Psalm 1

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Psalm 1 BSB

1 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or set foot on the path 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, yielding its fruit in season, whose leaf does not wither, and who prospers in all he does. 4 Not so the wicked! For they are like chaff driven off by the wind. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. 6 For the LORD guards the path of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

Psalms, Volumes 1 & 2 (Overview and Structure of Psalm 1)

Psalm 1 divides humanity into the righteous and the wicked, the blessed and the cursed, and it shows the lifestyle, fruit, and final judgment of each. Psalm 1 extols the Torah, the law of the Lord, and Ps 2 fills in Ps 1’s poetic gaps. Psalm 2 introduces the messiah, the son of David. The two psalms join together to add to Israel’s hope and expectation for a king from the line of David who will obey Deut 17 (cf., e.g., Isa 11). The two psalms are great poetry, communicating much with marked economy.

When Ps 1 is read together with Ps 2, the synergy between these two pieces of poetry suggests that the true blessed man who meditates day and night on the Torah (Ps 1:1–2) will be the king that the Lord has installed on Zion, his holy hill (Ps 2:6). This does not necessarily limit the application of the psalm to the future king, for the congregation of the righteous (1:5–6) cannot be so designated unless they too follow the ways of the blessed man. Like him they are blessed (1:1; 2:12), as they take refuge in the king messiah (2:12b).

The wind-driven chaff wicked ones (1:4) are the raging nations and kings plotting vanity against the Lord’s anointed (2:1–3), and they are summoned to learn wisdom and submit to the son (2:10–13).

Psalms 1–72: An Introduction and Commentary The Way of Life (1:1–3)

Counsel, way and seat (or ‘assembly’, or ‘dwelling’) draw attention to the realms of thinking, behaving and belonging, in which a person’s fundamental choice of allegiance is made and carried through