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Not so the ungodly;–not so: but rather as the chaff which the wind scatters away from the face of the earth. Psalm 1:4 (LXE, Septuagint in English)

Reading Scripture aloud from a different translation or even a different language than what we are used to often allows the Holy Spirit to penetrate our heart. I was reading Psalm 1 aloud this morning from the Greek Septuagint in preparation for the next article on Psalm 6, struggling along with pronunciation of many of the longer words.

The first paragraph of Psalm 1 hums along with images of strong blessing after strong blessing. Here is the righteous person who in various ways has kept herself separate from enjoying the company of the ungodly. (It doesn’t mean she never associates with the unrighteous on a day to day basis, but that she doesn’t hang out with them and entertain herself in their company by doing the unwholesome things that it pleases them to do.) Such a person delights in the law of the Lord–in other words, God’s kind of person really enjoys conversing with him through his Word. She’d rather be doing that than any number of other things.

Then the blessings are listed. He (or she) will be like a tree planted by the brooks of waters. Yes, I can see that. I know that image. I love trees; I love water; I love its sound and the deep, cool shade of the tree set by the stream. This biblical tree has delicious fruit which grows in its season. She herself can eat its fruit, and others can, too. The tree’s leaves never fall off. This means it is always spring and summer; autumn and winter never come. There’s no death or dying, just abundant life everlasting. And whatever this blessed-of-God person decides to do, God will prosper. Yes, yes, yes, says my heart.

Then comes a paragraph break, followed by these words, “Not so, the ungodly, not so…” It was the repetition of “not so,” that got me. It startled me, because I had never heard it before. The quietly persistent repetition is not present in our regular English Bibles–it’s replaced by an exclamation point in many versions. But in that repetition, I could hear the soft, determined voice of the wise grandmother or the confident father, perhaps a respected teacher in the classroom or a courtroom judge. We can see the finger wagging and the head shaking back and forth in the calm, assertive authority that doesn’t need to raise its voice. “Not so…not so.” Don’t think you’re going to get off free on this one, “Not so…not so.” The ungodly will not receive those blessings.

What will be their lot instead?

“They will be like the chaff which the wind scatters away from the face of the earth.” And here is where I lost it and began to cry. I just cried because the image is so sad. Think of the loneliest time in your whole life you have ever felt, and then add cold barrenness to that feeling. Imagine what it would be like to just blow away in the wind, lost, forgotten forever, away from every fire that ever warms a human heart, insignificant, having ceased to exist, as far as human or godly fellowship is concerned. I wouldn’t want to be that person, that piece of lonely chaff forever. And I cry for the ones for whom this word is intended.

Now if these verses don’t cause a Christian to have compassion for the lost and to at least pray for the unsaved…it’s important to keep on keeping on and to not lose heart, for in the end, we will receive what we ask for.