Psalm 1 Story behind the Psalm
Overview
In order to understand a Psalm, we have to understand not only what is said, but also what is assumed and left unsaid. Psalm 1, like many other Psalms, assumes a certain state of affairs (a story "behind the Psalm"). We can summarise this story as follows: The wicked live alongside the righteous, and the wicked seem to flourish while the righteous suffer. That is why people call the wicked "happy" or "blessed." But there will be a day when God condemns the wicked in judgment. They will be separated from the righteous, who will flourish forever in God's presence and under the reign of God's anointed king.
Background Ideas
- People declare someone to be "happy/blessed" whose position/status is admirable and desirable (cf. 1 Kgs. 10:8).
- Character development is like a journey in which a person's destination is determined by the guidance they follow.
- Rehearsing (or meditating on) YHWH's instruction (or Law, or Torah) daily is associated with Israel's leader (cf Josh 1:8; Deut 17:19).
- Trees are symbols of kings (cf. Dan. 4:7-9, 17-19; Ps. 52:10).[1]
- The process of winnowing (separating wheat form chaff) is an image of judgment (separating righteous from wicked); cf. Mal 3:18.
Background Situation
Expanded Paraphrase
(For more information, click "Expanded Paraphrase Legend" below.)
| Expanded paraphrase legend | |
|---|---|
| Close but Clear (CBC) translation | The CBC, our close but clear translation of the Hebrew, is represented in bold text. |
| Assumptions | Assumptions which provide background information, presuppositions, entailments, and inferences are represented in italics. |
v. 1
(When someone's position in life is admirable and desirable, that person is declared "happy".)[2] (Wicked people are sometimes declared "happy,") (since their position in life can seem admirable and desirable).[3] (But I do not call the wicked "happy"). (Instead, I say,) Happy is the one who does not go in the counsel of wicked people, does come to a standstill in the pathway of sinful people, and does not settle in the dwelling place of insolent people.[4]
v. 2
(Instead of receiving instruction for life's journey from wicked people), his delight is in the instruction of YHWH, and (because he delights in his instruction,) he rehearses his instruction day and night. (And this instruction teaches him how to live).
v. 3
And (just as water causes a tree to flourish,) (so rehearsal of YHWH's instruction causes the man to flourish). (Therefore, by rehearsing YHWH's instruction,) he will become like a tree (that has been removed from a waterless place and) transplanted (by a gardener) on streams of water (in an Edenic garden)[5] which gives its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither, and he makes successful all that he does.
v. 4
Not so the wicked people. (The wicked are not ultimately successful,) (and, therefore, they are not to be called "happy"). Rather, they will be like chaff that the wind drives away. (Chaff is the outer part of grain that must be separated from the grain in the process of winnowing).[6] (Just as chaff grows together with the grain in a field,) (so the wicked currently live together with the righteous.) (But the day is coming when God will hold trial and separate the wicked from the righteous,) (just as chaff is separated from grain at the harvest.)
v. 5
Therefore (because the wicked are like chaff that is separated from the grain), wicked people will not stand firm in the trial (on the day when God judges the world),[7] and sinful people will not stand in the congregation of righteous people.
v. 6
(Here, then, is the reason why I declare the righteous, and not the wicked, to be "happy:") Because YHWH cares for the way of righteous people, and (although it can seem as though wicked people are the ones flourishing) the way of wicked people will come to an end.
Endnotes
- ↑ “In both biblical and ancient Near Eastern tradition, the individual most typically identified with a tree is a person of royalty" (Brown 2002, 69; cf. Osbourne 2018). In a Sumerian text: “Šulgi, the king, the graceful lord, is a datepalm planted by the water ditch”; "Like a cedar rooted by abundant water, of pleasant shadow thou art" (Wiedengren, The King and the Tree of Life). In Dan. 4, King Nebuchadnezzar is depicted as a massive tree that provides shelter and food to all kinds of creatures (Dan. 4:7-9, 17-19). In Ps. 52, King David is depicted as a "flourishing olive tree in God's house" (Ps. 52:10).
- ↑ E.g. 1 Kgs. 10:8
- ↑ E.g. Mal. 3:14-15. It is significant that, according to the traditional ordering of books in the Hebrew Bible, Malachi directly precedes Psalm 1.
- ↑ This verse assumes that the reader is familiar with the metaphor: "Character development is a journey." Just a person sets out on a journey, comes to a stop, and then settles down, so character development happens in stages of increasing commitment.
- ↑ The garden setting is suggested by the word "streams"/"channels" (פלג) and the word "transplant" (שתל). The garden imagery is, in turn, reminiscent of Eden. Just as the first book of the Law begins with a garden (Gen. 2), so the first book of Psalms begins with a garden. This was noticed by the Targum on Psalms, which has "tree of life" in v. 3. Other lines of evidence support this interpretation. For example, "when Ps 1:3a departs from Jer 17:8, it consistently includes vocabulary drawn from other texts in which Zion or the temple is depicted as a garden paradise" (Creach 1999); cf. Pss 52:10; 92:13-15; Ezek. 47:12.
- ↑ “In winnowing, grain is threshed in order to separate the kernel of grain from the husk and straw. The mixture is thrown into the air with a winnowing fork or shovel. The wind blows the light husks away, the heavier straw falls near the edge of the threshing floor, and the grain falls back to the floor to be collected. Both the light husks and the heavier straw are referred to in the words translated ‘chaff’ in the Bible” (Leland Ryken, James Wilhoit, and Tremper Longman III, eds, “Chaff,” in Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, IVP, 1998).
- ↑ see detailed discussion on the meaning of "the Judgment" here.