Welcome to the psalms! Psalm 1 has been called the gateway to the whole collection of the Psalms, and many believe it was deliberately placed first to set forth the contrast between wickedness and righteousness — issues with which the Psalter is continually concerned. (It is also a great place to begin your new year and deepen your walk with the Lord!)

    This is considered a wisdom psalm, and its similarity to the thought world of Proverbs is immediately apparent. A wise man in Israel is reflecting on happiness and perishing, and the paths leading to either condition. These are not casual observations, but words intended to influence life choices.

Each day, each of us makes a choice...

    Turn the psalm upside down for the key. The last verse (vs. 6) draws together the psalm. Because the Lord knows (“watches” NRSV) the righteous, they are happy and prosper. And because of the Lord, the wicked perish.

    While the psalm is sometimes called “The Two Ways,” we learn that there is really only one way. To perish, by contrast, is not to be in any way. Each day, each of us makes a choice about the purpose, meaning, and impact of our life. Will we choose the way of life, or will we choose the way of destruction? Will we choose The One Way, or will we choose to lose our way?

Verse 1 - NLT - RSV

“Blessed” at once invites the reader into the path where happiness is found. This blessed life is described by contrast to its opposite. In a neatly constructed triple parallel the wicked are pictured. Within each parallel statement there is a three-fold scheme. There seems to be a progression in evil shown by “walk,” “stand,” and “sit;” by “counsel,” “way,” and “seat;” and by “wicked” (a person guilty of a particular charge), “sinners” (a more comprehensive term), and “scoffers” (a proud cynic who will not submit to God). This heightening in these parallels seems to suggest that the process of evil can draw one more and more deeply into its web. It is this destructive involvement, this descending spiral, which the righteous avoids.

Verse 2 - NLT - RSV

Now the blessed life is described positively. The “law of the Lord” indicates God’s guidance, instruction, or teaching. There is more implied than just a set of laws. Ultimately delight in God’s Torah (law) is a delight in God himself, and constant meditation focuses ultimately on him. This pleasure in the law is found also in Psalm 19:7-14 and especially in Psalm 119. “Meditate” is a term that indicates recitation or reading aloud. But the indication here must also be the joy in the understanding and living of God’s teaching. Here is a heart whose constant occupation is God.

Verse 3 - NLT - RSV

Here we have the first of two contrasting images. These trees are “transplanted” (the literal Hebrew meaning), and the “streams” may have been irrigation channels. Because of this favored condition, the trees do what they are made to do. They bear fruit and stay green. One can suppose that in arid Palestine, often enough trees suffered an opposite fate. Fruitfulness was not a reward for the tree, but was its natural function. The implication may be that the happy man’s mission is to serve God, and that service is to prosper.

We should beware lest we Christianize “prosper” to guarantee physical prosperity to the righteous. One can prosper physically and still not be blessed, and one can be poor physically, yet prosper in more important ways. Perhaps we had best say no more than that a life lived for God will be blessed by God in the ways God chooses.

Verse 4 - NLT - RSV

The poet’s delight in God’s covenant people (“saints”) in verse 3 forms a contrast with the fate of the idolaters in verse 4. Not only does the writer find unsurpassed bliss in Yahweh, his sense of delight extends to his relations to God’s people. Though concrete evidence is lacking, some have conjectured that verse 4 implies pressure upon the author to engage in these “pagan” rites. “Libations of blood” may imply some ceremony of reconciliation with a god. “Names” could suggest some appeal to magical powers, though this is only conjecture. The poet affirms his fidelity to Yahweh by noting the spiritual tragedy of those choosing another god. Unfortunately the first of this verse is another text of uncertain meaning, so one cannot be entirely sure of its message.

Verse 5 - NLT - RSV

Because of their worthless lives, the wicked will not stand in judgment. Whatever the specific meaning here, they will not pass God’s test, and therefore will not be blessed. They are excluded from the congregation of the righteous, which indicates their exclusion from the worshiping community. Even if they should intrude upon such a gathering, they would be there in body only. Thus, as chaff is excluded from the threshing floor, the wicked is excluded from God and his people.

Verse 6 - NLT - RSV

This verse, as indicated, pulls the first five verses together. Because the Lord is what he is, and who he is, the righteous will prosper and the wicked perish. Thus the two poles for life are indicated by the first and last words in the English text. “Happy” or “perish”!

Devotional Applications

• No matter how we may want to put off making a decision about which way we will choose to live life, we will make a choice one way or the other. To not intentionally choose the way of righteousness, the way God, is to choose no way at all. The end of that choice is waste, wickedness, and the wind. To not choose The One True Way, the way of God, is to choose to perish.
• Righteousness is not just a choice to grimly choose the right thing, but it is also the path of blessing, fruitfulness, and delight. It is recognizing that our goal is not things, achievements, or even heaven; no, the goal of life and righteousness is God. As we choose this path, we also are promised that God is actively involved in knowing us and blessing us according to his sovereign choice. We do what we were made to do, we flourish and are fruitful. We rest in God’s generous blessing! We are “happy” in all the deep and profound ways that God intended.

Title: "The One True Way"
Author: Dr. Tony Ash
Publication Date: January 6, 2002

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