Blogging the Psalms

Blogging the psalms -- Psalm 1

Psalm 1

The Book of Psalms begins by speaking of two paths. There is the path of the ungodly and the path of the godly. Many metaphors are used in this psalm. A metaphor that speaks of progression (or regression) is shown in the first verse.

In Psalm 1, we're told the importance of God's word. IT declares we are blessed if we meditate on God's words and if we avoid the scorners. This idea of scorners of God's word pops up in many of the psalms and from Psalm 1 through Psalm 3 we begin to get the idea that it's not religious affiliation or our earthly wisdom or or wonderful ethics or great adherence to moral laws --those these all might be good in their own way-- that produce blessings in one's life. The Psalms promise blessings to those who do not scorn God's word, to those who meditate on it.

The man is shown at first as walking in the advice given to him by the ungodly. This leads him to stopping his walk and standing in a path with sinners. He then ends his walk by sitting among mockers. What do these mockers scorn? It is unclear. Mocking in and of itself is bad enough. Mocking implies a smug belief in one's own thoughts and one's own way of thinking. But it is possible the mockers are mocking the righteous person. Thus the man who began by merely walking near the godly, ends up standing and listening to their ungodly discourses and then joining in with their mockery.

The good man, however, delights not in the words of mere men, but in the words of God as shown in the law of the Lord. He meditates, imagines, ponders, walks about in, mutters, the images and the words in the Bible.

The Psalmist brings in another series of images, metaphors that are well-known and also used in the rest of the Bible. The imagery of the heart of humans as a field, the seed being the word of God that is meditated upon, the water being the Holy Spirit that brings life to the life of the believer, is very common in the Bible. The one who meditates on God's word day and night-- instead of merely studying it and moving on-- is promised many blessings. Thus, as one is rooted in God's word, one becomes rooted in God Himself.

But the ungodly have no such rootedness.

The Psalmist then returns to the metaphor or standing. As the ungodly chose to stand in the way of sinners, he cannot stand in the judgement or in the congregation of the righteous.

The imagery of the path is also revisited. The path of the righteous is a walkway that God knows. God is before, beside, and behind the one who walks on this particular pathway. But the pathway the ungodly walk on ends in destruction.

Much, then, is promised to the one who simply keeps his imagination and mind focused on God's words. Godly meditation is not meditation on nothing but imagining, imaging, and focusing on God's words as one reads it.

1Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

2But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

3And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

4The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

5Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

6For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.