Job 42:1-17 - Exposition
Commentators have generally recognized that this psalm is introductory and prefatory. Jerome says that many called it "the Preface of the Holy Ghost." Some of the Fathers did not even regard it as a psalm at all, but as a mere preface, and so reckoned the second psalm as the first (in many manuscripts of the New Testament, the reading is "first psalm" instead of "second psalm" in Acts 13:33 ). The composition is, as Hengstenberg observes, "a short compendium of tile main subject of the Psalms, viz. that God has appointed salvatlon to the righteous, perdition to the wicked; this is the great truth with which the sacred bards grapple amid all the painful experiences of life which apparently indicate the reverse."
The psalm divides naturally into two nearly equal portions. In Psalms 1:1-3 the character and condition of the righteous are described, and their reward is promised them. In Psalms 1:4-6 the condition of the wicked is considered, and their ultimate destruction predicted.
Blessed is the man ; literally, blessings are to the man . But the Authorized Version exactly gives the sense (comp. Psalms 2:12 ). That walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly . The margin gives, "or wicked," and this is probably the best rendering of the word used ( רשׁעים ). The righteous man is first described negatively, under three heads.
But his delight is in the Law of the Lord . The righteous man is not described positively, under two heads.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water . The comparison of a man to a. tree is frequent in the Book of Job ( Job 8:16 , Job 8:17 ; Job 14:7-10 ; Job 15:32 , Job 15:33 , etc.), and occurs once in the Pentateuch ( Numbers 24:6 ). We find it again in Psalms 92:12-14 , and frequently in the prophets. The "rivers of water" spoken of ( פַּלְגַ־מָיִם ) are undoubtedly the "streams" (Revised Version) or "canals of irrigation" so common both in Egypt and in Babylonia, by which fruit trees were planted, as especially date-palms, which need the vicinity of water. That such planting of trees by the waterside was known to the Israelites is evident, both from this passage and from several others, as Numbers 24:6 ; Ecclesiastes 2:5 ; Jeremiah 17:8 ; Ezekiel 17:5 , Ezekiel 17:8 , etc. It is misplaced ingenuity to attempt to decide what particular tree the writer had in his mind, whether the palm, or the oleander, or any other, since he may not have been thinking of any particular tree. That bringeth forth his fruit in his season . Therefore not the oleander, which has no fruit, and is never planted in the East, but grows naturally along the courses of streams. His leaf also shall not wither . Compare the contrary threat of Isaiah against the wicked of his time, "Ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water" ( Isaiah 1:30 ). And whatsoever he doeth shall prosper ; rather, perhaps, in whatsoever he doeth he shall prosper.
The ungodly are not so ; or, the wicked (see the comment on Psalms 1:1 . But are like the chaff which the wind driveth away . "Chaff" is used throughout Scripture as an emblem of what is weak and worthless (see Job 21:18 ; Psalms 35:5 ; Isaiah 5:24 ; Isaiah 17:13 ; Isaiah 29:5 ; Isaiah 33:11 ; Isaiah 41:15 ; Jeremiah 23:28 ; Daniel 2:35 ; Hosea 13:3 ; Zephaniah 2:2 ; Matthew 3:12 ; Luke 3:17 ). In ancient times it was considered of no value at all, and when corn was winnowed, it was thrown up in the air until the wind had blown all the chaff away.
Therefore the ungodly (or, the wicked ) shall not stand in the judgment . "Therefore," as being chaff, i.e. "destitute of spiritual vitality" (Kay), "the wicked shall not stand," or shall not rise up , " in the judgment," i.e. in the judgment of the last day. So the Targum, Rashi, Dr. Kay, Canon Cook, and others. It is certainly not conceivable that any human judgment is intended by "the judgment" ( הַמִּשְׁפָט ), and though possibly "all manifestations of God's punitive righteousness are comprehended" (Hengstenberg), yet the main idea must be that the wicked shall not be able to "stand," or" rise up," i.e. "hold up their heads" (Aglen), in the last day. Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous . Here the human judgment comes in. Sinners will be cast out, not only from heaven, hut also from the Church, or "congregation of the righteous," if not before, at any rate when the "congregation" is finally made up.
For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous . God is said to "know" those of whom he approves, and. on whom he "lifts up the light of his countenance." The wicked he does not "know;" he "casts them out of the sight of his eyes"—"casts them behind his back;" refuses to acknowledge them. God "knows the way of the righteous ," and therefore they live and prosper; he does not know the way of the wicked, and therefore the way of the (wicked, or) ungodly shall perish (compare the beginning and end of Psalms 112:1-10 .).
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