Who Is the Blessed, Happy Man?

Devotional, Feature, Kaspars Ozolins

KASPARS OZOLINS | Assistant Professor of Old Testament Interpretation, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Life Assurance Ministries Board Member |

The summer is rapidly coming to a close, and for our family the busy season of life that is Fall is in full swing. Our boys are in school (our eldest has just started middle school) and my own teaching at the seminary has also begun. We spend a good part of our summers each year in our native Latvia, which is always so inviting with its cooler weather, its beautiful beaches, and delicious food. This year, however, I have been very busy both there and here at home working to finish an important book manuscript—a beginning Hebrew grammar. This has turned out to be one of the most challenging projects I have ever embarked upon, and I am definitely feeling the pressure. My loving family has been so kind to be patient with me as I have spent so many hours at work on this book (and away from them).

The new semester always brings its own pressures, including lecturing, producing resources for my classes, meeting with students, mentoring, and many other such activities. As I now begin my fifth year of teaching at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, I have many mixed emotions. The last few years have been extremely busy and tiring for me, and the grey hairs seem to be coming in rapidly as a result, along with more fatigue than I had expected. But through it all, I have felt a sustained joy and peace in my heart, knowing that it is the Lord’s kindness to have given me such a privilege as this. My vocation in life is to teach and study the Word of God—what could be more rewarding and precious than that! 

Joy In the Psalms

This semester, I am teaching a new Hebrew exegesis course on the Psalms. The Psalms have especially thrilled my heart as a believer in Christ who has left Adventism. With this in mind, my desire is to share a few lines from the first psalm with you, along with some brief reflections. (I will offer my own translation of the Hebrew text.)

“Happy is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the wicked;
nor stood on the path of sinners,
nor sat in the seat of scoffers.

Rather, his delight is in the instruction of YHWH;
and on his instruction he meditates day and night.

He will be like a transplanted tree beside streams of water;
which yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaves do not wither,
and he causes all that he does to prosper.

Not so the wicked;
instead, they are like chaff that the wind scatters.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment;
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

For YHWH knows the path of the righteous;
but the path of the wicked will perish.”

Who is this blessed and happy man, we must first ask? Although I don’t have the space or time at the moment to demonstrate this, I believe that a strong case can be made that the individual praised in this psalm is the same individual as the Messianic king celebrated in Psalm 2. Both the ancient church and early Jewish tradition viewed Psalms 1 and 2 as a united “portal” to the Psalter. Key phrases and words both link these psalms together and also reoccur through the rest of the Psalter. Therefore, if you wish to truly understand the Psalms and what they are all about, you need to understand these two foundational psalms and see them as a single whole. But this blessedness is not limited to that righteous King alone. It is typical of the Psalms that this same King leads a congregation in worship; indeed, he has purchased a redeemed people that now worship alongside him. 

I can share from my own heart and life that my King has made me see and feel and experience the blessedness and the joy of being a tree planted beside living streams of water. Therefore, although the world and the flesh and hardships continue on, I know that I cannot be uprooted, because my Savior has made me his own. To know him and live in the reality of what he has done for me cannot be put into words (and yet every believer intuitively understands and experiences what I am saying). 

I cannot claim to have never walked in the counsel of the wicked, even as a believer. My paths have sometimes wandered, I am ashamed to say. But the Lord has not abandoned me. The Lord continues to be faithful to me. The blessings that flow to me from the cross of Jesus Christ have not ceased; indeed, they cannot cease. To know true peace with God and full forgiveness is something that I both cherish and earnestly desire for others who do not yet believe. 

As you read this brief reflection, I pray that you, too, would now remember your identity in Christ and what he has done for you. And if you are not yet a believer, know that true happiness and life is only found in the One who lay down his life for sinners and scoffers like me and you—all of us at one time or another heading down a destructive path.

“Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish on the path, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Happy are all who take refuge in him.”—Psalm 2:12 †

Kaspars Ozolins
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