Psalm 1

When I preach the Psalms, I almost always refer, explicitly or implicitly, to the 3 categories that Walter Brueggeman uses in his little book “The Spirituality of the Psalms” (and elsewhere), namely: orientation, disorientation and re-orientation. These categories are not hard and fast, but can be quite fluid, and more than one theme can be present in a psalm. But in general, psalms of orientation present the way that the world and life ought to be; the way the created cosmos is reliable, and equitable, and abundant and predictable. Seasons come and seasons go; things make sense. God’s in his heaven and all is right with the world. That’s orientation. And Psalm 1 is a perfect example of such a psalm.

In those psalms inspired by the Hebrew Wisdom tradition (like psalm 1), there’s a heavy dose of “orientation,” because the Wisdom tradition sees life and the whole universe as ordered and predictable and just. Things make sense, and there is a clear delineation between good and evil. The good and the righteous are associated with happiness and blessing and prosperity, and evil and the ungodly are associated with suffering and lack and misfortune. But just as there’s more to life than just the good times, there’s more to the Psalms than just the Psalms of Wisdom, and the way that the Wisdom tradition sees the world doesn’t always line up with the way we may be experiencing it. But the way the Wisdom tradition sees the world can be a good reminder that its point of view is the truth about life, the universe and everything in general, when you consider life as a whole, even though in specific terms, things may not seem to be going well. Things may not make sense. But as the modern psalmists Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs have reminded us in song, we can “know that the good times outweigh the bad.”

The sense of wholeness and unity that Psalm 1 provides is emphasized by its composition with a poetic structure often found in Wisdom literature. In the Hebrew, the first word of the psalm begins with the first letter of the alphabet and the last word of the psalm begins with the last letter of the alphabet, giving the psalm a sense of totality. And the overarching, totalizing message that Psalm 1 presents us with is this: there are two ways to live and they are in stark contrast to each other.

The psalmist begins by saying “happy are those who. . . .” The Hebrew is “esher,”and it not only means “happy,” but the word that it is derived from means “to go straight on, to advance, to move forward.” This sense of the godly as the ones who move forward with purpose, whose path is straight, continues through the Psalm; even in English we might talk about a person who is straight as opposed to crooked, and to “tell it to me straight” is to be honest, to get to the point.

The psalmist tells us about the godly who are happy, who advance, whose way is straight, but does so by contrasting the godly with those who are not: the wicked, and sinners, and scoffers. The psalmist tells us: “happy are those who do not do three things:” 1) follow the advice of the wicked—the word there is rasha, and this statement is about instruction; 2) happy are those who do not take the path that sinners tread, and the word for sinners is not rasha, but it refers to criminals, to those who are guilty. Happy are those who don’t move down the path that they have taken. So this is about behaviour. And 3) happy are those who do not sit in the seat of scoffers, those who mock and ridicule wisdom. Happy are those who do not plant themselves in one spot and critique and deride the truth. So this is about attitude.

Then the psalmist tells us where those who are happy get their instruction about their behaviour and their attitude: “but their delight is in the Law of the Lord.” This refers not only to the written torah, but also the Lord’s direction and the Lord’s word. This is what Jesus was referring to when he said “one does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” That’s where the one who is happy receives instruction. Then the psalmist tells us about the behaviour of the one who is happy in verse 2: “and on his torah they meditate day and night.” The word that is translated “meditate” there means to recite in a low voice as one thinks about and contemplates the scriptures. It is what a person does who prays the Psalms, saying them out loud in a state of reverence and openness.

So the psalmist contrasts the happiness, the forward progress, of the one who is godly with the one who is wicked by telling us about the source of their instruction, about their attitude, and about their behaviour.

Now the psalmist tells us the godly are like trees planted by streams of water. They are near their source of life and nourishment and they are connected to it, day and night, and so they yield their fruit in season. Here again is that wisdom/orientation sense of order; there is a time to produce fruit, according to the timetable of the gardener. It’s not always harvest time but their foliage is always green. They are always filled with life because they are planted near the source of living water and they aren’t moving away from it, so their leaves do not wither.  In fact, in all that they do, they prosper. The word for “prosper” here is an interesting one. It’s tsalach and literally means “to rush forward, to advance, to progress,” which you’ll remember is what esher meant back in verse 1.

So while we might think of prospering as acquiring wealth, the kind of prospering that Psalm 1 is talking about is moving forward, getting somewhere, and so there is some irony here in that the ones who are like trees planted by streams of water are also the ones who are making progress, who are on the move. They are not sitting still in the place of scoffers, nor taking the path that sinners tread, and so they prosper. Not by the world’s standards perhaps, but by eternal standards, they are on their way toward the goal and they are making good time.

In the last 3 verses of the psalm the psalmist turns back to the wicked, the rasha, saying that the rasha are not like trees planted by streams that bear fruit and whose leaves don’t wither, those who are happy and prosper, progressing toward their goal. The wicked are not so, they are like the chaff that the wind drives away. The word there for wind is ruach, the word for breath and wind and for the spirit of God with which ha’adam is filled to become a living being. It’s the spirit of God that moves upon the surface of the deep waters at creation. The wicked are not filled with the ruach; they are driven away by it. They are dispersed and dissolved by the very ruach that could bring life and power and wholeness, the Spirit that guides those who yield to its direction.

So they won’t stand in the judgement, or be found in the congregation of the righteous, because the way of the wicked will perish. It will not last. Here you might well refer to Jesus’ imagery of the vine and the branches, those branches that bear fruit and those who are cut off and cast away.

But the Lord watches over the way of the righteous as they advance, as they progress.  Their path does not lead to destruction, because they are going somewhere. They have a destination. They are heading toward the promised land, the New Jerusalem.

Psalm 1 gives us not only an orientation for the psalms to come, but it also gives us a guide for our lives as well. Even though we may feel disoriented, stuck, and weighed down, and like we’re not making any progress whatsoever, that’s the time when we can come to this place of orientation, when we can be reminded by the writers of the Wisdom psalms that even though our real-life situations may not reflect the way Psalm 1 describes the world, we can pray this psalm. We can meditate on this word here in Psalm 1 day and night; we can speak it aloud. Praying this psalm in the midst of disorientation can be a form of protest against the way things are, and a plea for the way things could be, a prophetic judgment upon strife and division and suffering and injustice, and an anticipation of the way things will be.