Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. (Psalm 119:105)
Psalm 1 (NIV)
1 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.
Happy and honoured is the person who joyfully devotes himself to Yahweh and his teaching.
4 Not so the wicked!
They are like chaff
that the wind blows away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
Those who turn away from Yahweh to their own evil ways have nothing beyond this life to look forward to.
6 For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
The success and favour of the righteous is because Yahweh cares for his own.
Notes
1. This is a simple and straightforward psalm that is a fitting introduction to the Book of Psalms.
2. Yahweh is, of course, at the centre. It features God’s word, the law, and the importance it has for the righteous, those who seek to live according to Yahweh’s truth.
3. Nevertheless, the Hebrew poetic structure contributes some extra touches that add to the theme of Yahweh and the righteous.
Psalm 1
Yahweh and the righteous
| Stanza 1 | The righteous | |
| A | 1 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. | A negative image of a godly person – what he does not do. |
| X | 2 But his delight is in the law of Yahweh, and on his law he meditates day and night. | Positively, a godly person devotes himself to Yahweh and his revelation in Scripture. |
| A1 | 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. | The godly person therefore leads a healthy, productive and prosperous life. |
| Stanza 2 | The wicked | |
| B | 4 Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. | People not so focussed, the wicked, have no substance, they are ephemeral. |
| X1 | 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. | The wicked therefore will cower in trepidation at the final reckoning as they have nothing to offer. |
| B1 | 6 For Yahweh watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. | The wicked have no future. |
4. The righteous in stanza 1 are compared to the wicked in stanza 2. As is usual in Hebrew poetry the ‘rhyming’ is shown in the parallelism between ideas (shown in the third column) that express aspects of an overarching theme of ‘Yahweh and the righteous.’ In Psalm 1 the parallelism features the development of an idea rather than the more usual repeating or contrasting of an idea.
5. The strophes in stanza 2 are all single lines while stanza 1 has two couplets and a single line. This imbalance is an aspect of the poetic structure that emphasises that there is not much worthwhile to be said about the wicked.
6. There is parallelism within each stanza and also between the two stanzas.
Stanza 1
7. In strophe A the blessed person is characterised negatively as someone who does not live their life (walk) following the wisdom/advice of those who act unrighteously (wicked).
8. They do not build their life (stand) on foundations favoured by those who ‘miss the mark’ and fail to live up to righteous standards (sinners).
9. Nor do they comfortably settle down (sit) with those who cruelly make fun of others (mockers).
10. Kidner points out these three aspects of living that feature thinking, behaving and belonging,[1] are features that clearly demonstrate where our focus in life is settled.
11. Strophe A is paralleled by strophe A1 as this blessed (righteous) person is likened to a tree that is planted by streams (more than one)! That implies the land will be fertile so the tree will bear a rich harvest of fruit and its leaves will not wither even in a drought. Bear in mind that Israel was a rich and fertile land in ancient times (Deuteronomy 8:7-9). The current arid climate with limited rainfall (1-12˝/year)[2] developed centuries later.
12. This word picture provides a powerful image that is indicative of the fruitfulness and value of the righteous life. We should take this blessing as an holistic assessment that includes spiritual, relational and ethical dimensions. It should not be limited to financial, material or social success.
13. Between lines A and A1 is the single line, strophe X, the crux, containing the punchline of the stanza. Commitment to ‘the law of Yahweh’ is more than a feature of the righteous life. It is the cause of such righteousness.
14. Our default interpretation is to see this line as referring to the Bible that we should read, study and memorize but that is not what the psalmist would have in mind for the Bible as we know it had not then come into existence.
15. There are no clues about the date or the circumstances when Psalm 1 was composed, though it would have been between David’s era, around 1000 BC, and the compilation of the book of psalms around 300 BC. At least the Torah, some of the early historical books and probably some psalms were available in written form. Israel did have a central worship system based on the Tabernacle[3] before ever the Temple was built in Jerusalem. People would gather a few times annually and would hear the Torah read and expounded. These precious scrolls with a life of 10-30 years would have to be copied regularly to maintain pristine copies for use in national worship events. I can imagine that the rich would pay for their own copies while oldish and even worn out copies would be taken home by priests for use in their local communities. Because of this national role for the written word the literacy rate would have been higher than in other cultures – there is no evidence as far as I can discover that any other contemporaneous culture had this devotion to written worship songs, national traditions, culture and records and saw them as Yahweh’s words to his people.
16. In addition, their ability to hear and remember was much greater than in the modern world. This inbuilt skill was, and is, normal in cultures that do not have ready access to written materials but it was gradually lost in those cultures that benefitted from the invention of printing in the fifteenth century.
17. Scripture would be shared back home and would feature in family and local community worship as was instructed in the Law:
Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them (Deuteronomy 4:9-10).
These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates (Deuteronomy 6:6-9).
Psalms 103 and 145 may refer to this practice.
18. This ‘law of Yahweh’ was what the psalmist would take delight in and would meditate on. ‘Day and night’ meditation is a measure of its importance to him.
Stanza 2
19. Stanza 2 focusses on the wicked in contrast to the righteous of stanza 1, but it is a brief focus as they are dismissed in 2½ lines compared to the 5½ lines devoted to the righteous.
20. The wicked in strophe B are declared to be no better than the lightweight husks that are so inconsequential they were whipped away by a breeze as grain was winnowed.
21. The briefness of this strophe adds to the poetic impact of the differences between the righteous and the wicked.
22. Strophe B1 is equally brief as the wicked ‘perish.’ That is it. Gone! Done with! Just like the wind blown chaff. And that takes up only one part of the line.
23. Poetically, the first part of strophe B1 jars as it entirely about the righteous whereas the poetic structure suggests it should be about the wicked; perhaps comparing them with a withered tree in a desert, so it contrasts with strophe A1, as in Jeremiah 17:5-10:
This is what Yahweh says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from Yahweh. He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives. But blessed is the man who trusts in Yahweh, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”
24. However, the psalmist has already dismissed the wicked so, why waste more breathe on them! Instead, he highlights another feature of the righteous – that they live under the protection and guidance of Yahweh.
25. The biblical era readers and reciters would know what poetically should be expected so this unexpected development would be a memory prompt. It would engender a smile and a warm glow of the heart as emotions were stirred at the reminder of the overwhelming blessing experienced by the righteous because of the personal presence and care of Yahweh, the Almighty God of time and eternity.
26. Such a break in the poetic structure once a pattern is established in a psalm is a not uncommon feature of biblical poetry (for other examples see Psalm 12 (notes 22-23), Psalm 20 (notes 34-35), Psalm 79 (note 44), Psalm 91 (notes 109-110), Psalm 107 (notes 15-17) and Psalm 137 (note 44). Such breaks are not evidence of poor writing standards or are copying errors. They actually add something to the poetic impact of the psalm so it seems most likely to be the psalmist’s intention.
27. Strophe X1 is the crux of the stanza and again the statement about the wicked is presented negatively so we are to understand that to ‘stand in the judgment’ is a good thing. In this psalmist’s expectation, everyone, righteous and wicked alike, will attend the judgment. To stand therefore, indicates innocence, acceptance, justification and honour whereas the wicked would be on their faces as an acknowledgment of their guilt, failure and shame. Judgment in Scripture does not necessarily equate with condemnation. God’s judgment is fair, true and final. Those who are accepted join the ‘assembly of the righteous.’ This strophe suggests that there was an eschatological perspective in the psalmist’s theology.
28. The sad end of the wicked in strophe X1, the result of a wasted life, contrasts with the joyful vibrancy of the life of the righteous in strophe X that is ongoing (day and night).
In case you are wondering
29. Some readers might complain that this psalm is not in touch with reality for the wicked do prosper. Bear in mind though, that psalms are not theological theses so there is no measured argument or debate. They are poetry so are intended to stir the emotions and faith and not win arguments. Hyperbole, a figure of speech that uses exaggeration to make a point, is used. See Introduction to Psalm Insights, Window 3 – Metaphors, for more information about figures of speech. Such statements are still truth but truth that appeals to the heart as well as the intellect. Consider too, that prosperity is not defined but in the context of the focus on righteousness and having Yahweh’s overseeing care it has to mean more than financial or social prosperity.
Endnotes
[1] Derek Kidner, Psalms 1-72 (Aylesbury: IVP Academic, 2008) p. 64.
[2] https://www.weather-atlas.com/en/israel-climate [accessed 25 May 2021]
[3] The Tabernacle at various time was based in Shiloh (Joshua 18:1, 1 Samuel 4:4), Nob (1 Samuel 21-22) and Gibeon (I Kings 3:4, 1 Chronicles 16:39, 21:29, 2 Chronicles 2:2-6). See also Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions, trans by John McHugh, (Trowbridge, Wilts.: Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd., 1973) pp. 302-311.
Written: 1 December 2021
Published: 19 December 2022
Revised: 20 February 2024