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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 1:4 - 1:4
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The ungodly (הרשׁעים, with the demonstrative art.) are the opposite of a tree planted by the water-courses: they are כַּמֹּץ, like chaff (from מוּץ to press out), which the wind drives away, viz., from the loftily situated threshing-floor (Isa 17:13), i.e., without root below, without fruit above, devoid of all the vigour and freshness of life, lying loose upon the threshing-floor and a prey of the slightest breeze-thus utterly worthless and unstable. With עַל־כֵּן an inference is drawn from this moral characteristic of the ungodly: just on account of their inner worthlessness and instability they do not stand בַּמִּשְׁפָּט. This is the word for the judgment of just recompense to which God brings each individual man and all without exception with all their words (Ecc 12:14), - His righteous government, which takes cognisance of the whole life of each individual and the history of nations and recompenses according to desert. In this judgment the ungodly cannot stand (קוּם to continue to stand, like עָמַד Psa 130:3 to keep one's self erect), nor sinners בַּעֲדַת צַדִיקִים. The congregation (עֵדָה( noi = ‛idah, from וָעַד, יָעַד) of the righteous is the congregation of Jahve (עֲדַת ה), which, according to its nature which is ordained and inwrought by God, is a congregation of the righteous, to which consequently the unrighteous belong only outwardly and visibly: ου ̓ γὰρ πάντες οἱ ἐξ Ἰσραήλ οὗτοι Ἰσραήλ, Rom 9:6. God's judgment, when and wheresoever he may hold it, shall trace back this appearance to its nothingness. When the time of the divine decision shall come, which also separates outwardly that which is now inwardly separate, viz., righteous and unrighteous, wheat and chaff, then shall the unrighteous be driven away like chaff before the storm, and their temporary prosperity, which had no divine roots, come to a fearful end. For Jahve knoweth the way of the righteous, יֹודֵעַ as in Psa 37:18; Mat 7:23; 2Ti 2:19, and frequently. What is intended is, as the schoolmen say, a nosse con affectu et effectu, a knowledge which is in living, intimate relationship to its subject and at the same time is inclined to it and bound to it by love. The way, i.e., the life's course, of the righteous has God as its goal; God knows this way, which on this very account also unfailingly reaches its goal. On the contrary, the way of the ungodly תֹּאבֵד, perishes, because left to itself, - goes down to אֲבַדֹּון, loses itself, without reaching the goal set before it, in darkest night. The way of the righteous only is דֶּרֶךְ עֹולָם, Psa 139:24, a way that ends in eternal life. Psa 112:1-10 which begins with אשׁרי ends with the same fearful תאבד.