Psalm 1 Story behind the Psalm
About the Story Behind Layer
The Story behind the Psalm shows how each part of the psalm fits together into a single coherent whole. Whereas most semantic analysis focuses on discrete parts of a text such as the meaning of a word or phrase, Story Behind the Psalm considers the meaning of larger units of discourse, including the entire psalm. (Click 'Expand' to the right for more information.)
The goal of this layer is to reconstruct and visualise a mental representation of the text as the earliest hearers/readers might have conceptualised it. We start by identifying the propositional content of each clause in the psalm, and then we identify relevant assumptions implied by each of the propositions. During this process, we also identify and analyse metaphorical language (“imagery”). Finally, we try to see how all of the propositions and assumptions fit together to form a coherent mental representation. The main tool we use for structuring the propositions and assumptions is a story triangle, which visualises the rise and fall of tension within a semantic unit. Although story triangles are traditionally used to analyse stories in the literary sense of the word, we use them at this layer to analyse “stories” in the cognitive sense of the word—i.e., a story as a sequence of propositions and assumptions that has tension.
Story Behind Visuals for Psalm 1
Summary Triangle
The story triangle below summarises the story of the whole psalm. We use the same colour scheme as in Participant Analysis. The star icon along the edge of the story-triangle indicates the point of the story in which the psalm itself (as a speech event) takes place. We also include a theme at the bottom of the story. The theme is the main message conveyed by the story-behind.
Background ideas
Following are the common-ground assumptionsCommon-ground assumptions include information shared by the speaker and hearers. In our analysis, we mainly use this category for Biblical/Ancient Near Eastern background. which are the most helpful for making sense of the psalm.
- People declare someone to be "happy" (אַשְׁרֵי) when they admire that person's condition and consider it to be desirable (cf. Janzen 1965, 215-226; SDBH). For example, when the Queen of Sheba saw the wealth and wisdom and King Solomon, she exclaimed, "Happy (אַשְׁרֵי) are your men! Happy are your servants, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom!" (1 Kgs 10:8, ESV).
- When wicked people flourish, others are tempted to declare them "happy." For example, Malachi (which occurs immediately before Ps 1 in the order of the Hebrew canon) says, “You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What do we gain by carrying out his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord Almighty? But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly evildoers prosper, and even when they put God to the test, they get away with it’” (Mal 3:14-15, NIV; cf. Jer 12:1; Ps 73).
- YHWH is the judge of all the earth (Gen 18:25), and the job of a just judge is to acquit the righteous/innocent (צַדִּיק) and condemn the wicked/guilty (רָשָׁע) (see Deut 25:1).
- “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 husksaway, 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” (Ryken et al. ed. 1998, 136).
- The place of YHWH's life-giving presence is depicted as a garden paradise (Gen 2; Ezek 47:12) in which the righteous grow like trees (Pss 52:10; 92:13-15; cf. Creach 1999).
Background situation
The background situation is the series of events leading up to the time in which the psalm is spoken. These are taken from the story triangle – whatever lies to the left of the star icon.
Expanded paraphrase
The expanded paraphrase seeks to capture the implicit information within the text and make it explicit for readers today. It is based on the CBC translation and uses italic text to provide the most salient background information, presuppositions, entailments, and inferences.
v. 1
When someone's position in life is admirable and desirable, that person is declared "happy" (cf. 1 Kgs 10:8). Wicked people are sometimes declared "happy," since their position in life can seem admirable and desirable (cf. Mal 3:14-15). But I do not call the wicked "happy." Instead, I say, Happy is the one who, by the end of life's journey, has not walked in the counsel of wicked people and lived his life according to what wicked people say should or should not be done, has not taken a stand in the way of sinful people and committed to living a sinful lifestyle, and has not settled in the dwelling place of insolent people and adopted the character of an insolent person who mocks YHWH's instruction and those who follow it.
v. 2
Instead of receiving instruction for life's journey from wicked people, he receives instruction from YHWH. And his delight is in YHWH's instruction, and, because he delights in it, he meditates on his instruction day and night. And so he lives life's journey according to YHWH's instruction, walking on the way of the righteous and forming a character shaped by YHWH's instruction.
v. 3
And YHWH's instruction leads him ultimately to life in YHWH's life-giving presence, symbolized by the Garden of Eden (cf. Gen 2; Ps 36:8-10). And so I say of the person who rejects wickedness and chooses to follow YHWH's instruction that he will become like a life-giving tree in YHWH's garden (cf. Pss 52:10; 92:13-15; Ezek 47:12), a tree that has been removed from a waterless place, where it could not flourish, and transplanted by YHWH on water channels which YHWH dug to irrigate the trees in his garden. These water channels represent YHWH's instruction, which daily nourishes a person so that he becomes like a well-watered tree that gives its fruit in its season for others to eat and enjoy, and whose leaves, a source of shade and healing (cf. Ezek 47:12) do not wither. And he (i.e., the person, but ultimately, YHWH) will cause all that he does to flourish just as a healthy tree flourishes.
v. 4
Not so the wicked people! Why would anyone consider them "happy"? They do not meditate on YHWH's instruction, and so they will not, in the end, flourish like trees in YHWH's garden. Instead, when the time of threshing and winnowing comes, they will be like chaff that, thrown up into the air with a winnowing fork, the wind drives away from the threshing floor. 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 YHWH will execute judgment and separate the wicked from the righteous, just as chaff is separated from grain at the harvest.
v. 5
Therefore, because wicked people will be like chaff that is separated from the grain and blown away, wicked people will not stand firm in the judgment. When YHWH judges between the wicked and the righteous, they will not be able to escape YHWH's verdict and sentence. Unable to stand firm, they will be "blown away," removed from the land and from YHWH's life-giving presence. And sinful people [will not be declared righteous and stand] in the group of righteous people, because YHWH is just and will never declare the guilty to be righteous.
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.
Story Triangles
Assumptions Table
Bibliography
- Creach, Jerome. 1999. “Like a Tree Planted by the Temple Stream: The Portrait of the Righteous in Psalm 1:3.” The Catholic Biblical Quarterly 61:34–46.
- Janzen, Waldemar. 1965. “’Ašrê in the Old Testament.” The Harvard Theological Review 58 (2): 215–26.
- Ryken, Leland, Jim Wilhoit, Tremper Longman, Colin Duriez, Douglas Penney, and Daniel G. Reid, eds. 1998. Dictionary of Biblical Imagery. Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity Press.