Wicked for Good

“Are people born wicked, or do they have wickedness cast upon them?” Galinda, the good witch, asks her adoring fans in Oz.  She is of course referring to Elphiba the wicked witch. But anyone familiar with Wicked knows there is far more to the story than meets the eye. Galinda isn’t really all that good, and Elphiba has become wicked for good reasons.

I couldn’t help but think of this paradox when reflecting on Pslam 1. Yes, my Bible reading and broadway soundtracks sometimes blend together. Like Wicked, we’re a mixed bag and we all have backstory. The Protestant reformer, Martin Luther, had an expression in Latin that captures this contrast, “Simul Iustus et Peccator.” It means that the Christian is “simultaneously a saint and a sinner.” We’re both. We’re a whole lot of Galinda and Elphiba at the same time.

I remember as a kid seeing a cowboy show where you could tell the good guys and bad guys apart by the color of their hats. The good guys wore white cowboy hats, and the bad guys wore black. But life isn’t always as cut and dry as that, is it? We live in a sea of gray hats. How can we understand who is wicked, righteous, or really happy? Let’s take a look at the first poem in Israel’s hymnal:

Psalm 1

Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
for the LORD knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish. 

Psalm One and the Sermon on the Mount

The first Psalm opens with the word “blessed,” a synonym for happiness. This is the same line Jesus repeats in his famous Sermon on the Mount. Jesus says those people who are happy or blessed are those who are poor in spirit, those who mourn, those who are meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, those who are known as peacemakers, and those willing to be persecuted for following after Jesus.

Jesus spoke of the way of blessing, the way of happiness. In following in the way of Jesus told we are like salt and light and a shining city set on a hill. Though people are going to say all kinds of bad stuff about his followers, Jesus tells them to still rejoice and be glad. They are going to inherit the kingdom of God.

Psalm 1 follows a similar pattern, but instead of metaphors of salt and light uses botanical imagery of a tree. I think that’s intentional . . . because I believe this is a sort of parallel to the creation account in Genesis. I often describe the Psalms as the soundtrack of the Bible. The Psalms regularly point us to the big story of Scripture. The first Pslam points us to the beginning of the Bible.

In Genesis, God placed a tree of life in the middle of Eden with a river that flowed from it to water the garden God had created (Gen. 2:9-10). This tree of life shows up in the new creation in Revelation 22, with a river flowing from it, its leaves not withering, bearing fruit in every season. Its leaves are said to be for the healing of the nations. This tree metaphor finds its way into the beginning and ending of the Bible, and here we find it smack dab in the middle in the Psalms. It must be a big deal.

If we are to understand Psalm 1, I believe we will need to do some reflection (on it) and introspection (on us), which I believe can culminate in adoration (of him). In Psalm 1, the righteous doesn’t walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit with scoffers. It reminds me of the sing-songy line I heard as a kid, “I don’t cuss, smoke, or chew, and I don’t go with girls who do.”

If this Psalm is pointing us back to the opening of the Bible, it’s showcasing humanity’s inability to delight in God in the face of temptation. It’s not just about avoiding the wicked. After all, we’re all a little Galinda and a little Elphiba. You don’t have to read far in the Genesis to see this pattern repeated again and again. By chapter three humanity is cursed, by four we have the first murder, and by six God sends a flood to start over. The story of the Bible is really about how bad we are about living out Psalm 1.

Was Jesus good at Psalm 1? Not really. He was frequently criticized for receiving and eating with sinners (read Luke 15). He violated this Psalm in so many ways — if you read it in a straightforward way. That is unless this Psalm really isn’t about proximity to the “wicked.” Jesus was constantly with sinners, but he was always pointing them to a better way. He didn’t join in their way, but he did join their dinner tables. He didn’t adopt their lifestyle, but he did share his life.

Jesus was a like a tree, planted by a river. His leaves didn’t wither. In all he did, he prospered. Psalm one is really about him. In my humble but accurate opinion, this is a Messianic text pointing us to the one who will delight in the law of the Lord. It is foretelling of the one who would do what Adam should have done in the first place: obey God, protect his bride, defend his turf, and kill a snake. The Messiah’s work culminates in all of creation, everything that has breath, praising the Lord (Psalm 150). Psalm one is about the one whom Paul would call the final Adam (1 Cor. 15:22).

So, who are the wicked?

We can look without. I regularly teach at a maximum security men’s prison in Texas. We can look at those guys and say, “Well, there’s your answer . . . they’re the wicked.” Or maybe we can look across “the aisle” at our political polar opposites and say, “they’re the real problem . . . they’re the wicked.” Maybe there’s some truth found in that direction.

Or, we can look within. Are we the wicked? Maybe we can celebrate the fact that we haven’t broken the Ten Commandments . . . well, we can celebrate that we haven’t broken all or most of the Ten Commandments. But if we look to Jesus, we find that he made it so much more difficult . . . taking the commandments and showing how we violate them in spirit in our hearts. We might conclude that we are the wicked. Maybe we’re not all wrong to do so.

We live in a sea of gray hats. We’re wearing one ourselves. We might just shrug our shoulders and say, “Que sera, sera,” whatever will, will be. Why try? Why worry about Psalm one. But Jesus calls us to a better way modeling Psalm one in ways we might not expect. Jesus associates with broken people like us to point us to a way of meekness, peacemaking, and even mourning. He befriend the wicked to introduce them to forgiveness. This is the way of blessing. This is the way of happiness.

Who then are the righteous? 

The short answer is Jesus. He is the tree of life whose leaves heal the nations. And he has called us to follow in his way. We are a mixed bag, for sure. But we are called to die daily to the way of wickedness in our hearts that leads us to disobey God and be selfish towards others, violating with Jesus described as the two great commands that summarize the whole law.

That’s how we meditate on God’s law day and night, as described in Psalm 1:2. Of course that would involve reading our Bibles . . . but meditation is more than reading, right? We love God and we love our neighbors as ourselves. That’s a life of mediation. We think about what that means, we reflect on it, and we seek to live it out that our lives might be like a tree offering shade, a river offering life. We seek to model Jesus so that we can be a blessing to the nations like him.

Who is really happy? 

Of course, all this talk about law, and the reality of our own wickedness, can leave us wondering where we might find grace. How can we ever live in Psalm 1? I can’t help but turn to the first chapter of John’s gospel, which I believe is like the first chapter of the Psalms. Similarly, it too has a parallel to the creation account in the opening of Genesis. John begins by telling us that “In the beginning . . . was the Word” and that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” allowing us to behold God’s glory. Psalm one, seen in light of the life of Jesus, shows us we can find happiness in the path of grace where we point others to life.

As Ezekiel records, “As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?” (Ezekiel 33:11). Happiness is not found in isolating ourselves from the “wicked” and relishing in our own self-righteousness. God loves the wicked. That’s good news for people in gray hats like us.

Paul says that God “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). Peter says, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). Titus is reminded “for the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all people” (Titus 2:11). This is the movement of the new creation.

We are the wicked. Jesus is the righteous. In his life we find a righteousness we could never achieve on our own. Happiness is found by following in his steps and pointing others to way of life. Let’s follow this example. Let it be said of us, we are like trees firmly planted by the river. Let our lives be a blessing to our families, our churches, and our communities.