Examining The Scripture LXXVIII: Mismor Aleph & A Little Bit of Mismor Bet

Translation of Title: [Psalm 1 & A Little Bit of Psalm 2] *I tried a little Hebrew and English interchangable wordplay. The singular form of Psalm is translated Mismor.

Psalm 1 opens with a beatitude “blessed is the man who does not walk in the ways of the wicked”. It opens with a blessing on all those who respond with faithfulness to the God. The placement of the Psalm at the beginning to the Psalter is significant because it invites anyone to delight themselves in the Lord and His revelation(s). Thereby it sets the tone for the 149 Psalms that follow (Longman et al 76-77). Psalm 1 really needs to be read in conjunction with Psalm 2 to understand its full scope. Not only does Chapter 1 open with a blessing, Chapter 2 closes with one also.

The two contrasted groups of people are the righteous and the unrighteous. One group that pursues godliness and its rewards as opposed to those that pursue things of the world and the wrath and punishment that gets stored up because of these types of wicked behaviors. We know this because the first two verses refer to those that are wicked and those who are not. The opposite of wickedness is righteousness. The righteous Godly people are to be discriminating of what is wicked and to avoid it. This is also a wisdom Psalm. The wicked will not be blessed, they will be judged. The righteous will be watched over by the Lord and the wicked will perish.

I. The righteous wise and discerning believer have adjectives applied to them such as:
a. Poor, needy, weak, oppressed
b. Wise, faithful, upright, righteous, who understand, blameless; perfect

II. The wicked are differentiated by particular terms including:
a. Sinner, wicked, mocker, arrogant, fool, who do wrong, enemy.

Psalm 1 seems to be a suitable introduction to Psalms. Since Psalms is a window into Israel’s faith at the time of their writing. They capture a thought process of a people along with an emotive sense of a nation. A nation of humans that are flawed but have God in their hearts. Psalm 1 establishes the bedrock of what a discerning righteous believer is in its first two chapters . Once we can understand what type of people used these songs of praise we can better understand some of the theological, social and spiritual issues they contain. Psalms contains just about everything and runs the gamut in terms of human life: remorse, happiness, joy, disappointment, fear, etc.

Longman, Tremper, David Garland, and Willem Vangemeren. "Book I: Psalms 1-41." Psalms (The Expositor's Bible Commentary). Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2008. 76--89. Print.