Psalm 1
Blessed is the man… (Psalm 1:1).
The Psalms is the book in the Bible with the most verses. The first psalm starts with words addressed to our individual hearts, “Blessed is the man.” The last, Psalm 150, ends with the words, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!” In Psalm 1, we are given a real sense of God’s desire to bless us individually. In Psalm 150:6, the writer places in our hearts the wonder of the day when the whole of creation will “Praise the Lord!” It is incredible that God, who is the centre of that explosion of praise, touches our hearts one by one. God does not simply view us as a countless multitude praising Him. He sees every individual whom He has embraced within His love. He knows every one of His children by name.
Interestingly, Psalm 1 begins by associating our blessing with what we should not do. Verse 1 succinctly describes a dangerous downward journey. It starts by walking in the company of the ungodly. It leads down sinful paths to a destination away from God. It stops outside the house of the scornful. And, finally, it steps inside to sit down in the company of those in opposition to God. The Psalmist describes what the Lord later taught in the parables of the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan.
This downward journey is the opposite of the journey on the road to Emmaus. On that journey the disciples walked with the Saviour. They stood outside their house and compelled the Lord to come in and abide with them. Then they sat in fellowship with the risen Saviour.
The Psalmist describes the delight God’s children find in His living word and the joyful commitment by which it is assimilated into their lives: “His delight is in the law of the Lord” (v. 2). In John 15, the Lord encourages us to abide in Him and bear spiritual fruit in our lives. Paul lists the characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” In Psalm 1:3, we are likened to “a tree planted by the rivers (streams) of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season”. The Psalmist is illustrating our individual fellowship with God through His word. The streams of water have their source in God. We see the river of life in Revelation 22:1 has its source in “the throne of God and of the Lamb”. And the Tree of Life and the twelve fruits it bears continually throughout the year (v. 2) are also described. Our spiritual fruitfulness is dependent on abiding in the living Christ and His living word. Water is used as an illustration of the word of God (Ephesians 5:26). We develop fruitful lives by reading, meditating, trusting, obeying and allowing the word of Christ to dwell in us richly (Colossians 3:16); we prosper in God’s sight (Psalm 1:3).
The Psalmist ends with a further warning about where the path of the ungodly ends. We are accountable to God for the lives we live. We cannot stand based on what we are or what we can do. Peter fell into that trap, and Satan sought to sift Him as wheat to be driven away and lost (v. 4). But the Lord prayed for Peter and he discovered his righteousness was in Christ. He is also our righteousness; all our resources are found in Him, and we can walk with God (v. 6a).
