The way of the wicked vs. The way of the righteous
[Psalms 2]
It happened when I went to a Christian bookstore. At that bookstore, I met a old pastor who is in the same presbytery with me. He told me that if I continued to do ministry in South Korea, I would have been popular ...' (I studied and worked in Korea in 2001-2003). At that time, I showed him a book called ‘The Grace of the Wilderness,’ which I was holding in order to pay money to a cashier with little mischief. The reason I showed him that book was because I believed that it was God's will for me to do wilderness ministry in Los Angeles, USA, rather than city ministry in Korea. In the book ‘The Grace of the Wilderness’, this is what it says: ‘To learn is to change. If you have not changed, you have not learned ... Until you change, knowledge is not yours.’ I really cannot disagree with this saying. As I am tasting God's great grace little by little in the place like the wilderness, especially now I am enjoying the power of the word of God. So, even now, after reading and meditating on His word, having prepared to preach, and after proclaiming God’s word, I am now preparing to meditate on it again and writing down this Quiet Time. But when I ask the question, "Is this all?" I can only answer "No". This is because true learning requires "transformation" (Hendricks). So I ask myself this question: “What change am I experiencing with the power of the Word?” I am experiencing many changes and one of them is that the Lord is building me firmly on the rock through His word. This is the Lord's building work as He promised us in Matthew 16:18. In particular, I am experiencing that the Lord is enabling me to hold on to His promise word of Matthew 16:18 that He gave to Victory Presbyterian Church whenever there are difficulties and hardships in my ministry. Actually, the Lord is holding me firmly through that promise word. Another change through the Word of God is that the Lord is training me to let the Word of God to speak to my soul. This training began after I read Pastor Llyod Jones’ book “Spiritual Depression” which I read a long time ago. I still have vivid memories. While I was reading that book, Pastor Lloyd Jones said that the psalmist proclaimed to his soul”Why are you in despair, O my soul? Why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God ...” when he was praying to God (Ps. 42: 5, 11; 43: 5). It was a big challenge for me when he pointed out that. From that time on, I began to learn how to speak the Word of God to my own soul. So I often let the Lord say His promise “I will build my church” (Mt. 16:18) to my soul when it is difficult in my ministry. Then I have experienced so many time that the Holy Spirit helps me to stand firm again and enables me to fulfill my ministry powerfully.
Last week, after meditating on Psalms 1, I challenged some of the members of the church to proclaim to their souls, ‘(your own name), you are the very blessed man/woman!’ At that time I proclaimed to my own soul, "James, you are the very blessed man!" The reason is because the Lord made me not to walk on the path of the wicked, but on the path of the righteous. In other words, the reason why I said to my soul that I am very blessed man was because the Lord enables me to be delighted in meditating the word of God day and night without walking in the counsel of the wicked, without standing in the way of sinners or without sitting in the seat of mockers (Ps. 1:1-2). By God’s grace I can say to my soul “James, you are the very blessed man!” because the Lord enables me to taste the fruit of faith (“which yields its fruit in season”), to live the life of vital faith (“whose leaf does not wither”), and to enjoy the blessing of prosperity (“Whatever he does prospers”) (v. 3). Today, I want to meditate continuously on the way of the wicked and the way of the righteous based on Psalms 2. The reason I said “continuously” is because Psalms 1 starts with “How blessed is the man …” (v. 1) and Psalms 2 ends with “How blessed are ….” (v. 12). In other words, since the psalmist is making a connection between Psalms 1 and 2, we must meditate on Psalms 2 in succession. The content of that meditation is “the way of the wicked” and “the way of the righteous” (1:6).
First, I want to think about the way of the wicked. What is the way of the wicked? We can think of it in three ways:
(1) The way of the wicked is the way of anger.
The world we live in is like a balloon. It seems like the people’s anger of this world will burst as if the balloon was about to blow up. In a difficult and busy world, many people seem to be nervous because of stress. That's why people seem to be looking for someone or something to pour out anger on. And many seem to be adding more gasoline to the anger of the uncontrolled heart by hatred, jealousy, and envy. We who live in this generation need to think about the anger of the wicked who are against us. The reason is that even though we are living in a country where we have freedom of religion, we may not be able to feel this reality with our skin. But in a mission field where there is no freedom of religion, those who oppose Jesus Christ are persecuting and even putting those who proclaim the gospel of Jesus into prison.
Look at Psalms 2:1 – “Why are the nations in an uproar And the peoples devising a vain thing?” Here, “Why are the nations in an uproar …” refers to the people of the world who are grinding their teeth, make much noise and attitude of attacking the Messiah that is Jesus in order to get rid of Him (Park). We can see in the New Testament Synoptic Gospel the fulfillment of this Old Testament word that prophesied that those who oppose Jesus Christ grind their teeth, made much noise and attitude of attacking Messiah. The people in this world who hated Jesus slapped His cheeks, spitted on His face, beat Him and persecuted Him were full of anger so they were grinding their teeth and cried out ‘Crucify Him!’ in order to kill Him. What is surprising, however, is that the people who were so angry were the Jews whom Jesus came to save, especially the religious leaders behind them. Those who were angry with Jesus, such as the Pharisees and high priests, who walked the path of the wicked (the path of the children of the viper) without refusing to walk the path of the righteous, were surprisingly not the characters who felt so far with us. So there is a good chance that we too can walk on the first way of the wicked, the way of anger. We should look back and examine ourselves whether we are now walking on this way of the wicked when we think about our anger toward God, our prayers and praises toward holy God like beating a gong and our attitude of dual personality in trying to get rid of Jesus.
(2) The way of the wicked is the way of plotting in vain.
When we look at the book ‘The Grace of Wilderness,’ this is what it says: ‘Write your plan in pencil and then give the eraser to God.’ As I read this, I thought about my own ministry: 'Am I really entrusting my pastoral plan to God? Or am I pastoring my ministry in a spiritual perfectionist way of thinking so that I am not yielding God to work? Therefore, am I doing pastoral ministry in vain now?' I think this is a word that applies not only to my ministry, but also to the lives of all the Christians. We must self-reflect ourselves to see if we are living our personal lives, our family's lives, and our work and business lives according our plans. Indeed, we should ask ourselves whether we are yielding ourselves, families, businesses and churches to the Lord so that He may build them up.
Look at Psalms 2:1 again: “Why are the nations in an uproar And the peoples devising a vain thing?” According to this word, the Bible says the peoples are devising a vain thing. This means that the people of the world crucified the Messiah Jesus to get rid of Him, but t was only in vain (Park). The reason is because God raised Jesus in three days. The people of the world killed Jesus and put Him in the tomb, but it was the vain thing because Jesus rose from the grave in three days [(v. 7) “… I have begotten You”]. Like this, all the man’s plan to antagonize Jesus can only be the vain thing. The plan that the Lord is not with is just plotting in vain. That was why Moses said in the process of Exodus, “If Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here” (Exod. 33:15). A plan without God is just a vain plan.
(3) The way of the wicked is the way to take counsel together in order to go against the Lord.
Look at Psalms 2:2 – “The kings of the earth take their stand And the rulers take counsel together Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying.” This word speak of the opposition by the world leaders to come together to go against Jesus Christ. Furthermore, they tried to break their chains and throw off their fetters (v. 3). In other words, the wicked who wanted to kill Jesus Christ regarded the truth as a heavy yoke, so they tried to reject the truth and take it off (Park). This word reminded me Absalom’s counselor Ahithophel who tried to kill King David. Although Absalom could have killed his father King David if listened to the Ahithophel’s cousel, God sent David’s counselor Hushai to Absalom so that the Hushai’s counsel would overcome the Ahithophel’s counsel (2 Sam. 17:14). So in the end, King David lived but Absalom died (18:14-15). When I think about this Bible story, Psalms 2:4 comes to mind. God, the One who enthroned in heaven, laughs when the nations, or the kings of the earth or the rulers conspire and plot against Messiah Jesus (Ps. 2:4).
When I think about “his Anointed One” (v.2), I know it refers to Jesus the Messiah. But in application, I think it can also refer to a pastor in the present world. I think God who is enthroned in heaven is laughing and scoffing as people in the church come together to against their pastors. How hard are they trying to repel the pastor by recklessly opposing the anointed one in the church? It is a pity why they don’t think that God will rebuke them in His anger (v. 5). Like this, the age in which we live is spiritually dark age.
Second, I want to think about the way of the righteous. What is the way of the righteous? We can think of it in three ways:
(1) The way of the righteous is the way of repentance.
Look at Psalms 2:10 – “Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth.” Here, “… be wise; be warned …” is a word that encourages repentance (Park). In other words, true wisdom and warning are to quickly turn back and repent from the way of anger in opposing Jesus Christ, the way of plotting in vain, and the way of gathering together to go against the Lord (vv. 2-3).
(2) The way of the righteous is the way of service.
Look at Psalms 2:11 – “Serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling.” What does the Bible say about how to serve? The Bible says to serve with fear. In other words, the Bible tells us to serve the holy God with fear and rejoice with trembling. Therefore, even after we obeyed the command of God, we must be His servants who are able to confess “We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done” (Lk. 17:10).
(3) The way of the righteous is the way of worship.
Look at Psalms 2:12 – “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.” The Bible says “Kiss the Son.” What does it mean? It means to worship the Messiah Jesus Christ (Park). But for some reason, when I meditate on this, I remember a scene where Judas Iscariot, who came to catch Jesus, kissed Jesus. I think of Judas Iscariot, the wicked man who betrayed Jesus, who, as Jesus said, would have been better off without being born into this world. Of course, this is not an action of a person walking on the way of the righteous. Rather, Judas Iscariot’s action was those of the wicked. What we need to keep in mind here is that Jesus is pointing out the evil of a false worshiper who worships with false lips like Judas Iscariot. Aren’t we offering false worship that Jesus pointed out to God every Sunday? Even though we honor the Lord and praise and worship Him with our lips, aren’t our hearts far away from the Lord? Aren’t our lips the false lips like Judas Iscariot? Those who walk the way of the righteous worship the Lord with true lips (v. 12). We must become those who walk the way of the righteous.
How should the children of our God live who are walking on the way of righteousness by being justified through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ? If we are now on the path of the wicked, we must turn back and repent and serve the Lord with joy and fear. We must truly worship the Lord. And even if the wicked are conspire, plot in vain and gather together to be against us, we must faithfully and silently walk the way of the righteous as we trust in Him and make God our refuge. Such a person is the very blessed person.
Wanting to be a servant of the Lord, who follows the footsteps of Jesus, who has shown the way of the righteous,
James Kim
(In pursuit of repentance, service and worship)