The Choice of Paths in Psalm 1 -- our introduction to the Psalms
- mww
- Jun 1, 2017
- 15 min read
We have a choice: to make decisions God’s way or people’s way. One is right.
Bible Study Ideas and Commentary for Psalm 1
Psalm 1 introduces us to the Book of Psalms, establishing that there are two ways to live: God's way of righteousness, and the wickeds' way of mockery. It is our decision which of those ways we choose, but we can be certain that God will hold us accountable for our decision.
For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous (1:6)
Getting Started: Things to Think About
This Is My Story, This Is My Song.
In the first place, as we start a quarter in the book of Psalms, you might start just by talking about the importance of songs. The Psalms were not a “hymnbook” like we use (and you will cover this in the introduction to Psalms), but they included songs and poems that were used by the Jews to express and pass down their faith. So ask your group if they have any intense emotional connections with a song. What song, what are the circumstances? I know that the way my brain is wired, I can remember songs and song lyrics in great detail (I really think that I have thousands of songs piled in my head), but I have trouble keeping Bible passages straight. If I want to learn a long Bible verse, I have to say it many, many times and hear it many, many times—just like a song.
The easiest-to-remember poems have a strong meter and rhyme. Songs take poems like that and add a tune, making it even easier to remember. (Incidentally, that’s why it can be harder to learn newer songs—they are not based on a clear meter, so you have to “learn the song” before you can really sing it.) But memorable poems and songs also take advantage of another technique: vivid imagery that connects emotionally with the hearer. You’re going to find a lot of very strong images in the Psalms—lots of metaphors that stick in the gut.
But what is really “helpful” about the Psalms is that they take those techniques and do something meaningful with them: teach truth about God. There are lots of memorable meaningless songs. The Psalms are certainly not meaningless!
The Company You Keep. I can’t take credit for this—it was in the Quicksource. Show a paper towel roll. Ask how they work. Do paper towels have the ability to decide what they choose to soak up? Of course not. They soak up whatever is around them, and when they’re “full” they’re done.
Too many people are like that. The old phrase “bad company corrupts good character” teaches this to be so. And Psalm 1, which we are covering today, agrees. But why is that true? What makes people tend to act like the people they are around?
Humans are not paper towels! There are three important differences: (1) We do not have to soak up whatever is around us. We can choose to resist. (2) We can choose to move. If we notice ourselves soaking up some junk, we can choose to get up and go somewhere else. (3) We are never irrevocably “full”. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we can purge whatever garbage we have soaked into our lives and replace it with the good stuff of God. In other words, it’s never too late to make the right decision. Ask your group what they feel like they are soaking into their lives? Is it good or bad? What do they need to do to get away from the bad and get closer to the good? And then more personally, if they feel like they have soaked up a whole lot of bad already, let them know that the good, clean, life-giving water of God can wash all of that out. It’s never too late.
This Week's Big Idea: The Psalms!
About the Psalms
Your leader guide gives you an okay overview of the Psalms. When you watch the Bible Project video, you see that there is a greater organization to the book than Lifeway lets on. I recommend that you display their Psalms poster in your classroom! Kathy has copies of it in her office if you want to get one.
Psalms 1&2 introduce the entire book of Psalms. Psalm 1 focuses on the blessedness of keeping the Torah, and Psalm 2 focuses on the blessedness of trusting the Messianic King. So, many psalms will teach the Torah and the character of this King. The way the Psalms teach those themes is through lament and praise. The laments explain to God what is wrong with the world and ask Him to do something about it; in the process, they teach both who God is and what His priorities are (sometimes they ask God to change His priorities). The praises thank God for who He is and what He is doing in the world. They teach us more of the same, but from a happier place. We see a lot of consequence in here—if we would just obey God, these terrible things would stop happening. Psalm 150 then closes the entire book by inverting Psalm 1: “God blesses the righteous” = “The righteous bless God (by praising Him)”.
Psalms is divided into 5 “books” (3-41), (42-72), (73-89), (90-106), (107-145) based on the repeated ending phrase, “May the Lord God of Israel be blessed forever and ever. Amen and amen.” Those divisions don’t really help us a whole lot in America. We are used to grouping by theme or whatnot. For example, in our Baptist hymnal, you’ll notice that every hymn is organized by content (although because one hymn can have several different themes, there is also an index to help find them). Instead, we think of the Psalms as being organized by “collection”. David and Solomon wrote many more songs than are actually found in the Psalms, so that means someone had to compile them somewhere along the way.
The Organization of the Psalms
Here’s what I mean. Psalms 3-41, 51-70, and 138-45 are collections of David’s psalms (with some possible exceptions). Psalms 73-83 are called Asaph’s psalms. Psalms 42-49 and 84-88 are called psalms of the Sons of Korah. Psalms 120-134 are songs of ascent. Psalms 113-118 are Passover Hallel psalms. Psalms 146-150 are also Hallel songs. They were initially grouped by author or use and not by content. And somewhere along the way, they got organized into larger sections. One interesting division is the “Elohim Psalter” in Psalms 42-83. In the rest of the book, the name “Yahweh” vastly outnumbers the name “Elohim”, but in that section of psalms, the reverse is true. That means it was compiled at a point in time when Jews were opposed to saying “Yahweh”. There is no other evidence to explain the rest of the organization. People have tried to compare the “Five Books of Psalms” to the “Five Books of Moses”, and that may be why the compilers chose to arrange it as they did, but there is nothing internal to suggest that the content of those “books” correspond with the contents of the first five books of the Bible.
Some psalms were written long before the monarchy, and some were written after the exile. We think that the present form of the book of Psalms was established in the 4th century BC.
Part 1: The Path of Life (Psalm 1:1-3)
How happy is the one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked or stand in the pathway with sinners or sit in the company of mockers! Instead, his delight is in the Lord’s instruction, and he meditates on it day and night. He is like a tree planted beside flowing streams that bears its fruit in its season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.
Psalm 1 is unique in that is was not written for use in formal worship; it was written as an introduction to the book of Psalms (that’s why it sounds more like a proverb than a song). The word “happy” doesn’t exactly mean “happy” nor does it quite mean “blessed”. “Happy” implies a feeling, and “blessed” implies an activity of God. Rather, this word means “a joyful spiritual condition of those who faithfully walk in a right relationship with God.” It’s our decision to listen to God rather than to the wicked, and God has promised that such a choice will always result in spiritual fulfillment. Do you see the difference? It’s not a special blessing action of God; rather, it’s just the way God made the world to work. Do life God’s way, and your life will be fulfilled (“blessed”). Do life the world’s way and expect disaster.
I believe that the psalmist used “the one” (or “the man”) to be generic—as in anybody could follow this psalm; we could translate it as “anyone”. There are some who believe that it refers to Jesus, who alone could truly and completely do the psalm. The psalm then tells us three kinds of behaviors we are to avoid. They are parallel (see the rest of this handout) and distinct. Some like to see it as a progression, and they do seem to be getting more intense, but we should rather read them as three separate, equally harmful actions.
Walk in the advice of the wicked. “Walk” is a common metaphor in the Bible for one’s manner of life. This isn’t about a specific action but rather a pattern of behavior that is inspired by a wicked source. Who is “the wicked”?
I almost hate to tell you this, but in the Bible, “the wicked” is anyone who does not have a relationship with God (no matter how “good” you think they are). And because the Bible is very clear that there is only one God, this would mean that even sincere Muslims or Buddhists, or whoever, would all be categorized as “wicked”. Why is that? I’m sure we all know non-Christians who seem to be better humans than some people who call themselves Christian! That’s because we use a sliding scale when we compare “the wicked” with “the righteous”. God does not; God uses an absolute scale. That means that any advice that does not come from Him is by comparison wicked and destructive. No matter how good that advice might sound from our perspective, it’s still wrong. And therein lies the problem: it sounds good. But we cannot be the judge of what is right or not—only God can do that! That’s why the psalmist says that we must go to God’s Word.
Stand in the pathway of sinners. Here, “pathway” is a metaphor for someone else’s manner of living. In other words, this person is putting himself in contact with the lifestyle of someone who is missing God’s standards (a “sinner”). This isn’t “taking advice” from someone but rather just mimicking them.
Sit in the company of mockers. “Mockers” are people who ridicule the righteous. This person not only tolerates their behavior but even sticks around when they do it. The idea behind “company” is “dwelling place”. This person hangs out around who are opposed to God’s righteous rules. So you can see that the psalmist is talking about three different kinds of behaviors. You can do one without doing the others, which is why we’re supposed to avoid all three.
So if we’re not supposed to take that path, there’s only one other path we can choose: to follow the Lord via the instructions He has left us in His Word. The word for “instruction” is “law”, which might refer to the Ten Commandments, but it also can refer more generally to God’s revelation, which is likely what the psalmist means here. A righteous person goes to God’s Word for instruction and meditates on it. This word has the meaning of repeating what you’ve read out loud for the purpose of learning it and trying to understand it. In other words, you’re not letting your mind run away with what you’re reading. You’re keeping those exact words in your head by saying them out loud.
The result is being like a tree near water rather than a tree parched in the desert (see below). This is why we have to understand the word “blessed” correctly. Flourishing is not a reward for the tree; it’s just what happens because there’s water nearby. It’s just the way God designed life. Obviously there’s hyperbole in here (remember, it’s poetry)—even the best plans of the righteous person can go wrong due to the presence of sin in the world. But the point is that the righteous person is on the right track.
If you talked about “bad company” in your icebreaker, you don’t need to do it again here. But if you didn’t, make sure your group members understand the point about being around, taking advice from, and emulating non-Christians. It’s risky. And, lead your group in some “meditation”—and by that I just mean have them say the first two verses a few times quietly to themselves. Then ask if maybe they picked up on something they missed the first time around. It may not work (if they get distracted really easily), but the point is the saying-it-out-loud part.
Aside: Trees in Ancient Israel
In this psalm, we get a sense of a difference between a tree that grows by a river and one that does not. And that should only make sense, remembering that much of Israel has a clear dry season and a short rainy season. Trees will flourish when they have water and go dormant when they don’t.
Common Palestinian trees such as the cedar and oak do not usually grow in river valleys, so it is more likely that the psalmist had in mind either (1) the date palm, (2) the fig tree, and (3) the sycomore fig. Date palms really shrivel up without water, so they would fit the psalmists image. The fig tree has a very dependable fruit season, so that makes it a possible candidate. Most likely, though, the psalmist was talking about a sycomore fig tree (not sycamore). It has thick, year-round leaves that provide shade even under the worst conditions due to a deep root system. Shepherds used to sit in the trees while watching their flocks, and they would manually “prune” the fruit by oiling it, helping it ripen. Orchard owners would allow the shepherds grazing rights in exchange for the labor of ripening the fruit. These trees could be found in the lush river valleys, and they could survive for years after a particular riverbed had gone dry. That image would likely have stood out to David (if he had any influence on this psalm).
Bonus Aside: Streams in the Desert
Water is life, and nowhere is that more evident than a desert. Consequently, we find stream and river imagery throughout the Bible—living water as opposed to stagnant or unreliable water. We most often think of the “wadi” with respect to an Israeli stream; those are small riverbeds that only have water during the rainy season (and they can be quite dangerous in the case of flash floods!). But the term used in Psalm 1 is peleg, which refers to an irrigation ditch. Follow me here: trees cannot choose where they grow. They grow wherever their seed was able to germinate. But if a landowner wants a particular tree to live, he can cut a ditch that takes water by that tree. It is a very labor-intensive option for preserving a tree, so it indicates that the landowner must really like that tree!
That’s the image we have in Psalm 1. The man who bases his life on God’s Word is like a tree next to which God has dug an irrigation ditch. Fresh, life-giving water flows by that tree whenever the tree needs it, and so the tree flourishes. That’s exactly what the psalmist wants us to think about God’s Word. It is life-giving water in a dry world, and we have access to it whenever we need, just like being planted next to an irrigation ditch.
Part 2: The Path of Death (Psalm 1:4-5)
The wicked are not like this; instead, they are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand up in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
You can show the parallelism clearly in these verses (see below). If you can, write it on the board to point it out. Let your group know that it will help them understand the psalms—why there seems to be so much repetition in them! The psalmist gives a clear choice: you can follow the path of life or the path of death. The path of life is to live according to God’s Word. The path of death is anything else. Whereas the righteous are like a strong, fruitful tree, the wicked are like chaff. That’s strong talk. Chaff is unusable, insignificant, valueless, and waste. (The leader guide tells you more.) John the Baptist tapped into this imagery in his fiery declarations in Matthew 3. God’s judgment will be like the winnowing process. Everyone on earth will be “sifted”; the righteous (like good grain) will be gathered into the barn, and the wicked (like chaff) will be cast to the side and burned (see Matthew 13:24-30 for Jesus’ definitive word on this). The wicked will not be allowed to join the company of the righteous. But remember that the Judgment takes place after our death, so as long as we’re alive we have the chance to reach out to the wicked. On this side of Jesus, we have a much better understanding of righteous vs. wicked. The Jews thought it was solely related to behavior (based in no small part on passages like this one). They failed to appreciate that they could not always make the righteous decision; they would always fall short eventually. That, of course, is why Jesus came. He was the only truly righteous person to ever live. True righteousness for us, then, is simply to trust in Jesus as our Lord and Savior and live as His disciple. What did we just learn in the Great Commission? That a disciple is someone who learns and follows Jesus’ words. Did Jesus not inspire the Bible? Is not the Great Commission and Psalm 1 saying essentially the same thing? (Turning the “wicked” into the “righteous” is the result of salvation.)
Aside: Parallelism in Psalm 1
I mention the structure of Hebrew poetry below. The basic form of this poetry is “parallelism” which can either be synonymous (like “wash away my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin”), opposite (like “evil men will be cut off, but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the Land”), or continuous (like “sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth”). We see all of that in Psalm 1. I’ll just show you verses 1 & 5:
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.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment
Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
Do you see how the phrases build on themselves? And how verse 5 basically says the exact opposite of verse 1? That’s what we mean by Hebrew poetry. Can you see more examples in Psalm 1?
Part 3: The Conclusion (Psalm 1:6)
For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to ruin.
And then we have the very obvious conclusion. Psalms and Proverbs are basically about The Two Ways: the way that leads to life, and the way that leads to death. The way of the righteous and the way of the wicked. In Jesus' terms, the narrow path and the broad path. Yes, we can look at everything as “in this life”. In other words, if you live God’s way, you can expect good things to happen for you. And if you live wickedly, you can expect to come to a bad end (“those who live by the sword die by the sword”). But as we go through more of the psalms, we will realize that this book means more than that. There are hints of eternity in here that will make a whole lot more sense in the New Testament.
If that’s not a clear enough ending to the lesson, you can give your group a little about the meaning of “righteousness” in the Old Testament. Being righteous meant being “just”—comparative morality. David was righteous compared with those around him. Abraham was righteous by treating the people around him fairly. In Psalms and Proverbs, being righteous is being honest, generous, steadfast, courageous, merciful. But we begin to realize that true righteousness originates in God who is alone righteous and has shown us how to be righteous by giving us the Torah. In the Prophets, we start to see the bigger picture, namely that Israel is not as righteous as she was supposed to be and thus will be punished. And we see little hints of the righteousness that can be credited us by God (as in the case of Abraham).
Your closing is to have your group think of ways they follow the two ways daily. What do they need to change and how?
Closing Thoughts: Hebrew Music and Poetry
I have long said that there is a good reason why God did not have the music (tune) included in the Psalms: music is cultural. Tunes and instruments and tempos are rooted in particular peoples and particular times. The book of Psalms is timeless. People all over the world can make use of their emotions and images.
Hebrew poetry is not like English poetry, as can be seen in Isaac Watts’s many versions of the psalms. Here is one of his takes on Psalm 1:
Blest is the man who shuns the place / Where sinners love to meet;
Who fears to tread their wicked ways, / And hates the scoffer's seat.
Not bad, but it sure loses something in translation! (You can find all of his at https://www.ccel.org/ccel/watts/psalmshymns.toc.html) Hebrew poetry isn’t concerned with meter and rhyme like we are. Think of it more like abstract art, using vivid images, emotional language, and profound truths (as opposed to being technical, precise, or scientific). Hebrew poetry uses two forms: parallelism and rhythm. In parallelism, you see repeated thoughts/patterns in two lines. That’s really evident in Psalm 1: “walk in the advice of the wicked / stand in the pathway with sinners / sit in the company of mockers”. Parallelism both intensifies the author’s point and also lets the author experiment with a wider field of meaning.
“Rhythm” is harder to quantify because it is not like “meter” in English poetry. Furthermore, we aren’t exactly sure how some of these words sounded in ancient Hebrew (remember that the vowels and accents weren’t added to the Hebrew text until hundreds of years later!), so we can’t know for certain how they sounded together. But there does seem to be a pattern of syllable groupings, which would give the public reading a kind of rhythm.
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