Psalm 1 – Reality in Black and White

Psalm one portrays the world in black and white: two types of people, good guys and bad guys. Old westerns portrayed them with white hats and black hats. Jesus’ Parable of the Weeds and Wheat (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43) echoes a similar reality. On the last day, people are judged as either good or evil. This psalm seems unconcerned with the gray areas where good people sometimes exhibit bad and bad people sometimes exhibit good.

Psalm 1 not only sets the tone for the rest of the Psalms but also for the reality of conflict between good and evil. Quite a few of the early psalms of David express his grief over the evil he faces, and this contrast between the righteous man versus the evil one becomes one of the focal points of the entire book. The person who seeks to follow God must face the nature of this reality which, more often than not, deteriorates into conflict.

Details of the Psalm

Verses 1-2 provide only a brief sketch. The differences between good and evil as seen in Psalm one are twofold: the good person sets his mind on God’s laws and avoids evil influences; the bad person does neither. God’s laws are the backbone of the righteous man’s desires and thoughts.

This is not the way of the wicked, the sinners, and the mockers. They reject the ways of God even engaging in mockery of those who seek to do right. Listen to contemporary arguments the reject Christianity, you’ll often hear name-calling, laughter, and slander. Mockery is the last resort of those who have no real argument. All they can do is make fun of the righteous life (1 Peter 4:4).

Verses 3-6 describe the result of each different way of life. One thrives, the other withers. One receives the blessing of God’s watchful eye; the other endures ruin.

Choosing Barabbas

If there is any New Testament incident that characterizes many in today’s maddened world, it would have to be the choosing of Barabbas in Luke 23. The crowd chose a murderer, insurrectionist, and thief over a man who healed the sick, raised the dead, and turned tax collectors, prostitutes, and other sinners away from their unrighteous lives.

The contrast between a good way of life and an evil one was recognized by some who attended Charlie Kirk’s funeral:

“To those trying to incite violence against us, those trying to foment hatred against us, what do you have? You have nothing. You are nothing. You are wickedness; you are jealousy; you are hatred. You are nothing. You can build nothing. You can produce nothing. You can create nothing. We are the ones who build. We are the ones who create. We are the ones who lift up humanity. You thought you could kill Charlie Kirk? You have made him immortal.” White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Stephen Miller

Michael Godwin also observed,

“Watching Charlie Kirk’s funeral. Why was the aftermath of George Floyd’s death not like this? The English Philosopher Sir Roger Scruton once said that ‘the instinctive impulse of the left is to negate, dismantle, destroy, while the instinctive impulse of the Right is to conserve, preserve, and build.’ Days like today bring that difference home.”

I do not deny that there are evil deeds on the side of those who seek a righteous life. But we see the contrast more and more clearly between those who seek God and those who refuse him. With the Charlie Kirk murder, evil has moved beyond mockery and slander, and as we see in many Psalms written by David, evil has revealed its true self. As we will see over the next few posts about the Psalms, David determines to stand firm against all that is evil.