In Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount he frequently offers a binary choice. There are two ways: two ways of seeing the world, two ways of building your life, two roads you can walk down, two masters you can serve. Simple and effective this pushes people to clarify and focus on the choices that they make and their reasons for doing so.

This practice of creating a simple choice to help people clarify their use of the time that they have was not original to Jesus being a key feature of the Jewish wisdom tradition. At the beginning of the book of Psalms, Psalm 1, for example there is a clear choice, a straightforward comparison between two kinds of people: the righteous and the wicked.

Psalm 1 invites us to consider three things: where we choose to walk, sit & stand and invites both a negative and a positive comparison. At the heart of the Psalm is a choice and a question: What will you do? What will you not do? What kind of life, ultimately, will you choose to live?

WALKING WITH THE WICKED

What is this saying and not saying? Is it saying ‘don’t be friends with people who are not Christians’? I don’t think it is. This is not a call to religious isolation from the people, places and problems of the world we live in.

It is, though, a call to watch carefully the influence that people who do not trust in God are having in your life. This applies to friends, potential partners of the heart or of business, but also more widely. As a result of the internet and the proliferation of self-help we have more guides, advisors and counsellors than ever before and the vast majority of their wisdom is not underpinned on a knowledge or fear of the Lord.

Does this mean they have nothing useful or helpful to say? Does it mean the only people we should listen to are Christians? No, on both counts.

But we must become WISE and that means learning to more carefully evaluate the influences and positions and opinions of those that are speaking into our life. How does their wisdom compare with the wisdom of the Gospel? These things matter greatly when a doctor advises you to get an abortion, or a friend suggests divorce makes sense. There are many who will tell you that moving in together with someone before marriage is no big deal. Just do it, it’s fine.

The wisdom of the world will tell you to follow your dreams, listen to your heart and trust your gut. The Bible will tell you to listen to the Holy Spirit, to seek first the kingdom of God and to remember that your heart can lead you astray.

So who are your guides? In the world of social media they call them ‘influencers’. It’s a very honest and extremely helpful moniker. It’s surprisingly upfront about what they’re trying to do and the kind of, well influence, they want over you. We’re all influenced by someone so who is it that is influencing you? Who are the authors, bloggers, podcasters, newspapers, columnists, tiktokkers, popstars, movie stars, youtubers who are your guides on what to wear, what to listen to, what to read, what to do, what to think, what to eat, who to date?

Are you walking through life with the ungodly as your guides?

STANDING ON THE ROAD WITH SINNERS

If we fail at the first call to wisdom, we find ourselves moved along the path and are beginning to choose a side. We are lingering, we are hanging out. Again this doesn’t mean having an evening with some friends, this means a definite positioning of our lives, a spending of time, an orienting of our affections away from the things of God and more and more towards other things.

This is the company we keep, the place we are beginning to feel home and raises questions of belonging and identity. What kind of life are you building, where are you beginning to feel comfortable? Having listened to ungodly advice you are now party to ungodly ways.

At this stage things that troubled you previously as you weighed up your options, no longer trouble you. You may no longer be able to see the problems or issues. You might be tempted to think this is just about serious issues but for many of us it is the dangers of a life of comfort, self-interest, self-regard, of being focused on just me and the family, me and my work, me and my interests that work the greatest damage. The centre ground has moved here and God is no longer at the centre but been moved out one or two degrees. And the chances are that you will not notice and your guides will not tell you.

RESTING AT THE CAMP OF CYNICS

Some might think the road to the furthest point away from the godly life would be that of the drug addict or alcoholic or the porn star but the Psalmist suggests that the far more dangerous place is that of the scoffer and the cynic. ‘The fool says in his heart, there is no God’ (Ps 22).

Here we don’t just listen to the advice of the ungodly, nor find ourselves fully at home with their way of life but we have moved on and look back on the righteous and say, ‘what fools they are for going to church, what fools they are for believing in God, what fools they are for giving their money, what fools they are for believing there are sins, or forgiveness, or a man dying on a cross and rising from the dead, what fools.’

And that, in one sense, should be a test for your guides because many of them at stage 1 will absolutely think you are a fool for thinking as a Christian. They certainly will think you are a fool for choosing to live that way, for taking it you know, seriously.

My guess is most of your guides will never advise you to make following Jesus the cornerstone piece of your life. They will tell you to buy a bigger TV not a bigger kitchen table, make a games room not a guest room, give 1 percent not 10 percent, squeeze your faith down and down and down.

So watch where you walk, where you stand, where you sit.

And in the end the Psalmist says the wicked are like chaff. Chaff is the husk of the corn, the thing that is no good for eating, it is of no value and is easily blown away, driven by the wind. Their lives have no substance, no weight, they live for nothing worthwhile, nothing beyond themselves, no legacy to be proud of, no values worth passing on, no inheritance for the next generation.

And because the wicked have not followed the ways of the Lord, they have not befriended the saints and because the wicked scoff they will ultimately perish. They will not stand in the judgement and they will have no place in the congregation of the righteous. The wicked when examined will not stand, they will not survive the sorting, their case will be exposed under cross-examination. But judgement is not just in the future. Sometimes we have to live with the consequences of our choices.

NOT SO THE RIGHTEOUS

First, the righteous, the wise, choose a different path. They are blessed because they do not go that way, they will avoid the errors in this life and therefore judgement in the next.

On many occasions when I’ve asked someone who doesn’t believe in Christ, why they think they are good enough for heaven they almost always begin with telling me about things they have not done. I have not murdered, raped, abused, stolen. Very good I say, that’s not so high a bar now tell me not what evil you have not done but what good you have done. And then the answer comes a lot more slowly, they have to think about it before mumbling something about giving to charity. Very often they cannot think of anything at all to say.

I think many Christians would be the same because their lives and that of their neighbours may not be all that different. The difference for the Christian is that we believe in what someone else has done, that we receive righteousness from Christ. As crucial as it is that he takes our sin, it is what He gives that makes the difference. And because we have received so precious a gift we should be learning the way of Christ.

Goodness is not simply defined by the things we don’t do. Goodness or righteousness is mostly shaped by what we do, do: the positive. The righteous man delights, meditates, and walks in the way of the righteous and the main illustration is of something that does not walk at all. It famously stands in one place, literally rooted to the spot.

THE WAY OF THE TREE

The righteous are not like chaff, easily blown around but instead like a tree. The righteous have weight, substance, gravity. The tree that will be healthy, a good tree needs water. The best place is planted by a stream. In the right time this tree yields its fruit. When the weather scorches the leaf of this tree does not wither.

The righteous find themselves being blessed by the stream they are planted by but they in turn bring blessing to others because they provide shade (their leaf does not wither). There is protection here from the ravages of the sun, that scorch. This world can churn you over so where will you find comfort, shade, help, rest? That is the calling and it should be the consequence of the church being the church, people find the comfort, protection and help that they need in times of trouble.

But the tree also brings value to others because it bears fruit. The life of the tree enriches others, builds the community, we all prosper from the presence of the tree, the oaks of righteousness (Isaiah 52).

This tree will not perish like chaff, has weight, has substance, does good to others and is not easily moved from its position of receiving life giving water.

In the days of the Psalm, many would be living a nomadic lifestyle, like Abraham and the Patriarchs, so the choosing of the right way was very important. The finding of the oasis crucial to navigating the desert and wilderness. How will you know what good choices to make? What will be your reliable guide through life? The Psalm answers that it is the TORAH, the Scriptures, that provides the instruction and wisdom in the ways of God.

The day and night meditations tell us that because life is constantly challenging, because life is demanding because the challenges of the infant, the child, the teenager, the adult are different because this person is not that person, this job not that job, this company or culture is different, we need to meditate on God’s ways each day and night. There is not a day that goes by where you do not need wisdom to not just get through it but to live it as a Christian. To practice Christian things like worship, generosity, hospitality, prayer.

Reflection on the Scriptures also bears fruit in our lives. The blessed life is one that is free from scoffing, that does not run with the choices of the wicked but one that is marked by delight, reflection and wisdom. It has value and purpose. It yields a lifetime of goods and leaves a legacy for generations. There are fruits we should notice growing on our branches that we and others get to benefit from: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control for starters.

And as we see the good those things bring. This is good. This is a feast, come and eat.

There is the focus on the individual but then we have a place in something bigger. We belong to a people who assemble before the LORD.

And the Psalm ends with the Lord knowing or watching over the righteous. Those who delight in the Lord, those who are His, He cares for, He knows. Isn’t that good? To know the Lord cares, to know the Lord sees, the Lord hears, the Lord watches over your steps ready to guide you in His ways and lead you all the way home. It’s an expression of care, regard, attention, knowledge, watchfulness.

But more than that, we have one who never walked in the counsel of the wicked, or stood in the way of sinners or sat in the seat of scoffers. Not once. But even though he was without sin, chose to die, to perish as one who was wicked, who was cursed, chose to receive the judgement that was ours not his. Why? Why would Jesus Christ do that? So that we could be planted by a stream of living water, his death became the seed for our life. In his resurrection Jesus claims victory over sin and death and so it is in the soil of His life that ours must take root.