Psalms 1:1-6·~1 min
The Two Paths
Blessing belongs to the one who resists the progressive influence of the wicked and instead delights in the LORD's instruction with constant meditation. That hidden discipline produces a life like a well-watered tree, steady, fruitful, and durable in season.
B1lessed is the man 2But his delight is in the Law of the LORD, 3He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
The wicked have no such rootedness; they are like chaff driven away and will not stand when judgment exposes them. The psalm closes by saying that the LORD knows the way of the righteous, while the way of the wicked ends in ruin.
4Not so the wicked! 5Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, 6For the LORD guards the path of the righteous,
Section summaryThe psalm blesses the one who refuses the downward drift of wicked counsel and instead delights in the LORD's law day and night. It then opposes that stable, fruitful life to the wicked, who are weightless before judgment and whose way finally perishes under the LORD's gaze.
Role in the chapterThis single opening section gives the Psalter its interpretive doorway. Before songs of praise, grief, kingship, or confession unfold, the reader is told that all prayer is situated within the basic divide between the righteous path known by God and the wicked path that comes to nothing.