The first Psalm sets the stage for the entire book of Psalms: Whom do we worship? And what does that path of worship involve? These questions must be answered before the worship in the Psalms can truly begin. Worship of the true God begins with trusting in God above all things. The second Psalm, which I would maintain is also introductory, shows our relationship with the Son of God.
אַשְׁרֵי הָאִישׁ אֲשֶׁר לֹא הָלַךְ בַּעֲצַת רְשָׁעִים
וּבְדֶרֶךְ חַטָּאִים לֹא עָמָד וּבְמוֹשַׁב לֵצִים לֹא יָשָׁב
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. (NIV)
The first Psalm doesn't contain any commands. It takes a gospel-centered approach to state the truth. There are only two ways for anyone. There is no "third" way. There is either the way of God, or the way of the wicked. The "wicked" in the Psalm would include hypocrites, unbelievers, hypostates (people who have fallen away) and anyone else who rejects the true God. When Balaam the false prophet was speaking God's word by the grace of God and not by his own will (as his donkey did), he said longingly, "Who can count the dust of Jacob...? Let me die the death of the righteous" (Numbers 23:10).
The first Psalm presents these basics for us: (1) The way of the righteous is the only way that leads to life (avoid everything else, verses 1-3); (2) The way of the wicked leads only to death (verses 4-5), and (3) the two ways are separate (verse 6).
The three verbs, walk..., stand..., sit..., show a dangerously increasing familiarity with the ways of the unrighteous. Don't take his advice, don't hang out with him, and don't become him. The three words that describe the wicked also tell us something: The wicked (Hebrew resha'im) are people who are guilty of breaking God's commands, even in their thoughts. Sinners (chata'im) are guilty of sins they have committed in their deeds, stepping over God's line. Mockers (letsim) are those who have sinned with their words in foolish or sinful speech. This is a reminder that sin can happen in our thoughts, our words, and our deeds. Any sins break God's laws. All sins need to be forgiven by God.
That's what makes the Savior's work so essential. There is no way to approach our holy God in our sinful unholiness, unholy in our thoughts, our words and our actions. We need the Savior, whose actions, whose words and whose very thoughts made us right with God. His blood atoned for all of our sins, and now we can approach God with our prayers assured that he hears us and answers us. And more than that, we can rest assured that on the last day we will rise from our graves and stand before God unafraid, because our sins are forgiven.
We are at peace with God because we are blessed by the Man who never walked in the counsel of the wicked, who never stood in the way sinners go, and who never sat in the seat of mockers. He stood in the counsel of the Father, he stood on the path of righteousness, and he sat upon the foal of a donkey and hung on the cross.
And for that we praise him with our lives. Teach us to praise you and live for you, Jesus.
PSALM 1:2
כִּי אִם בְּתוֹרַת יְהוָה חֶפְצוֹ
וּבְתוֹרָתוֹ יֶהְגֶּה יוֹמָם וָלָיְלָה
2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. (NIV)
In the Psalms, the word "law" (torah) is used in a narrow sense and in a wider sense. The narrow sense is the one we probably think about first when we hear the word law; the sense of things God has commanded, and especially those things God commanded for his people Israel when they were with Moses in their forty years of wandering. These laws come in three varieties, the Ceremonial Law regulating the worship life of Israel and the sacrifices, the Civil Law regulating business and social issues like land, animals and marriage, and the Moral Law governing basic principals and providing the building blocks of justice: the Ten Commandments.
There is a wider sense of the word "law." The narrow sense of the law only convicts and puts up boundaries. A human being could never be right with God by keeping the law, because a human being is sinful from birth and even from conception. So the "law" in the narrow sense cannot be something a man delights in as we have here in the Psalm. The wider sense of "law" is the complete counsel of God: all of God's word, including both law and gospel. That "law and gospel" sense of torah is the meaning of "law" in places like Psalm 119:29, "be gracious to me through your law," in Psalm 119:174, "I long for your salvation, O Lord, and your law is my delight," and Isaiah 42:4, "In his law the islands will put their hope."
The word for "meditate" in the parallel second half means "to mutter." In ancient times, it was considered rude and probably suspicious to read silently to oneself. People who could read, read aloud. But if they were reading only to themselves, they would probably mutter or mumble the words. And if a person were walking down the street and thinking about the Word of God, he would probably mutter to himself. It was a cultural habit with which we might not be comfortable, but the sense here is that a person who wanted to truly remember God's word would have it on his lips (not just a figure of speech) constantly.
The Shepherd of Hermas is a very early Christian book about a man who sees many visions and who appears to possess the spiritual gift of prophecy (1 Cor. 12:10, 14:22). In it, Hermas says "I was sitting in my house glorifying the Lord for everything I had seen and meditating on the commandments because they were beautiful, joyous, glorious and able to save the soul of man" (Similitude 6, chapter 1, verse 1). There, too, the sense of the laws and "commandments" is that they (1) are to be meditated upon and (2) that they are able to save souls. This is the sense we have in the Psalm. And so we mediate on the saving word of God.
That's how we can be prepared "in and out of season" for whatever happens (2 Timothy 4:2). The word of God should be part of our lives; and especially the great gospel of Jesus. It's because of Jesus that we know that the Lord has been gracious to us (Psalm 119:29), that we have the salvation we long for (Psalm 119:174), and it's in Jesus that we truly have hope (Isaiah 42:4).
O Lord, teach to meditate on your law and your gospel both day and night.
PSALM 1:3
וְהָיָה כְּעֵץ שָׁתוּל עַל־פַּלְגֵי־מָיִם
אֲשֶׁר פִּרְיוֹ יִתֵּן בְּעִתּוֹ וְעָלֵהוּ לֹא־יִבּוֹל
וְכֹל אֲשֶׁר־יַעֲשֶׂה יַצְלִיחַ
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. (NIV)
The Hebrew word for "stream" is not the usual word for a river or even an arroyo or rain-fed gulch. It is peleg, a common word for "irrigation canal" or "channel." Sometimes it is used metaphorically for the channel cut by tears (Lam. 3:48) or even rain (Job 38:25). Here it is a reference to a hand-made channel of water: Hand-made, but here not man-made. The righteous man is planted by God himself next to a stream of water, which in turn was intentionally placed there by the hand of God.
Where we find ourselves in life is not an accident. We may be subject to the consequences of our own sins, or of the sins of others (like Joseph sold into slavery in Egypt), but God is still there, using our circumstances for our good. This verse is not meant to confuse us, or make us wonder how we got where we are. It's here for our comfort, reminding us that wherever we are, God is there, too. And God is able to bless us and work through us no matter how rough our lives become. Like Joseph in Pharaoh's prison, he may have work for us to do; work to which only hardship can lead us. But through it all, God is there, bringing forth fruit in our lives, and making us prosper.
PSALM 1:4-5
לֹא־כֵן הָרְשָׁעִים כִּי אִם־כַּמֹּץ אֲשֶׁר־תִּדְּפֶנּוּ רוּחַ
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. (NIV)
The prophet Hosea may have been thinking of this Psalm when he said, "They sins more and more... therefore they will be like chaff swirling from a threshing floor, like smoke escaping from a window" (Hosea 13:2,3). Chaff is the stuff left over when grain is beaten so that the good kernel of wheat can be removed. The farmer tosses everything into the air, and the good kernels fall back down, but the light and useless chaff is blown away by the wind. On Judgment Day, God will sort the believers from the unbelievers, leaving no one in the middle. We are either Christ's followers or we aren't, and those who aren't will be sent away into hell.
A person shows his faith with the confession of his mouth and the confession of his life. He proclaims who his God is by what he says and does. He embraces the cross, or he rejects it. And so on the Last Day, "each person was judged according to what he had done... If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire" (Revelation 20:13, 15).
So we hang on to Jesus. Because of Jesus, there will no longer be any curse (Rev. 22:3). As Jesus threshes mankind, we will keep on falling down at his feet. Our tears will be dried, our troubles will be over, our sins will be forgotten and forgiven, and we will have peace.
PSALM 1:6
6 For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. (NIV)
What does it mean to be "righteous"? The person who is right with God is not a person who decided to be righteous, but a person God forgave. God is the one who reaches out to us with his gospel of forgiveness, and he makes us his own by removing the guilt of our sins forever.
Look at the widow of Zarephath. She didn't choose God. She was outside Israel, both physically and spiritually. But when Israel rejected God, Elijah was sent outside the land to the village of Zarephath in the far northwest, and she was given all of the blessings God had given Israel in miniature: She was given bread, she was given the word of God, a prophet was sent to her, and for the first time in the Bible, she was even permitted to experience what the resurrection is all about when Elijah raised her son from the dead. And unlike Israel, she put her faith in God and trusted in God's word. She said, "I know that you are a man of God, and the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth" (1 Kings 17:24).
The Lord watched over her, and made her his own. And the Lord will watch over you. Trust in him; trust his forgiveness, and all of his other blessings will be yours; even eternal life in Jesus.
עַל־כֵּן לֹא־יָקֻמוּ רְשָׁעִים בַּמִּשְׁפָּט וְחַטָּאִים בַּעֲדַת צַדִּיקִים
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. (NIV)
The prophet Hosea may have been thinking of this Psalm when he said, "They sins more and more... therefore they will be like chaff swirling from a threshing floor, like smoke escaping from a window" (Hosea 13:2,3). Chaff is the stuff left over when grain is beaten so that the good kernel of wheat can be removed. The farmer tosses everything into the air, and the good kernels fall back down, but the light and useless chaff is blown away by the wind. On Judgment Day, God will sort the believers from the unbelievers, leaving no one in the middle. We are either Christ's followers or we aren't, and those who aren't will be sent away into hell.
A person shows his faith with the confession of his mouth and the confession of his life. He proclaims who his God is by what he says and does. He embraces the cross, or he rejects it. And so on the Last Day, "each person was judged according to what he had done... If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire" (Revelation 20:13, 15).
So we hang on to Jesus. Because of Jesus, there will no longer be any curse (Rev. 22:3). As Jesus threshes mankind, we will keep on falling down at his feet. Our tears will be dried, our troubles will be over, our sins will be forgotten and forgiven, and we will have peace.
PSALM 1:6
כִּי־יוֹדֵעַ יְהוָה דֶּרֶךְ צַדִּיקִים וְדֶרֶךְ רְשָׁעִים תֹּאבֵד
6 For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. (NIV)
What does it mean to be "righteous"? The person who is right with God is not a person who decided to be righteous, but a person God forgave. God is the one who reaches out to us with his gospel of forgiveness, and he makes us his own by removing the guilt of our sins forever.
Look at the widow of Zarephath. She didn't choose God. She was outside Israel, both physically and spiritually. But when Israel rejected God, Elijah was sent outside the land to the village of Zarephath in the far northwest, and she was given all of the blessings God had given Israel in miniature: She was given bread, she was given the word of God, a prophet was sent to her, and for the first time in the Bible, she was even permitted to experience what the resurrection is all about when Elijah raised her son from the dead. And unlike Israel, she put her faith in God and trusted in God's word. She said, "I know that you are a man of God, and the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth" (1 Kings 17:24).
The Lord watched over her, and made her his own. And the Lord will watch over you. Trust in him; trust his forgiveness, and all of his other blessings will be yours; even eternal life in Jesus.
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