Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, and has not stood in the way of sinners, and has not sat in the seat of scorners. But his delight is only in the Law of Jehovah, and he meditates in His Law day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivulets of waters, which will give its fruit in its seasons, and its leaf will not wither, and all which he does will prosper. Not so are the wicked, but they are only as chaff which the wind drives about. On account of this the wicked shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For Jehovah is knowing the way of the righteous, and the way of the wicked shall perish. (Psalm 1:1-6)
‘Being blessed’, when it has reference to [a person], means being enriched with spiritual and celestial good and [they are] so enriched when the things residing with [them] are re-arranged by the Lord into a spiritual and celestial order, and so into the image and likeness of Divine order. The regeneration of [a person] is nothing else. (Arcana Coelestia 3017)
…it is said, to walk, to stand, and to sit, because these follow one another, for to walk pertains to the life of thought from intention, to stand pertains to the life of intention from the will, and to sit to the life of the will, thus to the esse of the life. Counsel also, of which to walk is said, regards the thought; way, in which one is said to stand, regards intention, while to sit in a seat refers to the will, which is the esse of a man’s life. (Apocalypse Explained 687)
Everyone wants to be happy. What is not so clear is what happiness is or how a true state of happiness can be found. The first thing to realise is that as far as holding a spiritual perspective of life is concerned, happiness is not found in factors outside of ourselves. People, material things, favourable circumstances, money, power and authority, may all induce feelings of delight and pleasure but delights and pleasures in and of themselves are not necessarily indicative of an underlying state of spiritual happiness. They are simply delights and pleasures, and these can just as easily flow in from hell as they can from heaven. What follows on from this also is that unhappiness and other forms of negative emotions are not caused by material things or people or circumstances outside of ourselves either.
This is something difficult to grasp because we are so conditioned to attributing causal power to things in the outside world, believing the conclusions that are drawn from our physical senses. The doctrines for Spiritual Christianity however, state clearly that the external world is a world of effects and that it is the spiritual world or the inner mental world where causes are to be found. If we would but take hold of this single truth our world would change radically. We would see that all the effort we put into changing our external conditions in the hope of finding happiness is futile and that the only path to true states of happiness rests in having our beliefs and desires transformed. We would see that the most important focus in life are the things that belong to the inner world of our mind. That it is our perspective that has to change. And that the spiritual work of using truths to examine our lives with a view to removing false ideas and trivial self orientated desires, has the capacity for profound transformation.
The opening verse of this Psalm clearly states how we can cultivate genuine happiness. To be happy or blessed is a by-product of living life with integrity. It requires that we live responsibly and with an inner accountability to what we know to be true and good; in other words, we must be in an effort to live our lives with a conscience that is based upon our understanding of the Word. Now the Psalm points out in its literal reading that this has to do with the company that we keep. We read that a man who doesn’t walk in the council of the ungodly, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of scorners, is someone who is happy. So we see that what we surround ourselves with and engage with, has a bearing on our state of life, on our state of mind.
You perhaps will have noticed that this Psalm conveys its teaching using a three-fold structure and that in its opening verse it offers three dimensions that need to be fulfilled if a person is to experience spiritual happiness. So let’s look at this in a little more detail…
Firstly, we have three bodily activities described: walking, standing and sitting. These three bodily activities are coupled with three conditions that need to be met; we are not to walk in the council of the wicked or ungodly, we are not to stand in the way of sinners, nor are we to sit in the seat of the scornful or scorners. Each forms a triplet of related terms.
1. walk – counsel – ungodly
2. stand – way – sinners
3. sit – seat – scornful
The doctrines for Spiritual Christianity point out that in the Word there is a law of three and that it represents what is full or complete. So while we can look at what is taught here in terms of the external company that we keep and apply the teaching to that level of life, it also has a deeper meaning. For each activity of the body mentioned here, walking, standing, and sitting has a correspondence to spiritual states of the mind. When viewed in this way, the company that we keep is understood to be related to the states of our thoughts and affections. We move from people ‘out there’, to the thoughts and affections that we choose to dwell in or keep company with within.
We often speak of being on a journey in life, or the road in which we walk. Symbolically we all intuitively know that this doesnt literally mean a road that we are physiclly walking on but instead refers to the basic philosophy of life that we adhere to and so how our desires and intentions find expression. These can be either natural or spiritual. If they are grounded in natural life, then our thinking will be governed by the wisdom of the external world which is opposed to genuine spiritual wisdom. For the external world perspective would have us focus on what is outside ourselves as the source or cause of our interior states of life, and so our focus will be on material things, people and circumstances. The thought constructs formed by this level of mind tell us that we can be empowered through acquiring things. It offers us a life in which we are encouraged to look to our own prudence and take pride in our own intelligence and ability to govern and control outcomes. It is an attitude built upon running with what feels good rather than what the Word teaches is good. So to walk in the counsel of the ungodly is to walk according to that inner voice that flows from out of our native proprium or ego, which looks solely to the interests of the natural man, that is, the natural mind. But the Psalm teaches us that if we seek true happiness then we are not to walk where our natural inclinations and desires would lead us. And we can only do this if we are prepared to give up our sense of pride in our own ability to manage our lives and to walk in humility by looking to the Word as our guide instead.
The next part of the three activities referred to in the Psalm is standing – to not to stand in the way of sinners. The term to stand refers to what we ‘stand for’, the principles on which we stand and will not be moved. Where walking refers to the activity of our mental life, standing has to do with the quality of our motivations or intentions and these can be examined through our responses to what life confronts us with. The native proprium, the sense of self that is based in the belief in itself only, would have us stand in the path of sinners as it offers its justifications and rationalisations against any prompts to call out selfish attitudes and behaviours. Sinners don’t see their sin or where they miss the mark as far as loving the Lord and the neighbour go and so this state of mind, when confronted with its selfishness, is quick to find excuses to avoid having to undergo the painful process involved in self-examination. This condition exists within each of us, because in essence it describes the hellish proprium’s nature to stand in the way of spiritual teachings, particularly when these teachings point out what needs attending to.
The next area dealt with is that of sitting in the seat of the scornful and of the three bodily positions mentioned in this Psalm, sitting is the most settled or stable. It reflects what is at the core of the other two bodily attitudes. So where walking has to do with the activity of our life and standing has to do with our motivations, sitting in the Word corresponds to the will, for this is where the very life of a person is settled.
Now the natural will, the will that we start out with, is not a true will. It’s a false will that draws its life from things which captivate the attention by offering externally based pleasures and so draws us away from making a commitment to real spiritual efforts. The native sense of self that forms from this will constantly offers us these false loves and delights, trying to convince us that these are real things. When this will is active, then the mind is held captive and is seated in what scorns the Lord. But the Lord as the Word offers us liberation from this, and the promise of a new will that can form as we respond to and live a life from spiritual truth.
So these three bodily activities describe the three dimensions that we need to give attention to in cultivating a spiritual practice through which, true states of happiness can be found. We are instructed that we are not to walk, stand or sit in those things that are opposed to the spiritual life. That the true happiness the Lord offers is available to us if we are prepared to attend to these dimensions of our inner life. We can begin with attending to the way in which we walk, to examining where we place more value in material world concerns and loves over spiritual ones. As we attend to the external aspects of life we will find we can then begin to see those habitual patterns of thought that tend to justify a self centerd life. These thoughts reveal the intentions that sit behind the activity of the native sense of self. This is how things progress in the spiritual life. Until we make an effort to change the disordered aspects that exist in our external life, we remain unaware of the underlying intentions behind the thoughts and beliefs that we use to justify and keep negatively charged attitudes alive. But once we look to change our habitual negative patterns of being, we are brought face to face with the thoughts, beliefs, and intentions that keep them in place. This opens up the opportunity to expose the intellectual pride that these behaviours stand on and in doing so, have them cast out to the periphery of our mind so that what is good and true from the Word is implanted in the centre of our focus instead. This type of practice of the Word, of using its truths to examine where we walk, sit and stand, starts to develop a deepening perception within as we become all the more sensitive to the persuasive power of the natural mind and the native sense of self that lives from it.
When we enter adult life and first come into contact with spiritual truths, we awaken to see that the loves in this natural level of life that we have been living from are evil, are wicked. The realisation of this fact comes as a shock, but we need to see that by evil is meant whatever separates us from the Divine. Evil sounds like a strong condemning word to the natural mind. But anything that keeps us from acknowleding the Lord as the source of our life, is evil. We need only ask ourselves – How we would rate our love for the Word? Do we make efforts to study and live from it? For the Word is the Lord. This is where He is to be found. If we want to cultivate a love for it and to have our minds implanted with spiritual and celestial things, then we have to be prepared to live from the truths it teaches. The ideas and principles it offers are designed to reform the structures of our beliefs so that we can be given new desires and values, a new will. It is only in living from these principles that we cease to walk in the council of the ungodly, stand in the way of sinners and sit in the seat of the scornful.
The Psalm emphasises this transformation that is possible through the Word…
delight is only in the Law of the Lord, and he meditates in His Law day and night.
The phrase day and night refers to every state of life. So when the Lord is loved, when the Word or law as the presence of the Lord in our life is applied to all our states of mind, then
the wicked shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
The evil or wicked loves and thoughts, those that turn our mind away from Him, become like chaff which the wind drives about as they are removed to the outskirts of the mind to be supplanted with the things of the Word instead. So if we are willing to ‘as if of self’ work with it and use it for the purposes that it has been given, then the mind can become transformed into something heavenly, into something that has eternal, everlasting life. This is what it offers…
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivulets of waters, which will give its fruit in its seasons, and its leaf will not wither, and all which he does will prosper.