“Happy are they who have not walked in the counsel of the wicked” (Ps. 1:1).
Last weekend, Caroline and I were at a family wedding in Chicago, and as it turned out we did a lot of walking. You know how cities are: sometimes it’s just more convenient and quicker to take to the sidewalk than to call a cab or summon a rideshare. In a strange city, of course, what looks close on the map may turn out to be not so close, or the way not as shady or safe as you were expecting. Your walk may turn out to be more than you were bargaining for.
Our Lord Jesus Christ certainly knew about walking. Like most people in the ancient world, and especially poor people, Jesus walked just about everywhere he went. I think the only time that Holy Scripture tells us that Jesus rode anywhere was on Palm Sunday, when he entered Jerusalem on a donkey or colt. Iconography often shows the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt, from Herod’s persecution, with mother and child mounted on a steed, but the biblical account doesn’t actually include that detail. For all we know they walked. Of course, Jesus did cross the Sea of Galilee multiple times by boat, so he didn’t rely only on his feet. But the Galilean lake was pretty small, and nothing in size and scale compared to, say, Lake Michigan.
The ancient world knew what it was to walk, and so “walking” became a metaphor, broadly applicable, not least of all in ancient Israel. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil” (Ps. 23:4) is probably the best-known instance from the psalms: here, “walking” stands in for the journey; in metaphor, the journey through life. That journey has its valleys and peaks, and its times of deep shadow. “No good thing will the Lord withhold from those who walk with integrity” (Ps. 84:11): that is, metaphorically, the life of righteousness. “Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth” (Ps. 86:11): a variation on a theme; or again, from the psalms, “I will walk at liberty” (119:45). Walking was a way of life in ancient Israel, and in scripture and song it became the way of the Lord that Israel should follow, the way of life and peace and true freedom.
That brings us to our psalm today, the first of one hundred and fifty psalms. “Happy are they who have not walked in the counsel of the wicked, nor lingered in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seats of the scornful” (Ps. 1:1). The early Christians looked at the Scriptures through a Christological lens, and this psalm is a famous example of that interpretive method. Jesus himself was the one who had not walked in the counsel of the wicked, nor lingered in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seats of the scornful. In other words, this psalm was not self-congratulatory, celebrating the achievement of the one who said or sung it, but a text that pointed to Christ. The psalm celebrates the integrity of the Righteous One, not the self-righteousness of the self-satisfied or the self-assured.
In the messianic expectation of Christian believers, Jesus was the Righteous One; the tree with deep roots planted by streams of water, bearing fruit in due season. He was the one whose thoughts were continually with God, as he mediated on God’s law day and night. “The Lord knows the way of the righteous” (Ps. 1:6), as it says in the psalm; and Jesus is the one, whose righteousness is the basis of all right relationship with God. For Jesus, walking in the way of the righteous is the way of the cross, which leads from death to life. It is his righteousness that makes us right with God.
The way through death to life is also our own journey. Our walk with Jesus is what makes us Jesus’ disciples, his followers, because we are covering the same ground he covered, in company with him. When we say the psalm, as we have in worship today, we take on his identity, identifying ourselves with him. Aspirational, maybe, but it’s a step in the right direction. When we walk with Jesus in prayer and sacrament, as we do this morning, we hear again the call to love God, and to love our neighbor as ourself.
“Happy are they who have not walked in the counsel of the wicked” (Ps. 1:1). The journey we take in this life is the trip from where we are to where we need to be, which is close to God. There will be peaks and valleys, and deep shadow on this journey; also, plenty of misdirection from those who would like us to linger in the way of sinners. Our walk may not be as safe or as comfortable as we hoped; it may turn out to be more than we were counting on. But we will be walking with Jesus himself every step of the way, and with many other companions. Our confirmands this morning are showing us the way! They, and all of us, are walking the road that leads from death to life, on the path that Jesus has set.