Happy are those
who do not follow the advice of the wicked,
or take the path that sinners tread,
or sit in the seat of scoffers;
but their delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law they meditate day and night.
They are like trees
planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in its season,
and their leaves do not wither.
In all that they do, they prosper.
The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgement,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
for the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.
Psalm 1
Psalm 1 is generally entitled “the two ways.” It’s the psalm set down for Sunday 16 February, to accompany a reading from the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 17:5-10) which also uses the image of a tree planted by water to speak of those “who trust in the Lord.” This psalm stands at the beginning of the Psalter, the collection of psalms or worship songs sung by individuals and by the people of Israel, and it functions as an invitation to the book as a whole. “The law of the Lord” in which those who are happy delight is better understood as “teaching” or “instruction.” It’s presented as the key to a good life.
The psalm sets out a vision of life as a journey marked by two very different paths: one way leads to happiness, the other to destruction. “The two ways” is a common theme in the Bible, not just in that passage from Jeremiah, but in other prophets, in the book of Deuteronomy, and in the Gospels. This Sunday’s Gospel reading is Luke’s version of the Beatitudes, Luke 6:17-26, which also presents a contrast between different ways to live: one set of people are “blessed,” others are heading for “woe.”
A tree planted by streams of water is a powerful image, especially in the middle of summer. We need water, our gardens and crops need water, and the image of the tree speaks of the life that can come when we trust in God. It’s like not having to worry when there’s a drought, because there will still be fruit. Turning aside from God, on the other hand, is ultimately not going to get us very far.
What these writers are saying is something important here about relationship. To be blessed is to trust our life to God, to shape our lives according to God’s values, to depend on God as the power that can help us face all the rubbish that life can throw at us. Blessedness is the outcome of trying to stay in relationship with God, trying to live a life centred on the God who cares about the concrete details of what happens to us.
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