What is the meaning of Psalm 1:4? Not so the wicked! “Not so the wicked!” (Psalm 1:4a) snaps us back from the beautiful picture of the righteous in verses 1–3. The righteous delight in God’s law and are “like a tree planted by streams of water” (Psalm 1:3), but the wicked enjoy none of that stability or blessing. • God draws a clear line between those who walk with Him and those who rebel (Malachi 3:18; Proverbs 14:32). • The phrase underscores that everything said about fruitfulness, endurance, and prosperity does not apply to the wicked (Psalm 92:12–13). • It also anticipates the sober truth of verse 5—that the wicked will not stand in God’s judgment (Psalm 5:5). They are like chaff “for they are like chaff” (Psalm 1:4b). Chaff is the light, worthless husk removed from grain when it is threshed. • Job 21:18 asks, “Are they like straw before the wind, like chaff swept away by a storm?”—showing chaff as a symbol of emptiness. • Isaiah 17:13 parallels this image: nations raging against God become “like chaff on the mountains before the wind.” • Matthew 3:12 pictures Jesus gathering His wheat and “burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire,” reminding us that chaff is destined for destruction, not storage. • Where the righteous tree has roots, chaff has no substance, no life, no value. Driven off by the wind “driven off by the wind” (Psalm 1:4c). In ancient threshing, farmers tossed grain into the air so the breeze carried the chaff away. • Psalm 35:5 prays, “May they be like chaff in the wind, as the angel of the LORD drives them away,” showing that God Himself directs the scattering. • Hosea 13:3 says the rebellious “will be like chaff swirling from the threshing floor,” emphasizing their fleeting existence. • James 1:6 warns that doubters are “like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind,” a New-Testament echo of rootless instability. • The wind is God’s instrument of judgment (Isaiah 41:16), sweeping away what has no weight of righteousness. summary Psalm 1:4 paints the wicked as the exact opposite of the rooted, flourishing righteous. They lack substance, worth, and permanence. Like chaff, they are weightless before God, easily scattered by His sovereign wind and ultimately destined for destruction. |
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