Psalm 1 Participant analysis

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Psalm Overview

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• Semantics
• Story behind the Psalm
• Discourse
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Participant mini-story

Overview

There are three or four participants/characters, in Psalm 1:

• The man (הָאִישׁ)
• YHWH (יְהוָה)
• The wicked people (רְשָׁעִים, חַטָּאִים, לֵצִים)
• The righteous people (צַדִּיקִים)

It is unclear whether "the man" and "the righteous people" refer to the same participant. There is good reason for seeing them as closely related yet distinct.

Participant Relations

The relationships among the participants may be abstracted and summarised as follows:

• The only real relationship in the psalm is between the man/righteous and YHWH. YHWH cares for the way of the righteous (v. 6a), and the righteous follow YHWH's guidance (v. 2).
• The relationship between the wicked and the righteous is wholly negative: just as the righteous do not join in with the wicked (v. 1), so the wicked will not join the righteous in the Judgment.
• There is no (explicit) relationship between YHWH and the wicked, though it is implied that the wicked do not follow YHWH's guidance and that YHWH will blow the wicked away in the Judgment.
• The difference between the righteous and the wicked is their relationship to YHWH, a relationship mediated through YHWH's guidance (תורה).

Participants in the Psalm

• Based on participant analysis, the psalm divides into three sections.
  • "The man" and/or the tree is the subject of the first section (vv. 1-3)
  • "The wicked people" are the subject of the second section (vv. 4-5)
  • Verse 6 brings together all of the participants, with "YHWH" as the subject of v. 6a, "the way of righteous people" as the object of v. 6a, and "the way of wicked people" as the subject of v. 6b.

• v. 3d. The subject of the verb in the relative clause ("all that he does") could be either the man or the tree. The verb עָשָׂה can refer to the activity of a people or trees. Similarly, the subject of the matrix clause ("he makes successful") is also ambiguous, since the verb צלח may refer to the flourishing of a person or a tree. The subject of this last verb might also be YHWH, who is the cause of all success. The use of language that might apply equally to people, plants, or God is probably deliberate. It ties together the flourishing of the tree, the flourishing of the godly man, and the Lord as the cause of all flourishing. It may even be that the double meaning “performs the flourishing that is conveyed. The promise of flourishing is being played out in… the polyvalence of the text.”

Participant Analysis Diagram

Legend

Diagram

The following image is the grammatical diagram overlaid with information regarding the participants, or characters, of the psalm. It makes explicit who is doing what to whom.

Chart