this is the 3rd and final post in a series on psalm 1 (click to read part one, part two)
Wouldn't you like to be the righteous man rather than the idiot, the wicked man? Here's the problem... we can't do that by ourselves.
We try to do the right thing, maybe we manage it for a while and then fail, then make it worse by trying to cover it up, or ignore it by pointing at someone else who's doing something that looks worse. We'll try to follow the bible, but the problem is that God might say something we don't like, he might convict us of sin and we'll want to listen to the counsel of the wicked. We'll want to listen to the people who'll tell us what we want to hear. God will say stop sleeping with that person and they'll say sleep with her and anybody else you fancy. God will say what he wants you to do with the money he's given you, they'll tell you that you've earned the right to spend it on yourself. God will tell you to serve others, they'll tell you that others should be serving you.
We'll try to be the tree, growing and bearing fruit, but the fruit will cause us to look different and we'll want to sit back into the seat of scoffers where we feel better about ourselves by mocking those who look different. We can't do it. I've read the roosevelt quote (see part 1) loads of times and every time I end up back in the seat of scoffers, not doing anything and picking faults with those people that are.
We don't just need a bit of help, we need a saviour. We don't just need a hand, we need rescuing. Jesus was and is the true righteous man who delighted in following the father's will and fulfiling His law. We should stand before God and be judged, fall over, be blown away and perish. Instead, Jesus died in our place, for our sins, while we mocked him from the seat of scoffers, so we can become righteous. That's how we can delight in His law, because He fulfiled it for us. That's whay we can meditate on it day and night, because his grace inspires our love for Him. That's why we can grow and bear fruit, being refreshed by the streams of water, because we are planted in Him. That's why we don't fall before God's judgement and get blown away, but we can stand before Him - not because we're like the righteous man, but because he has made us righteous.