[Note: The following are the prepared notes for a sermonette given to the United Church of God congregation in Portland on Sabbath, June 17th.]

I hope you are all having a wonderful Sabbath. Do you remember the first moment in your life you had a consciousness of having done something wrong from what the Bible said? The first such moment that I remember came from a misunderstanding of the lyrics in a familiar hymn. When singing “blessed and happy is the man who does never walk astray,” I wondered if it had been wrong to adopt a stray Brittany spaniel that I had adopted on one of my early childhood walks with my father in Western Pennsylvania. Of course, it did not mean anything of the kind, but all the same it demonstrates the sort of sensitivity to sin that children sometimes have that can help us avoid the worst sorts of trouble.

It is one thing to know what the first psalm is not referring to, but it is a different thing to understand what it is that psalm is referring to. Let us turn to Psalm 1, and we will read all six verses, as this is a very short psalm. Psalm 1:1-6 reads: “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper. The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the ungodly shall 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 ungodly shall perish.”

There is a great deal of depth in the first psalm, but I would like to focus in today’s message on the third verse, which praises the righteous and obedient believer as being like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither. Let us also consider the place that the first psalm has in the book of Psalms. Just like the books of the law from Genesis to Deuteronomy, the book of Psalms is also divided into five smaller books, and Psalm one begins the first book. If we want to see what it is that Psalm one is alluding to in its symbolism, it is best to consider the similar language we find in Genesis. When one thinks of rivers and trees in Genesis, we find the following comments in Genesis 2:8-14. Genesis 2:8-14 talks, unsurprisingly enough, about the tree of life and the rivers it was found near in the Garden of Eden, and it reads: “The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed.  And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads.  The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.  And the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and the onyx stone are there.  The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush.  The name of the third river is Hiddekel; it is the one which goes toward the east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.”

Surprisingly enough, the other easily recognizable place in the Bible that connects a tree that bears fruit year-round planted by the river’s side is in Revelation 22:1-5. Revelation 22:1-5 is the beginning of the last chapter of the Bible, and it reads: “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.  In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.  And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him.  They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads.  There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.”

This vision of the water of life proceeding from the throne of God and the tree of life being available for the healing of the nations as part of a renewed Edenic New Jerusalem is a key aspect of the vision that we have of the ultimate redemption of mankind and of the earth. If we look at the overall structure of the Bible, the Bible is a large chiasm, ending with a strong relationship to where it began, with God bringing forth a new creation in which there is no death, no sin, no sorrow, no pain. So far, the connection of Psalm 1 with other passages in the Bible has been based on the allusions that the first psalm makes with other passages relating to its image of a productive tree planted by a river. There is, however, one more passage that connects Psalm 1 to the tree of life, and interestingly enough its structure is so close to that of the first psalm that it is quite possible that this passage is a deliberate echo of the elegant message of that passage. Let us turn to Proverbs 3:13-18 as our closing scripture today. Proverbs 3:13-18 is part of Solomon’s praise of wisdom, and this praise reads: “Happy is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gains understanding; for her proceeds are better than the profits of silver, and her gain than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies, and all the things you may desire cannot compare with her. Length of days is in her right hand, in her left hand riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her, and happy are all who retain her.”

It is interesting to note that Proverbs 3:13-18 echoes Psalm 1 in several key aspects that are worth briefly mentioning as we close. First, both passages discuss the believer as blessed or happy, which in Hebrew are both different senses of the same word, asher, that we have spoken of before with regards to Asher, the son of Leah. Second, both of these passages promise the believer the same two sorts of rewards, one of them blessings in the world to come, and other one eternal life. Similarly, both passages praise the paths that are followed by believers as being blessed and honored by God as long as one stays on the right path, in contrast to the fate of sinners who shun God’s ways. Ultimately, for the Bible, the rewards of seeking after wisdom and the rewards of living in obedience to God’s laws are in fact the same, because walking according to God’s ways is the very same as walking in wisdom. The two roads of wisdom and obedience are ultimately the same road given different names, with the same destination and the same rewards. Let us all continue to follow the paths of righteousness and the paths of wisdom until we reach the Kingdom of God together.