, is finding the kind of people we should be standing, walking, and sitting with. That takes us to the recommendation in the passage. The Psalmist says that the sort of person he’s singing about is someone who delights in the law of God and meditates on it day and night. Right. So, for the next twelve months, we’re going to spend three hours each day meditating on “Thou shalt not murder.” There might be someone who would get excited about that, but most of us would find that Bor-ing.

This is one of the lies we’ve believed: God’s law is a list of commandments about what we shall and shall not do, most of which make no sense to us today (if they ever did). Not even a lawyer could find them interesting. But if you study any sort of science, you discover laws. If you study any sort of art, laws abound. If you garden, craft, do research, bake, raise kids, have a pet, take pictures, talk to people… I cannot think of any hobby or area of interest I’ve ever explored or experienced that didn’t have laws. Sometimes, there are arbitrary laws that some humans set, but there are also laws involved in everything that man has discovered but did not set.

There’s a mathematical order of that tells us how calculations should be performed: parentheses, exponents, multiplication and division, addition and subtraction, all performed from left to right. Personally, I think it’s silly, but…

There’s an order of adjectives preceding a noun in English (OSASCOMP): Opinion, Size, Age, Shape, Color, Origin, Material, Purpose. It might sound silly, but then again, doesn’t a square, small, copper, new cup sound off somehow? You have to focus on the words in a way you wouldn’t if you were dealing with a small, new, square, copper cup. Did God make that rule? I suspect so, though I don't know why. But the point is that by learning to work with it, you learn to communicate better, so even if He didn’t, you can still be thankful that He’s given you a chance to learn it.

If you spend time contemplating the laws that govern the subjects and activities in your life, you’ll become more capable, and you probably won’t have time to waste standing, walking, or sitting with band-uns. Life certainly won’t be boring. There’s not enough time in the world to learn all the rules I want to learn or relearn. And maybe if I keep in mind that the bad-uns with whom I might be tempted to spend time are getting in the way of learning something interesting, maybe I’ll stop wasting time debating with them. And maybe then, the knowledge I gain will be a source of blessing to others. 

And this passing of blessings on to others takes us back to the latter half of the psalm, in which the one who is blessed is like a tree planted by a stream that yields its fruit in its season.