Just a quick note before diving
into the Psalms, and specifically Psalms 1.
I am using the Life Application Study Bible (NIV). First, I like the NIV translation as it is
much easier to read. I had a NKJV bible
and I got too hung up on the older high grammar. NIV is much better for me. Second, this particular bible comes with lots
of useful information about the text and what is going on. There are notes at the beginning of each book
about the general scope of the book and smaller notes about various chapters
and verses to help me understand what is going on.
Psalms is a collection of 150
different songs and prayers – almost like a poetry anthology. King David gets credit for 73 of the Psalms
and 51 of them are anonymous. Other
writers include Asaph, Solomon, the sons of Korah, Ethan, and Moses. The Psalms, as with most poetry, do not
provide a good historical view of what was happening at the time. Instead, they reveal the emotions of the
writer. These psalms cover the entire
breadth of human emotions – from joy and celebration to sadness and
despair. The writers rejoice in their
salvation, find comfort in God’s loving arms, despair in the midst of dire
circumstances, weep for the sins they have committed, and grieve over the loss
of a loved one.
The Psalms are broken down into
5 books. Each book carries a slightly
different theme to it, but they follow a similar narrative to that found in the
first 5 books of the Bible – Genesis through Deuteronomy. The first book focuses on the
creation-fall-redemption ideas. These
chapters cover God’s justice and compassion, our sinful nature, the blessings
of forgiveness, and pleas for God’s help in times of trouble.
Psalm 1 is a counterpoint
piece. It starts by talking about the
way of the faithful man and ends with the way of the sinful man. The faithful man does not hang out with
sinners and mockers. Rather, “his
delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night”
(Ps 1:2). The law here isn’t a strict
legal code, though Judaism takes it that way to varying degrees. No, the law here is the whole of scripture
and the faithful man spends time studying it and thinking on it and applying
the wisdom of scripture to his daily life.
As he follows along the path of faithfully following God, his life bears
good healthy fruit. His actions and
attitudes are pleasing to God and “the Lord watches over the way of the
righteous” (Ps 1:6).
“Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away”
(Ps 1:4). The sinful man is compared to
chaff. This is a fairly common analogy
used in the Bible. The Israelites of the
Old Testament were an agrarian society.
Most of their livelihood came from agriculture. David, the writer of this Psalm, was a
shepherd and had intimate knowledge of farming.
Chaff is the shell that must be removed to get to the good grain inside. During harvest season the grains were cut and
then crushed. Once the grains were
crushed, they were tossed in the air.
The chaff, being lighter than the kernels, was carried away by the
wind. This is the state of the sinful
man. He is carried away by the wind and
is not left to be used. “[T]he way of
the wicked will perish” (Ps 1:6). The
sinful man perishes, just as the chaff is carried away by the wind and
eventually withers away to nothing.
Quite the contrast in verse 6
where David writes that God watches over the righteous, but the wicked
perish. David doesn’t provide room for
gray areas in this Psalm. It’s pretty
cut and dry. If you are faithful, God
will watch over you. If not, too bad,
you perish. Fortunately, God is merciful
and so we can be redeemed. But that is a
topic that will be explored in other Psalms.
The key here is to strive to live the faithful life and bear fruit that
is pleasing to God.
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