Heart of a Psalmist - Worshipping Christ Through The Psalms

PSALM 1: BLESSED IS THE MAN Delighting in the Law of the Lord

This psalm is the prologue to the entire book of psalms and contrasts the way of the righteous with the way of the wicked. We are either blessed or scornful, planted or blown away by the wind, delighting in God’s law or being destroyed by sin as we dynamically move toward the fulfillment of our lives. It was most likely written by Solomon as it contains words that didn’t come into use until his time. This psalm along with 2, 10 and 33 are anonymous and the only ones not written by King David in Book 1 of the Psalter (Psalms 1-41).

It is divided into two contrasting sections:

l. THE WAY OF THE RIGHTEOUS - 1-3 II. THE WAY OF THE WICKED - 4-6

THE WAY OF THE RIGHTEOUS - 1-3

l.

“ Blessed is the man… ” (1) This is the first of the ‘Blessing Psalms,’ those writings that begin with ‘blessed is the man…’ (Psalms 1, 32, 41, 112, 119) . God desired to bring happiness and fulfillment to mankind from the very beginning of the world. “ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him male and fe- male he created them. God blessed them…”(Gen. 1:27,28) This is the ‘good news’ of the gospel in cap- sule form. Jesus began his teaching in the Beatitudes with the pronouncement: “ Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs it the kingdom of heaven.”(Mt. 5:3) He was showing us how to recapture the joy of God’s bless- ing that was lost in the fall of Adam and Eve.

The Negative First -

God first points out the wrong path and its downward spiral before pointing out the right way to his blessings. This is done in triple triplets:

“ 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 . “ (1)

The progressions are meant to be obvious: walking in wrong counsel eventually leads to ‘sitting’ or becoming entrenched in the philosophy of ungodliness. Wrong counsel leads to a lifestyle of sin and finally to an immovable seat of destructive habit. The last word, ‘mockers’ is from Solomon’s writings and is the strongest of all, it is one who openly scorns and blasphemes all that is holy and good. Life is not static, we move in the direction of the ideas we embrace until we arrive at their final destination.

Now the Positive!

“ But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. ” (2) Delight is something that we love above everything else and can’t wait to do! Meditating in the word is spending time with Jesus, listening to him, singing to him, thinking deeply about his promises, his love, his warn- ings and his wisdom. Moses commanded Joshua: “ Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”(Josh. 1:8)

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