Psalm 1

You may want to have a copy of Psalm 1 near while you read this - I’ll refer to it as if you do.

It’s no accident that this Psalm was placed at the beginning of the prayer book/songbook of the Bible.  It’s been called the gateway Psalm and tells us how to approach the Psalter as a whole.  Psalm 1 lays out the ‘2 ways’ which with life presents us, and doesn’t leave much grey area.  Let’s work our way through it.

Verse 1. - blessed.  This could be better translated ‘happy’, but in a deep, abiding sense.  It’s the Hebrew version of the word Jesus uses in the sermon on the mount in the Beatitudes - “blessed” are the meek, etc.  So how do we become this way? The Psalm tells us by first telling us what we do NOT do: conform to the ways of this world by accepting its advice or joining those who mock God, who are farthest from repentance.  Then it tells us what we DO:

Verse 2.  We delight in God’s law and we meditate on it.  This is far from simply (for example) memorizing the 10 commandments and reciting them.  Law here is Torah, and at the time this Psalm was written probably meant the Pentateuch, the first 5 books of the Bible.  It’s more helpful to think of Torah as ‘Covenant‘ or ‘story’. It is the totality of God’s dealings with his people.  Israel didn’t have personal copies of God’s word.  They memorized it through the repetitive hearing of it, and then thought about it while they worked, walked and lived.  So, meditating on his law is enjoying it, thinking about it, listening to it over and over in your mind while you drive to school, do the dishes, wash the floor, restock the shelves, check in patients.  It is letting God’s words become your backdrop, your chorus, the thought that invades your conscience over and over. 

Verse 3. This, the person who meditates on the Word, is no ordinary tree, haphazardly grown from a seed blown by the wind to a random location.  No, this tree is planted purposely right next to the water of life - God’s word.  Therefore this person yields fruit - good works - and her leaf stays green - an emblem of her faith being steadfast.  Yes, there are seasons.  The tree is not continually bearing fruit, but it does bear.  We all have seasons of impressive growth and fruitfulness that encourages and blesses the church as a whole.  We also have winters - a normal part of the life cycle.  As the commentator says, ‘the promised immunity of the leaf from withering is not independence of the rhythm of the seasons, but freedom from the crippling damage of drought.’

Verse 4. But what of the wicked - those who live as if there is no God? As opposed to the rooted, secure, weighty place of the tree, the wicked are weightless, like chaff, which in the winnowing process would have blown away in the wind, useless husk.  They do not often look weightless in this present life, many times with immense power and possessions.  But this is God’s perspective of them - they have no future.

Verse 5. The 2 ways have very different ends.  Those who do not make God their ultimate aim will be punished by separation from God and his people.

Verse 6.  But those who delight themselves in God and find refuge in his annointed one - they are known by God.  But this is not just informational knowledge - this is ‘yada‘.  Yada is the Biblical knowledge between married people.  It is intimate, tender, careful, loving knowledge.  Isn’t it a wonder that this is how the writer describes God’s knowledge of our way or path?

Verse 7. Those who live as if God does not exist are destroyed.  There is no third way. 

Food for thought:

1. Which of the 2 ways are you on?
2. Tim Keller says that whatever you meditate on when you’re in solitude - that is your religion.  How about you? To what does your mind wander repeatedly when you’re not forced to think about anything else?
3. How would it change the way you thought about and talked to God this moment if you really believed he knew you and your ‘way‘ in such an intimate, tender fashion?  

Please use the comments function to post your thoughts and comments!

Sources:  See Intro post