Reflections on Psalms 1

 Psalms 01(Contemporary English Version)

1. God blesses those people who refuse evil advice and won't follow sinners or join in sneering at God.
   
2. Instead, the Law of the LORD makes them happy, and they think about it day and night.
   
3. They are like trees growing beside a stream, trees that produce fruit in season and always have leaves. Those people succeed in everything they do.
   
4. That isn't true of those who are evil, because they are like straw blown by the wind.
   
5. Sinners won't have an excuse on the day of judgment, and they won't have a place with the people of God.
   
6. The LORD protects everyone who follows him, but the wicked follow a road that leads to ruin.

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Albert Einstein's often quoted saying that insanity is, "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results" comes to mind in this first Psalm contrasting life of the godly and the ungodly. While the ungodly choose a life apart from God thinking this, rather than the ways of God, will bring happiness, they continue to pursue this life even though happiness eludes them. Though the ungodly lifestyle does not bring the outcome hoped for, they continue to pursue it in hopes the result will change. But whatever benefits are found in this life apart from God are short-lived, like "chaff that the wind blows away." There is no lasting satisfaction in it.

While various translations use the words wicked or evil for those who do not delight "in the Lord's instruction," it is clear in the passage that it is referring to any who live apart from God's instruction chosing instead to follow other counsel. The two types of people addressed in this passage are intended to include everyone. Many might consider themselves unaddressed thinking, "I don't delight in the Lord's instruction, but neither am I wicked." But whatever the term used, whether it is wicked or evil or ungodly, the Psalmist is referring to all who follow counsel other than the Lord's.

The Psalmist says, "happy is the man who does not follow the advice of the wicked . . . Instead, his delight is in the Lord's instruction." (1:1, 2) Not only is such a person happy, but "He is like a tree planted beside streams of water that bears its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers." (1:3) The fruit of delighting in the Lord's instruction is not necessarily immediate in coming, but comes "in season." But in coming, it does not wither, but prospers. This is in contrast to those who do not delight in the Lord's instruction. Nothing of lasting value comes from this life. It is like "chaff that the wind blows away." (1:4)