Context No. 3995 of 4322 · Psalms

Psalms 1:1-6: in context

1Blessed is the man who doesn’t walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand on the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers; 2but his delight is in the LORD’s law. On his law he meditates day and night. 3He will be like a tree planted by the streams of water, that produces its fruit in its season, whose leaf also does not wither. Whatever he does shall prosper. 4The wicked are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. 5Therefore the wicked shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. 6For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked shall perish.

The book of Psalms opens by setting two ways of life before us. Blessed is the one, it says, who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners, but whose delight is in the law of the LORD, on which he meditates day and night. Such a person is like a tree planted by streams of water, yielding fruit in season, its leaves not withering.

The wicked, by contrast, are like chaff that the wind drives away, with no roots and no lasting substance. Two things anchor this psalm. The blessed life is rooted in delight in God's word. Not grudging obedience but delight, a heart that loves God's word and meditates on it continually, and this delight makes a person like a well-watered tree, stable, fruitful, alive, drawing life from a hidden source even in dry seasons. And the two ways lead to two ends: the way of the righteous, which the LORD knows and guards, and the way of the wicked, which perishes. There is a choice implied in the very first psalm, the choice of what we root our lives in.

Is my life rooted in a genuine delight in God's word, meditated on day and night, so that I am like a tree planted by streams of water, or am I drawing my counsel from a world that will finally blow away like chaff?

Sources

Psalm 1:2: "But his delight is in the LORD's law. On his law he meditates day and night."
Psalm 1:3: "He will be like a tree planted by the streams of water, that produces its fruit in its season, whose leaf also does not wither."
Psalm 1:6: "For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked shall perish."