“O LORD, thou knowest: remember me, and visit me, and revenge me of my persecutors; take me not away in thy longsuffering: know that for thy sake I have suffered rebuke.
Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.
I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of thy hand: for thou hast filled me with indignation.” – Jeremiah 15-17
Jeremiah as he is crying out to God and being mocked and ostracized by his peers doesn’t seem blessed in that moment, but the Lord takes care of him when the whirlwind comes over the rest of Judah. The prophet is actually expounding psalm 1 for us:
“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in his law doth he meditate day and night.”
If one is new to the Bible you could look at Psalm 1 with trepidation and think the Bible is telling us that we need sinless perfection in our lives to be saved. But when we pair scripture with scripture we see the good news woven seamlessly throughout the entire counsel of God.
"Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly,
nor standeth in the way of sinners,
nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in his law doth he meditate day and night.”
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water,
that bringeth forth his fruit in his season;
his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
The ungodly are not so:
but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgement,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous,
but the way of the ungodly shall perish.
As Christians we tremble at His word. Jeremiah 17 further contextualizesPsalm 1 for us to show us what separates the righteous from the ungodly:
“Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.
Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.” – Jeremiah 17:5-8
Faith alone will make you green and fruitful. Departing from the Lord to trust in yourself or in some other human being is a false way.
Selah.
