Beatus vir qui non abiit – Blessed is the man who did not walk
1 Happy are they who have not walked in the counsel of the wicked, *
nor lingered in the way of sinners,
nor sat in the seats of the scornful!
2 Their delight is in the law of the Lord, *
and they meditate on his law day and night.
3 They are like trees planted by streams of water,
bearing fruit in due season, with leaves that do not wither; *
everything they do shall prosper.
4 It is not so with the wicked; *
they are like chaff which the wind blows away.
5 Therefore the wicked shall not stand upright when judgment comes, *
nor the sinner in the council of the righteous.
6 For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, *
but the way of the wicked is doomed.
I love this psalm. It puts life into a really simple perspective.
- When we are careful to build relationships with good people, our lives are better. When we are young and just getting started out in life, we need guidance. It is an unfortunate thing that we often think we know better than our parents and those around us that are trying to give us good guidance. We rebel and often lose our way and find ourselves stuck in stressful situations. Those that don’t rebel and listen to parents and teachers that are trying to steer them in the right direction seem boring to us at that point, but happier.
- When we are willing to consider how do things really work in this world and listen perhaps to wiser spiritual people, and we begin to really understand how to find our way, we can’t unlearn the things that we have discovered are true. Unfortunately, this can take a lifetime to get to.
- A tree bears fruit because thats what a fruit tree does. It doesn’t bear fruit for itself to enjoy, it bears fruit for us to enjoy. What makes the difference is that the tree is in the right environment. That tree did not plant itself there. The environment makes all the difference. A life that is useful for others is not found in the council of the wicked but found in the law of the Lord. The fruit comes in season, often not immediately.
- A life not build on God’s laws. A life that rebels against the natural laws of our environment. Is a life that is build on shifting sands. No roots. Easily falls apart.
- Eventually we will question the life we built. We will eventually look around at how others have built their lives and how we built ours. At that point, it is obvious to ourselves and everyone else what our life was built on.
- It makes sense: Not building our life on the laws and principles that the creator of the world we live in is telling us how to build our lives, we are doomed from the start. How many times have I built a piece of furniture from a box only to get to the end and realize a piece is upside down and now I have to take the whole thing apart and re-build it. Could have been avoided if I would have just followed the instructions that the maker of that furniture included in the box.
