Psalm Shorts: Psalm 1

The first word in the entire book of Psalms is blessed. It's not a command, nor a warning, but this overflowing, expansive, almost-untranslatable Hebrew word for a life saturated with goodness. This word sets the tone for all that follows.

Psalm 1 is a wisdom psalm. Less a prayer and more a structural universal outlook. Two kinds of people, two trajectories. The righteous are like a tree that's been intentionally transplanted by streams of water: rooted, nourished, and quietly working. The wicked aren't cast as monsters, but as chaff, this dry husk left over after harvest, light and empty enough to just drift away. 

What's interesting is how Psalm 1 reads like a setup. It's not trying to resolve anything. It's orienting you — here's what rooted, righteous life looks like, here's what an unanchored one looks like, and here's how they both play out. And if the word scoffer catches you off guard, it's worth sitting with: in the wisdom tradition, a scoffer isn't just someone being snarky. It's a person who's become unteachable. Stubbornly closed. That's the dangerous drift to watch for.

Enjoy this deep dive into Psalm 1!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Hi, welcome to our first short episode. And we are launching some shorts that will come out all on the book of Psalms. And I will be telling Rachel all about what I've discovered.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

So are we gonna start with Psalm one? We are how did you know? I love that. I think if you tried to start at a different psalm, I know. I might not be happy. My ADHD brain would be like spazzing out doing it. Can you imagine if we started at Psalm 3? Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

There's no way. Which is where David's Psalms actually begin. Okay. Well, we're starting at one. So you're all okay, stop now. So since this is the very first one, I'll kind of give an introductory feel of the whole book of Psalms. It's separated into five distinct books. And book one is Psalms one through 41. And these concentrate more on personal distress and also the confidence in God through distress. And these are mostly David. Book two, we have Psalms 42 through 72, and this is deliverance from enemies and the rise of the king. And this is attributed to David and the Sons of Korah. Book three, 73 through 89, is community struggles and the crisis of exile. And this is attributed to Asaph and Sons of Korah. Book four is Psalms 90 through 106. And they talk about God as the eternal king above human rulers. And this is Moses, definitely Psalm 90. And then we have some anonymous authors. Book five, the final one, is 107 through 150. And this is a celebration of restoration and returning to worship. And so this is David and also anonymous writers. So this is kind of how it's chunked up.

SPEAKER_00 2:28

And all of the psalms are poetry, is that right?

SPEAKER_01 2:31

Totally. Yeah. And as we deep dive them, it's fascinating how many parts of the Psalms are calling back to previous parts of the Bible or Jesus, like calling forward to Jesus. So it's really cool to see these connections. David puts these little Easter egg nuggets for us to discover. And it's kind of a special thing once you notice these. And he's very, David is very poetic with and very purposeful with the way that he structures them. A lot of them have a very like specific way about them, which is really cool. And also another cool connection is many scholars believe that the five-book structure was designed to mirror the five books of the Torah. Oh. So the Genesis through Deuteronomy to show that the Psalms are like a poetic response to God's teaching.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

The two things that have always been so interesting to me on Psalms is the one, the poetry is sort of reflecting on what we already know. So it's it's like reflection poetry on stories that we've already read earlier in the Bible. Totally. And then the other really cool thing is how much foreshadowing there is or how much Jesus later calls back into the Psalms. And that too. And then so do the five sections of Psalms correlate to the five books? So like is the that first section actually about Genesis, or is it less structured than that and it and more fluid? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:50

And you know, what I do know about that is like the emotional journey that it kind of takes. Like they're very specific to not almost like an author of a book, like you're ending the book in a very thought-out way. Like you're not ending it in a depressed state of like there's no hope. It's almost like an emotional journey. So they move from laments. So it kind of starts with sadness and struggle in the earlier Psalms, and then there's like this big moment of praise in the final book. Many scholars think the book of Psalms does echo the structure of the Torah, but not necessarily like chapter by chapter, kind of like what you were saying. Like it's just mirroring a deeper message, I think, kind of like a rhythm, um, which I think is really cool. So the idea, I think, in in the Torah of there's like the beginning of everything, and then there's kind of the covenant rules, and then holiness testing wilderness fun, and then like the recommitment to God. But each individual psalm also has its own rhythm and beginning, middle end, too.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

Because each chapter of psalms is one poem, basically. Yeah, totally. Or does it cross, do some of the poems cross chapters?

SPEAKER_01 4:50

They're each their own little beast, but they definitely they'll say, like, oh, I think it's purposeful that they put Psalm 22 here because of what happened before, right? So there does seem to be like an intentionality. Generally, scholars point to about seven primary categories of psalms. And so, first is the lament, and that's the most common. And so about one-third of the entire psalms are laments. Okay. And then we have hymns of praise, and these are more like everything feels really good. We're praising. Uh, then we have psalms of thanksgiving, wisdom psalms. And so these are very similar to the way that Proverbs looks, kind of more of the practical ethical instruction on how to live a life uh that pleases God. And then we have the royal messianic psalms, which are exciting because the messianic psalms, messianic, is that how you say it? I think so. Yeah, they point towards Jesus, and so there's some really specific words used that show like Jesus is coming. And obviously, this was written before, long before Jesus came. So those are exciting ones to go through.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

Are those different types all just sort of sprinkled together? They're all sprinkled together. So what is Psalm 1? Oh, and hold on, there's still two more. Oh, sorry.

SPEAKER_01 5:59

I know there's seven, and then the six is Songs of Ascent, which is like the pilgrimage psalms, and then impregatory psalms. So this, these are the hard ones where the writer asks God to bring judgment or vengeance on their enemies. So Psalm one is a wisdom psalm, but it's very purposefully put as the very first psalm because it's like the gateway and it's intentionally placed first to tell the reader if you want to understand the entire Psalter, you know, and and the way to live your life, this is an introductory to that. Okay, so this is Psalm 1. This is out of the ESV, and it is titled The Way of the Righteous and the Wicked. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chafe that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. So the very first word in this psalm is blessed in Hebrew Ashrai. This word is actually plural and it could be kind of translated as oh, the blessedness of the man, implying a life overflowing with multiple types of happiness. So it's cool that the very first word in the psalms is just a really happy, uplifting word. Yeah. So I kind of like that. So this psalm celebrates and focuses on God's character and not a problem that needs solving, or it's not an individual saying, like, please rescue me from this. It's a bigger picture. Yeah. So yeah, as a wisdom psalm, it's not a prayer, because there are some prayers, you know, like Psalm 23, and it's not talking to God. And a lot of the psalms are talking directly to God. And so that makes this one kind of interesting and more like Proverbs, which kind of turns it more into a wisdom psalm.

SPEAKER_00 8:02

Right. It feels like it's more saying, Here's what good human looks like.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

And the tree, I if you remember that it mentions he is like a tree planted by streams of water. So the righteous person is described as this tree planted by streams of water. In Hebrew, this suggests something closer to intentionally transplanted and positioned. So it's like a cultivated, purposeful thing, right? Okay. Um, and I also like because I was just thinking of Psalm 23 when it says streams of water. We'll have to like deep dive how often he mentions that.

SPEAKER_00 8:35

Yeah, and I've been learning a lot about trees and the parallels of humans and trees, and then Jesus and the tree of life. So that's cool too. I mean, this could be in a way a reflection of I mean, how could it not be? Jesus is really the culmination of what good humanity is supposed to be, right? Totally.

SPEAKER_01 8:53

I mean, I think all of this really leads to Jesus in one way or the other, I think.

SPEAKER_00 8:58

We're all trees, it's saying we're all trees. We're all like trees. I think it's like a good versus wicked, yeah, you know?

SPEAKER_01 9:04

And the wicked are not so, but are like the chafe that the wind drives away. So it's definitely like a dichotomy. But it's cool because the very first verse shows a progression kind of into trouble.

SPEAKER_00 9:15

That kind of fits with Genesis one through three a little bit too, right? Totally. Yep. We started out walking with God and then decided to do our own thing. And then we ended up just being like these lumpy, naked, stubborn things.

SPEAKER_01 9:30

Ah, shameful. The readers would have seen this as a warning about gradual drift, like almost exactly like you said, casual exposure maybe to something, participation, and then suddenly like you're full on in it. And so I think that's part of how that's structured. When he says, and on his law, he meditates day and night. I think a lot of current culture thinks that meditation should be like a quiet, silent, reflective state, which it totally can be.

SPEAKER_00 9:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

But I think in this case it's someone repeating scripture out loud or like under their breath throughout the day. So it's a passage meditation versus a silent meditation.

SPEAKER_00 10:03

That's interesting. Do you know the word that's used there?

SPEAKER_01 10:06

Yeah, so it's haga, which often means murmuring, reciting, and speaking quietly to yourself. Okay. If you were struggling through your day and you're like, be still, I am God. You know, if you were just kind of whispering some of that under your breath. So he's saying, like, but the delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. So people who are righteous are using scripture to uplift themselves and to seek comfort, I think, and direction. So something cool too is the wicked aren't compared to like bad trees. They aren't like spotted trees. It's it's chafe, which is like the husk that's blown away after grain is harvested. And so the righteous are essentially kind of like rooted and stable. We're not saying, like, oh my god, they're terrible evil things that can never be rooted. It's just like, oh, they need to find their roots.

SPEAKER_00 10:52

Okay. Interesting. And then a tree has all these working systems, right? Like taking in water and absorbing sunlight and like moving nutrients throughout. And then like a husk, like a wheat husk would just be sort of, I think it says something about blowing in the wind.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:09

So you're kind of on moored. There's no like life force, like spiritual life force function moving through that. Right. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:17

So it's like you can always come back and anchor yourself.

SPEAKER_00 11:19

Right. What you would want is for that to land on the ground and seed and then root and then turn into functioning plant life, right? Totally.

SPEAKER_01 11:29

So yeah, it's kind of saying, like, don't take cues from a valueless system, you know, like keep your roots.

SPEAKER_00 11:34

Can I ask another question? I don't want to derail. I'm curious on what word they use where we've translated it to tree, because I've learned that in some places what we translate to tree, and to us that means a thing with a big trunk and then a bushy. Totally. That sometimes their word for tree actually literally means just vegetation. Oh, so it's more general. And so I'm curious because then is it like the difference between like growing wheat versus just like this excess that got shed off and is in the wind?

SPEAKER_01 12:06

Totally, because now you're all into the plant, because we're doing a plant series soon, so stay tuned. So here it's ETS. So et S. Yeah, it's I like that one. And it's the standard Hebrew word for a tree, but it has a wider meaning range than just like our, like you said, standard English tree. It can refer to a living tree, timber, or a wooden object, or sometimes even something made from wood. But I think it is very literal. Okay. More of a literal word, probably. A wood, the wood kind of wood. I mean, that's a good point. The woodless type. Yeah. But I think they're woodless plants are good too. I love me a woodless plant. Yeah. Yeah. So the psalm creates like a complete life path. So it begins with blessed and it ends with perish. So I think that's kind of cool. It's showing like a life journey. And I think as a life journey, it's not just completely righteous and perfect the entire time. We're gonna continue to struggle with some wickedness and some maybe things that don't uphold our values, and it's kind of like our choice to remain rooted. Can you read the last verse again? Yeah. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners and the congregation of the righteous, for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

SPEAKER_00 13:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 13:12

Interesting. Yeah. So I think it's just continue to come back to your roots, you know?

SPEAKER_00 13:16

Because actual wickedness is gonna drift off into the wind forever until it's gone. That's what it sounds like. Totally.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

Yeah, that's a good way to put it, until it's just gone.

SPEAKER_00 13:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:24

It's almost like when you have a bunch of confetti in your hand, as you do, and it blows away in the wind, eventually it just disperses to a point where you can't even tell that it's confetti anymore.

SPEAKER_00 13:32

Yeah, where does that go? Does it disintegrate?

SPEAKER_01 13:34

It goes with all the socks that I've lost. But yeah, so Psalm one and Psalm two are designed as a pair. Kind of like you asked, do they bleed into each other? Right. And even though they're standalone, but I think there are these kind of pairings sometimes. So there's like two movements where Psalm one is the way of the faithful person and Psalm two is the rule of God's chosen king. So it's like a full length. So Psalms one and two, they're anonymous, and then Psalm three is your first David's Psalm. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 13:58

So going back to what it says in the meat of this psalm. Yeah. Can you just repeat what it said on what's blessed, what's righteous, what's not?

SPEAKER_01 14:08

So the righteous does not follow harmful influence, does not settle into sinful patterns, does not belong to a cynical mindset, meditates on it regularly. So I think it nods to um sticking with scripture as like part of the rootedness, stable and rooted. And then we have the wicked influenced by unstable guidance, more sinful, not rooted in God's instruction, like chafe blown by the wind, unstable and unanchored. It doesn't endure when tested. And so, like you said, their path ultimately fades or disappears because it's just not rooted in that like faith. The righteous are rooted, enduring, nourishing, even because of the tree, I think. And then the wicked are kind of like the opposite of that.

SPEAKER_00 14:54

Yeah, it's really two trajectories of life. What did it say about the from a seat of scoffing? That sounds to me like it's saying don't scoff people, which is interesting. I feel like I witness people scoffing other people all the time. Totally.

SPEAKER_01 15:09

So yeah, it says many scholars think that sits in the seat of scoffers is intentionally calling back to the wisdom literature, like the Proverbs. The scoffer in Hebrew is a type of person. It's not just someone who jokes around, right? Because I think for us, we could be like, oh, scoff, you're just kind of like, ugh.

SPEAKER_00 15:26

But I think it's a deeper give it someone who's like making fun of or like tearing someone else down, kind of, or like belittling or dismissing the value of someone else.

SPEAKER_01 15:36

Yeah, I think in Proverbs, the scoffer represents the furthest step away from teachability. Oh. So it dismisses correction, resists instruction, undermines truth, which is kind of different than I think scoffing is something done to someone else, right, versus an internal.

SPEAKER_00 15:52

So it's saying don't sit in the seat of somebody who is unteachable and stubbornly resistant to anything.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

Yeah. And in the Proverbs 3:34, it says God opposes the scoffers, but gives grace to the humble. So maybe there's a dichotomy between humble, being humble, and being a scoffer.

SPEAKER_00 16:10

So it's like being proud, stubborn. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 16:12

Okay. Proverbs 2210 says, Drive out the scoffer and strife will go out.

SPEAKER_00 16:17

Interesting.

SPEAKER_01 16:18

Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

I like this psalm. I feel like it gives a very short but very clear picture of what does humanity living good look like.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

Totally. Yeah. Yeah. It's basically like this is the introduction to let's learn more about what this is saying. It's like stay tuned, you know? It's a cool intro, a cool gateway, if you will. So that is Psalm one. And we hope you guys stick around for all 100. How many are there? 150? Many psalms. Stay tuned for the many, many psalms.

SPEAKER_00 16:49

If you're still listening at Psalms 154 short episode, we'll give you something. Yeah, you get like a hat. A good hat. A good though. A good rooted hat. Ooh. Uh no, because then you wouldn't be able to move. Oh, not like literally. Can you imagine if you're wearing a hat that was rooted and then you're trying to go somewhere? It's like the would you rather we play with our kids? Would you rather wear a hat made of roots and you can't move for the rest of your life? Or what's the or there? Or would you rather be hatless? Listen to 154 psalm shorts. Those are your choices, people.

SPEAKER_01 17:19

I picked the psalm shorts. Great. So yeah, next week we will be doing psalm, or next week. Next time, next we'll be doing next sometime. Who knows? We'll be doing psalm two. The reign of the Lord's anointed. I'm excited. So stay tuned and stay salty.