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“Christ most certainly came in the way of sinners by being born as sinners are, but he did not stand in it, for worldly allurement did not hold him.”—Augustine

History

Psalm 1 is the ideal introduction to the Psalter because it models the life of discipleship that delights in following God’s instruction, and calls the reader to do likewise. One cannot simply read this psalm and walk away without making a decision as to the direction of one’s life. As James Mays remarks, “Let the readers understand and ask in what way their feet are set.”57 In many ways, the remainder of the Psalter illustrates the difference between the “righteous” and the “wicked” and the respective paths on which they walk. This idea of two paths is pervasive in Hebrew wisdom literature, especially the book of Proverbs (Prov 2:20–22; 3:12–17), and it is in this context that Ps 1 also teaches that one’s life is a journey; one chooses a particular route for existence. While the word wisdom does not appear in the psalm, its main point is nonetheless clear: to show the reader the wisdom of walking in the ways of God and the folly of ungodly living.58 Therefore, Ps 1 has been classified as a wisdom psalm.59

While Ps 1 is a fitting introduction to the Psalter, it should not be read in isolation from Ps 2. In fact, Ps 2 immediately carries forward the distinction between the righteous and the wicked into the context of God’s anointed king and those who oppose him. Nancy deClaissé-Walford rightly points out that Pss 1—2 together form the introduction to the Psalter: “Psalm 1 urges the reader to meditate upon the Torah as the oath to right living, and Psalm 2 states that, regardless of the useless plotting of earthly rulers, the God who sits in the heavens is sovereign over the created order.”60 Psalm 1 offers a sharp contrast between those who seek God and those who ignore him. On one hand, it describes one who delights in the instruction of the Lord, which results in an intimate relationship with him. On the other hand, it sets in contrast to this one who spurns God’s instruction, opting instead for a life of autonomy resulting in wickedness.

“Blessed” (1:1) describes the individual who is content to walk with God rather than the wicked. It is possible to define “blessed” as happy because some Hebrew lexicons offer it as the first definition among others.61 This psalm, therefore, portrays the individual who exists in a state of happiness as an outgrowth of one’s covenant obedience.62 “Happy” may even be parallel to the “delight” that the individual has when meditating on God’s “law” (torah, v. 2). However, words get their connotations from the contexts in which they are used and from everyday use, not from dictionaries. A dictionary gives a range of possible meanings for a word based on common usage, and not a definitive definition in every case. While the word often translated “blessed” (ashrey) in most English translations of verse 1 can mean happy, in some cases (possibly even this one), it is important not to understand happiness here in the sense of a mere passing emotion. In the context of Ps 1, the close relationship between the righteous one (the “blessed” one in v. 1 is also “righteous” in vv. 5–6) and God brings blessedness, and is better understood in terms of “contentment.”63 That is, the blessed one is content in life because of the intimate relationship he has with God, and as a result avoids and abhors wickedness.

The one who is “blessed” is not anyone but a specific, although unknown, individual. More specifically, it is a certain “man” who is blessed. The original language of verse 1 reads: “Blessed is the man who . . . ” Patrick Reardon explains that the words here are “emphatically masculine—that is, gender specific.”64 In other words, the psalm does not pronounce a blessing on obedient people in general (i.e., humanity), but on a specific “man.” The Hebrew language has two different words for “man”: ish, which is a male/husband, and adam as in “humanity,” which includes males and females collectively.65 The same occurs in the Greek language where anēr refers to a specific man/husband and anthrōpos to humanity in general. Both the Hebrew and Greek versions of the OT use ish and anēr respectively, indicating that 1:1 refers to a particular man who is blessed and obedient.66 Given the canonical placement of Pss 1—2 as a lens through which to read the Psalter, it is not a stretch to identify the “blessed man” in Ps 1 with the anointed king of Ps 2 who devotes his life to God, the true sovereign of the cosmos. The combined effect of the two psalms is that he becomes a model of covenant obedience, a true subject of the King.

While English poetry is often—though not always— known for its rhyme, Hebrew poetry is most known for its parallelism.67 Parallelism occurs when two or three (or more) lines (sg. “colon” pl. “cola”) have some kind of relationship to each other. This sometimes comes across in English translations as what seems to be more or less simple repetition. For example in 1:1, one who “walks not in the counsel of the wicked” (colon A) is basically the same as one who “stands not in the way of sinners” (colon B) is basically the same as “nor sits in the seat of scoffers” (colon C). In other words, lines A, B, and C essentially make the same point, but with slightly different wording. But there is probably more to it than mere repetition. The relationship between the parallel lines has a sharpening effect where line B often carries forward the thought of line A, and intensifies or amplifies it. As James Kugel notes, line B “goes beyond” line A.68 Instead of a simplistic A = B approach, Hebrew parallelism conveys “A is so, and what’s more, B is so.”69 Such “echoing” has the effect of line B not simply repeating line A, but heightening it. Or, as Tremper Longman notes, “The B colon intensifies, specifies, or sharpens the thought of the first colon.”70

With this in mind, 1:1 describes the one who is blessed as avoiding evil in all its facets. What is more, there are two intensifications at work in these three lines. First, the progression of walking—standing—sitting suggest increasing increments of association: “To walk with someone is to be associated with them, but not as deeply as to stand with them or sit with them.”71 This motion-oriented progression may be meant to communicate the idea that sin is a temptation that one first tries out (i.e., walk), later becomes accustomed to (i.e., stand), and finally becomes a habit or lifestyle (i.e., sit).72 Second, the terms for evil become more specific and more forceful through the progression (wicked, sinners, scoffers); i.e., a scoffer is a specific kind of wicked person.73 Given our classification of Ps 1 as a wisdom psalm, it is no coincidence that scoffers are in a category of their own as those who lack wisdom (Prov 9:7–12; 13:1; 14:6). The overall effect of this A is so, what’s more B is so parallelism in Ps 1:1 is to distance the blessed one from evil so that he avoids it at every stage and scenario.

Verse 2 makes clear how the blessed one avoids evil: he delights in the “law” (torah) of the LORD (1:2). The Hebrew word torah can mean law, as in the legal requirements of the Law of Moses (Exod 24:12; Deut 4:8), but “instruction” is the better translation, despite most English translations’ preference for “law.” Reducing torah to a set of laws does not take into account the instructional and spiritual nature of God’s commandments and ordinances. For the biblical writers, God’s commands are called torah because they instruct rather than simply legislate.74 As far as the psalmist is concerned, they are neither a burden to be borne nor an obligation to be met because the blessed one “delights” (v. 2) in living by them.75 S. Edward Tesh and Walter Zorn note that torah is a “gift from the Creator,” providing instruction on how to best live life.76 In its literary sense, torah is the five books of the Pentateuch (Genesis—Deuteronomy), as both the history of ancient Israel (i.e., the narrative material of the Pentateuch) and the laws that God gave them.77 Therefore, the larger function of God’s torah is to “instruct,” not simply command. As deClaissé-Walford summarizes, “The Torah is the ancient Israelites’ memory of God’s total involvement in their life.”78 Torah gives Israel its identify as the covenant people of Yahweh.

It seems best, then, in the original context of Ps 1:2 to understand “law” as referring to God’s written instruction in the Pentateuch, but I will demonstrate later when commenting on Ps 119 that this by no means exhausts the application of the Hebrew term torah. Besides, it is one thing to interpret a psalm in the original context of its author as a stand-alone psalm; it is another to read it in the larger context of the final (i.e., later) editorial shape of Psalter. That the book of Psalms begins with a torah psalm suggests that it serves as a lens through which to read the entire Psalter as a book of God’s instruction. The eventual placement of Ps 1 at the beginning of the Psalter invites readers to read the whole book of Psalms as instruction—instruction in prayer, in praise, in God’s way with us and our way under God.79 In other words, God’s instruction is not limited to the Pentateuch; it also includes Psalms.

Nevertheless, for the psalmist and his original audience, verse 2 most likely refers to the practice of “torah piety” as the “diligent adherence to the instructions found in the stories, the laws, and the prophetic words of the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament.”80 In Ps 1, torah piety is “Scripture piety”—torah in its written form as Scripture that one can read and absorb in order to gain wisdom for living.81 The consuming passion of the blessed one is his devotion to God’s written instruction, which preserves him from the ensnaring traps of sin. While the blessed one “meditates” (ESV) on God’s instruction day and night, this does not mean silent contemplation as the word often conveys in contemporary usage. For the ancients, reading was not done in silence, but aloud.82 Verse 2 illustrates one who demonstrates devotion to the daily reading of Scripture. Taken together, verses 1–2 describe the blessed one as he who finds delight not in sin, but in reading and reflecting on God’s torah. As God exhorted Joshua, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it” (Josh 1:8).

Next, the poet expresses the state of the blessed one with the metaphor of a fruitful tree in verse 3. This image occurs elsewhere in the OT: “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when the heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit” (Jer 17:7–8). Given the semiarid climate of Palestine, this metaphor is especially vivid for the residents of that region. But this is not a case of a tree that happens to grow next to a water source, as if it sprang up in such a convenient location. Instead, the tree has been planted by streams of water, indicating intentionality and conscious decision.83 Therefore, the association of streams of water in verse 3 and God’s torah in verse 2 is obvious. “The stream is God’s instruction.”84 As Gerald Wilson observes, “Those who delight in Yahweh’s torah are ‘planted’—as by a master gardener—in the place where they can receive the nourishment they need to flourish.”85 Because of his reliance on God’s instruction, the blessed one is fruitful and prosperous. As the metaphor suggests, this is not a temporary consequence, but a settled conviction and condition. Much like the earlier idea where the path on which one walks through life is about habitual and professed living, the fruitful tree planted by water conveys consistency.86

Verse 4 literally reads, “Not so the wicked.” By placing the negative “not so” (lo ken) at the beginning of the sentence, the psalmist not only contrasts the wicked with the blessed one, but also does so with the strongest possible emphasis. The wicked have no such foundation as God’s torah. They arrogantly believe that they can sustain themselves, yet are like “chaff,” the waste product that is blown away by the wind after the wheat has been harvested. John Calvin expressed the view that a withering tree, in contrast to a vibrant one, is not strong enough for the contrast here.87 The contrast is not about life and death but about usefulness and uselessness. Longman also emphasizes the intended contrast: “Chaff is the opposite of a tree. While a tree has an abundance of life-giving water, chaff is dry. The tree is deep-rooted and productive; chaff has no connection to the earth, but rolls as the wind blows it, and is useless.”88 What is more, also implicit in the contrast are the contentment of the blessed and the misery of the wicked. The wicked are not blessed because they reject the instruction of the Lord and live in a constant state of discontentment and frustration, having to rely only on themselves.

The psalm concludes with two verses on the destiny of the wicked (vv. 5–6). Although the wicked will not “stand in the judgment,” this is not likely a reference to the eternal destiny of the wicked, which is a doctrine that is developed more fully in the NT than in the OT. It may simply refer to the moment in this life when God brings consequences on wicked people for their actions.89 In other words, they have no fellowship with the righteous, and the wicked will get what is coming to them—no matter the timeframe. It is impossible at times for humanity to discern between those who are truly blessed and those who look blessed based on worldly appearances. God will not confuse the two and each will receive their due.90 Even so, there is more happening in verses 5–6 than divine recompense; there is a subtle emphasis on the communities of the righteous and the wicked. The “blessed man” (sg.) has been a “one among the masses”91 so far in the psalm. The only group per se that has been mentioned has been the “wicked ones” (note the pls. reshaim [“wicked”], khataim [“sinners”], letsim [“scoffers”]). For the first time in the psalm, “righteous ones” (tsadiqim) appears as a positive community that counterbalances the community of the wicked.92 Community is obviously implied in the mention of the “congregation” of the righteous (v. 5). The sequence of the psalm suggests that the blessed one avoids the company of evildoers, devotes himself to God’s torah, and has finally found a community to which he belongs.93

Finally, in the last verse of the psalm, the LORD is mentioned as the subject. He “knows” the way of the righteous. The Hebrew concept of knowledge is not as much intellectual as it is relational. “To know” (yada) suggests “intimate and internal care,”94 as God and the righteous enjoy mutual relationship. Therefore, the “way of the righteous” is the object of the verb “to know” so that God closely watches over the righteous. Yet in the second colon, the way of the wicked is the subject, placing them in charge of their own destiny. The grammar shows that the wicked “autonomously” walk through life—and ultimately to their judgment—as if they are their own lords, while God guides the steps of the righteous.95 In the context of the two paths of the Hebrew wisdom tradition, verse 6 describes the destination of each path: the psalm begins with “blessed” and ends with “perish,” and these depend on which path one walks. C. Hassell Bullock concludes, “The two ways contrasted in this poem lead in two opposite directions, the one to blessedness and delight, and the other to disrepute and disappearance.”96

Christology

John Calvin noted the importance for a disciple of Christ to have a “teachable spirit,”97 and in a very real sense a teachable spirit is what Ps 1 means by being “blessed” and “righteous”—eager for God’s instruction and devoted to knowing him in covenant relationship.98 Psalm 1 describes the life of a model disciple who abhors wickedness and nurtures his spiritual health by feasting daily on God’s word. While there are many fine examples of godly men and women throughout the Bible who demonstrate many facets of discipleship, none does so perfectly. However, when one reads Ps 1 through a christological lens, Jesus is “the man” (ha ish), and only in him does this psalm find its ultimate expression.99 He is the man who is devoted to and delights in God’s torah with a teachable spirit. Only Christ exhibits preeminent discipleship as he learns how to best live life by meditating on God’s torah and calling others to follow his example. Put differently, Jesus, the model disciple, calls all people to be his disciples, to pattern his routine.

Psalm 1 evokes the discipline of Jesus’s daily life as he commits himself to God’s word and calls others to emulate him. The NT reminds us that from childhood Jesus demonstrated devotion to God’s instruction, and this continued throughout his life. We are reminded of his great learning at the temple at the age of twelve (Luke 2:42–52); his appeal to Scripture and trusting relationship with the Father, which preserve him during his temptation in the wilderness (4:1–12); his custom of attending synagogue (4:16), and his acceptance of his God-given mission in terms of scriptural prophecy (4:16–21). Luke reminds us that Jesus habitually practiced the spiritual disciplines of silence and solitude (4:1, 40–42; 5:15; 6:12). Simply put, this psalm calls to mind the basic spiritual habits of Christ from which he drew strength for his day-to-day ministry, not least his avoidance of sin and devotion to Scripture in the temptation narrative.

The psalmist can only imagine one who completely avoids the snares of sin, but the NT reveals that Jesus does precisely this, living a sinless life (2 Cor 5:21; Heb 4:15). Some may object by pointing out that Jesus’s ministry was directed toward sinners; and it is not entirely true to suggest that he avoided evil; after all, he certainly did not avoid its appearance (Luke 5:29–31). Jesus most often fellowshipped with sinners, eating with them, healing them, and teaching them; yet he did so not to promote their rebellion, but their repentance. Psalm 1 is concerned with participating in wickedness, not ministering to broken sinners. The unwavering testimony of the NT centers on Jesus’s perfect righteousness, that he “committed no sin” (2 Cor 5:21), and his atoning death on the cross is likened to the sacrifice of a lamb “without blemish or spot” (1 Pet 1:19). It is in this sense that only Jesus is truly righteous and that Ps 1 ultimately points to him.100 In fact, “righteousness” and Jesus Christ are so closely connected in the NT that there is no daylight between them: “Jesus Christ, righteous” (my trans. 1 John 2:1).

Finally, his righteousness is not an end in itself; it is also for us, the messianic community—the church. We participate in his righteousness so that we are none other than the “assembly of the righteous” (Ps 1:6). As mentioned previously, the “blessed/righteous” one in the psalm is an individual contrasted against a community of the wicked, but in verses 5–6 he is part of an assembly—those who share righteousness and relationship with God. This community of the righteous evokes the NT covenant community. To be sure, the church is made of sinners, but these are also the beneficiaries of his faithfulness to the covenant, and by virtue of their identity in him, are indeed “the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5:21).101 The psalmist does not have in mind the fullness of the church as the new covenant community in Christ, but his language evokes it when read through the lens of Christ’s work, which includes the establishment of the church, the new covenant community. A christological reading of Ps 1 emphasizes Jesus as the blessed/righteous “man” who avoids the snares of temptation by his devotion to God’s torah and whose covenant faithfulness sustains the messianic community.

57. Mays, Psalms, 44.

58. Tesh and Zorn, Psalms, 85–86.

59. DeClaissé-Walford, Introduction, 61.

60. Ibid., 64.

61. Davidson, “Ashrey,” Lexicon, 52.

62. Longman, Psalms, 56–57.

63. DeClaissé-Walford, Introduction, 61.

64. Reardon, Christ, 2.

65. The Heb. enosh is a synonym for adam, and most often refers to mortal humanity.

66. However, as Greidanus observes, this may press the syntax too far, and should not be used to exclude righteous people in general. The word can be used in gender-neutral contexts (e.g., Gen 13:16). The thought of the two psalms, when taken together, is that the “man” is any godly person who abides by torah and walks in covenant obedience (Ps 1), and anticipates the end-times reign of God through his Messiah (Ps 2). See Greidanus, Preaching Christ, 56–57. Even so, exegeting OT passages according to their minute syntactical details is not out of the realm of the NT use of the OT (e.g., Gal 3:16). For the “blessed man” of Ps 1 as the Davidic king of Ps 2, see Collett, “Christology,” 394.

67. We do not actually know what biblical Heb. sounded like. The vocalization of the MT was codified over a millennium after the composition of most of the psalms, and centuries after Heb. had ceased to be the vernacular of the Jewish people (Alter, Art of Biblical Poetry, 4).

68. Kugel, Idea of Biblical Poetry, 8.

69. Ibid. As Kugel observes, “B always comes after A, not simultaneously” (p. 43).

70. Longman, Psalms, 44.

71. Ibid, 56.

72. DeClaissé-Walford, et al., Psalms, 60–61.

73. Ibid.

74. Mays, Psalms, 41.

75. Tesh and Zorn, Psalms, 88.

76. Ibid.

77. DeClaissé-Walford, Introduction, 61. Mays notes the probable complement to the five books of the Pentateuch in the five books of the Psalter (Psalms, 42). Torah is often capitalized when referring to the five books of Moses as written Scripture. However, because the Heb. term torah means more than written revelation, the decision to capitalize is based on the context in which the word is used, and this is always interpretive. It is virtually impossible to be consistent in every instance. I personally prefer to leave the term lower case to preserve the ambiguity of the original Heb., unless it is clear from the context that the literary Torah is in view, which most scholars take to be the case in Ps 1.

78. DeClaissé-Walford, Introduction, 61.

79. Mays, Psalms, 42.

80. DeClaissé-Walford, Introduction, 61.

81. Mays, Psalms, 41–42. Mays also notes that torah piety is a fitting introduction to the Psalter because Ps 1 implores the reader to read the whole Psalter as instruction in prayer, in praise, in God’s way with us, and our way under God (p. 42).

82. DeClaissé-Walford, et al., Psalms, 61. Rolf Jacobson notes that the word translated “meditate” is also used in the OT for the cooing of a pigeon (Isa 38:14), the growling of a lion (Isa 31:4), and the voice of a human (Ps 35:28).

83. Ibid., 64.

84. Ibid.

85. Wilson, Psalms, 97.

86. Calvin, Psalms, Apple e-book, ch. 1.

87. Ibid.

88. Longman, Psalms, 58. There is also a contrast of poetic length devoted to the tree and the chaff: the tree occupies four cola, but the chaff only one (DeClaissé-Walford, et al., Psalms, 62).

89. Longman, Psalms, 58. Longman notes, however, that given the postexilic setting of many of the psalms, it is not inconceivable that a more sophisticated understanding of the afterlife had developed by the time of their composition.

90. Ibid.

91. DeClaissé-Walford, et al., Psalms, 60.

92. Ibid., 62–63.

93. Ibid., 63.

94. Ibid.

95. Ibid.

96. Bullock, Encountering, 219.

97. Calvin, Psalms, Preface.

98. McCann, Theological, 40.

99. Luther, Psalms, 22; Reardon, Christ, 2. Church Fathers like Eusebius (Commentary on the Psalms 1) and Augustine (Expositions 1) read Ps 1 christologically so that Jesus was “the blessed man” of 1:1 (Blaising and Hardin, Psalms, 3).

100. Longman, Psalms, 59.

101. On “righteousness of God” in 2 Cor 5:21, see Wright, “Righteousness,” 200–08.